Fortunate.

I was granted an extraordinary opportunity to stay in a French household during my visit.

People noted, "Think of the money you'll save!" Well, sure there's that, but think about the educational value! That's really what interests me coming from a sociology background. How they eat, shop, and interact with one another. "Just like any other family," people guessed. But what does that mean? My family isn't like yours or the family next door. We are all unique creatures. How could a "typical" American family be anything like a French one, if differences in customs and infrastructure are so apparent? That seems to be the point of traveling, isn't it?

The family I stayed with live in a 3 bedroom flat with a kitchen and bathroom, in a Paris suburb. A married couple. For six months out of the year three additional family members join the unit. Add my friend and I, and you can imagine it was a bit strained and cramped but we got along just fine. They were always very welcoming and friendly with me despite the displacement and our language barriers.

They self-identify as "French Chinese" (compare: I would describe myself as "Japanese American" with origin first and no hyphen) and the entire experience was a full-immersion Mandarin/French language program. Believe it or not, I did not and still do not know a word of Mandarin, yet when it was spoken to me, I was able to piece things together. Facial expression, eye contact, gesturing, tone—all these things acted as clues. As for the French, I didn't learn grammar so much as improve my pronunciation and vocabulary. Kinije was better at parsing a sentence. Our strengths paired together in real world situations gave us some confidence.

The main room. I spent many late evenings here, watching television with my hosts and constantly being offered small cups of tea and snacks.

They preferred us to join for dinner every evening. Uncle's homecooked Chinese food—he used to be a chef and owned his own restaurant before retirement. We passed the old storefront one evening, just down the road in suburban Paris. Huge portions, nice spreads. Unbelievable generosity.

Our host is often the only drinker in the house and usually forgoes the wine but having two American imbibers inspired him to uncork delicious reds every night.

His sister works within the wine industry, or cognac, to be more precise. After dinner we would be treated to a tasting of cognac or calvados. Either a brandy or a whisky. Sometimes we'd compare. This was a lot of fun and was usually when our conversations would flourish.

Wouldn't you like to sit here and read the paper? So nice. Forever indebted to this kind family.