Meeting the family

I've survived three days in Paris and while everything here is still a little overwhelming, I think I'm beginning to adjust.

I moved in with my host family last night. I was extremely nervous about meeting them, but it was OK. I live with a Madame and her "fille" (daughter), who is 16 years old. She is very outgoing and talkative, and she knows a little English so she is eager to help me with French words I don't know. The Madame is very hospitable. I have a nice room; it isn't too "petite." They put a television in my room, which I thought was very nice even though it only has 4 channels but watching French programs will help improve my language skills.

I still haven't quite become used to the eating habits here. It is true that meals take longer in France because they have multiple courses and they talk a lot. But the actual consumption of food is very fast. I always feel like I'm eating way too slow, and when everyone else is done I still have food on my plate. And then I feel rude to keep eating when the others are done, but I also feel rude leaving food on my plate. It's a lose-lose situation. I guess I could try eating faster but then I can't enjoy my food. For dinner last night we had a really good white fish, some cooked vegetables and toast with goat cheese. It was very good. And the Madame said she was going to get fish again tonight. I want to tell her she doesn't have to get fish for me every night, but then someone said fish is really cheap here so I don't feel as bad.

It's definitely hard to understand everything they say because they speak so fast. I feel like I'm smiling and saying "oui" a lot, and hoping I'm understand the gist. At dinner I think they got into some big discussion about politics in Turkey and I could not follow at all. I just tried to look interested. It's no lie that they have no problem about talking about politics. This morning over breakfast the Madame was telling me about socialized medicine in France, not sure exactly what about it, but I got that much!

For breakfast I had some toast with apricot-almond jam and some cereal. Apparently the French are starting to eat more and more cereal. It wasn't bad, very much like Special K with berries. Their milk is so much richer (probably I higher fat content) so I could only eat a little. We had instant coffee and it was surprisingly good. Nothing like instant coffee in the States. I was worried about getting my coffee fix here because instead everyone one drinks little espressos and that is too much caffeine in too small a beverage for me. I like more coffee with less punch. We actually saw a Starbucks yesterday by our school and I was thinking I might have to give in if I couldn't find anywhere else that didn't only serve espresso. So I was very happy to have normal coffee at my home.

I have a feeling this blog is going to be highly focused on food, since it seems to be what I keep writing about. So, to continue, for lunch today a bunch of us students went to a cafe near our school. Most people were ordering Croque Monsieurs and I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to find something without ham. They had a Croque Provencal, and I thought maybe that would be vegetarian, so I asked (in French of course) and it was actually just a Croque Monsieur with tomatoes and herbs, but the waiter said I could get in without ham. It was delicious. I was worried about going places and asking for things like a ham and cheese sandwich without the ham, but since he offered I guess it's not too weird.