One thing that happens when you move far, far away to a foreign country is that unfortunately, you are not going to have regular contact with friends & family.
Well, at least not at the frequency that may have existed before. It’s a lot of work, writing emails & letters, making phone calls…ok, so I’m not so good at making phone calls.
But the good news is, once in a while, people will hop on a plane to come see you & visit the place that has become your new home.
Later today, Olivier & I will be meeting my friends from Colorado, Ryan & Kyle, at Gare du Nord here in Paris. It will be their first trip to France, so we’ve made the necessary preparations to give them a fine lesson in French culture.
The refrigerator has been stocked with a variety of stinky cheese. Sure, it smells a bit like feet when we open the door, but that’s just part of the fun. Besides, when I came to France 2 & a half years ago to see Olivier, I had to go through my first cheese lesson, too.
Olivier had placed in front of me a plate filled with about 10 different kinds of cheese…imagine my surprise when I saw that none of them were orange, or dispensed from an aerosol can.
It doesn’t end with the cheese. There is also a course in wine & the mandatory tasting of the frog legs along with the obligatory sampling of the escargot.
Hey, I went through it…I’m just passing along what I’ve learned.
There’s another bonus, too. When friends from the states come to visit, it gives me an excuse to stop being a goofy resident of Paris so that I can act like a goofy American tourist temporarily.
Who doesn’t love acting like a goofy tourist?
[tags]Cheese, Wine, Paris, food, Escargot, Frog Legs, Friends[/tags]
Invite our friends? Screw that! Those stinky wheels and wedges of gold are all mine baby!
Nice. Now you can get all hopped up on cheese pills & invite all of your friends over for a stinky French cheese party.
Mmmmm. Stinky cheeses… Oh, and you’ll be happy to know our stash of stinky goodness made it through customs just fine. Though I hear there is a drug sniffing dog in rehab now because of us.
Yep! That’s him! We’ve been having a blast with the stinky cheeses.
Hey! Is that Ryan that I knew at KFD? That’s pretty sweet! Stinky cheeses are fun! Bon formage!