C'est belle, la vie

My days in Paris have reached a threshold. My schedule for school, free time (oxymoronic), and meals are finally set, more or less, and things are becoming routine, which sounds boring, but is actually very comforting to me.

Monday: 11-1 class, 1:30-4:30 class, 5-7 class. :(
Tuesday: 11-12 class, 2-4 class, 5-7 class.
Wednesday: 9:30-11 class
Thursday: 5-7 class.
Friday: no class

Yesterday, C, B, and I had lunch at Le Fournil near the Jardin du Luxembourg. We walked around the 5eme arrondissement where we went inside L'Église Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, Picard (Ikea-like frozen food store that raised suspicions of our Madames' home-cooked meals), and semi-visited the Panthéon before class at 5.

Saint Etienne-du-Mont interior; exterior

[soufflé avec des oeufs (eggs), fromages (cheese), et jambons (ham); baked pommes avec des confitures fraises (apples with strawberry jam)]

Dinner reached the two-hr mark again last night! A lot of idle maladroit time in between courses, but I'm starting to feel much more at ease with my host family than before -- asking questions, commenting on the subject of the moment, not looking like I have my undies bunched up (due to aforementioned awkwardness and translation strain-age), etc. I really like them, but it just sucks that they probably see me as just another host student since they've been hosting for five years already. "Oh Americans play a different kind of football? Really??" or "It's sunny in Los Angeles? You're kidding!" must have gotten pretty old :( Same with wanting to invite the host-sibling out. We would love to take our host-student out for the night with our friends. Nevertheless, we concluded that after hosting students over and over again, having an American tag along while you're catching up with friends might simply be blasé and...not that exciting.

Around 11, some of us went to Club Mix, right next to the Tour Montparnasse. This club was F-A-N-T-A-S-T-I-C. Definitely ranked on the Top 3 most fun clubbing experiences. It's almost like a rave with the lights and the hours, but had a club atmosphere and diff music (electro, house, oldies, latin, and rap). If I was to summarize this experience with key words, it would be:

Ubiquitous creepy guys on the hunt; Thibaud; Tunisian; Mexican; turning stiles; flag stickers; stage; Canada; thumbs war; dancing guy who reminded me of Omega twin Li Jin; YMCA; Discobitch; and lastly, SNOW.


We came out of the club and it started snowing! Now that's a storybook ending.









Staying til the very end










Snowwwww at 6am

Today, I woke up starving for the first time when I'm not normally a breakfast person. My meals consisted of a baguette the size of yo' mama, fruit, yogurt, and some les petits écoliers, my new found French lover(s). Seriously, the most gratifying, consistent, and selfless men I've been with. With all the free time, I finished a book, watched Paris Je T'aime, French news, and some reading for class. It's already 1:40am, so that's it for today. Tomorrow is Versailles & Valentines Day!

Bonne nuit! A demain. Pour les photos.