Lauren in Paris!

Alrighty, so I know that I haven't been keeping up with this blog at all - thanks to the mediocre/non-existing internet at my host family's house in Bordeaux. Now i'm in Paris (*said with a French accent* Pah-reeeee) and just getting to know my host family.

My host family is a gay couple (Ghislain & Samir) with a pétit bébé that's 9 months old, and one of the two guys in a végétarien. It's pretty awesome. I shall take a picture of all 4 of us sometime soon. But not only is he a végétarian for health reasons, he totally gets the animal rights angle -- Apparently a Peta / KFC video pushed him over the edge! That and Babe. These guys love to take walks (which is good, because i've been eating a lot of pain (bread)), so we had a little promenade through this awesome parc really close to the apartment in the 12 Arrondissement. We saw THREE magasins bio (health food/organic food stores), yet somehow vegetarianism is only 1% of the population here (yes, vegetarianism! not even veganism, which is 'végétalien'). Saturday after I got here, I went for a long walk with Ghislain and the bébé Nathaniel and talked about the importance of animals and how people who abandon their animals are stupid. And then we talked about BABE the movie. It was a pretty great day.

These guys are super chill and since they have a baby they aren't really ridiculous about the strict long-dinner habit here, that is to say you can get up after an hour of dinner for a moment if need be (In Bordeaux it's a *minimum* of one hour for dinner. Usually more. Try that with broken french. Fun times.)

But the guys are great and yesterday they said that we should figure out a way to extend my plan so that I can eat more meals with them (the program says 3 meals/week, plus breakfast). But this is awesome news for me because this guys cook delicious things! Some of the things I've eaten:

- lots and lots of dates

- vegan almond biscottis

- carrottes Moroccains (carottes with a variety of spices, particularly cumin, with lemon zest!)

- Quinoa!!

- authentic Moroccan Couscous

- Homemade gazpacho

- vegan chocolate cake

- homemade bread

- homemade hummus (apparently not hard to make! lots cheaper, too.)

- plus lots and lots of other delicious carby things. (The french love their bready carbs!)

And yesterday I went to the Louvre! I'll have to upload a few pictures soon, but Paris is great thus far. Lovely weather and no tourists in my neighborhood!!

OK that's it for now, i'm off to Reid Hall for an orientation. And then a break and then boating on the Seine. Oh life is tough...