Day 4 of Living and Working in Paris

(In case you missed Day 1, you can find it here. I’m an American who just moved to Paris and letting you know about it!)

Let’s just go with what I did today.

Today I ate two macarons for dinner — one Oreo macaron and one Vanille macaron — because I could. And I didn’t feel bad about it.

I also successfully bought une bouteille du vin for the festivities tomorrow (New Year’s Eve! La réveillon!) as well as a cake…kinda.

The day to day becomes so much more interesting when language is a bit vague. Like when you walk in heels slightly too small — you never know when you’re going to trip.

For example, going back to the cake.

I almost bought an ice cream cake for tomorrow. It sounds like a lovely choice except my freezer is big enough to hold one single ice cube. And my newly sticky counter wouldn’t like becoming stickier. And no one wants an ice cream cake in December.

But luckily I avoided the misfortune of the purchase by miraculously understanding the word for “ice cream” in French when the woman looked at me worriedly. (Or at least the word for ice, which is all I needed. ‘Glacée’)

Bravo moi. One disaster avoided.

I’m not understanding much right now.

I thought the woman in the chocolate shop told me that they didn’t serve alcohol. I found that strange that she would say that to me when all I wanted was some chocolate and clearly no one walks into a chocolate shop wanting alcohol (unless you’re already drunk), so I walked out not wanting to ask for clarification or to find out whether or not she thought I looked like I was drunk.

French people have flown past me in their knowledge of English and I’m not sure there’s any catching up.

On another note, I’m spending New Year’s Eve tomorrow with my French friend whom I met on MSN Messenger 20 years ago — yes, that’s right.

I’ll let that sink in.

We met on MSN Messenger 20 years ago in 1995. And here we are in 2015, about to celebrate New Year’s Eve together in Paris.

I don’t know what’s more insane, the fact that we’ve stayed friends all these years or the fact that we met online during a time when you had to pay for dial up…

But alas, once again, his English has surpassed my French. Zut alors!

Studying time it is.

Until the next big adventure, bonne soirée!