J'aime le 31 octobre… mais je ne sais pas si les Français aussi! :)

It's almost Halloween.  Every storefront is decked out with orange and black; people are choosing costumes from the various shops that have mysteriously cropped up out of nowhere; spooky things keep happening more often than you'd like.  This is the American Halloween we all know and love so much.  And honestly, who wouldn't enjoy a little extra consumerism (we all buy the costumes, candy and decorations, right)?  To put things into perspective: in France, you would almost not realize it's Halloween!  Sure, the kids dressed up at school.  But not so many people buy candy or get pumped like they do in the States (if my facebook feed is any indication, that is).  You might say: "Oh, that's a good thing!"  And it is.  Unless you're me, and you want to relive your childhood by eating too much chocolate and dressing up as your favorite Princess (I had a home-made Ariel costume as a kid once).

You can see by the picture above (and the ones below) that I stumbled upon a storefront decked out in full-on Halloween stuff.  And by stuff, I mean chocolate!!!

Nom nom nom!  I didn't buy any, but I went crazy taking these pictures (and apparently, you can get in trouble for doing that because you might "copy" their products).  I guess Halloween this year will consist of me having a delicious glass of red wine (should I pretend it's blood?) and eating some good chocolate (perhaps chocolate ice cream).

Now for a completely different subject: street markets in France!  Everything in France is expensive, except for their wine and bread.  So when the street markets start up, the people flock to buy the cheap things.  I was passing through one of these over the weekend and had to stop to take this picture:

A bunch of low-cost bras that you can buy on the street?  Maybe it seemed weirder at the time, but I was quite intrigued that anyone would just want to stop and buy them.  I don't know...

To the left is a picture of a selection of typical French meet: saucisson!  This means dried sausage.  It's not refrigerated (nor are the legs of some unknown animal that are hanging to the right of the picture).  Saucisson is actually delicious, and I think the use of salt acts as a preservative for all this dried meat (correct me if I'm wrong).  So it's actually healthier for you than all those fake preservatives (except that salt is actually really bad for you... but every French person I know uses more salt on their food than any American I know, would you believe that!).  I can't bring myself to enter the actual fresh meat (or fresh fish) markets.  It just smells sooooo bad.  Maybe I will find the courage to venture into one so I can take some pictures.  Americans certainly clean the heck out of their food (to the point of unhealthiness, perhaps?), and so it makes the natural style of preparing and selling fresh meat very gross for us.  This is definitely a bad thing.  I wish I could handle the smell, but the few times I've tried, I've had to run out with my hand over my mouth.

À bientôt!

J'aime les pommes... américaines!

It's been another long period where I haven't written too much!!  Part of that has been due to the fact that I'm still getting over my sickness and am too lazy to take pictures.  Luckily, I just have a bit of a cough left now, so I'm mostly healed!

One interesting observation I've had about this cold/sickness is that the French attitude about health is slightly different from the one Americans have.  I've been told by numerous people (including the doctor I saw a couple of weeks ago) that my cold/cough/infection/pneumonia/sore throat/etc have all been caused by the change in temperature, and that I should wear more scarves.  At first I thought this was just a belief shared by a few people, but more and more people have told me that I'm not taking care of myself properly!  I don't know what to think; I've never heard of the notion that I should wear more clothing in cold weather, and that forgetting to wear a scarf might lead to a better chance at getting sick.  It's an interesting and prevalent notion here in France.

Another interesting and prevalent thing that happens in France is this: I get angry a lot at drivers when I try to cross the street.  This is, hands down, the most annoying thing I've encountered in France.  Drivers don't respect the crosswalk laws (nor do they respect the scoop laws regarding their dogs, but at least I'm not in danger of dying from that).  I can't tell you how many times I've tried to cross, anxious to catch my tram or bus, and had cars practically run me over.  It's a rare sight when a car actually stops to let you cross, even if you have the right of way.

