Culture Chow-down

Brief list (in English, no less!) of things that cause me to nod in approval a la France:

• Markets - so much food, all so colourful
• Biking - drivers don't freak out when there are cyclists on the road. Just, "Bonjour, Cycliste, nous partagons la rue. Nous ne sommes pas les amies, mais je ne vais pas te frapper avec mon voiture." That being said... I would love to find some flat land for biking. I don't mind hills, but sometimes one just wishes for an easy ride. I also miss my black bike for when I'm feeling not so racerish.. and the seat on my bike here is merde. Putain!
  
• Cereal - Carrefour Fruit and Fibre? You rock my cereal world. ROWR.
• Shutters - I realised, after a month of being in my flat, the reason I don't have curtains on my window is because I have shutters. I just never noticed. Jen n'est pas intelligente. Non, serieuse, mon IQ trouvait un niveau trop bas quand je suis arrivee a la France.
• Durante la journee, c'est assez chaud pour porter les shorts. For me. Biking in my late summer gear au milieu de decembre? Pas mal.
• Bears - there are no bears here, to my knowledge. This helps me feel safe.
• Funny translations- It's none of our business -> "Ce n'est pas nos oignons." HA!
• Swearing - but not really. Putain!
• H1N1 - Ils ne s'inquiete pas. Le gov't achetait 94 million des vacinations. There are only 64 million people in France. They have 30 million extra vaccines, provided one dose per person is adequate. Canada has about 33 million people, and about six viles of the vaccine. And people really aren't freaking out here trying to get into clincis. I just don't think they care.
• Food - everything here tastes good. I'm a bit concerned as before leaving Canada I got rid of all clothing which was too big.
• le Geant Casino - it intrigues me. It's so large. And between my home to there, the road is quite flat. Plus one point.
• The Carrefour logo, which I now understand.
• The good looking news and weather people.
• Orange eyeshadow - I bought some. Clearly, if it's in France, it must be very fashionable. The official couleur is "orange pearle".
• Height - I'm not short here! Not to generalize, but people here are not very tall. I feel like such an equal.
  

Things I slightly miss in Canada/PEI (omitting people):

• Carpet.. useful for laying on when reading the newspaper
• Being witty/charming/hilarious... here I am merely ditzy
• Bicyclette no. 1... bicyclette no. 2 not so much as I have her nearly identical twin here
• Beer Club
• Being in closer timezones to friends who are away... so I don't need to stay up to 1am to chatter with them.
• The Weather Network.
• My socks. Apparently when packing to move I felt the need to pack, oh, like five pairs of socks, four of which are wooly hiking/biking socks.
• Peanut sauce.
• The ability to explain how you want your hair cut, in English. Me hair be getting a wee bit shaggy.
  

That's it.