"It's obvious that your an American when you have more soda in your cart than wine!"

After waking up at 2:30 (14:30), it took a minute to get oriented. I went downstairs and found my parents relaxing in the living room/kitchen. I grabbed a chunk of baguette and nibbled it as we discussed the days plans.

It was decided that we definitely needed to go to the grocery store. So we all got dressed and ready to go.

We went to the Simply super-marché in a small town not far from ours. To abbreviate the adventure in one word...

embarrassing

I don't think there was a single person in that market didn't know we were Americans. My parents found the biggest cart they could, and filled it with their American necessities. Cereals, bags of chips and cookies, cans of cocoa-cola light, 2 two liters of pepsi max, pre-sliced loaf of bread, and a giant bag of peanut m&m's to munch on for my mom.

Needless to say, I wandered away from the cart and my parents as often as possible. But the one place I couldn't escape was the check-out. We of course didn't have any of our own "grocery bags." So we had to buy the plastic ones the store provides. But we had so many groceries (much more than probably any french family has bought on one trip to the grocery store) that we had to buy quite a few bags, not knowing how many we actually needed.

While my mom and I (mostly me because my mom kept leaning over me to try to see the total amount) were bagging the groceries, the cashier had to send our fruit away with a stocker because, of course, we hadn't pre-stickered them using machines in the produce area. Now we are standing there, waiting for our fruit to come back stickered, holding up the line, our groceries filling up the cart, and feeling thoroughly embarrassed for being so thoroughly American.

After that fun excursion, we had to hurry back to the house to prepare for a dinner at my dad's managers house. The groceries were quickly put away (my mom stating that we won't be able to buy many frozen foods because our small freezer area in the refrigerator can only hold one ice cream (at which I just rolled my eyes)) and then a quick change of clothes. We hopped in the car, and on our way we went.

The drive should only have taken us about a half hour. We were supposed to be there at 7:30 (19:30), but after getting back to the house late from grocery hell, my dad said we should get there about 8:00ish (20:00). Which, if you get lost going from Holtziem to Lamperthiem, works out just perfectly! Technically, the drive should only have taken us about 20ish minutes...we made it into about 45ish minutes.

My dad's manager, Remi, and his wife, Adeline, were very nice. They spoke amazing english (which was good for my mom) and were very welcoming. They had three children, under 9, that were very rambunctious but hyper adorable. They went to bed while we ate our dinner. All in all, it was a very calming end to a very stressful day.

Today, Sunday 5 Sept, I choose to stay at the "flat" while my parents headed out to Le Petit France. I decided I was done with adventures for a day. Plus, I need to figure out where I'm going to put all my clothes, considering I have no closet, and only a tiny dresser (that is smaller than me) with four drawers...I guess we'll see!!