On Friday I don't have classes, but I didn't want to waste the day so I woke up and went out to lunch with Vicky and her friend Francois. Francois goes to Georgia State but has been living in France for a bit and was in Paris for a few weeks before he leaves. We met up at Gare du Nord and wandered around a bit trying to figure out where to eat. We're all pretty indecisive but Francois suggested kebap and we all agreed that sounded good.
I didn't take a picture of all of us together, but I obviously took a picture of my lunch.
mmmmm I had a Sandwich Grec Kebap. Do you see ALL THAT FOOD? (EDIT: no you don't, because the blogspot layout cuts off the bread they gave me, plus you can't tell that plate is humongous). That plus a Coca Light was €6.50. I was so full, it was awesome. I could totally go for more of that right about now.
On the way back to the apartment Vicky and I finally decided we needed to find the macarons shop. Oh. My. Gosh. It was beautiful
LOOK AT THAT. How could you not want to eat them all? I exercised some level of restraint and only bought two: coffee and dark chocolate. Did I say OH MY GOSH yet? They were heavenly, incredible, remarkable, there are not enough adjectives. I can see why they are famous. Tragically my two macarons cost €2.44, so they won't be a regular indulgence, but I can't imagine not going back for more. The saleslady hated us, though. We couldn't really communicate the fact that we were still looking and she got pissed. I bought stuff, though! Next time we need to go to the bakery next door, which is also fairly well known. And we found an independent wine shop. So that next block down seems to be a pretty amazing place.
Then I went and saw the Pope.
On the way home I went through the Concorde station, where I am constantly reminded of home/Michigan
I came home from early from seeing the Pope because we had plans to go out. Vicky knows a guy here who is Greek, and one of his friends had a birthday party last night. They told us they would pick us up and drive us home, and the offer of cars was all we needed.
Vicky's friend Nicolas doesn't speak English, only Greek and French. In the car, whenever I would talk to Vicky in English he would yell and me and tell me I could only speak French, otherwise I won't learn the language. But even though he wouldn't let me speak English, he was speaking almost exclusively Greek! They took us out to this really weird/cool bar in the suburbs. It was circus themed! You walked up to the front and paid cover at a ticket booth like you would at a carnival, and then walked through this tented hallway into a big circus tent! There was a dance floor in the middle of the tent and a bar along one side. Nicolas went straight for the dance floor and he won Vicky and I t-shirts. I now have a shirt that says "Don't Stop the Party" (in English) from France haha.
Going out with French speakers was very cool, and everyone seemed helpful. I met some guy (whose name I didn't get) who was a friend of Nicolas that spoke English. He was a total sweetheart because his English was about as good as our French, so we would try to speak French to him and he would try to speak English to us. It was probably the best conversation I had all night. And a guy named Julien tried to teach me a French handshake haha. It involved bumping fists and half hugging and all the normal stuff you would do in the states, but I didn't have the heart to tell him that. I also didn't really learn is so much as just mirror him for a few minutes.
Everyone was incredibly nice, teaching us phrases and helping us to pronounce words. The circus club closed around 2, so then we went back into the city to a bar, only to have that bar close at 3. At that point everyone else was headed on to another bar, but we only stayed long enough to say goodbye. We were all tired, and a certain roommate was dying for food. I didn't get to bed last night until 5, which means I didn't wake up today until noon.
Catacombs probably aren't going to happen this weekend. Also, we were supposed to go buy books, which I mentioned in an earlier entry. The bookstore is closed today because of the Pope! I have homework due on Monday from the book that I don't have, so I've been trying to find classmates on Facebook to borrow the text from, but so far no responses. From the looks of it we're vegging out here and then probably going out again tonight. We may go out with Nicolas and his friends again if they have the room to take us, or we may go to a club near Sacre Coeur. So of my list of weekend to-do's I have completed two already, and it looks like the other two will need to be bumped back for next weekend.
Don't forget to keep reading for the Pope visit!
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