Peace and Love

I’m starting to think I’m living with an atypical French family.

This isn’t a complaint at all. They’re really great and I definitely lucked out. I’m in the perfect location, they’re really nice, Sophie feeds me well, and I have a cat here who pretty much lives on my bed. But comparing my situation to others in the group, I realize that my experience is a little different, and I’m grateful for it.

First and foremost, they feed me. I know this seems like a given, but since French people don’t eat breakfast, a bunch of students in the group also skip breakfast by default. Some of the lucky ones get a slice of toast in the mornings. That wouldn’t cut it for me. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. At home I eat a bowl of oatmeal, a banana, half a grapefruit, and coffee for breakfast almost every day…except for Saturdays and Sundays. Those are the bacon days. Fortunately Sophie always has a French version of Special K, oatmeal, juice, and coffee most of the time. And sometimes bananas, if I’m lucky. Dinners are also good. Wine, bread, and cheese are usually in ample supply. Despite eating really late (This evening dinner started at 9:15) it’s relatively healthy, filling, and tasty. I know of one other person in our group who is served pureed vegetable broth every night for dinner… and maybe something else on the side if she’s lucky. So even though my breakfast isn’t quite as fantastic as it is back home, dinners are great and I have no room to complain.

Even though only 3 of us live here in the apartment, it’s rare that only 3 of us are here at any given time. Between Sophie’s boyfriend, her boyfriend’s son, Chloé’s boyfriend, neighbors, and other friends, we almost always have dinner guests. In fact, I’ve been here for a month and we’ve had at least 5 dinner parties with 9 or more guests each time. Sophie’s cousin Anne is here for a week visiting from Paris, so tonight was kind of an impromptu dinner party. I wish I had known. This morning Sophie mentioned her friend Pascal was coming over for dinner. I like Pascal and was looking forward to a nice relaxing evening. Well, as it turns out, Pascal was coming, plus the 3 of us that live here, plus the 2 boyfriends, plus the boyfriend’s son, plus Cousin Anne, plus another friend. Had I known, I would have waited to do laundry until tomorrow. But since all of my clean clothes were hanging out on the line to dry, I got stuck wearing my gelato stained jeans (I knew my recent gelato addiction would cause problems! Why did I have to get chocolate?!). At least we were sitting at a table where it wasn't so noticeable...

I’ve suspected for a while, but confirmed this evening, that my host family and their friends are all huge hippies.  We actually toasted to “peace and love” at least 4 times-then to feminists, then to strong women. Then someone busts out the acoustic guitar and it turns into a hippie circle sing along. I love it.