Mandela and Vending Machines

I'd like to start off saying that I think I just found my new motto.

"If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart."

Nelson Mandela

(Thank you, Mom, who forwarded this to me via e-mail!)

By the way, isn't it cool that South Africa just got done celebrating the 20th anniversary of his liberation. Now they're getting ready for the World Cup being hosted in their country. It is just South Africa's year I think with one significant thing after another!

I wish I could say I have anything significant going on. Really, I'm just getting ready for my first two day trip this weekend. Day 1, I'll be in Chenonceaux, and Day 2, I'll be Amboise. I choose these two places because...

1) They have very significant chateaus and pretty ones at that. Chenonceaux was home to more grands dames than I can think of right now and Amboise is the resting place of Leonardo Da Vinci.

2) They are super, super easy to reach with just a train and a pair of feet. Also they rest in small towns that have a lot of charming stores, hotels, B&Bs, and restaurants.

I was considering adding the city of Tours to my list and use it as a headquarters because almost all chateaus have roads and/or tracks that lead to Tours. However, after consideration that there is way to much in Tours to fit in fairly during a weekend like this, I decided to ditch it and spend the night in Chenonceaux.

Let's hope it goes well.

Moving on to another subject, I've been collecting more and more American things in France. Some may be surprising, others not. For instance, these are the vending machines in the main lobby of the building where CIDEF is located.

To students like me outside of France, if you want the cheapest prices for soda, snacks, coffee, whatever, it would be at the school's vending machines. As a general rule, ANYTHING that is meant to be targeted to a student audience is cheaper. For instance, the cheapest, biggest meal you can get is with the university cafeterias doted around Angers. However, note that the reason it is the cheapest and the biggest is that it is governement subsidized. Truely, I have noted, government food is governement food whether in the U.S. or France. Go in ready for an adventure each time because it could be pretty good or a plain mystery. I haven't gotten sick yet though!

I found this in Le Point which is basically the French Newsweek or Time. This would be an ad for their Fillet-O-Fish or as they call it in France,....Fillet-O-Fish. (Insert laugh at my own joke here.) In case you're curious, this ad claims that all Fillet-O-Fish's in France are made with fish that is 100% wild caught.

This next photo is courtesy of the cute Thai boy I mentioned in one post. He says his name is just too complicated to anyone who isn't Thai so he has everyone call him A. You say is just like the English pronunciation of "A." Super, super easy. He has been studying the whole year so this is actually his second semester. He and his family live in downtown Bangkok where his parents own a top-of-the-line fashion store (I need to take a picture of him because he LOOKS like the kid of fashion store owners). Anyway, he says he is a Starbucks addict because they are everywhere back home and found this so of course had to get it. Can I call this an American thing from France and Thailand, then?