Pain of Chocolat

Oh, American's can never resist a deal. Even if it's a ridiculous one.
During a walk through Centre Ville, Brian from Kansas noticed in a bakers window, that a single pain au chocolate was priced at 0.49€. And that a small sign nearby, neatly situated among the neatly piled stacks of sweets, listed three for 1€ and six for 2€. He stayed true to the other red, white and blue and traded a coin for all six, without hesitation. Pain au Chocolat, a pastry with the same consistency as a croissant only filled with just the right amount of creamy cocoa, is a popular french delicacy that I fell in love with during my first week abroad. Only, after today, I think I'm done with them for awhile.

After death by (pain au) chocolat, I still had some time before my first class of the day, so a group of us headed to a nearby cafe for some coffee. I love French coffee with my whole heart and soul, but I still have some issues with the stuff. Even the largest cup of coffee available to customers here is very, very tiny. It's because 1.) generally, portion sizes are very different and 2.) the amount you are given generally gets the job done.
It's the same amount of caffeine that you get in your grande or venti back home, but instead, it's straight to the point. At Caribou, Kaya or Biggby, it can take me between 20 and 25 minutes to reach the end. It's a full out activity! It's more time to taste it, to talk. I love a bottomless cup of joe, not this "Wham! Bam! Thank you ma'am!" sort of philosophy.
I had more. More than a should have. The end result was a hand that would not stop clicking a pen, a foot in a constant "mashed potato"-like motion and a near anxiety attack. That was hours ago and I'm still very much ALIVE AWAKE ALERT ENTHUSIASTIC. Yikes.

The other day, while I was in my room, Christophe said there was a guy here to see me. When I went to see who it was, it was a person who I didn't know, but looked vaguely familiar. His name was Wayne and he was an american who lived with Madame in 2006. He had a week of vacation and because he is in the army, his round trip flight was free, so it was easy to come back to visit.
He came upstairs to introduce himself and ask if I would mind him coming along for my birthday dinner this Saturday. It bothered me for a few minutes and I didn't want to say anything, for fear of being wrong, but I was sure that I had met him before. Suddenly it came to me.
We had a class together. He helped me pass Geology Lab over two years ago. Our teacher was impossible to understand, she was from Chile and it was the first time she was teaching in English. I didn't understand the science lingo in my book either and one day, in complete panic, asked this soldier in my class for help. He sat nearby and seemed like he knew what he was doing. He did and I got by with a B. It's. a. small. world. after. all.