Day 11

Musings:

- We have two fridges at St. John's: one for cheese, and one for everything else. Yup, it smells that bad.
- St. John's has a cafeteria (we're not on a meal plan so we can't use it) that shares its kitchen with the monastery next door. The door was open today, so I got to watch the rather comical scene of old men in long black robes waiting impatiently in line for mashed potatoes.
- French waiters in touristy areas don't think it's abnormal to comment on what you leave on the plate...
- French businesses that deal with tourists (clothes stores, cafes, etc) refuse to indulge your attempts to speak French. But the same doesn't apply in a cell phone shop! Be it SFR or Orange, speak in French or resort to sign language.
- Every French shop (of all sorts) I've been in plays American music. Weird. Apparently they think it's cool here.
- Some parking spaces have places to plug in electric cars.
- 90% of shops and cafes are closed on Sundays.
- They are far less creative with coffee here. Cappuccino, cafe au lait, expresso. That's it. Also, decaf? What's decaf? You can't even find it in the grocery stores.
- Cafes and restaurants don't start serving dinner until about 8pm.
- People smoke. Every minute, everywhere.
- Men wear fashion scarves. We snigger.
- The French don't see the need to refrigerate milk. Huh???
- You get the impression that some people just sit at cafes all day and don't do anything, because the cafes are always busy.

In other news:
- Read something online today that made me realize that the guy who played Riff in West Side Story is Jodi Picoult's son! I know: Woaaaah. Random, but yeah.
- Had a quick lunch with my professor and two other students today to discuss our oral presentations. My meal cost 50 euros. I can't even imagine what the weekly four-course feasts cost... It seems kind of disgustingly decadent to me. I don't know who's paying, but shouldn't they really slash the cost of the program and get rid of these lunches? Either that or use the money to reimburse us for Carrefour grocery costs.
- FINALLY doing laundry. Hopefully I don't end up dying my white jeans pink or anything. Architecture tour tomorrow. I have some major research to do for my presentation on Thursday.
- Chris got an email saying the Harvard waitlist is closed, and he kept up his grades this term, so he's officially going to Columbia! Very exciting.