Fooooood.

This will be a fairly quick post as it's morning and I'm on my way to take care of business, but it's time to talk about my first few meals. Perhaps I want to do this because, at the moment, without a student card it's quite the effort to feed myself. The nearest grocery store is a 10-minute walk from my dorm (it's called the Shopi, by the way, and it's quite cute), and seeing as I'm quite budget conscious and certain things are more expensive over here, I'm always hunting for stuff I can buy cheap.

My first night here, I arrived on campus and didn't get hungry till later, so I headed to an off-campus café. Nutella crêpe for 2 euros and a crêpe jambon et fromage for 3. Not bad, not bad at all. I sat there as night fell and listened to the French around me. Speaking of, my French definitely needs some work. I can get by, but if things get advanced I start sounding like a confused child...but for the most part, people are understanding and I even got complemented on my pronunciation at customs. Victory!

The next day, I went to the Shopi. Baguettes cost 70 cents (YESSSS), and I bought some camembert, jelly, and nutella. Hello, breakfast for the next few months! For dinner? Eggs (no seasoning- they were out of the cheap salt), but I tossed in some smoked sausage and had myself a meal. I'm very grateful for the frying pan I brought...the others on the program are having to buy pre-made stuff and can't cook a thing.

The next day, I  made trip #2 to the Shopi- another nice walk. I try to avoid loading myself down with bags, since carrying them would get old after about 5 minutes. My residence is on the far north of campus, so I have to walk all the way across to get to the regular city. I also went to my new favorite store downtown - Monoprix! A small French supermarket chain, and things are a bit cheaper there. I'm proud of myself. Dinner was what I found on sale, tossed into a pan: chicken cut into strips and tomatoes, with butter, garlic and salt. It was really good, and I felt accomplished. After the trip I took to get the food, bring it back, prepare it, etc., I felt somewhat accomplished. I also bought some pain au chocolat from the store bakery...which, if you haven't tried, are rectangular croissants with chocolate stuff on the inside. Heaven on earth. I had two for lunch and one for dessert. I doubt I'll gain any weight here, but I'm starting to feel sluggish. I'm gonna toss on the running shoes and go for a long jog sometime today. Let's see wehre I end up! Until next time!