One Down, Eight to Go

Congratulations are in order (for me, of course). Today I celebrated my one-month anniversary with France. And I am still lodged firmly in the honeymoon stage. I've seen and done a lot of great things in the past four weeks, and I have every reason to believe that the year is going to be a good one.

To celebrate this auspicious occasion, I spent the afternoon at the Musee Rodin, but that merits another, more intellectual, post. For now I offer you this, a brief summary of my first four weeks in France:


Countries Visited: 1, but I'm working on it

Museums Visited: 4 (but not the Louvre)

Times I've been asked for directions: Twice (!) ONCE BY A FRENCH WOMAN, AND I ANSWERED CORRECTLY BOTH TIMES. Both instances occurred last night. I was probably approached because the French couple next to be was engaged in a make-out session bordering on cannibalism, hence unavailable. But I like to think it was because I looked like a local.

Calories Consumed: I don't want to talk about it. This could easily be broken down into subcategories: Crepes eaten; scoops ordered at Berthillon; pounds of goat cheese eaten; whole baguettes devoured. And I wouldn't want to talk about any of those either.

Favorite Cross-Cultural Experience: My first night with my Parisian family, my host mom told me that we would be eating an earlier dinner that Friday, as her boyfriend would be visiting. This was followed by silence. And then my host sister started doing the awkward turtle.

Strangest Musical Choices: Probably a toss-up between these two, both of which met with widespread approval at the bar we were at last night.

Best (or worst) Renaming Job:

McDreamy=Dr. Mamour
McSteamy=Dr. Glamour

Best Movie Poster Seen in the Metro:

I don't know if you can read the blurb at the top, but it translates to the following: "One of the greatest affairs of espionage in the 20th century."--Ronald Reagan. RONALD REAGAN. As in, Ronald "Where's the rest of me?" Reagan. Now, I know that this quote refers to some Cold War espionage business, and not the movie itself. But I really love the idea that Ronald Reagan so loved this random French movie that he felt compelled to communicate his approval from beyond the grave. I don't know how this worked, but I feel like Miss Cleo was somehow involved.

Since this is probably not what actually happened, I have to say that the French are pretty ballsy, using a dead ex-President to sell one of their movies. It makes me wonder if Americans shouldn't try same thing. Charles de Gaulle hawking New Moon, perhaps?

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Overall, a successful month. On one hand, I've happy to have reached this milestone. It feels like an accomplishment, to have gone a month without suffering homesickness, culture shock or Grippe A. At the same time, I'm reminded of just how fast this year is going to go by. I'm just thankful I'm at the beginning of it, with eight more months to soak up Paris.