MacDoh

Last night I got kissed by 8 guys in about five minutes--my husband was not one of them. The bisous (pronounced beezoo) is very much part of French culture. It consists of kissing one cheek and then the other whenever you see a friend or meet a new acquaintance. If two guys are meeting then they usually just shake hands but if they are of the opposite sex or both girls then the bisous is fair game. In certain regions they kiss up to two times per cheek! Everywhere you turn someone is giving the bisous. This was a very different custom for me  and at first sometimes I just automatically stuck out my hand out of instinct for a friendly handshake. Hopefully I didn't offend anyone... But now I am becoming more of a pro. Thanks to church, there are tons of people to practice on so now I've got it down pat.

Now back to the 8 guys, they invited Kyle and I to go eat at "MacDoh" (what we call McDonalds). These guys are about 19-21 years old and Kyle teaches them in one of his English classes. I guess they got on the subject of American McDonalds versus the French McDonalds. Supposedly McDonalds is a nice restaurant to eat at in France. I haven't eaten a McDonalds hamburger for at least ten years and personally don't really trust the food there ever since seeing the "Super Size Me" documentary. But we decided to take them up on their offer to try it out the French way.

First of all, the inside was super nice with abstract art hanging on the walls and nice cushioned seats and booths. The line to order food was pretty long and it felt like "In-N-Out Burger" because they had an employee walking down the line taking orders electronically. They don't have a super-size me option just one called the maxi which is the biggest you can get but is the size of a regular drink in the US. They even serve cans of beer as a drink option too...The combo hamburgers we ordered were fairly small and instead of having ketchup and yellow mustard they had a special dijon mustard. The fries weren't our favorite either, probably because they weren't dripping in grease and have salt caked on. Sadly we weren't impressed with the quality of the meal, I guess that's one thing we got on the French. We know how to make our hamburgers and fries. One of the guys ate 4 Big Macs! Kyle said he forgot how much you were able to eat at that age.

One of the students named Remy asked us if we were engaged. They were all super surprised to find out we were married. I guess it never really sunk in because the rest of the night they kept referring to me as Kyle's girlfriend. I'm definitely not in Utah anymore. Everyone ordered drinks at the bowling alley and when Kyle and I told them we don't drink alcohol and never have, that was another jaw dropper. It was good because they were respectful about it. You know I am sheltered when I say this was my first time telling someone  I don't drink. After dinner we went bowling which was awesome because it felt like home. The French aren't very good at bowling so Kyle and I were able to show off our skills. My first game I scored a 150 and made three strikes in a row. Apparently when a woman gets three strikes in a row in France, traditionally they are offered a free glass of champaign.  The students were all so excited to get me my champaign and ran off to talk to the owner.  Lucky for me, this particular alley didn't honor this tradition anymore... The whole game everyone was amazed and kept asking us where we learned to play. Kyle has a cool curve ball and they were still amazed even if it curved too much and went into the gutter. We were pretty much their idols.