le 6 juillet: Une bonne soir

Monday Brittany and I decided that we need to try every type of pastry that we can. This is difficult however because we want to save money and our bellies from becomming too large. Lol Brittany calls hers Prudence the Pouch. We decided that sharing a pastry every two days would be the way to go. That hasn't really been the way it has worked out but at least we have a goal.

That day for lunch I had quiche lorraine from le petit lux. Much better than the runny quiche. It was delicious and I will no longer hold a fear for french quiche, I will just remember not to buy it from that place. The pastry we split at lunch that day was a tarte au chocolat and it was amazing. They have some sort of gold leafing or something on the top of all tarte au chocolats and so we felt super fancy.

Brittany's friend Stephanie was able to join us for lunch as well which was fun. Her pastry looked amazing as well. Isn't she so photogenic?

We don't have photo class on Mondays and Stephanie wanted to go the the Marche aux Puces, Brittany too because she didn't really get to see the real thing. So we went of course. I had no objections. Stephanie also bought a leather bag and then we went exploring in the antique area. I brought my camera with me this time and it was so worth it. I used a couple of pictures from the market for my photography critique the next day.

We found this crazy store whose owner only buys antiques in bulk so there were wooden crates and boxes filled with random machine parts, doll arms/legs/hands/eyes, little plastic dolls, old flower seed bags, old perfume boxes and bottles, eiffel tower statues, costume jewelery. It was beautifully arranged as well and in the center of the shop, there was a platform so that shoppers could admire the design from above.

I got a picture of a woman who worked at the jewelery shop as well. She was dressed in all purple and her hair even had a purple tint. I kind of snuck the picture so it's not perfect and I wish she were smiling more but I think it is pretty good for being terrified of taking people's pictures.

After the flea market, we had to rush to a meeting at the ISA office for students in homestays. We just talked about cultural differences we were noticing and what was different, what we like and what we don't like, etc. And how we are getting along with our families. I think Brittany and I got really lucky with Madame Lemberger. She is very sweet and a good cook. She cares about us and is always welcoming and smiling. There is one girl in the program who's host lady is so mean and is never there for her. She doesn't really make her dinner. For the first week she just gave her beans, ham, and pickles until she ate all of it. Courtney has a lot of allergies but she can eat other stuff. I feel bad for her.

Lol, she has the weirdest things happen to her as well. She reminds me of Tashi in studio 600 on country night. Like she's had weird experiences with guys in Luxembourg park. One wrote her a long love note in French but she couldn't read it and another tried to massage her feet. Yeah, weird stuff. She is really pretty though. Let's see if I can find a picture...yes, you will see her later on eating Amarino gelato.

Since Brittany's friend was in town, she decided to go out to dinner with her. She didn't want to leave her alone two nights in a row but I wanted to save money so I stayed with Madame for dinner. We had les petits pois or peas and chicken. It was really good. The peas were the most delicious peas I have ever had. They were a little bigger and a more of a foresty green than the peas I have had at home. She thought it was funny that I liked them so much. We also had salade again but this time, it had little shrimps in it and it had a sauce that tasted a little oriental. I was a major fan. Then, Madame whipped out the glace (ice cream). She gave me some chocolat noir (sooo good), cocco (coconut), and citron (lemon) flavored glace. The glace is more like gelato than it is ice cream. I think the citron may have even been more like a sorbet than a glace or ice cream. But it was yummy. Brittany was jealous lol and she was like, "See, she likes you more than she likes me!" ha ha ha, which is not true.

After dinner, I met up with Brittany and Stephanie again in the latin quarter. Courtney came with us as well. I have been wanting a berret and I wanted to get one before we went to the Eiffel Tower so I went to this little shop next to the metro stop and bought one! Stephanie, me and Brittany all got one lol there was a super small discount if you bought three so we did it. It was kind of funny because we all bought hats that matched the outfit we were wearing.

I think our fashion choices of the day may have influenced our berret color decisions. Although I mainly bought it in blue to match my French Connection sweater @ home. And I of course was a dork and wore my berret for the rest of the night. Yes, I was the only person in sight wearing a berret but I was happy.

We saw some hip hop dancers performing on the street. I took some video, hopefully I can find it and get it up here. It wasn't too amazing but it was fun to watch for a while. There are artists of everykind in Paris every where you go. We were hoping to see the flame throwers again at the Notre Dame but they weren't there that night.

We walked around and everyone got some Amarino (gellato that they make into flowers when you order a cone)

(Courtney is the tan one on the left)

I didn't get one because I had my fill of glace earlier but I couldn't resist taking a picture. We strolled down to the Shakespeare and Co. Bookstore. It was litterally filled floor to ceiling with books. Like every square inch covered. It was a cute little bookstore ha ha but Brittany was like in heaven. She is an English Litterature major and was freaking out in the cutest way possible. (You can see a little bit of the front of the bookstore in the picture of us in our berrets.

She was thinking of buying something but she wanted to find an old book but they were closing up so we went for a stroll along the Seinne. It is a popular place for young people to sit and talk or picnic. It is very beautiful and I was reminded very much of Ratatoille lol. Brittany and Stephanie wrote postcards while I read an A Nous article about Micheal Jackson.

A french boy came up and started talking to us for a while while his friends made out (a common public occurance in Paris. Name a place and time and I guarantee you'll find a couple making out). He said that America is like the dream destination for french kids like Europe is the dream destination for us. He laughed a bit at my berret but in a nice way, saying I was living the dream. And yes, I was. Sitting by the Seinne wearing a newly bought blue berret, c'etait parfait.