(I don't want to read any of the junk below, just show me all your photos: Go to Flickr now)
New ponies
So on her 4th day in France, our new friend Peggy (who goes to school where the people from the OC live!) celebrated her birthday. Even after only knowing each other for 3 days, we have an exchange student posse and so we all took Peggy out for dinner to celebrate. Except we're all new here. And we don't know where anything is. Or the difference between crap and crappier. And there were about 12 of us.

So after traipsing around in circles for about an hour, we finally ended up in this super-touristy street where all the restaurants have "Menus" (prix fixe combos) for somewhat cheap prices. We had a pretty good meal, including some beef masquerading as duck and a chocolate souffle that looked like a plain old cupcake. Of course we all ordered du vin, so in the end everything was tres bien. Santé et bonne fête Peggy!!



French class
My MBA classes don't start until October and in September, the school runs a set of French language classes for the incoming exchange students. Here, we experienced our first bit of French process. I asked the Exchange office if Corey could attend. Response? "No, the classes are only for registered students". Then, during the assessment test, I asked the head teacher if he could come. Response? "No, the classes are only for registered students". Finally, I get into my class and ask my teacher if Corey can come. Response? "But of course! Everyone should learn French!"
Lesson: in France, you need to find the right person to ask the right questions to.

Class is genuinely interesting. I didn't doze off once.
So now we go to school together. We have cahiers and devoirs, just like in high school. And just like in high school, there are "dialogue" exercises too, complete with bad music and all. Our teacher is a nut. Totally French: a 20-inch waist, smokes like a chimney and speaks a mile-a-minute. Despite his craziness, he's actually a great teacher. He gives everyone a chance to speak and makes us all practice. Yet he still manages to make the experience distinctly French. During the intro class, he made everyone introduce themselves and say whether they were "pas célibataire, célibataire, or célibataire géographique (i.e., what happens in France stays in France!)". Yes, in MBA school in France, we focus on the essentials!


Check out that cinched up belt.
Oh IKEA, we missed you
After about a week, we decided it was time to do some laundry. This being our first time living together, it was a bit of an adventure. I won't say who did it, but somebody put someone's delicates in the wrong colour pile and the results weren't pretty. :P On top of that, our washing machine is the size of a matchbox so cramming in a North American sized load of laundry in it and hoping that it comes out clean was asking too much as it turns out.
Our first load took 3 hours (wash + dry) and came out warm, damp and smelling like sweat with a dash of laundry detergent. Yuck. Not only that, but the drying part of the process sucks a TON of energy. Corey kept running to the electricity meter and freaking out that it was running so fast.

...Which leads to our trip to the land of Swedes and economically priced home furnishings. Oh Ikea, you were the site of our 3rd date, how could we resist your meatballs and bottomless 1 Euro coffees? So we trekked out to the Ikea by the airport (there are actually 9 Ikeas in the Paris area. But if everyone decorates their apartment like ours, that might explain why. All ikea, all the time.). It took about 1.5 hours to get there and that was WITH the express train.

Excited about cheap (and not bad) food.

We relaxed with our bottomless coffee (and tried all the buttons on the coffee machine).
We got our 13E drying rack, 1.50E cutting boards and some 0.80E cookies for good measure (well, really for sustenance on the long journey back). Today we did a Euro-size load of laundry (read: 5 pairs of underwear, 3 pairs of socks and 2 t-shirts) and put our drying rack to the test. It's pretty humid here though, so I wonder if the drying rack will deliver on its promise?? Stay tuned for the results.

They sell bath products – so cool, so strange.
Iris arrives
Our friend Iris arrived on Friday. She is doing a BBA exchange term in Paris at some school she doesn't seem to know the name of. Iris lives in the Cite Universitaire which is basically a giant university campus (for international students) but sans university. The concept is actually pretty neat. She will no doubt be partying for the next 4 months with people from around the globe.


We went out for dinner to what we thought was a nice restaurant. That is, the paper covering the tables almost looked like cloth and the paper napkins were very thick and rolled up. It ended up being a comedy of errors with several waitresses coming to tell us every 5 minutes that they had run out of each item we had ordered. Franchement!

On her first day in Paris, nothing was going to bring her down.
A trip to Montmarte, then too much wine
We went to a flea market Saturday morning but it was really just a bunch of guys trying to peddle D&G belts and endless blocks of Converse shoes. The whole thing was shady and underscored by the thieves running through the metro station spilling designer-knockoff contraband; and the pilgrimage of people who entered the metro (gratuit) through the exit doors as we were sliding out.
So we got the hell out of there and headed to Montmarte. We climbed all these steps only to learn at the top (via our Let's Go Paris guidebook) that our snazzy metro passes let us ride the funicular for free.

They look like logs, but it's really concrete.

A stroll through the artists' quarter and a bite to eat.

I swear he saw me take this photo but I didn't have the guts to take another to get it right.


"Amelie's" metro station.
After the all-important French pastry break we headed to Peggy and Sancha's place for wine & cheese. We all buy wine that costs between 2–3E so it wasn't hard for our small group to devour 8 bottles of wine.

Found this on the way. Ring a bell for any Harry Potter fans?

No one argued when Karissa and I suggested that we cook for them. Wandering drunk through a French grocery was fun. Especially since you can just utter the magic word "pardon" and knock people out of the way. Everything was going dandy until I dropped the soy sauce on the floor the moment I returned. But alas, we managed to cook up a storm and feed everyone.


Let's see you cook a meal for 8 on that TINY stovetop.

Margherita is shocked to learn that us North Americans know nothing about how bidets work.
Later that night we went to a happening night club. We arrived at 1am which is apparently quite early in Paris. Sancha quickly showed Karissa who's boss on the dance floor (you got served!) but even more impressive were the French guys having their own dance-off. And all this took place in some swank catacomb-style basement.
FREE museum day: September edition
On the first Sunday of the month, many museums open their doors for free. This means you will get a horde of uncultured idiots (I really wanted to say assholes but Nat wouldn't let me) clogging up the exhibits, taking their endless photos, or even worse – actually touching precious works of art (and yes, we witnessed this).
Our first stop was the Rodin Museum. We thought that was a good idea. Get it? Ahh...

Je pense donc je suis?


Iris enjoying a not-so-quick burger at Quick (the Belgian McDo).
Our guidebook said the aquarium was also free today so we trekked across the city to find it. The building also houses the museum of immigration (how could this ever sound exciting?) and it turns out that that was the only free part. We left, but we did get this snazzy photo of the building facade as a memento of the journey.

Finally we went to the Picasso Museum and Nat found a wrapper for a Clear Blue pregnancy test in the women's washroom at the museum. Who the hell goes to a museum to check if they're preggers? Ah Paris, you will never stop surprising us.
Week 2 photos on Flickr
1 comment:
hey guys,
love the blog. fun to read, and great pics (AWESOME POSES).
hugs,
steve (ng)
Post a Comment