New Friends and Haunts

Yesterday morning I rolled out of bed to my usual alarm clock of construction workers yelling French and pounding away on the outside of my building. Liz spent the previous night, so once we were all acceptable looking we headed a short distance down the street to try what David Lebovitz called the best hot chocolate in Paris. He was not wrong. It was thick and creamy and delicious. It is interesting to me that you actually have to sweeten your own hot chocolate with sugar here, but it was still phenomenal. I also had the best croissant that I've had yet, so that was exciting. The lady working there was not what you would call friendly to us when we arrived, but by the time we were leaving she seemed to warm up. I think we caught her right when she was going to take a smoke break. 

After our high calorie breakfast I ventured back to Health City for French BodyPump. Fortunately for me, it was the teacher I can actually follow. Although I don't know what she is saying between tracks and the rest of the commentary is lost on me, she does a great job counting and saying what I hear as superlow (which means super slow). I am recognizing the same cues over and over again too, even though I am not 100% sure what they are. I spent the rest of my afternoon resting up and  getting ready for GAME NIGHT!!!

Most folks know the affection that my family has for board, card, word and most other games. When I found out that ALP was holding a game night I was stoked. Liz and I made plans to go together, but her au pair duties required her to miss out. I took my usual route to the library and helped my coworkers set up the event. I think our library events would be as highly attended as this one if we were allowed to have mini-kegs of Heineken. I personally played rounds of Scrabble, Scattergories, and Apples to Apples. I met expats from Ohio, Wisconsin, and Arizona; a couple of Frenchies, a couple of Brits, and a handful of other folks. It was really fun and once we cleaned up I wandered the less crowded streets of Paris home.

Today I got to sleep in sans interruption, and it was glorious! I also found a new amazing lunch spot. I finally decided to be brave and order a formule, or what we call a combo, from this little deli place. I got a fantastic mozzarella and tomato panini, Nutella crepe, and coke zero for less than 5 euros. 

I am now about to head out of the city to the suburbs to watch Les Mis with Liz and her family. I had to buy special Metro tickets to get to the burbs, and there are a few different train switches that I have never done before, so it should be an adventure. We will see how it goes!

Ciao for now!