Blue Skies

After two straight weeks of gray clouds, the sun finally came out in today. I was beginning to worry I'd never see light again! Everyday I have a moment when I can't believe I'm actually living in Paris until May. Sometimes that moment comes walking in Ladurée or while riding the metro, but today it came crouched in my tiny Euro shower. What I love most so far is not knowing what to expect the next day. I learn and see something new every single day. I love walking everywhere and constantly finding new shops and restaurants to visit. So far I've been to roughly 6 percent of the restaurants in Hungry for Paris by Alexander Lobrano and haven't had a bad meal yet. I took a friend to the Breizh Cafe in Marais after I went the first time and she loved the nutella banana crepe. They have an extensive cider list, so we tried some. It was interesting...not like cider I've had at home. By mid pitcher we started thinking it may have been alcoholic. Who knows. 


Saturday, the whole group went on a bus trip to visit Versailles. I've seen the Hall of Mirrors in so many people's Paris photo albums, so it was great to see it in person. It was all pretty incredible. However, the château doesn't have much furniture because it was sold during the French Revolution and most of what it does have are replicas. My camera died two pictures in, but I'll go back. I'd like to go in the spring to see more of the gardens when the weather is nicer anyways. A group of us went dinner afterwards and I had my first bowl of French Onion Soup here. I asked my host mother if we could make some this week and she found a recipe with lots of Gruyere cheese for the top. She told me we'll cry a lot in the process. 


Living with a family has been such a wonderful experience. The other night my family had a going away party for their daughter with all of her friends. Her 72 year old godmother came too. She was the life of the party, in my eyes anyways. She arrived monochromatic. Purple sweater, purple leggings, and purple suede boots. She held her dog Lilo in a pink carryall bag. We were all enjoying wine and snacks upstairs before the meal. All of the sudden I look down and Lilo was licking foie gras from a leopard print dog plate. The godmother said, "Oh Lilo loves liver." But wait, it gets better. After dinner she started smoking pot at the table in front of everyone. I kid you not. The mother warned me this would happen ahead of time, but I was still shocked. Apparently she had a calm night too. At any rate she was a riot. Aside from the godmother, some members of my French family remind me of Cancelmo's at home. Prosper = Peter. He is sturdy with a certain swagger and when he walks into the kitchen he doesn't talk to anyone. He just eats. Bernard = Duke. He does floor exercises at the house in the morning, reads the paper, and likes cheese. 


All of my classes start this week. Tomorrow I have two art history classes back to back. Tuesdays and Thursdays I have French and Marketing. My French is barely coming along and I keep wanting to say words in Spanish like, lo siento and donde. Nearly all of the people I've met here know at least a little bit of English, so I must get going with French!

Ceiling in the chapel at Versailles