3 semaines en France

This will be a double post for yesterday and today.

Friday

Watched some French soap operas on TV, along with some American shows that were translated into French, like My Wife and Kids (It's called Ma Famille d'Abord, or "My Family First" in France).

After lunch, we went to the mall. I bought some Harry Potter books in French, and it's been really helpful for learning new vocabulary. Interesting fact: Hogwarts in French is "Poudlard."

There was this amazing smell emanating from somewhere so I followed it downstairs. (Disclaimer: Okay so I don’t want this to become a food blog because I’m not the type of person who is obsessed with food or watches the Food Channel for fun, but the food here is just so delicious. Anyway, this is just a warning that there will be many food pictures soon.) I was disappointed to see that the smell was coming from a waffle shop; I was expecting some fancy French pastries. When I looked around, I realized people were just munching away on waffles…in the mall. C’est bizarre! My uncle persuaded me to order un gaufre au chocolat belge. It looked like this:

A phrase I will not be uttering anytime soon: L’eggo my eggo! This gaufre was ten times better. It was warm and fluffy and there was a crunchy, sweet aftertaste. And the chocolate here is just decadent; I want to swim in it. It makes Hershey’s taste like chalk!

Then I got a “Holiday Coco” smoothie which was basically a pina colada because it has pineapples, bananas, and coconut in it, but it was not like any other smoothie I have had in America. It was barely sweet. If the average sweetness for a smoothie in America is a 10, this was like a 4. I liked it though.

That evening, I went jogging with my eldest cousin who is 16. First lesson learned: ALWAYS BRING THE CAMERA! I regret not taking it. She showed me the town center of Sartrouville, her school, the Seine river, which stretches to Paris, and the bridge from where people have jumped into the river (and now I want to too!).

For dinner we had les pâtes, or pasta. I usually hate pasta, but along with the trend of delicious food in France, this was amazing! It tasted so fresh and light.

I have also learned to be careful about what I say that I like. My uncle asked me if I liked beer and I said yes nonchalantly, and he bought me a whole crate of this (hopefully the rest of my family doesn’t think I’m an alcoholic):

Saturday

Today I woke up to my little cousins playing with the water guns that my family sent them. I don’t know if my aunt and uncle are splendid parents or all French kids behave like this, but this was the most polite water gun playing I have ever seen. The kids without the water gun would put up their hands, and the kid holding the water gun would ONLY shoot water at the hands…nowhere else on the body! And they would take turns doing this! And when they accidentally got some water on the side of the house, they ran into the kitchen, got paper towels, and wiped down the building…WHAT??

I also played some version of tag with the kids, but every time someone tagged someone else, they had to shout “rouge,” “blanc,” or “bleu,” which is because of the French flag colors I assume. How patriotic! The kids also pulled out some song books and started singing in French. The only thing cuter than hearing kids jabber in French is them singing in it. Why are French kids so awesome??
They also really liked the fake tattoos that I brought from the States for them.

Mes jolies cousines Ti et Tine

Everyone showing off their tattoos

BOO!

J’adore ce chat. Whenever it sees me, it comes running up to me and butts its head against my hand. Very friendly for a cat, especially a French one.

We all ate le déjeuner (lunch) together today. The French make everything look pretty!

American/Vietnamese influences?

Then I went to Paris with my cousins Ti and Tine (those are their nicknames; my nickname at home is Tin. Yeah, I don’t know either). We went to the Notre Dame, le Pantheon, the Luxembourg Gardens, and general sightseeing.

A pretty alley in Paris