Three Middle Aged Couples and One American Student Equals...

One heck of a dinner party.

Kind of.

This week has been stressful. Monday was the entrance exam for the French university, which actually turned out to be super easy. Today, we had our test on all the stuff from the Loire Valley and our first comtemporary french civilization class. Both went fairly well, although the preparation required for the two has worn me out (which doesn't explain why I am blogging at 1 am).

As I walked in the door of the house this evening, my host mom bounds up to me asking if I want to leave that second to go see a movie with her, my host dad, and a bunch of their friends. I said yes without hesitating, wanting to spend as much time with my host family as I could.

Of course, when I said yes, I didn't think about the fact that Madame and Monsieur Briotet's friends are all in their late 50s, which of course is fine, but, I was then unaware of the fact that we were going to a dinner party with all of them afterwards. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

The movie was an espionage thriller entitled L'Affaire Farewell. A true story, it was about a French spy living in Russia during the 1980s who was passing vital information to both the French government and the American government that helped bring down the Soviet Union. It was really good, but super sad.

After the movie, we headed to this really nice, huge house to have dinner. It turns out that this certain couple (I can't remember their names, the night was French overload) wanted help picking out the wine for their son's upcoming wedding. I was the awkward plus one at this dinner party. Their 20 year old son (single!) was supposed to be there to keep me company, Madame Briotet had told me. He wasn't. I was the token American, a 7th wheel (there were three couples), and at least 30 years younger than everyone at the dinner table.

But surprisingly, I didn't really care. I didn't talk as much as I would have liked to, but I listened and absorbed as much as I could. I gave my opinion on the wine choices (No. 1 was too dry, but No. 3 was an excellent choice) and taught them all the word "hedgehog" because the hostess found one in the garden when she went to get fresh mint leaves for the after dinner tea.

After dinner, we sat in the sitting room (ha) and the discussion wandered from politics to insurance to buying cars to cointreau (alcohol...the host offered me some, telling me it would without a doubt clear the little bit of cough that is still lingering...I kindly declined) and lasted until 11:30.

I now find myself happy to have finished my blog updates on Paris, still laughing about tonight's adventures, and wondering why the heck I am still up at 2am knowing full well I've got another test on Thursday.

Resposibility? Nahhh. Not right now. I'm in France! I'd rather party with the old folks. ;)