mon frere d'accueil.

Yesterday I met my host brother, Martin, for the first time. He opened the front door when I came home yesterday and introduced himself, in english. The exchange was as friendly as could be expected from the french. Dinner. Veronique made a rice pilaf, and after setting it on the table she commented "that it might not have turned out well." Sounds like my mom. I took a normal girl respectable serving and he took the rest in the serving bowl. Their conversation consisted of the world cup coming up blah blah blah. I didn't really listen much because I don't know any of the names of the french players. How can I be expected to know this stuff when I don't know anything about my nation's favorite athletic obsession (ahem, football)?

After the rice, Veronique made a soufle type thing with some vegetables. Martin refused to eat it because he wanted meat. She chided him, and he still wouldn't eat it. Her and I shared eye rolls, which made me had to stifle some giggles. I'm part of the family? Veronique told him that he couldn't have dessert, and he substituted with an apple. He asked me to give him one, and I hesitated while trying to explain in my broken french that I've been sick, did he really want me to touch the apple? He rudely responded, in english, "ONNNNNNNNE AAAAAPPPPLE." Excuse me? I may not be amazing at speaking french, but I can understand. I should have responded with "UUUUUUNNNNE POOOOOMMMME?" Gotta work on being more clever. Might be an issue since I'm not so great with cleverness in english. Add a foreign language = ? (I'm gonna guess some mushed up franglais that doesn't make any sense).

Did I mention he's 27?!?!? Mon dieu. Grow up.

I'm going to Italy tomorrow with two friends. We're meeting Nate, the boyfriend, there, and I'm way excited. Bologna is the first stop Friday night. Nate told me Bologna is known to have the best food in Italy = YES. Saturday meaning we're taking a train to Florence. Veronique loves Florence, and she was excited for me when I told her I was going there.

Another interesting fact about Veronique: she was in the states, and left about one week before hurricane Katrina hit. She was in the South too, around Louisiana. Crazy.