Blue skies

Today was my first day of work. I slept pretty well again and woke up when my alarm went off at 8:00 am. My host, Jennifer, met me in front of my house at 8:45 am, so I quickly got dressed and went downstairs to buy a café au lait from the vending machine -- I'm a pretty big fan of that vending machine café au lait. 

I'm thankful she met me there because it turned out that buying a bus pass to get to work was a more complicated ordeal than it ought to have been. We had to go to the machines and purchase a token ticket which we then exchanged at the front desk for a transit card. We then took the transit card back over the machine to add value to it. Weird.

Armed with transit tickets, we hopped on the bus to go to ESPCI. After about 10 minutes we arrived.

Front door to ESPCI

We had a group meeting from 10:00 - 12:00 where four people presented in French. Their meetings are typically in English, but today the four who presented were practicing for their master's defense which they will have later this week - and they get to defend in their native language. Surprisingly though, I was able to follow along fairly well considering it was presented in a foreign language. Thank you science words for being fairly consistent across languages!

After the meeting a small group of us went to a local cafe where I ordered for myself in French! This was a pretty big deal for me. Last night I sat down and wrote out a bunch of phrases I thought would be helpful in a little notebook that I now carry around with me everywhere. It has phrases like, "I would like your favorite dish!" and "I want that one." and "Pardon me, my French is terrible. If I'm staring at you with a very confused look on my face could you please write down some important words that could help convey your ideas to me? I understand written French much better than spoken French. Thank you!"

One of the other group members recommended the ham sandwich and a cheese souffle which is apparently a specialty of the area. **Yes, I realize that I am a vegetarian, but I have a clause in my unwritten vegetarian agreement that says I can eat meat while traveling abroad** While I was waiting in line, I pulled out my notebook and practiced saying, "Je voudrais un sandwich au jambon et un soufflé au fromage." I butchered it horribly, but the woman at the counter seemed amused and in good spirits. The other people in my group were also amused and seemed appreciative of my effort. "A" for effort! Yay!

The cafe where I had my first French ordering experience.

After that, I spent the afternoon doing typical sciency work things. It was fun and I came home in fairly high spirits. 

Once I arrived home, I realized that I was pretty much out of food, so I decided to try out one of the snootier grocery stores I found on Saturday. I bought some oatmeal (which will hopefully balance out all of the fromage I've been eating here), milk, apples, yogurt, and honey. It was uber snooty expensive. However, those apples were delicious. I was also reminded that milk isn't really a thing here in Europe. I had forgotten that when I lived in Spain, my host mom would always buy cartons of un-refrigerated milk to cook with, and she thought it was really weird that anyone would want to drink it straight. Fortunately for milk-loving me, the snooty store had a tiny collection of refrigerated milk -- goat's milk no less. 

On my walk back, I worked up the nerve to stop in a little bakery and order two croissants and a raisin pastry. My little notebook really helps with my nerves since I know I can just look down and read off the page if I forget what I'm saying. 

Success!

All in all, today was a pretty solid day. I didn't even mention that the sun was out today! Hopefully the clouds will take their leave for a few more days.

Au revoir!