Day 21: Where I learn to eat watermelon like a dog, and try octopus

Sunday 9 July 2017

Katrina and I went to the LDS church in Lyon which was very much like the church in Grenoble. What is of note, is that we were running late so I just grabbed some bread on our way out and ate it on the Metro. This seems to have been a faux pas on my part. A woman on the Metro asked if she could have a piece of my bread. It took me a minute to figure out what she was asking. When I did, I held out the whole thing to her, but then she wouldn’t take it. When I stopped to think about it, I realized that I never saw anyone eating in public unless they were sitting down at a restaurant. The French do really value slowing down and having a meal, so I started to wonder if it was considered rude to eat on the Metro.

Can you spot the lizard?

After church we took the wrong bridge and it took us twice as long to meet up with Kayla. When we did all connect again we ended up at the open air market and we were starving. I still hadn’t had any fresh fruit and watermelon was looking really good at the moment, but I had no knife or plate to eat it with. A couple minutes later we passed watermelon again and Katrina said it looked so good. It wasn’t a whole watermelon, but it was a big chunk, cut like a boat. I jumped at the opportunity and offered to share it with her, thinking that we would be able to break it in half. Katrina agreed. Our attempts to break it in half failed as it was just too thick. Sweating in the heat, craving this cool fruit, we just decided to eat it like dogs. I mean, really like dogs, taking turns, biting big chunks out, getting watermelon juice all over our faces, and enjoying every minute. You know you’ve made a friend when they don’t mind sharing a watermelon with you sans silverware.

After the market we caught a bus back to Grenoble. Once there I had to wait almost three hours for my bus back to Montbonnot because of the limited weekend service. On the way home I discovered these little lizards scurrying off the pavement into the bushes as I walked by.

Once home I was surprised to find that Helene was serving octopus for dinner. Never have I eaten octopus before, but I didn’t want to be rude as Helene goes to all the trouble of cooking for me every night, so I’ve learned to close my eyes and just take a bite. They didn’t taste bad. The flavor was fresh and if I didn’t say the word octopus in my head when I ate them, they were kind of good.

It's a little difficult to see with the rice, but yes, there are tentacles in there.