Reese's, Ice Cream, and Movies :)

My entire week was made by a large package that came in the mail from my parents. It included some of my favorite things that I can't find in France, such as peanut butter, popcorn, and Reese's. It also had pancake mix, syrup, and chocolate chips (three other things you can't find here) so I can make American food for my host family. Cookies are very hard to come by here and I only know of one place that sells them fresh as opposed to the Pepperidge Farms pre-packaged cookies at Monoprix. They don't even sell chocolate chips at the store! Quelle catastrophe. The kids were so excited about me getting a big, heavy package that they ran into my room to watch me open it and cheered every time I pulled something out. They can't wait to help me make cookies and eat pancakes and syrup. They also loved the Reese's almost as much as I did.

We went on about a three-mile walk for Paris by Site today, starting at Place des Vosges in the Marais and walking through both the islands in the Seine, ending up at the Louvre. Our professor went over by about 45 minutes, which was kind of annoying but she's a very interesting lecturer/guide, so I didn't mind too much. Our professor suggested that we make a pit-stop at Berthillon, the most sought-after ice cream in Paris. Once can only find it on/around the Ile Saint-Louis and it's a bit expensive, but extremely tasty. I got two small scoops, one of chocolate hazelnut and the other of salted butter caramel. The chocolate hazelnut was good but nothing fantastic, but the salted butter caramel was in a league of its own. It was amazing and I have a feeling I'll be making the half-hour métro trip many times in the summer just to get it. While I was waiting for the métro, I heard someone say "Kah-tee?" I looked up and saw that it was Monsieur on his way home from work. and we shared a ride home filled with awkwardness. He's very polite and kind towards me, just not as conversational as his wife. Of course, our métro line had some kind of traffic jam, so we had to take an extra-long route home. At least the language barrier is a good excuse for the awkwardness.

For dinner today we had ham and cheese croissants and they were phenomenal. The food is such a large part of my experience here, it's amazing I haven't gained 10lbs already. I feel like a glutton talking about food all the time on my blog, but I just can't help it. Diane, the 10 year old, asked me at dinner if Americans think in English. Everyone couldn't help but laugh because it was a pretty cute question. Madame had some jokes from candy wrappers that she shared at dinner. Since they were all French puns, I didn't understand them the slightest bit. The whole family had to spend 5 minutes explaining each joke and why it's funny. That totally took the humor out of all of them, but I politely laughed anyways and pretended that I completely understood why they were funny (which, of course, I didn't).

I went and saw the Hunger Games tonight in theatres. It came out here a couple days before the US (boo-yah!) so we were really excited about that. In almost all theatres, you can choose "version originale" for any non-French films, and it plays the original English version with French subtitles. The movie was great, especially for a movie made from a book. They stuck very close to the original text and did a wonderful job with the film adaptation. Even my friends who didn't read the book enjoyed it. Highly recommended :)

Affectueusement,

Katie