Lazy Tuesday

I'm at the library right now, because the internet at home isn't working :(

I've stayed home the last two days, with the exception of picking Lise up from school, going to the grocery store and coming here, because I have a terrible head cold which is finally going away. Thank God I had more Sopranos to watch at home today, or else staying home without the internet would have been awwwwfulll.

The other reason that it's nice to have been in bed the last two days is because I was definitely traumatized by the cold and wind of the weekend. It was MISERABLE. We had to kee ducking into stores along our way wherever we went because it was just too cold not to. It's a little warmer today, yay.

I had a busy and good week. My friend Carmen came back to spend the night and take the Foreign Service Officers' Exam, and while I was beginning to feel sick enough so that I was home for much of her visit, it was still really good to see her. In the one week that she came to see me twice, she managed to bring me three boxes of our favorite no-name brand chocolate chip cookies form her local grocery store. Ahhhhhhhhh! Delicious. (They're seriously the best chocolate cookies in France, and for less than 60 centiemes a box!).

Then on Friday, my friend Jordan came into Paris, and it was so nice to see someone from UCI. Jordan and I were History majors together at school, and she's currently living in Lyon. Logistics made it really difficult to see each other when we both studied in France last time, so that made this visit even more special. We ate a lot of falafels and baklava, went to a lot of museums, and watched a LOT of Stephen Colbert. So it was a really fun visit, even though I was really sick for most of it. She also showed me that oatmeal DOES in fact exist in France, which was super exciting to find out (I don't feel bad for not realizing it though, because my host mom even told me that they didn't have it here). The oats are bigger than I would usually prefer, but they're actually really good and I've been eating almost nothing but oatmeal since I bought the bag of oats. It was actually kind of funny, because she helped me find the oatmeal, and I was able to show her that brown sugar actually does exist in France, because she hadn't been able to find it, so that worked out really well for both of us!

Jordan and I in front of the Pantheon.

I also got to see my friend Jeremie this weekend, which was really cool because I haven't seen him since  he came to study at UCI two years ago, before I went to France the first time. He's actually from Lyon, so I had two friends "from" Lyon visiting separately at the same time, which I thought was pretty funny. It was really good to catch up with him after so long, especially because we only spoke French this time (and I'm pretty sure last time we were definitely speaking English). He used to help me with my French homework at UCI, so hopefully he can tell that I've made some progress between then and now!

Me and Jeremie. 

Also, Happy Valentine's Day! Lise gave me this last night:

Sometimes she's a handful, but she makes up for it :)