Everything Must Come to an End

Holidays are now over wahhh. It is Sunday night, and I am sitting in my room. I feel sad right now, but all good things must come to an end. One pro is I don’t have to wake up (as) early tomorrow because no school for the boy, so instead of 6:30am I will wake up at like 7:45am, but I can’t go to Paris tomorrow like I intended… oh well.

Anyway to recap the rest of my lovely break…

On Wednesday I met up with Kendall, and we went to the pet cemetery for another try. It was open this time thankfully. It was pretty cool. An average cemetery with a pet spin to everything. A lot of the graves had pictures of the animals, which was cool to see. There was a monkey in there, but we couldn’t find it, but we did find a horse. Also there were live cats who lived there, and I made friends with one and pet him for a while.

Then we rendez-voued to Montparnasse, the only skyscraper in actual Paris. It is a sore-thumb of a building, but this is also good because for a fee you can go up and get an incredible view of the city. It was great, although pretty cloudy, which adds to the general white and beigness of the city. American cities are gray, while here it is beige, so it is just different. We chatted a bit watching the view, then got a crepe down below and headed to La Défense. Kendall needed headphones, and I had nothing better to do. The mall there was uber crowded; it always is, it is like holiday shopping season every day there—or for any mall here for that matter. Parisians like to SHOP. So we left pretty quickly and went our separate ways.

Trying to remember what I did after that. Hmm I probably just went back to the apartment and hung out there until the boys got back from work and just stayed in that night.

Thursday, I met up with Meghan in le Marais We went to an American grocery store called Thanksgiving, and it was great! A store dedicated to the American brands I know and love. It is so sad how advertising gets in your head because I literally miss seeing American brands every day and seeing them Thursday just felt like home a little bit. The prices were crazy though. 12 euros for cereal—Lucky Charms, Reeses Puffs, etc. 9 euro 50 for a big thing of peanut butter, Betty Crocker easy to make cake mixes, Rainbow chip icing!, pancake mix, syrop, candy corn, French’s honey mustard. I bought the mustard and a box of Kraft Mac and Cheese! Meghan bought corn bread mix, candy corn, and stuff to make pumpkin pie. Then we shopped around and found vintage stores. She bought a skirt; I bought nothing. Then Paige called and we met up with her and sat in Starbucks for a good two hours or so.

Paige came back to the apartment with me for a bit, and we watched some Disney channel in English while going to a Laundromat to do Jerome’s laundry as a favor for him. Operating those machines is tricky, but the guy was helpful and we communicated in French too. Paige then left at some point to see a friend, and I continued doing laundry. Jerome got back as I was finishing up folding everything. I was happy to do it for him since he was letting me stay at his place for like ten days; it was the least I could do. We just hang out enjoying each other’s company until bedtime; I don’t think Vincent got home till later than usual, so it was nice to have some alone time.

Friday…hmm… all these days just morph together. Oh, I met up with Paige at the Palais de Tokyo; a contemporary art museum. However it wasn’t free, so I wasn’t up for it. Most museums are free for students here, so I’m not gonna go if I have to pay. We then sat for a while figuring out the next plan, and eventually decided to go to the Bêtes de Sexe (Beasts of Sex) expo at Palais Découverte. The expo was all about animals and sex; it was fabulous, and I really enjoyed it. It was just all about the different ways the animal kingdom has sex and the behavioral patterns; it was so interesting. There was videos could watch of animals actually having sex, them fighting for mates, and then taking care of babies. There were a lot of kids there surprisingly! One school group was just watching monkeys have sex on the video, and they were just laughing. It was awkward and weird… we don’t bring kids to that type of thing in America, but the French are more open about it here. Just a difference in culture.

I wanted a chill day afterwards, so Paige and I headed back to the apartment and bought some food on the way. We went to a Carrefour, and I bought peanut butter, sweet (hope it is like kettle corn popcorn) popcorn, wine, and bread, and Paige bought some kernels to make home-made popcorn. So we made the home-made popcorn when we got home, which was delicious and watched the extended version of the Two Towers. Ever since that LOTR event I went to, I want to finish the series, so hopefully I can watch the third one soon. It was a lot watching 3.5 hours of film, but I carried through! Paige then left, and (don’t really remember… oh yea), I waited for Jérome to get home and we went out.

