Life Goes On

Sorry about the radio silence of the past week. I have been caught up with classes and some culture shock and homesickness, so blogging hasn't been at the top of my list. While France isn't a whole different universe, there are certain major differences that really remind me that I am not at home. Everybody smokes, even kids! My homestay is right across from a middle school and sometimes when I step out of the door, I see kids sitting on the school steps and smoking. Also, people don't clean up after their dogs here, so you have to be careful where you step.

It's strange to be cooking for myself all the time. At school, the cafeteria (sorry, dining hall) is always there and at home, I can usually rely on my parents to whip something up every now and then. Here, I'm on my own.

Actually, that's not strictly true. On Tuesday and Thursday evenings, I go have dinner with another homestay. The first time we met was this past Thursday and it was very nice. The host, Mme. Francisco, doesn't speak a word of English, so I was able to practice my French all evening. Mme. Francisco is absolutely lovely and a great cook. We had vegetable soup, a Provencal dish called "quenelles" in Bechamel sauce, salad, cheese and the possibility of fruit and yogurt for dessert, but I was too full. All in all, it was most enjoyable. I'm really looking forward to Tuesdays and Thursdays now.

Friday was a quiet night in for me. I watched rather a lot of television. It is staggering how much French television is actually dubbed. About 60-70% of the shows that I saw were imported and dubbed. For a country that has so much national pride, it is bizarre that they don't produce more French television shows. I saw a fantastic documentary on the Alsace region, but I also saw a French dub of an American show called "Ghost Whisperer." The dub of The Simpsons was quite amusing, just because of the strange voices each character had and the American accents.

Just so this isn't an entirely pictureless post, here is the breakfast I made for myself on Saturday morning.

It was yummy, if I do say so myself.

Also, I was browsing a book stall at the market this morning and I stumbled across this. Even in French, people don't want it.