THEY'RE EVERYWHERE!!!

So today I was going to go to the campus to take care of some stuff, but due to jet lag that I thought I'd shook and extreme hunger, I wasn't able to fall asleep till after 3:30AM and therefore didn't make my 8AM wakeup call. I felt sick so I ended up sleeping till noon unfortunately. I researched some classes, sent some emails about school, broke/melted my cheap converter, and then Sarah, my Australian roommate and I went to la boulangerie once more where I got bread with discs of melted goat cheese on it basically...delicious...After that I was once more complaining about my lack of caffeine, so Sarah suggested we go to the new Starbucks. Yes, there is a Starbucks here ("they're everywhere"), and yes, I know it's too soon into my trip to reward myself with an American mecca such as this, but I just wanted to go somewhere where I could say "un cafe s'il vous plait" and I would get more than a shot of espresso. It was PACKED and everything was the same as aux Etats Unis. The French all looked so excited to take their oversized muffins and sugary fraps back to their seats. The sizes were still in English, so I had to figure out how to say "Tall" with a French accent. Muy difficile because she had no idea what I was asking for...what kind of coffee? Black? With milk (aka the latte)? Normale? J'ai dit "noir" (black), and then she clarified for me the correct way to say "tall." We walked around that area called Bellecour some more, which is just a busy area with lots of stores and apartments and a ferris wheel, and then headed home for dinner.

Dinner was hilarious as usual---I really love the family. They like to laugh a lot, and all treat each other so nicely...they're just really relaxed. They were telling stories about when Jacques and Perrine met so long ago, and Victorine ran and got a picture of Jacques when he was younger and skinnier (their observations, not mine). They compared young Jacques to the handle of a spoon, and present Jacques to the wider part that you put your food on. Seems to be a common joke in the family. Theophane was being dramatic and was jokingly swooning over Jacques' beautiful bleu eyes, and Jacques was talking about his motorbike that he had at the time and continued to recount everything that Perrine was wearing when they first met. It was cute. The conversation somehow moved to all the different parts of a pig one eats, and Perrine cut it off at the discussion of the liver.

Tomorrow the soldes or sales begin, and Perrine offered to drive me to le Part-Dieu, the big mall early tomorrow morning, because we agreed that shopping is worth the early hour, and i'm sure it'll be chaos there. I've included a picture of Janine, my roommate, and I. She's great and we've been getting along really well. Anyways, a bientot!

Janine and I. She's from North Carolina.