The Honeymoon Stage of Studying Abroad

In our pre-study abroad orientation, they talked about the honeymoon stage of studying abroad.  This is when you first get to the new region and everything seems adorable (but will later drive you insane).  I was totally prepared for this stage of studying abroad - I was even fairly certain I would be here for the entire duration of my program.

But I got over that real quick.  Because of gelato.

One of my favorite things about France is that there is a boulangerie everywhere you look with window displays of all different kinds of breads and macaroons.  And then today at 2:00 I realized I was hungry.  And I really wanted a baguette avec fromage et jambon.  But that meant not only would I have to get out of bed, I would have to walk to one of those stupid boulangeries.  And I'd probably have to walk to a few just to make sure I had chosen the one with the best baguettes.

So I decided to stay in bed.  And because I didn't have anything better to do (because I didn't want to get out of bed), I read.  A whole book.  And then I beat 10 levels on the Bejeweled game on my French phone.  And then I read half of another book.

At this point I was starving.  But it was 5:30, and if I left now for lunch it would be dark before I could get back home.  Plus, we eat dinner at 8:00, so if I could just hold out until then I would be golden.

So I set an alarm on my phone and decided to take a nap (doing nothing all day is exhausting).

But I woke up 30 minutes later.  Go figure.  I have 3 hours to kill and for the first time in my life I take a short nap.

I read a little more and then decided to head downstairs and spend some time practicing French while waiting for dinner.

Lucky for me, dinner was ready early and I thought, "I'm being silly.  Studying abroad is still awesome even if there isn't always food in the fridge and you have to walk two steps to get bread.  I mean, life in France is still pretty great."

But then I asked my host mom's daughter (my host sister?) where to buy the best gelato.  And you know what she said?

"What's gelato?"

WHAT'S GELATO?! You live two hours from Italy and you don't know what gelato is?! My roommate and I explained it to her and she said, "Oh, you mean like Häagen-Dazs?"

No, I did not mean Häagen-Dazs.  America has even ruined gelato.  She then apologized because you can not buy gelato in Lyon.

I started thinking really fast at this point. "If there is no gelato in Lyon, am I just going to have to start taking the train to Paris every weekend? Or should I just head over to Italy every time I want gelato?  Do I even want to stay here if I can't get gelato? Do I have to buy a plane ticket home now?"

I mean, I was really worried.  But then Google came to the rescue.  And you know what I found?  Rene Nardone, which is only 0,6 km from my apartment.  Reviews even claim it is better than Italian gelato.  But most importantly was this little tidbit of information - "They had a wide variety of flavors that were refreshingly original - madeleine, speculoos..."

Ahh, speculoos.  The world has been made right again with speculoos flavored gelato.

I don't know what it's like to actually be in love, but if I had to guess I would say it's the way I feel about speculoos gelato.  And I may no longer be in the honeymoon stage with Lyon, but speculoos and I are most certainly on a honeymoon.

And probably will be until death do us part.

When Speculoos and I first met - it was love at first taste.