- Almost everything closes down for lunch for about two hours everyday.
- There are a lot of kebab places in France. Kebab sandwiches are very good.
- Once again I have found myself in the entrepreneurial spirit and would like to start my own chain of of kebab eateries in the United States.
- All you have to do to flush a toilet in France is easily push a button on the top of the tank. (To some of you this may not seem very different from the States...it isn't. -OK, maybe a little.)
- Alcohol is cheap; I have fallen asleep with my shoes on twice already.
- I've been avoiding brands of beer that I know I could get in the U.S.
- Most of the beer here is 5% alcohol, however, I can easily get a liter of wine that is 11% alcohol for about 1.07 euros (~$1.36).
- I am currently reading "Robinson Crusoe" by Daniel Defoe; It was one of the few books I found in the library that was written in English.
- At the supermarket you get your shopping cart from the corral outside. However, in order to get it you have to put in a .50 or 1 euro coin to unlatch it. After you put your groceries in your car you then take the cart back to the corral, latch it back in, and get your money back.
- Banks won't charge you if you use their ATM.
- I bought a French phone and I can convert just about anything with it. I check the exchange rate everyday and plug it into my phone. It also comes in handy when I'm talking with the Slovakians or Norwegians and they give me a temperature in Celsius or area in square meters.
- It costs me 4 euros (~$5.10) to do one load of laundry not including the price of detergent.
- I don't wash my clothes very often. (See #12)
- It costs 3 euros (~$3.85) for a very small jar of peanut butter; I now eat Nutella and jelly sandwiches.
- When in doubt I always show my student ID card --even at fast food places. We went to a Quickie Burger at the mall in Clermont-Ferrand, I showed the clerk my ID card and got a free burger.
- Free burgers taste better than burgers you have to pay for.
- "This is the sort of English up with which I will not put".-Winston Churchill on the fake rule that says you shouldn't end a sentence with a preposition.* This is in case I catch grammatical flack for #16.
- People will often bring their dogs with them to shops and cafés.
- There is dog shit everywhere. (See #18)
- You don't talk about fight club.**
*The actual rule is that you shouldn't end a sentence with an extraneous preposition.
**This is actually the first and second rule of fight club.
Haha! I remember I loved the lunch breaks in France. I wish the shopping cart idea would take off here in the US. Mmmmmm, Nutella is very very yummy, but more expensive than peanut butter here. I would love to see you open a chain of Kebob places. I think you would be good at it. I'm glad you've started this blog and can't wait to read more. =)
ReplyDeleteYeah, we were trying to think of what my kebab chain should be called. My Norwegian friends and I wanted to incorporate "stools" and "ovens" because in Norwegian any kind of chair is called a stool and anything that gives off heat is an oven. So maybe "Kebabs, Stools, and Ovens"? I don't know, everytime I think stool, I don't think of a chair but of something else.
ReplyDeleteWe have a supermarket that does that with the shopping carts. It's called Aldi.
ReplyDeletePaul and I still try to use our ID cards for movies. At some point they are going to realize we're not college students. I think we still have a few years left :-) Speaking of getting old, your brother has a birthday coming up and I am making him a pizza cake. I wish you could be here to try it!
Yeah, in the US, using "stool" in a restaurant name wouldn't be a good idea. What about Kolossal Kebobs? The "K" instead of a "C" would give the name a fun twist. Or perhaps King of Kebobs, Kebob King, Krazy Kebobs, The Kebob Kart, etc...just throwing out ideas for you. =)
ReplyDeleteI would love to try pizza cake. Speaking of pizza there's a pizza place across the street from my apartment building. I think I'm going to try the goat meat pizza.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, alliteration is awesome.
You should add Twitter to your blog. Do you have text messaging on your phone? If not, you can update from your computer.
ReplyDeleteI've got it ! ! ! " King Hot Kabob on a stool ", use toilet stools as chairs. Maybe you could put on the menu the daily special "a real but (Didn't use 2 T's on purpose) burner. I can't help it.
ReplyDeleteHaha! I like Dad's idea, but I know there is a restaurant in Japan who already made toliet seats as their chairs. I probably watch too much Food Network. =)
ReplyDeleteDam !!!, How about we add cheap toilet paper on the roll as napkins...and toilet seats up or down for "windys", I'm still thinking.
ReplyDeleteHAHA! Great! I'm loving it! Haha! =)
ReplyDeleteWhat does the entrepreneur think? =)