"and I was like... and she was like... and like..." and ketchup with pasta???

Anyone who knows me knows that I use certain "filler" words too much, worst of all, the word "like". I'm not talking about the word in the sense of "I like to read" or "She looks like her mother". I'm talking about the infamous "valspeak" as in "I was like I can't believe that like happened". You all know what I mean.

Out of boredom this afternoon, Roxy and I wanted to see how long I could go without saying the word "like" unless it was in its real intended meaning. We would start out small. I only had to make it to the 7pm dinner (it was 6:20 at that point). Let's just say... the first time, I lasted less than two minutes. The longest I lasted? 7 minutes and that was hard! Most of the time, I only lasted between 30 seconds and two minutes. And this was with making a conscious effort to not say the word! You can only imagine how I sound normally! I guess there's no hope for me. In my defense, there was recently an article on BBC Learning English that talks about the infiltration of the word in the anglophone world. British English has not been spared. Roxy is almost as bad as I am!

My classes have been fine so far this week. I liked the new BTS class though the new student and D. weren't there. D. arrived yesterday afternoon after classes. The little alcoholic was having a few beers at La Rotonde fresh off the train. My other classes have ranged from "Oh my god, have these students not learned any English ever?" to "How did we go from discussing GM foods to elves, leprechauns, gnomes, trolls, and other mythical creatures and how they differ?".

Besides being a little too curious about my personal life and the time I spend with C. (seriously, I am going to need to make a PSA on that), I've had some good conversations with the surveillants these past two nights. Tonight, A. invited himself along for Roxy's birthday before realizing he already had plans. We didn't invite him, but in any case, he would have been more than welcome. Though I think he secretly wanted to be able to brag to C. about it, because they have their foolish competition.

And a question for the Americans... do you eat pasta (or rice even) with ketchup? I have been constantly yelling at the Frenchies that "ca se fait pas" (that isn't done) and since I'm American and we invented it, I'm right. M. started whining last night about how he wanted ketchup for his pasta. Finally, Sn. backed me up on the fact that it's weird. And then tonight, A. of course brought up his love to put ketchup on everything (especially pasta). Sn. and I started laughing. A. looked confused but then rolled his eyes, because I have already told him several times that it's disgusting.

Tomorrow, Emily arrives in Chauny! Yay! I cannot wait! Roxy and I are also attempting another dessert in the afternoon. We shall see how it turns out! We're making some weird version of Puppy Chow/Muddy Buddies (I say weird, because Chex cereal and anything similar does not exist here). I just wanted to do something that didn't include marshmallows. Then, on Friday, my undergrad French prof arrives in Paris. She's doing her sabbatical here. It'll be nice to meet up with her.