I decided it was time for a sushi night. And believe me, I went ALL out. But first, this meant I had to get the ingredients, and I knew it wasn't going to be easy. However, I remember seeing some little asian markets when I was lost and wandering around near the Opera house last week. So I looked around for a little bit, and I decided I would just ask someone if they knew where one was.
Lucky enough, I went into this little cafe called Noon. There was an absolutely lovely young lady whose English was phenomenal, which was a very nice change from the usual. AND: She knew where ALL the best asian markets were. Not only did she give me directions, but she drew them on a piece of receipt paper for me. SCORE! But that isn't the best part. I ACTUALLY FOUND THE STORE! New issue: how am I going to find soy paper? (I'm just not a fan of seaweed...) The first store I found didn't have soy paper, but the owner was nice enough to call the other store he owned to see if they had some and stock. SURE ENOUGH, they had soy paper! Now, to manage to get directions and follow them was another story. He gave me directions in French, I understood them, and guess what??? I FOUND THE OTHER STORE! WOO HOO! At this point, I am dancing around in the street because I am ecstatic and just so completely proud of myself, especially after getting lost there the week before. Oh, it get's better. Yeah, they had soy paper, but there was also a beautiful asian lady whose English was also amazing. I ended up spending 40 Euros on all the fixings, but it was SO WORTH IT! And to top it off, I also stumbled upon a little treasure:
OKRA!!!! (Can't wait for my next gumbo!)
So as I was walking out of the little asian market, I was on cloud nine, and NO ONE could bust my little bubble of happiness and pride.
Next step? Tackle the Metro. I had to change lines twice, which means I had to take 3 different metro lines to get home. And I did it with ease... I must say, I was schocked at my ability to read a map and get myself home with a fairly complex route. Usually maps and I don't don't get along very easily, making me very grateful for the invention of GPS.
Anyway, I managed to make it home with all the groceries; AND, I was on time!
Needless to say, we had the works: plum wine, LOTS of sake :) , udon noodles, edamamme, and SUSHI... It was awesome, and the roommates LOVED it.
So after our bellies were full of sushi and sake, we decided it would be a good night to go out for the first time as roomies. We got all dolled up and headed to the pub that's just across the street from our apartment (which my mother is not very happy about, but I, on the other hand, couldn't be happier about it). The James Joyce Pub. We had a blast.
So as we are on our way out of the pub to go home, Jos, pictured on the above right, says, "Are you sure you can run in those heels?" I reply with, "UM, OF COURSE!" So we started to run across the crosswalk, and before I knew it, I had tripped over my own two feet and took Jos down with me. Hard. Imagine it. Jos and I (legs up in the air, laughing hysterically) down for the count in the middle of the cross walk while a couple of Mercedes watched from their cars. It was quite a show, but everyone is alive and okay. Haha.
The next day of orientation was a meeting with the French students. I was so nervous! At first they gave me a hard time for not being able to speak French, but they warmed up to me after awhile, and my nerves finally settled down. It was a fun little game. We were sent to Hotel deVille, where we had various assignments to complete. We had to answer a few questions and take a few pictures. After the work was done, we had playtime. We sat at a little cafe near Hotel deVille for about an hour before we had to come back to school...
These were some of French students and International students that were in my group. We had a good little afternoon outing.
After we got back to school and went back home, the girls and I decided to go to meet some friends who were near the Eiffel Tower. We had NO IDEA what we were about to witness...
We sat in the garden for awhile just admiring the view with some friends :)
But shortly after we arrived, we were instructed by the police to leave, so we took the party elsewhere!
I was just holding that bottle for a friend...
We were shouting a naughty word in Spanish, hehe :)
This reminded me of the French Quarter and made me think of Home...
First we went to hang out on the banks of the Seine. We sang and played music then took the party to a friends apartment. We had to take a bus because by that time, the Metro was closed. Then once we got to the apartment, we had to wait until 5:30 am when the Metro started running again. It was a long but fun night.
Saturday we went shopping on the Champs-Elysees. And I finally got to order my first Croque-Madame...
