March 9th - Wednesday

School this morning. My favorite class, Oral French. Nice class, lovely teacher. Three hours zips by. We start with a dialogue on a CD. She asks us to look for certain things. Then we listen. After hearing the CD, she asks us if we heard an accent in one of the voices. HA! (It was Canadian French). And, the answer is no. I barely referenced the meaning of the conversation. Which brings me to this evaluation. I'm benefiting from all the spoken French here, but it isn't at "light speed". When the class starts, I'm slow to pick up everything the teacher is saying, then I get more comfortable, but by the last dialogue, I'm having trouble staying with content. We had new students in our class today. A father and a son from the United States, Anchorage, Alaska and a woman from Poland. They will be here a week.

My life is fairly routine now. Here are some observations from the beginning of the trip. The majority of young people smoke (but outside - there must be a law forbidding smoking inside a public building). The sidewalk is a mosaic of cigarette butts, but Paris, generally, and, surprisingly, is pretty clean. Trucks come through the area every night and wash the streets.

The Parisiens may not be crazy for the Americans, BUT, they love McDonald's. I stopped by one for a cafe au lait and was astounded to see that this establishment was packed.  And, there were people lined up in droves. I've heard they also "adore" our "reality TV" - "Snooki" or someone with that name is very popular.

The Forsythia is blooming and I've seen early Camellias. Daffodils are up too. Paris is in the same latitude as Vancouver, BC. with similar weather and temperatures. The weather has been exceptional during my stay. Although, cold in the morning, it is sunshine in the afternoon. No rain to speak of yet.

The one thing which has surprised me is the lack of birds other than Ravens and Pigeons. I've seen one wren-like bird in the park, Champs de Mars.

The food is delicious, but one thing I ate was quite mysterious. I bought it at "La Patisserie". It looked like a wedge of quiche, but the texture was dense. I can not tell you if it was eggs, cheese, and/or potatoes. On the bottom, there were prunes. Today I went by the same patisserie and saw the unknown dish in the window. There was a label pinned to it, identifying the concoction as "Something Breton Aux Prunneaux". It was good.

I walked in the Jardin des Plantes this afternoon. The National Museum of Natural History is part of this park. I will try to visit there before I leave.

I am comfortable in my surroundings, now, and I move around my neighborhood easily. I go to school everyday and study at night. I will continue to blog when I feel that there is important information to  give. Please know how much I have appreciated the comments and suggestions you have offered. Thank you so much.

A bientot.

Sally