J'ai mangé trop!

On the roof of the Galleries Lafayette

Does the kitty come with the chair??

Mandatory Pigeon Photo

Monday Night:

It is midnight, and after a long day, I am laying comotose in my bed after a full meal. I have eaten more today than I have in all the other days put together. Ok, that is not exactly true, at all, but I am so full I couldn't even sit up at my desk to blog!

This evening, Madame Poidevin's two sisters, Francoise and Dominique, came over for dinner. Francoise is moving out of the apartment building (she and Madame live in the same building--how cute is that?) and out of Paris to where Dominique lives. Dominique came to the city to help her move, and Madame made dinner for all of us.

It was an interesting evening...I came home, around four o'clock, and did some work. Around 7, Madame came in and informed me that some guests had arrived, so I came into the living room to have some hor d'oeuvres and drinks with them. The guests were Francoise, Madame's sister, her son Jeremey, and one of Madame's friends. At around 7:30, Dominique (sister two) came in. I am not sure where she falls in age-order of the sisters, but from my own experience she is probably the youngest--she was decked out in beautiful fur accessories and pearls, red lips and nails, and she was very flustered because there was some machine that she couldn't move...or something. Needless to say, I didn't quite understand all of what ensued, but within five minutes the whole party had departed.

I later found out that there was some trouble moving a laundry machine with a dolly from Dominique's car or something, but at the time it was really confusing. My French is not yet good enough to catch what is going on all the time!

At around 9, everyone finally returned and we sat down to dinner. Madame's sisters were very nice but it is interesting to continue to see the differences between French and American culture/behavior/sense of humor/manners, etc.

For example, at dinner,

-The sisters complimented me on how good my French is. When I said, "Oh but my grammar is horrible," Francoise said, "Well that is true, it is horrible." I'm glad I'm not sensitive!

-Instead of commenting on what things are, they mention what they are not...ex: They were talking about someone's ex-husband and instead of saying "He's old!" They said, "He's not young..."

-It is polite to keep your hands on the table at all times, and to rest them on the sides of your plate when you're not using your utensils! That is the hardest for me to adhere to, since I am finally remembering not to rest my arms on the table at my own home!

The list goes on. French people are so different. It can be tiring, but it is fun.

The other night I went to dinner at a French friend of mine's friend's apartment, then to one of her friend's parties. The entire social dynamic is almost the opposite of what I experience in LA. Hard to get used to, but really nice in a sense...Everyone is much calmer, and overall more mature.

Oh! Today it snowed! I almost forgot to add that important detail!

I woke up at about 7:30 for class, and heard something outside, but it sounded too soft to be rain. I looked out the window, and it was snowing! It is supposed to snow more later this week. While it has to be pretty cold to snow, it didn't feel quite as windy or frigid as it has been the past few days. It was difficult to walk through in the morning, but the snow made everything so pretty!!