Bonjour! Bonjour! Bonjour! Bonjour! Bonjour! There goes the baker...

Today I woke up late because I had no class. When I went down stairs I apologized to Hélèn for waking her up last night. She didn’t mind. She just didn’t know that I had ever left and thought it was her daughter coming down the stairs because she was sick.

When I finally got up and left the house I met Linden and Andrew for lunch. We ate at this very nice little restaurant that served gourmet meals for about a quarter of the price they would be in the US. We had a nice discussion on the differences between American restaurants and French restaurants and how in American restaurants it’s all about how fast they get the food to you. For some reason, this is considered polite. The faster you eat, the more you eat, the quicker you leave, the bigger the tip you will leave. In France this isn’t the case. The tip is already included into the price, so you always know exactly how much you’re paying when you look at the menu. In France the waiters are much more concerned about the quality of time you spend in the restaurant. When they give you the menu, they don’t come back four times to see if you’re ready to order. They give you about fifteen minutes to look it over before they even approach the table again. They also don’t give out mass quantities of liquid at each meal like they do in the US. The only thing they ever refill is water; and even that is limited. It has definitely taught me to drink a whole lot less while I’m eating. In America I’ll order a glass of sweet tea and have the waiter fill it up four or five times before I’m out the door. And I’m not the only person that does that! Imagine those who have the glass of Coke filled up four or five times before they’re out the door! No wonder our country is perceived as being fat!

While leaving the restaurant I had to stop and take a moment. Imagine, the sun was bright, the boats were stationed in their port, the bells of Saint Pierre were singing, and the citizens of the town were going about their daily routines. It was a Disney™ movie waiting to happen! I just knew some animated bird was going to be landing on my shoulder soon!

After eating I went to work out and then home for dinner. Still no meat. We had something called potato crisp, steamed tomatoes, bread, cheese, and yogurt. I was craving bread with Nutella™ so badly that I just had to ask for some. Hélèn thought I was crazy because they usually only eat Nutella™ for breakfast, but I didn’t care.

After dinner I went out to Café de Caen for a crêpe and a Diablo (a type of lemonade). I sat and chatted with my friends Linden, Jonathan, and Rachel, and then Rachel and I went to stroll through the town. We stopped at that church that had been bombed during World War Two and talked about what it would have been like to have lived during a war like that. I pray that I never have to know exactly what it feels like!

After that, I came home and tried to be quite once again. This time I think I tried too hard as it took me almost ten minutes to get from the door to my room. Every time I take another step the floor creeks because of the old hard wood! I can’t imagine having to sneak around at night all the time like that! It would drive me insane if I had to do it for too long!