One thing I did not expect to happen to me so quickly and for the duration to be long was getting sick! Being sick abroad makes it  worse because you don’t have your mom around, and your primary doctor and you just feel like the world is going to end (dramatic of me perhaps?). But I got sick within the month of being here and it was due to the constant weather changes!!! After going to the doctor twice in Besancon, I can finally see I am feeling better thanks to a lot of meds and teas!! Anyways, enough of my pity sick story…..

In America and in my case New York people barely say hello to you randomly, or good eating, have a great afternoon, good night or in general just wishing you to have a great day. In my time being in France, I have tcome to appreciate people telling me bonjour (good day/morning), bonne journee (good day),bon appetit (good eating),  bon apres-midi (good afternoon), bonne soiree (good evening)  and finally  bonne nuit (good night). It has become part of my daily routine and if I don’t say any of these greetings throughout my day I feel impolite. I hope to keep these sayings in practice when I return back to NY.

Another cultural adjustment I have had to get accustomed to is eating dinner after 7pm if I decide to eat at a restaurant. Many of my friends had warned me about this but I thought they were exaggerating LOL but now I am living with it and I am still getting adjusted!! About a week ago my friend and I were hungry and it was about 6pm and we had to wait until 7pm for the most of the restaurants to open. We really wanted to try this restaurant in particular that specialized in gratins! Gratins are basically potatoes and cheesy goodness altogether…sounds like food heaven to me! The gratin I had was the bolognaise (meat sauce) with macaroni pasta and it was still considered a gratin but not a typical one.  And lastly of course we have to end with dessert, we had apple crumble with vanilla ice cream. it was a very yummy night!!