culture shock

Went to "Les Arts Décoratifs" exhibit inside the Louvre. This is one room of jewelry worn in the 16th and 17th century. 

these two pictures are from the same exhibit. Apparently certain designers marketed their brand with these bizarre outfits/ads

There's a separate pastry counter at McDonalds.. we need to learn from this in the U.S.

view from inside the Louvre; pretty great

 The Eiffel Tower sparkles at night! So beautiful

Cartier exhibit at a jewelry museum 

I'll take this one, thanks

Pretty normal to see stores like this on the street!

This afternoon I went to a park to read and look what I saw.. flowers! When was the last time you saw those, Wisconsinites? 

Side note: the couple next to me got a huge kick out of the fact that I spoke french to them but was reading a book in English. I secretly didn't tell them I'm American, I felt cool that they thought I was that impressive. Another side note: people actually read here. On the metro every other person has a newspaper (a real one, not a newspaper app on their Kindle) or a book. Even GUYS read! How great is that

Alright that's all the pictures I have for now folks. This weekend was amazing, like every other day. I saw a couple museums and experienced beautiful weather. It's 50 and sunny today! Friday I had my first official dinner with my host mom. (She'll be making dinner for me once a week, as pre determined within my program) She made pasta with chicken and mushrooms, a cucumber salad with brie cheese and of course lots of bread. So delicious. It was especially delicious because it was my first home cooked meal in about two weeks. 

As a spicy food addict, I've been craving some food with serious flavor. Not that food isn't flavorful here, but they have laws against all the fake things the U.S. uses in food so it's just different, not AS flavorful. I tried a french version of Cheetos and chips and they were just not good. :( So as I was craving some spice, my friends and I decided to go in search of Mexican cuisine. We found this place called El Guacamole or something (so original) and had high hopes! Yay salsa! Yay guacamole! Welllll it wasn't exactly what we expected. Obviously I wasn't expecting the chips and salsa to constantly be refilled, or the burritos to be the size of my arm, like they are at Chipotle. Well first of all we were looking forward to the possibility of margaritas. That was a no-go, since they were the size of a dixie cup and $7. So after ordering water, we were given enough water for two people (we were 4) and it was very warm, almost hot. Then I was looking forward to chips and salsa. Well that's an american thing too because no chips and salsa! Looking at the menu it seemed there were no sides that came with the entrees. That being said I decided to order guacamole on the side. For my meal, I ordered a chorizo quesadilla and then the guacamole. The quesadilla was made with a tortilla the size of my hand, simply folded in half. It had about 1 teaspoon of cheese, and less than that of meat. When I ordered the guacamole (from the appetizer menu) the server asked if I really want that because it's a huge! I was like sure I'll risk it, I eat a lot. It came with like 10 chips and a spoonful of guacamole. Sigh. I'm so american. What really sucked is that this meal for a 5 year old costed 10 euros aka nearly $14. :/ After leaving in disappointment, we sadly stopped for snacks on our way home.