TravLog 01-10-05

Vivi and I slept in late, then headed down the block for some coffee and Rapido. Rapido is a lottery thing that pays every fifteen minutes. Unless you're me, and then it pays never. And as for the coffee, let me just start by saying that I'm a BIG fan of coffee. And I do like French coffee. But it ain't like American coffee, if you buy it from a coffee shop. It's more like espresso. Not that there's a thing wrong with that, but if you're in the mood to sip a big fat steaming cup of coffee over a period of about 20-30 minutes, you're out of luck. It's possible to get the regular-style cup, but you have to know how to order it. "Cafe" gets you the weeteeniny cup of very strong coffee. "Cafe au lait" gets you the weeteeniny cup of half very strong coffee and half steamed milk. "Cafe creme" gets you maybe a normal cup of coffee with cream, or maybe a cafe au lait. And it usually involves some amount of conversation and gestures illustrating the size of the cup, followed by pointing and nodding. And then they bring a hot chocolate.
Went to grocery store afterward for the day's food and some candy and chips to take back to the states. Made some pasta and a yummy salad for lunch then took a shower. I was trying to use up some of my travel bottles of shampoo and soap to make room in my suitcase and I ended up taking quite a long shower and feeling cleaner than I have in a week. I think I used up all the hot water, but at least I did get to shave. A mini triumph, as while I was at Doc and Marc's house, I kept forgetting to bring the razor into the shower with me. It's a good thing it's winter, and I'm wearing pants every day, that's all I've got to say. Feeling like a new woman, I walked around in Troyes with Vivi for a couple of hours looking for more gifts and some of the cool skirts and shoes that I've seen around here. But I got too picky and ended up empty-handed. We met the kids she babysits, and I got to play a rubber-band-y/jumprope-y kinda game. Their mom came home after a couple of hours and we headed home. Vivi ate quickly and headed to choir practice, and Steph and I had some leftovers from lunch and tabouli with chicken. I checked my email - got one from Dad!! :) and Steph and I sat down to watch "O Brother, Where Art Thou" in French. It was a pretty laid back day, but that's good because tomorrow Vivi and I head back to Paris for the last leg of my trip and I know we'll keep ourselves quite busy then!