Fake Friends, Food, and Paris

So I've been here for about 2.5 weeks now and last night, my host dad finally told me that my French is getting better.  That was nice, considering that every time I open my mouth, something I said gets corrected!  I know that they're just trying to help me speak better French, but sometimes I wonder how stupid I must sound when I talk if I get corrected so much!

I've made a couple of goofs with what the French call faux amis - words that sound just like an English word but mean something completely different.  There are some that are harmless - pain means bread, for example.  If you mess it up, you're going to sound funny, but not completely moronic.  There there are the ones that I like to find.  I was in my room and my host mom popped in because you have to go through my room to get to the laundry room.  The window was open and it made some papers rustle and I thought I would be funny and tell her that there was a ghost under the bed.  I said "Il y a un fantasme sous mon lit!'' and she proceeded to laugh like a loon.  That's when I knew I had messed something up.  She explained to me that the word that I wanted for ghost was fantôme because fantasme means a sexual fantasy.  So great, I told her I have sexual fantasies under my bed.  Because that's not awkward at all.

My host mom asked me the other day what the word in English was for egoïste, so I told her that it's egotistical.  She got a lot of mileage out of that one too.  She can't hear the difference between egotIstical and egotEsticle.  So then she felt like she needed to explain to me what a testicle is.  I assured  her that I was well acquainted with the names of different parts of male anatomy and that the word is the same in English as it is in French.  

My host brother was showing off his new shirts from Aeropostale while we were at his grandparents' house last night for an apéro - a cocktail/snack hour.  He informed them that his shirt awesome and that he was a pimp.  Finally, I got to be the one who laughed while everyone else looked at me like I was crazy.  I explained to him that yes, you can pimp someone's ride and you might describe something awesome as pimpin' if you were a gangster, but that if you called yourself a pimp, you were essentially informing everyone that you were in charge of a bunch of hookers.  He turned bright red and laughed, then immediately pulled out his phone so he could text all of his friends and tell them what he had just learned.  Apparently, I'm going to have quite the effect on the French slang used by teenagers in the Paris suburbs.

I've been to Paris twice so far and have visited some pretty cool stuff - I went to:

the Madeleine (a church built to look like a Greek temple),

the Opéra Garnier,

the Galleries Lafayette (a huge, 9 floor shopping mall with the most expensive and exclusive brands you can imagine),

the Louvre because I got lost and had to go somewhere familiar to get my bearings,

the Conciergerie (a former prison where Marie Antoinette spent her final months),

and the Musée de Cluny (built on the site of the oldest Roman ruins in France and the site of an archaeological excavation of the former Roman baths).

I've got lots more planned, so I'm going to be going quite a few more times!  This time, because I did the major tourist traps last time I was here, I am attempting to have a more authentic experience.  Instead of taking my lunch with me, I'm eating in cafés and trying new things.  I had the most delicious hamburger I have ever eaten at the Galleries Lafayette the other day.  Worth mentioning - the self service cafeteria at the Galleries Lafayette has a beverage fountain in the middle - you can get wine or beer out of what looks like a fancy soda fountain.  Pretty slick!

The Frenchies have requested that I teach them how to make American food.  I made some cherry Jello the other day - they were totally freaked out by the fact that it wiggled and the fact that you could turn the bowl upside down and the Jello wouldn't fall out.  The parents liked it, though they said the texture was a little odd for them.  The kids, on the other hand, absolutely hated it!  Ha!  I've finally found something that I will eat that they won't!!  For the win!!  I made some homefries yesterday.  They were pretty darned good, if you ask me, though a little garlic salt wouldn't have hurt.  I made them with onions, garlic, and paprika, and fried them in butter and oil.  Yummy!  Those were a hit all the way around.  The Frenchies ate them with mayonnaise, barbecue sauce, and ketchup.  EEW.  I was like, um, no - salt, pepper,and hot sauce is the only way to go!  I'm going to make a real American barbecue for them on August 15.  They cook hamburger and even steak here in oil in a pan on the stove (THE HORROR!).  I'm going to make them try grilled hamburgers, steak, and maybe ribs if I can find them.  I told them about corn on the cob and how flipping delicious it is when it's boiled and then eaten with butter and salt off of the cob.  My host mom had this horrified face and was like "Oh my God, we wouldn't even feed that to a chicken here!" They were completely and utterly disgusted.  Now I feel obligated to go find a field and steal some ears to show them how tasty it is!  You can't buy ears of corn in the store.  It's just plain weird.

Anyways, that's all for now.  Check back later for more fun!

:) Sarah