Dinner Parties!

         One of the reasons that I LOVE living in my homestay is the fact that in the past month that I have been here (ya I have totally been here a month, what the what?!) there have been at least one dinner party a week.  Two birthdays, a few friends here and there, they are a lot of fun and give me a lot of insight into the French culture ie: champagne, wine, cuisine, and cheese.  The parties start when everyone gets there at around nine.  We all sit in the living room eating little hors d’oeuvres like baked croutons with jambon et fromage (ham and cheese) or other little salty finger foods and we drink champagne…lot’s of champagne.  My host dad usually has me finish the bottle saying that, “you are in France, you need to drink real champagne!”.  At around ten o’clock we sit down for dinner, for the appetizer we have white wine and then for the main meal we have red.  After the main course comes salade et fromage, and then dessert.  I really like these dinner parties because it makes me talk to strangers and even though it can get really awkward at times, I know that life is awkward and that these experiences are so good or me in the long run.