Two Negative

Living in the Land of Lardons (amongst other delicacies)

Unfortunately, you don’t need to know French to guess what lardons are. Yes, that’s right, lardons = lard…bite size pieces of lard. The dictionary translation is “streaky bacon” and from what I’ve seen they’re basically large bacon bits with as much fat and little meat as possible. In the region we’re living in, lardons can be found in quiche, pizza, salads, pasta and, my favorite, the “Lard Sandwich,” the first item on the menu at a popular sandwich shop near our apartment.

While the ubiquity of lardons is something I hadn’t expected in France, I did come to this country expecting people to eat strange meats and organs…and really, France has exceeded my expectations. Charles and I are fortunate to live right in the center of downtown and just a block away from Marche Central, a huge indoor market with stands from different countries serving fresh jams, pasta, chocolate, cheese, pastries, produce, and, of course, meat. In fact, 75% of this large, Grand Central Station-esque market is filled with meats and unidentifiable organs. Vendors strive to sell chicken, rooster, rabbit, pigeon, etc., looking as life-like as possible, keeping the heads, eyes, and feet all on the animals. With the rabbit (keep in mind I used to have a pet rabbit) it wasn’t enough to keep its eyes in and leave a petrified expression frozen on its face. Oh no! They went the extra mile by keeping its fuzzy rabbit tail on, splitting open its stomach, taking some unidentifiable organs out and laying it on its body (a bonus, I guess ). If Marche Central were in the US, all debates about classroom animal dissection would cease and there would just be field trips to Marche Central to better understand anatomy…or should I say, gastronomy?

Through the Ringer

France is annoying and expensive. We went to do our laundry today and saw that it cost 3 euro for one load in a washer. These washers are the size of onion rings. It'll cost a trip to London to do two weeks worth of laundry. Dryers charge by 13 minutes.
Other things that are exorbitant: rent, internet, utilities, train fare, clothes, all toiletries, technology, intra-France cellphone calls and any normal food. Plus, we have to keep all our receipts because we have gotten rung up twice for one purchase three times in two weeks. Has it really only been two weeks?
People said our trip would be an "adventure," and I never put any stock into that, because when I think adventure I think of my friend Jeremy's trip to cambodia (http://bloggingxanadu.vox.com/), or a peace corps pioneer. Those trips require courage. Wow, I live in a culture that I can't afford and wants to be American. Will I go broke? I'll never know unless I stay.
I'm not unhappy or homesick, I'm just telling you that Nancy is a pricey gal and sometimes she's hard to live with.
In other news, Annalise's stomach is making strange noises and I teach little kids (sometimes sans other adults, to my surprise).