Good Morning America

It is noon here, of my first full day in France. Perrine and Lionel had to go to work this morning so they let me sleep and left me notes, as well as a French breakfast spread on the table: sliced baguette (from Paul), nutella, jam, milk that does not need to be refrigerated, and Frosted Flakes! The cereal was pretty funny to see, but of course I opted for a slice of bread with nutella.
The apartment is nice, much larger than their last place, which was a studio with a minifridge and no counter space. They live above a shopping mall in some new apartments. Being that they are on the first floor (just above the mall), they have a HUGE patio: large in terms of American apartments, but simply ginormous as far as French living goes! They have a full-sized fridge now, yet still much smaller than Judy's new baby, a washing machine, a bathroom with a bath tub, a dining room table, and full-sized sectional couch! They've done very well for themselves... and I should hope so now that Lionel is working as an engineer for safe driving systems (that auto-braking technology) for Mercedez and Porsche! Oh! and Perrine drives a cute little black and white smart car now!
Last night I went out with P&L and four of their friends for "une verre" and tarte flambée, one of my all-time favorite foods and an Alsacian specialty. Perrine likes to get one with Munster on it, and French Munster is NOT the same as the American version! When people make the joke, 'who cut the cheese?', it is to this cheese that they are referring! :>0 it is the most rank, but still delicious, cheese I have ever met. I also tried a small slice of a salmon and choucroute (pickled cabbage i think) tarte flambée... it was also interestingly delicious.

I'll close this post with an e-mail update that I sent my Oktoberfest travelling buddies:

Salut! Oui, je suis ici! I'm in Strasbourg now, after nearly 24 hours of travel yesterday/the day before, I've made it and am working off the jet lag ;) and the soreness from toting my bags all over the place... my shoulders and hands need the break today.
I tried to get a cell phone yesterday, but it appears both Orange et Bouyges require me to have a local bank first. So I need to get started now on opening a French bank account :>/
The friend I'm staying with here suggested we could get started using her bank, which I might do, and then once my personal bank account process is complete and I have my own check card and checks (probably once we start teaching in October), then I could switch all the information over to my own personal account.
I'm getting very excited! I purchased my 12-25 card yesterday at Gare de l'Est, so I'll be getting into buying my rail tickets to/from Munich later this week!
A+ tte le monde!
Victoria