So many events, so little internet

I am so content, it's not even funny. I have found the cafe of my dreams, a place called Raconte moi la terre. It's a fair trade cafe on top of a travel bookstore. Not only does it have free, and more importantly, functioning WIFI, it has peanut butter! I am not too pleased that I just payed 2euros for an ounce of coffee (what is UP with that? i'm all for moderation but really) but nonetheless, this means that I will soon be able to sit down and write a real entry before I forget all these crazy things that have been happening to me. For now, I will just offer this little rant I wrote the other day, about McDonald's.

Something very bad has happened- my internet has ceased to work. Entirely. I can now only get access in McDonalds. I go there every day now, sometimes twice a day. You may think that’s because I’m an internet addict. That’s partly true, but it’s mostly because I also have yet to get my French SIM card working, thus the internet is my primary mode of communication.

I just realized that that first paragraph was written rather tersely, reflecting all too well my sense of withdrawal.

As much as the French like to make fun of McDonalds as the emblem of shitty American cuisine, they sure don’t seem to mind it! At lunch time the place is packed and it’s definitely not just foreigners. If my ears are working correctly (and here, I can never be certain they are) I do believe that the voices humming around me as I crouch over my laptop are those of native speakers. But while the country has more or less succumed to the golden arches, it still won’t let its language anywhere near atrocities such as chicken nuggets. And there is no way in hell it is calling those yellow plastic squares we put on our hamburgers “fromage.” I can’t say I blame them, myself feeling that McDonald’s is terrible on many levels. I can understand this sort of reticence in a country where good food isn’t just valued, but practically held sacred. The French won’t go so far as to reject McDonald’s entirely, so long as one remembers that the food is absolutely not French.

All the same, it makes ordering quite awkward for an American gal such as myself. Do I really need to pronounce Chicken McNuggets in a French accent? I tried this the other day and ended up sounding like a drunk Scottish person. Another challenge was keeping a straight face while asking for a Croque McDo. All the while, I’m feeling as though the people there must think I’m some nostalgic American, ungrateful and ignorant about France’s great cuisine. I want to say je suis ici uniquement pour le WIFI but that will probably just pique, rather than placate, their suspicions. Moreover, I’d be insulting them. You can’t win! Really though, I have to say that McDonald’s is about the one place I can count on for friendly service. And even if it makes me a terrible person, I do kinda like those fries…