Joyeux Anniversaire à Moi

France is a nice place to have a birthday! In the morning, Lauren, Becky, and Mike surprised me with birthday cards and one of those cakes that you see on display at French bakeries but that you know you can never have because there has to be an occasion. (There was shaved chocolate on top--that's how fancy this cake was.) Later that night, they took me out for dinner to a fancy restaurant in the main plaza of town, called Mississippi Jazz. Who knew that a small town in northeast France would end up having a Louisiana, cajun-style restaurant?




Now I'd like to introduce you to my adopted French family! Every Sunday I meet with Marion, who is eighteen years old, and I tutor her in English--and by "tutor" I mean we just sit around and talk about whatever we want. It's so refreshing to get to talk to someone my own age! In exchange, her parents have taken me in as a third daughter: Once a week, they come pick me up and take me to their home, where we drink tea and eat cookies and they help me with my French. Last week, Marion's mom and I made cookies together--I learned lots of kitchen vocabulary--and this week we went to Metz to amble around the Christmas markets and drink vin chaud. On my birthday afternoon, I went to Marion's house and we decorated her Christmas tree and had a birthday brioche (a loaf-shaped fluffy-ish bread-ish kind of thing with chocolate chips in it) with candles! They are so good to me!