It looks really good, and it was ok, but it is NOTHING compared to my Momma's...plus the service was terrible, so it ruined my first Croque-Madame experience :(
After a long day of shopping (H&M will be the death of my wallet, but it hurts oh so good), we decided to go to a friends apartment for wine... It was a blast! I found this bottle of wine for four euros, and when I tell you, Kacey Alario, that it puts the Moscato we drink to shame, it's really an understatement.
It was delicious. Delicious enough to drink two bottles (not that I did, Mom, I'm just saying...)
After a long night of laughs and freestyle rapping in French and what not, everyone made it home safely.
Sunday Funday: We started by going to the local market in Porte Maillot. It was wonderful. However, I WON'T be doing most of my grocery shopping there. The food is expensive... But the shopping is great! The clothes, bags, shoes, scarves, etc. are so cheap!! So I'm sure we will make it a weekly tradition to go to the market.
After the market, we decided we would take a little trip as roomies to the Pompidou Center. I wish I could have taken Miss Sunnie Diaz with me, because it was just phenomenal. I just know she would have LOVED it. I have way too many pictures (like 300 or so) so I will just post a few of the best ones.
So, after a wonderful Sunday Funday with my roomies MONDAY CAME. It was my first day of classes. My only class on Mondays (until October) is French Civilization at 2 pm. So I treated myself to a nice little lunch (that was unexpectedly expensive, and I wish I would have eaten in the cafeteria, but hey, what ya gonna do?) I figured I would give the Croque-Madame another shot, and it was better this time, but still doesn't compare to my Momma's.
I'm glad it came with French fries for 13 euros...
Anyway, back to writing about school. My teacher is Brazilian, and he's pretty cute. He's a really good teacher. I think I'm really going to enjoy his class. Our continuous assessment consists of a group presentation on the different arrondissements (districts) in Paris. I'm really looking forward to going to each place to get pictures and information instead of just finding it on the internet. My presentation will be AWESOME.
After a pretty long day at school (every class is 3 hours, just like the MBA program at Nicholls), I cooked a zuchini spaghetti from scratch and it was AWESOME. Oh, WE FINALLY GOT THE BOX FOR INTERNET AT OUR APARTMENT! WOOHOO! And my lovely roommate Jos was able to set it all up for us, wifi and everything, so he made me do something special for him. You see, he's never had a bubble bath, so Monday night was the night! Of course I brought all of my bubble bath necessities, including New Orleans no. 9 candles, because I knew I would have a bathtub. This isn't any regular bathtub. I think it's the biggest bathtub I've ever been in, and I LOVE IT.
So this was Jos' bubble bath. Be jealous...
The tub is so deep that you have to let the water run for about 45 minutes to fill it up :) That's why you can't see all the bubbles...
TUESDAY: Tuesday was French class. The levels of French vary (A,B,C with sublevels), and I was placed in A2+, which is right below B1. I think it's because I write and read French better than I speak it, but who knows. Well I got kicked out. CALM DOWN, I wasn't a bad girl, haha. (My mom almost died when I told her that). I wasn't really kicked out... The teacher suggested a few of us bump down to A2 because it would be really difficult to keep up for the semester, and it would only get harder with time. I felt a little defeated at first, but the class time is now at 2pm instead of 5 pm, so YES, I'm ok with that! haha.. So the roommates and I had wine, cheese, and chicken nuggest to boost our moods...
Then we came to find out that there was an Erasmus special thing at a club called Duplex on the Champs-Elysees.
Oh.My.Word. This was the BEST club I have ever been to. EVER. Maybe a close tie between the clubs in Cancun... But it was AWESOME.
On the Metro...
Still on the Metro....
The roomies and Santiago
This is one of my favorites :)
We found a room that was playing Spanish remixes and what not and the roommies danced up a storm. I must say I was very impressed. They're really good...
So finally you all are updated until today... So now it won't take me an entire day to write one blogpost. I promise, now that I have internet at home, that the updates will be more frequent...
I think we were supposed to go to Versailles today, but everyone is still sleeping. Yes, last night was THAT fun.
So, that is all for now... Miss and love you all
À plus tard!
Kristen
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