Buffet or Dance Club?

Friday was my host dad, Jean-Paul's, birthday. The family didn't do much on the day, it was the end of the week and everyone was pretty tired, but Pascal, my new host mom, planned a surprise dinner for last night...and it was quite a surprise :)

First off she arranged everything so that all of us kids would be out of the house when Jean-Paul got home from work so she could ask him to go out to dinner "just them two." So in the afternoon she drove Estelle, my little host sister who is 11, and me to her sister's house where we were to stay until 7:30 when we would go to the restaurant and set up for the surprise. What a fun way to spend my Saturday afternoon (no sarcasm there) Pascal's sister has three daughters, the oldest of which spent last year in Longbeach, CA! It was really fun to get to talk to her in English and French (when other people were in the room we switched to French so we wouldn't be rude) it was funny to hear some of the things that she noticed about the US and what things she missed, we also Skyped with the boy from Longbeach that she lived with who lived with her family in Belgium the year before and is now spending a year in Germany, confusing enough haha? Needless to say it was a good afternoon.

By the time we finally got to the restaurant, China Garden, I was starving and unfortunately it was a buffet. So while we were getting everything set up and waiting for Pascal and Jean-Paul to arrive I was being tortured by the tantalizing sight and smell of delicious Chinese food! But, in the end it was worth the wait, Jean-Paul was (I would say) pleasantly surprised and everyone was smiling and laughing and the evening was off to a great start :)

I expected to stay for a few hours until everyone had had their fill of food and conversation but this time I was the one who was surprised. After we'd gone back for seconds...and then dessert, the turned off the overhead lights, turned on some strobe lights and brought in a DJ! WHAT? It's like Chinese buffet by day dance club by night? There was a dance floor cleared around the speakers and soon it was packed with almost everyone in the restaurant. We ended up staying until 1 am and everyone had a great time.

I'm really happy here in my new home, my French is picking up, I'm becoming more integrated...I think I'm gettin to the real good stuff :P