Well, my anger must have gotten the better of me today.  As Salomé and I were crossing the busy intersection near our apartment, a car with 2 young women literally almost hit us.  They obviously saw us, but felt no need to slow down (or stop), despite the fact that there was a YOUNG CHILD with me.  I got so mad that I shook my fist at them (nothing inappropriate, as Salomé was with me).  Then, because they had to stop anyway for the stoplight, I stared them down and shook my fist again (yes, it was stupid, but I was upset).  Well, as we turned away to enter the apartment, they must have rolled down their window, because they started to yell and mock us.  Salomé told me that they were yelling, "What?! Is there a problem???!!!" over and over.  It was a bit alarming, especially knowing that they were at fault and that they still felt the need to yell even with a child present.  And that moment I decided that I would stop shaking my fist at drivers.  We were lucky they weren't more dangerous or crazy!

In another note, one of my daily rituals is to watch Salomé blow bubbles from her mouth... with her toothpaste.  She has gotten pretty good at it, and so I decided to take a picture (mostly because I have no other pictures to show, haha).

And finally, the meaning behind my blog post title: I love American apples.  Specifically: Washington apples.  Why is this relevant?  Well, I eat apples all the time... at least once a day (if I can).  It's only now that I realize just how spoiled I was when it came to a quality apple.  I have yet to find a good one here in France.  They are sort of brownish and sour on the inside here.  According to the sticker, they are "Pink Lady" brand, but imported from Chile.  Perhaps it's the Chilean soil's fault?  Who knows.  All I know is that les pommes de Washington sont les mieux! (and that my French is very bad...)

Now, that being said, almost every other type of food is better here (I think in a future post, I will make a list of all the delicious food I eat here).  I suppose this post was kind of an obnoxious one where I complain and vent a lot.  Maybe it's my culture shock emerging?  I haven't really felt much "culture shock" yet (except when I have plumes of smoke billowing into my face when I'm trying to enjoy a good meal in the summer air... or almost getting run over as I cross the street).  So maybe this is a weird way of coping with any little annoyances I might have?

I promise: next post will be happy, optimistic, and full of top-notch humor, like usual!!  ;)

À bientôt, mes amis!

Mon apartement ici est grand et joli!

I know it's been some time since my last entry, but my reason for that is that I've been sick the past week.  What started out as a cold last week turned into a 3 hour trip to the doctor's office and one diagnosis of a lung infection... and lots of penicillin.

Now I am feeling better (no more high fever, hooray!), except for a bad cough.  Last year I had a very similar cough at this time, and I remember spraining a muscle in my ribs which hurt very bad.  Let's hope my French sickness is kinder to me than my American one!

Over the weekend, when I was feeling well enough to walk around, I emerged from my bedroom... only to find the apartment empty.  "What great news!" I thought to myself, "I can finally snap some photos of the apartment to put on my blog!"  Yes, I actually thought something like that.  I think I was still hazy from a fever, because I know that that is really cheesy.

So, without further ado, here are some pictures of my apartment:

 Here is the bathroom that I share with the kids. You'll see that the bidet is filled with children's bath toys, rather than it's actual purpose (which I still don't really understand...)  I love how huge the bathroom is.

 This is the living room.  It's actually even bigger than this (and at the time, there was a huge cardboard box lying on the floor that had been cut up completely... I missed a lot of crazy things while I was napping, I guess!)

 This is the dining room.  We've only ever used it once (when my host family had Mathieu over for dinner).  Normally it's more of a craft table where the kids play or do homework.

Here is the kitchen!  I sit in the seat closest to the door/windows. 












And the only thing I did last week (besides sleep, lol) was... visit the Notre Dame church (there is more than one in France, which I didn't actually realize until I got here, haha):

The second picture shows an altar that was pretty much located inside a cave, which the photo doesn't truly do justice.

Ok, I'm off to make some tea and soothe this cough of mine! :)  À bientôt!