A Tale from France about Food

Hello, dear blog readers!

Sorry its been a while and my grammar is poor. This is the cost for not bringing my computer to France: paying for the internet, and not always having an american keyboard. oh, what I would give to have my w be in the same spot every time i type!

Anyway, the Paris mess is over. Not that it was a mess, just that it was hectic and interesting to try and see everything in a few days... you know how it is when youre only in a large city and want to see everything...  Anyway, Paris was good. Did not get beef tartar like I wanted to before I left, but like I said, there was not room for everything.

At the hostel; we were served croissants every single morning. A real croissant with REAL butter because they know it'll be eaten promptly because no one can visit Paris without eating ten croissants daily.  I also opened my first bottle of champagne when my hostel roommate (who was from Quebec, Canada and spoke French in her house growing up) and I visited the Eiffel tower at night. It was quite lovely to see the Eiffel Tower (it lights up at the top of each hour and sparkles for five minutes) and drink French champagne.  Even the cheap brand was delicious!

And now, I am at my first farm about an hour and a half away from Paris.  The food here is FANTASTIC also.  The dad, Nicolas, makes delicious bread every day.  The honey is less purified than ours, and seems to melt on the tongue.  The mom, Lucille, makes tons of jams from her fruit trees, and the peach jam is to die for.  The meat was pretty good, but the goat cheese is really where it's at.  It crumbles easily on food and when fresh, can be mixed with Lucille's jam to make a perfect dessert.

I have never been a fan of mushrooms.  The other day, this lady came over to the house when I was the only one there, and she tried to talk to me in French, and I was like uhh... and she gave us wild mushrooms.  lucille sauteed them in butter and I tried one... really tasty. But nothing like American mushrooms.  So I maintain that I do not like MOST mushrooms.

Have you ever had a three minute egg before?  You boil the egg for three minutes, put it in a little stand so it sits upright, take the top off, like a little hat, and dunk buttered bread slices in it and eat the whites out zhen youre through,  Its quite delicious. Im doing it when I come home.  Yum!

And now it is time for me to leave my first farm and head off to the next one.  This family was so wonderful, going above and beyond to make me feel welcome and at home. I hate to leave, I have to though... Into the woods to journey's end...

Sorry for that random reference. And sorry these blogs suck.  I just feel like at the end of the day, the only news you get is weird news that comes to me in the late hours of the day and is, in short, ...weird.  Anyway, hope for better blogs to come.  Much love!
Jo

Welp...

I bought a short time on the internet.  I tried really hard not to. I sent emails from my phone today (or so I thought, until I checked my sent outbox a few minutes ago); I borrowed my room-hostel-mate's computer (which was in Mandarin Chinese, so I accidentally signed on as her to skype and couldn't access any English websites).

I failed.  Also I had cereal with real milk for breakfast this morning.

However, despite this sad post, there is an awesome one coming.... because today was really awesome.  Just internet has been sad.

More soon!
Jo

Finally in Paris!

Hey, all!

Very difficult to navigate on a foreign keyboard, so if there are significant mistakes (especially with a's coming out as q's, m's being commas, and w's), i apologize.

Today I had a flight from MSP to KEF (Rejykavik's airport in Iceland) and then on to Paris. I got into KEF at about 2 AM central time, and didn't get much sleep on the flight. Overall, it was a fairly exhqusting day.

I'm sorry I have no format for this blog at this point. It'z just kind of my random ramblings right now.

Main points: (geez, this keyboard is difficult to get the hang of!)
Iceland looks beautiful and I wanna go whale watching there someday. Plus; the language sounds AWESOME;
Paris has lots of shops with beautiful custom (?) gowns (wedding and formal) in them.  Beautiful!!!
Haven't been out and about in Paris yet.  I figure it's a little lqte in the day to start (it's 8 PM here now), so I'll do more/most of that tomorroz.
Made it safely, didn't get mugged, if nothing else I'll stay in the hostel I paid for now in Paris;
Anyone hqve qny good suggestions for what to do in Paris?  I'm planning on the Louvre; Arc de Triumph for tomorroz... but i have no idea after that:

And noz I will humor you with one story! A lot of the Parisians have been really great about me not speaking French:  I usually walk up to them and say Parlez-vouz angles? and it's fine: but i felt really awkward because i did that at the further out, almost on the bus terminal, and the guy was kind of like; yeah yeah... nice try, American.

Anyway, this keyboard thing got in the way of me using the internet because i couldn't sign on to skype at this internet cafe because i couldn't figure out the equivalent to some of my password characters, and i told the guy i couldn't use it, and we basically argued. I said that it wasn't my fault, and he said it wasn;t his fault.  He let me walk out; waved me by without paying; I maintain I did not use the internet, and so I shouldn't have to pay.  The funny thing is I had my money out at the beginning to pay and he said, no you pay when you're done. He had the chance to take my money for a full half hour, and missed that opportunity.  Anyway, its not really a good story; but i haven't been travelling  that long anyway, so bear with me.

Love you and miss you all!  I'll probably end up reading The Help tonight.

Hoping for better stories soon.

Jo

Heh heh heh... I'm leaving!  I'm so excited, and nervous.  Please pray that my travels are exciting and safe!

Love you all!
Jo

I will soon go to France!

Tuesday, I embark on an epic journey.

HA!  That seemed way more serious than it needed to be.  I'm going to France, and I hope you enjoy my blog to update you on the workings of my life in France these few months that I'll be there.  Pray that I am well and succeed!

Thanks for following!