Weekend

I never know where to start the blog after my weekend, so much to say. But on Friday I had class as usual, and then ate lunch with Clare and Meghan. We have found a sort of park area near the Arc de Triomphe, but there’s lots of traffic, so it isn’t really peaceful, but there’s benches at least! I made plans to see Clare later that night and then headed home. On Fridays, all I have to do is pick up the kids, but the dad offered to pick up the girl, so Friday afternoon was super chill. I did last minute ironing, packing, and eating the rest of my île de flottante. I got the 7:30pm train and headed straight to Chatelet to have dinner and drinks with Nico and Clare. It was kinda rainy, but we found a restaurant soon enough. I was the only one to eat; I got spaghetti carbonera, which was very good and then cherry beers for drink.

Clare left earlyish to catch the RER back home, and me and Nico found another bar and split a bottle of wine. We had a deep discussion about God, which was nice. We went home around 1am though to catch the last metro. It worked out perfectly timing wise because I had to coordinate to get home at the same time as Jérôme to get inside his apartment, and I only had to wait three minutes. We went straight to bed because he had work the next morning.

The next morning, I relaxed after waking up while the boys got ready for work. When they left, I slept and watched some shows. I made plans to meet Meghan at Hôtel de Ville to see an exposition on how Hollywood sees Paris, which was interesting. The room was full of posters and pieces from movies, and it had a big screen playing movies set in Paris (a lot of old movies I didn’t recognize, but they had The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Ratatouille).

Then we got Chinese food. When we ordered, I knew the guy would get it wrong somehow (speaking French to a Chinese person equals bad combination), and I was right. Instead of une carafe d’eau (water), we got une carafe du vin (wine—yeah buddy). Although, I was worried how much this would cost us, but it was only 7 euros, which split was 3 euro 50. Not bad! We then went to Forum les Halles, a mall, that I thought had cool stuff to do, but it was so big and crowded, we couldn’t find the non-mall stuff really. I was feeling tired from the wine, so I just headed home (first to Jérôme’s work to get his key) because I just wanted to relax and be lazy.

Vincent was there, so we hung out and watched our own TV shows. Watching French shows does nothing for me really haha. I then went to the grocery store to get food and cooked tortellini. I always make that there because it is easy and cheap, and a lot of the stuff in the grocery store, I don’t know what it is, so I just stick to tortellini. Jérôme came home eventually, and then we all went to Nico’s to see the Raleigh crew for a night out with them.

I had fun at the party, but it is hard being around all French people. It is inevitable that sitting alone will happen, and I am aware of this and know what I am getting into, but it is still hard. I am used to just talking to anyone at a party, but bringing French into the equation takes away all my confidence because it is so much of a struggle to speak and maintain a flowing conversation.

Eventually they all wanted to go to a club (Memphis—where I have been before), and I was all over it. I hadn’t really drank so much, so I started downing drinks to be on the necessary level for a club. We took a metro and then walked a bit and finally got there. We had to wait in line for a while, but I spent time using a bar’s bathroom (asking in French for it), chatting in French to Nico’s sister, and drinking a beer. I was pretty drunk upon entering the bar and spent time using the bathroom and finding a place to put my purse. It is cool here because clubs have places where you pay like2 euros and they’ll hold your coats and bags for you; very convenient. By the time I did all that, I got another dink, and then my memory is hazy. I remember dancing a bit in the club, then standing against a wall outside, then taking a cab home, and eventually going to bed. So it ended up being an early night unfortunately.

The next day, I didn’t feel too good obviously. I slept until like 1pm then the boys and I went to McDonald’s (I hate that I am admitting this), then to see Taken 2. It was a decent enough movie. Then Jérôme and I went to a cupcake shop! How American, but it was great. We got six little cupcakes, and then walked to the Seine near Note Dame and sat their tasting the cupcakes and talking. We watched the sunset too. It was a very nice evening; it was one of these moments that reminds me why I moved to Paris (not that I need reminding).

Then I took my train home and headed for bed. The next day (today), I didn’t go to class (pointless to travel 3 hours for a 1.5 hour class), and made plans with Kindall and Clare to go to the Luxembourg Gardens. They are absolutely beautiful. We just sat chatting for like 2 hours in the warm, warm sun. Today was GORGEOUS. It was sunny, not a cloud in the sky (so rare here), and warm—like 70 degrees. Why can’t every day be like today?!

Then we went our separate ways, and I headed to have lunch with Jérôme, which is always nice. I then bought a backpack and duffel bag from his store to use for this upcoming 2 week holiday. When I got home, I did my usual thing driving around. I was literally on empty for the gas tank, and was so afraid I’d run out, but the dad put in a little spare gas from the house for me. I asked him to fill up the tank tonight, but I don’t think he wanted to do because he said I would be fine for tomorrow. Whatevs.

Currently, I am looking up wine tours for Burgundy. They are kinda expensive uhg, but it’s definitely happening! I also looked up cool stuff to do in Paris, and there is a pet cemetery outside the city! Kinda cool, I def want to go because it has cool statues of animals! There is also a meetup this weekend for a wax museum I want go to. AND there is a restaurant where you can dine in the dark, which sounds incredibly cool! So in essence, there is a lot of stuff I need to get cracking on!