Yesterday Florian and I had a very nice dinner at home. We had olives to start, followed by foie gras, duck with potatoes for the main course, and for dessert we split a pear tart. We had a bottle of red wine from 2006, because 3 years ago from yesterday I started going out with Florian.
So how we met: The PG version because I know my mom reads this
My friend Courtney got a job being a resident adviser during the summer at our university in California. Apparently the office made a mistake, and gave her a house full of ONLY French boys as our university did an exchange program with a French computer engineering school for 3 and a half weeks. At the time I was a psychology major, had never been to France, never learned French, and knew nothing about the French culture. But seriously, when your best friend has a house full of 25 French guys all to herself, you expect her to share, right? Anyways, Courtney planned to take her guys out to a club. I went along with one of our friends named Gina
I drove Florian and two other guys to the club. He was sitting in the middle seat in the back. He was trying to speak in English, and then got frustrated and spoke in French (Man French sounded so much better when I didn’t know what people were saying!) . But in his broken English he said something along the lines of “I could write a book about compensation” and “I want to communicate with you!” It was cute, he was trying.
So we got the the club, and the boys starting drinking ( I didn’t obviously because of the whole driving thing). We started dancing, and if you’ve been to a club in California you know that the style is…more risque. Shocking to our little group of French conservative men, but hey, we weren’t in France. He told me this later, but Flo wanted to learn to dance “like an American” so he went up to these two black guys and asked them to teach him out to dance. Seriously, I can imagine him in his broken English saying “Hello, I am French and I want to learn how to dance with that girl.” I’m also happy he didn’t get punched in the face.
In France, clubs close around 5am. So most of the guys were pretty “tipsy” when the club closed at two, because they thought they would have more time. We were trying to round up the guys, but we were missing one guy named Kevin. We we two drivers down because they decided to drink, so I had to make two trips to get all the French guys. On my second trip back, they had found kevin, but he had gotten into a fight with another guy at the bar and he was either punched or kicked in the mouth (Ok so the club was in Santa Anna, not really the best neighborhood). One of our guy friends drove Kevin back to the house, and about 10 minutes after I dropped off the last of the Frenchies I got a call from Gina asking me to come back. Apparently the French boys had called the police for Kevin, and Courtney had disappeared. So I went back, and soon afterward the police showed up, and Florian and another guy came up to me and asked “Should we make the police coffee?” I, being sober and speaking fluent English, had to give the Police report. Courtney forever owes me for this. The police couldn’t really do anything, except tell us to take Kevin to the E.R. Courtney finally reappeared and had locked herself out of her room, so she came to the ER with us in a sweater and pj shorts. Flo came with us and we stayed at the hospital until 8 am.
Afterward I drove us all back to the house, and I was so exhausted that Courtney let me sleep in her room before driving back to my place. I woke up and Florian was making scrambled eggs with the other guys, and he offered to make some for me. Seriously, I think I was so hungry and so tried that those were by far the best scrambled eggs I have ever had. Florian wanted to know when I was coming back, so I told him I would return later that night after I went home for a few hours. Jump forward a few hours, and I come back and Florian comes up to me and kisses me on the check (Remember, I’m American, it’s very weird when people kiss you on the check. I thought he was being really forward, lol). We went to the beach and walked on the sand, and for the rest of the time we did everything together.
He left, but told me he would come back after Christmas. I thought he was crazy (Dude, you live in FRANCE!) so a month before he came I told him we wouldn’t work out. He already bought his ticket, so I let him come. I avoided my parents for a good two weeks while Florian was staying with me. But we had so much fun when he came! He brought confit de canard (Duck), foie gras, and two bottles of champagne, seriously I had never had anything so good. I took him to Vegas and we drank margaritas and I told him to take me to Paris (And he did, and then we went down the street to New York and some other hotels on the strip). I took him all over California. I had a beachfront apartment in Newport, so at sunset we could drink wine on the porch and chill. When he had to leave again, it was so sad and I just couldn’t give him up. I got a call from my dad that same day, which I let go to voice mail, which said “If you don’t call now I am coming down to your apartment and will be there in 30 minutes.” At which point I called and confessed that I had been hiding a French boy at my apartment and I had to take him to the airport. The only thing my dad was pissed off about was that we drank the champagne without him. Florian came back two months later for a month. And that point I had finished pretty much all the classes I need to graduate, so I decided to take a semester off to study in Paris.
Things that have changed in the last 3 years:
- My university has made it a rule that the RA’s are not allowed to date the French boys and Courtney has gone down as a legend of the “Girl who had her resident kicked in the face.” However, she has now been married for almost a year to her Frenchie.
- Florian’s English is really, really good. French doesn’t sound as pretty to me, but I can understand it! I’ve learned a second language.
- The wine and the food I have been exposed to would blow your mind.
- I have grown so much. I studied in Paris and really grew during the first 5 months trying to adjust to life here. I graduated, came back to teach English, and soon I will be starting grad school here. It’s been almost a year since I have been living her continuously. I’ve learned to become a much more relaxed and positive person.
- Florian and I have become so much closer. Like, drinking wine trying to communicate in broken English is cute and all, but when you are trying to figure out how to get pacsed or put ikea furniture together or other daily living together stuff, that what matters. Throughout this whole new chapter in my life, Flo has been that constant element when everything became so different. These last three years have been…I don’t even know how to describe the ups and the downs…but I’m so glad that this is where my life is.