Yet Another Holiday the French Have That You Don't

Right now a lot of the boys in my foyer are playing ping pong outside in the courtyard. I can hear every word they're saying, and am learning a lot of new French swear words.

I know it's been a long time. I beg your forgiveness. I just have been a bit busy with school and life. (We've been doing something pretty much every single night.)

I attended my first French film without subtitles last week. Coco Avant Chanel (Coco before Chanel). It was all about her love affair before she started her clothing line. As I know most relationship words in French, I did pretty well with it and only had turn to my friend one time and ask, "So wait, the guy she's having a fling with is married?"

This past weekend was the first that we went out every single night... from Wednesday night to Sunday morning (yes, I'm aware that I wrote morning). I done that exactly... never, so I needed all of Sunday to recover.

The French get May Day (May 1st) off. It's like their Labor Day. Apparently it's even bigger in Finland and called "Vappu," so all my Finnish friends organized a picnic. We all drank wine and ate bread and meat and cheese (I held away from the cheese). Some amazing person also brought bubbles. Then we went back to the girls' apartment and had sushi and some Finnish bread.

I've had sushi before, but I forgot (stupidly) that wassabi was very spicy. This led to tears running down my face and far too many people asking me if I was ok. I think wassabi improperly named. I think it should be called "Clear your sinuses" sauce. Though "wassabi" is probably the word first person who ever had it said when they tried it. It was supposed to be "What the hell?" but "wassabi" came out instead. Thus the power of wassabi. (I know it's a Japanese word... I imagine the direct translation into English is "Wtf, mate?")

One of my friends, Théo, was upset that he didn't get to come to Vappu, so he's having another one at his place on Saturday. His parents have a very nice apartment (it's really rare in Paris to have a big/ nice apartment. The one I went to 2 weekends ago would have made most New York appartments look like grand palaces), so it should be good. We decided to have another picnic before it.

One of my best friends from high school, Allison, is coming to visit. She's currently studying in Galway. I'm SO excited to be seeing her again. She gets in tonight. Théo has informed me that I'm allowed to bring her to Vappu, so she will have an unrealistic idea of French apartments. If I was allowed to show her my room to counteract this idea, I would.

I got to experience watching a soccer game in someone's apartment on Wednesday. Chelsea and Barcelona were having an important game, so Arnaud invited a few of us to his appartment. I was expecting the guys to bring beer or something like it... no, they all brought wine. And instead of having meat and chips and greasy food, Arnaud brought out peanuts. Molly and I had to go buy a bag of chips to feel at home. Molly judged Arnaud for his lack of proper food. When we opened his refridgerator, it contained only things like yogurt. He also had a bowl of fruit on the counter. I told him he wasn't a real boy. At that point, he opened the freezer to show me the steaks he had in there, but it wasn't enough to impress me.

I felt better when Molly said, "Don't worry, he goes to McDonalds a lot." Arnaud nodded and said, "Yeah, it's right around the corner."

Still, I could never marry a European male. I need someone who eats more than I do. These boys just don't cut it. I think my next post will be a list entitled: "Why My Family Will Think Any European Male I Bring Home Is Gay." Look out for it sometime this weekend. We have today off again because... the French have more days off than anyone else in the world.

I have decided to end my classes when all the rest of the people in my program are (May 22nd), and spend the rest of the time traveling or working on my great American novel. I think I may have to make the man slightly unrealistic (in the sense he will be both European and act like an actual man), but he'll still be European enough. We will see how this goes.

Gardens and Parks

Apparently, Sarkozy doesn't like the youth of America, because the free admission to the museums is only for European Union citizens. :(

I went with a group from Central College and Aurélien (my friend from the language exchange). Because we had already been to the Chateau recently, Molly and I turned down paying the large amount of money they demanded. We said, "We're going to go to the free gardens because it's nice outside." Two others from the Central College group joined us, and so did Aurélien (even though it was free for him, he's lived 5 minutes from Versailles his whole life, so he didn't need to see the Chateau).

I didn't get to bike, but I DID do something infinitely cooler: all 5 of us rented a boat and rowed along the pond by the Chateau. I thought the view was beautiful. Molly thought Aurélien was beautiful, and finally accepted my invitation to come to the language exchange this week.

Today, I planned on going to a museum with Giovanni, but he cancelled... again. This time he was sick or something. Tired of him cancelling on me (we're not dating, for all those concerned), I invited Hugo (the guy I danced with on Thursday) and Molly to come with me. As soon as Giovanni found out Hugo was going to the museum, he decided that he just might be able to come as well.

Molly and Giovanni both ended up having too much homework to do, so Hugo and I went to a park together instead. We sat in the park for 2 hours and alternated between speaking in English and French. I think my French improved a lot, and I also learned a lot of slang words. Hugo got excited when he found out that I sing. He plays the guitar, so he told me the next time we came to the park, he was bringing his guitar and I would sing. That's right, I'm having a jam session (or a Boeuf in French) in a French park! He said if we were good enough we could play on the metro for money. While I'm sure we'll be fabulous, I turned down the metro idea.

The brunch this morning was fabulous. I had 2 pain au chocolats, sausage, eggs, bread, breakfast potatoes, orange juice and hot chocolate all for 2.85! Tamara, Molly, and I agreed we would be repeating this adventure.

But not next week because I leave for Italy on Thursday! I can't wait!