French women don't sweat

...or so it would seem. It occurred to me today, in my daily trip to the gym, that this is a phenomenon I have yet to really see. The gym is not particularly well-regulated in terms of temperature, meaning that I sweat profusely when I am working out (lovely topic of conversation, I know...). The French women, however, seem to rarely break a sweat. Maybe once in a while. And they all wear long pants. I, on the hand, am there in my mesh shorts, dripping all over the place like nobody's business. I can't honestly be working that much harder than all of them. Perhaps they put antiperspirant all over their bodies?

On to less disgusting matters.

Last night I made pancakes for two of my French housemates. The concept is not entirely foreign to them - after all, this is the nation that invented crèpes - but they had never eaten actual, American-style pancakes. They had also never eaten maple syrup. Not only was it wonderful for me to eat pancakes for the first time in, oh, 3 months, it was great to see their expressions. Seventh heaven. Watching them eat was also entertaining, as they are not entirely sure of how a pancake is supposed to be eaten. Crèpes of the savory variety are usually eaten with fork and knife, while the sweet kind are eaten either the same way (if there is a lot of filling) or simply rolled up and eaten with the hands. They kept cutting their pancakes neatly in half, holding them up to eye level and very carefully pouring small amounts of maple syrup on. In the end, they preferred eating them with Nutella or jam, declaring the maple flavor slightly odd. When I sat down to eat my pancakes and poured liberal amounts of syrup on before cutting them haphazardly with my fork, they both said "Oh, THAT'S how you eat a pancake. I'll have to try that next time."

We shall see how my experiments of introducing them to American food go. They were not fans of the idea of Tex-Mex. I think what mostly grossed them out was the color that guacamole, salsa and chili made when mixed together. Understandable, I suppose. Next lesson: Thanksgiving foods.