10 octobre 2009 (Day 40)
I love Saturdays. I think it is my favorite day of the week solely for the market. Today I went clothes shopping at the market. I bought a pair of black shoes with buckles (buckles are in) and a white pointy pair with a flower on them. I got both pairs for only 10 euros. For 5 euros I found an intense blue vest and a poofy plaid khaki, pink, and silver top. My favorite find of the day was an adorable long top (made in Italy) that is gray with purple owls, flowers, and a gray doily collar. I bought some fresh apple-pear juice to try as well as a large bunch of fresh happy carrots for 1 euro that made some delicious boiled carrots with butter and basil for lunch. I also bought some delicious apples of the Elstar variety, I think they may be my new favorite apple; they have a really great taste and texture. My vendor friend was pretty funny today. I came by and he was eating a sandwich and he had a big bite in his mouth and was trying to talk to me. His co-worker was just laughing and it was pretty funny. I don’t understand full-mouth French. I was rebellious and got some nectarines. My friend (I really should ask his name one of these Saturdays) tried to convince me to get come citrus fruit. He gave me a look (the nectarines aren’t ready yet look) but found me some ripe ones. I also got some green and purple table grapes. I actually like the purple ones better, although I do not appreciate the seeds in either. For my present today I got a tomato and a Belgian strawberry. I got a lot of flak for only wanting one tomato so he just gave it to me.
I decided to go back to the tram a different way, which was an excellent idea. There was this man playing a gorgeous guitar with a harmonica as well. He would also sing. I really liked his style. There was a man there listening who reminded me of Uncle Andy who would nod his head to the beat. I enjoyed this musician a lot, so I stayed there for quite a while (until he broke a string actually). I gave him what change I had and a pass along card. While I was listening to this musician I actually saw the missionaries. We exchanged our hellos and a plethora of handshakes.
I headed back to my room and boiled my carrots…mmmm. I continued to avoid doing homework and got ready to go play sports with the Elders and ward members. The Elders left me a really funny message about meeting them because my phone randomly turned off when I was trying to answer it. I had quite the adventure trying to navigate the French voice messaging system. I met Elder Staples and Walters (they were switching partners for the day) and we went to the park. None of the other members were there so the three of us just played “pig” and spoke an intermingling of French and English. We were all pretty bad basketball players.
After basketball I came home and somehow avoided doing homework yet again. I also had an amazing cous cous catastrophe. The directions on the package lie. It is not a one to one ratio of water to cous cous. I was trying to make extra cous cous for tomorrow, and it was so much that I had to grab another pot to stick it in. While I was frantically trying to stop my couscous from burning this French kid came in wanting to cook and I thought he wanted the communal pot but I guess he didn’t so he was like waiting for me when he really didn’t want the pot. Ho la la. It was really embarrassing. I learned my lesson with cous cous though. It tastes pretty good with chick peas, butter, and basil!
