The mixture which is not stirred decomposes

Bonjour Mon Cherie,

I found some ultimate players to hang with! Saturday night there was a mini winter tourni at the local university with 6 teams playing 3 half hour games. It felt sooo good to run around and throw the disc a bit! I picked up with a team called Revolution Air, which is a pretty good team with solid players. They appreciated having another competent women on the team and we all went for pizza after at one of the guy's apartments. There are a couple Canadians, one Englishmen, and a woman from Columbia who were nice enough to translate what was being said on the field. Man, it's hard enough to remember to call out directions in English on the field. Now I have to remember to say a gauche and a doite, etc. instead. Going to Laurent's house after was pretty fun too. Though there are definitely cultural differences (like eating yogurt for dessert after pizza) ultimate players are pretty much the same here as in the states. Even though I couldn't understand what was being said most of the time (though Andrea, from Calgary was nice enough to translate) I still had a great time.

Last night (Tuesday) I went to practice with another team called Ah Ouh Puc. They are even more international, but maybe a bit less experienced. It was still fun though and I may go to their practice again on Thursday.

I'm finding that there are a lot of foreigners in Paris. I discovered that my next door neighbors in fact are from NY. I couldn't get into the apartment the other day and they were nice enough to let me stay at their place until I got a hold of Anne-Marie. They are a couple who has a one year old and are working in Paris for a couple months. It's nice to run into people I have something in common with, but at the same time, I'm not here to speak English and I'm trying not to hang out with too many English speakers (though that is what my family hired me for...)

Speaking of learning French, I'm trying not take it too seriously. I really want to learn, but it's a really slow process. I feel like I'm learning the grammar, but it's becoming more and more apparent that I need a conversation course. The plan is to finish out this course that I paid for and then re-evaluate the situation. There is no sense in staying in a course that I'm not getting the most out of.

Anyway, more about this weekend: Holy crap it was beautiful day on Sunday! It was about 65 degrees and Sunny. There were a TON of people out walking and shopping and seeing the sights. It was really great. I can't wait until spring and summer when it's like this more often! I decided just to bimble about in the Latin Quarter because I haven't really spent any time there yet. I went to St. Sulpice and roamed around the Pantheon. I also walked to the park around Luxemburg and down this street that started with an M that was only for pedestrians with lots of little shops and people eating glace and crepes all over the place. I finally ended up at Hotel de Ville (city hall) which is on my metro line. There is a full time ice skating there in the winter and it was really bizzare to see so many people ice skating in 65 degree weather. There were a ton of people gathered for a Chinese New Year celebration, but by that time I was very tired and headed home.

Since the kids are gone this week, Anne-Marie has pretty much left me up to my own devices. I think she is really enjoying her time alone to do her work and go house hunting (more on that later), which has given me a chance to do whatever. So, since I didn't have any chilins to pick up from school, I decided to go on a walking chocolate tour of Paris Monday. It's through this company called Paris Walks and they do all kinds of tours every month in English. This one happened to be a Chocolate tour and I have to say it was definitely worth the money! The guide took us to 4 different chocolatiers in the area around the Louvre (which isn't that far from my place by the way) and we tried 7 different tarts and truffles. We began the tour with a ganache w/ mousse and creme brulee in the center, then moved on to candied oranges dipped in chocolate, chocolate truffles with a hint of grande marnier, and dark chocolate covered pralines. In addition to the gastronomic entertainment, we also got some history about places and chocolate in Paris. So, if any of you out there come to visit, I have all the names and addresses of the places we went to... (yes, that's a chocolate stelletto above)