I live in a student residence here in France and part of the deal living here is that we have to pay for a meal plan for the cafeteria. I have the smallest meal plan available: breakfast and dinner during the week. Breakfast is from 7- 8:15 am, so, of course, I have only been three or four times in the past six months. I do, however, nearly always eat dinner there in the evenings with the hall. I'm paying for it, so I should go, right? Many people, when they think of France, imagine wonderful, delicious cuisine. Well, this image of French cuisine completely crumbles under the reality of the residence's cafeteria. I could even go so far as to say that the food there shames the French national identity. I could... but should I? Eh, it depends on what they last served for dinner.
Our hall generally congregates at 6:30 to go eat dinner; so, today I got my coat on and headed out for dinner at 6:30 as usual, but found that everyone wanted to order pizza instead of eating in the caf. Yes, please! I don't think I'd had pizza for... maybe four or five months? I've gotten used to going without lots of things I took for granted in America. A couch to relax on, refrigerated milk, 24 hour shops, and also eating out. Of course there's the possibility to eat out here, we just don't get very large pay checks from our assistantships, so we don't do it that often. Suffice to say, the pizzas were delicious and were also a wonderful treat. We got five pizzas and split them between eight of us, so five slices each. I devoured four right then and there, but I still have my fifth sitting here next to me to be consumed soon. Possibly within the hour. Oh, the excitement!
In an effort to give this post a deeper topic than simply talking about pizza, I will attempt to insert a moral: Going without things makes them that much sweeter and appreciated in the end. There we go, moral accomplished.
Cups of tea: 6
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