We met up at some apartment to see some of his friends from high school and his first college. I am weary of party situations with all French because it is difficult, but the night was very nice. We pre-gamed at some apartment, and I got to know some of the people, and then we left to Grands Boulevards; always a solid choice for going out here.

We went to two bars total that were good atmospheres with dance floors and all. Jerome’s friends definitely opened up more when they were drunk, and I appreciated that that actually hung out with me. Jerome and I headed home around 2:30am and took a taxi back, however, we forgot the keys, so Jerome had to call and wake up Vincent for him to let us in, which was not good because Vincent had work the next day. We felt really bad, and Jerome was hell bent on making Vincent breakfast the next morning.

Jerome ended up doing all the work the next morning for breakfast, but I stayed awake at least (we had to wake up early) as support I guess. We then went back to sleep to get some more snoozing time and enjoyed a nice mid-morning together. Then we went to Chatelet for some lunch at some classis Parisian restaurant, and I ordered the same thing I ordered when I went out with Nico some days before—tagliatelle (pasta) with salmon and crème fraiche sauce; it is very yummy. Then we went to Rousseau’s place, so Jerome could meet up with SKEMA people for a one night get-away with his friends. They were all going to one of the people’s parent’s house outside the city. Apparently I was invited, but Jerome wanted some time with just him and his friends, which is understandable.

After I said bye, I met up with Paige and one of her friends visiting from Holland. We went to the apartment, so Paige could get some stuff she left last time. I didn’t really wanna be alone at the apartment, so I tagged along with them to go up Arc de Triomphe, which I learned was free for students! I always thought it cost money, so I didn’t do it. However when we got there, it was pouring rain, and I didn’t have an umbrella so I peaced out back to the apartment pretty quickly. When I got back, I just texted some girls to finalize some going out plans, took a shower, got ready, and left to meet up with Clare and some of her friends.

Clare talked about some bar with 5 euro cocktail pint drinks, so we went there, but it was closed! On a Saturday night? So weird. So then we took the metro and went somewhere else and got a table and split like 3 bottles of wine; meanwhile Kendall met up with us. After the three bottles, we left to another cool bar (a metro ride away). Apparently it was an old hotel, but it was very spacious and had a safari jungle theme to it kinda. I was kinda drunk, so I can’t really describe it, but it was a cool atmosphere.  Vincent and his friends met up while we were there, and then we left because the bar was closing. After walking a long time, we finally got to the next place, but it was closing when we arrived! Bad luck. So we walked somewhere else (mind you it is cold!), and it had a long line and was like a gay night, so we gave up on that. Then walked some more and finally just gave up. We got crepes and hailed a taxi home; it is hard finding a taxi here too by the way.

Clare and Kendall stayed with me on the futon that night… we just talked a little before bed and hit the sack all bundled up sharing the futon. Ten minutes after we went to bed, Jerome called me drunk asking how my night was and saying he loved me, which was sweet, although, the call randomly dropped for some reason after a minute or so, so I just went to sleep.

This morning we woke up at ten, and the girls went home soon after that. I then watched an episode of Dexter and took a shower, and then slowly packed all my stuff throughout the day. I got home at 4:30pm, so I could do some laundry, which I could have come home later because I can’t go to Paris tomorrow since the boy doesn’t have school, so I coulda just done laundry tomorrow, but oh well. My clothes really needed a wash after two weeks of repeatedly wearing the same stuff over and over again.

It was kinda weird being back. I feel like I forget how to do everything and manage everything, but I am sure it will come back soon (I hope). I am sad holidays are over, but only 6 weeks till Xmas holidays at least! I booked my flight to Nice because I am spending Xmas with Jérome’s family; I don’t know if I mentioned that. I will be gone from Dec 23-27, and then I plan to spend all my time with Rebecca because she will be in Paris over winter break to visit her parents and brother. I haven’t seen her in a year (she studied abroad), so I am really excited. She will be here in a like a month!

I also think I failed to mention what I am doing during my March break…. MEXICO!! Heck yeah!! I am SOOO excited for this. My mom was gonna come here, but for various reasons, we decided Mexico instead. After a winter in Paris, I will be READY for some Mexico. I am going for like nine days with my mom and brother, and we will stay in my mom’s friend’s rental home. I went there when I was 16, and it was a great trip, so I expect nothing less this time. I am trying to get Elizabeth to join me too, so fingers crossed for that! I just want it to be March right now! I am very excited for this. I can’t even begin to describe it.