I Have Friends!

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]