Yesterday has officially reached my top five of the best days that I have spent in Paris and I owe it all to my new roommate, Malina (I love Tamina and Gabriella as well!) but yesterday was incredible. Malina is my German roommate for the next two weeks. She’s seventeen, blonde, spunky, adventurous and insanely sweet. She arrived in Paris Sunday and since then, we have managed to get to know one another pretty well. I love hearing about her year in London, her childhood in Germany and of course the differences between our two cultures. I never noticed how truly different being American really is, but that’s for another blog entry, so its back to Thursday’s excursion, with Malina.
After classes Malina met Erin and I on Boulevard MontParnesse where we shopped, of course. Monoprix and H&M are the greatest stores ever, sorry Forever 21, someone has outranked you. Shopping only lasted about two hours when we decided to sit in the Luxembourg gardens and listen to European music. It’s so cool that in Europe they listen to everything from every country. It’s a nice change from always hearing Keisha and Kanye on the radio. As Americans we definitely need to expand our music taste on the radio. From Malina I quickly listened to some of the most interesting sounding bands. I cannot wait to steal her music, I’m sure some of you back in the states are going to love this foreign Indie, Alternative, Rock, Punk genre of music. Alors, we stayed in the Luxembourg Gardens until the police walked around vigorously blowing their whistles for everyone to leave, which was hilarious. Those police definitely enjoyed this part of their job WAY too much, but it makes sense because the Luxembourg Gardens surround the Senate’s building, so it cannot stay open the entire night. With all of the social turmoil here surrounding recent terrorist threats (religious conflicts), union strikes and demonstrations against Sarkozy changing the retirement age, its no wonder that Paris wants to protect one of the prettiest gardens and buildings that I have seen in Paris. With our hang out spot shut down, Malina and I headed back home to have dinner, just to quickly leave and visit her friend Edouard in the Marais.
This was the most interesting part of Thursday and was one of my best nights in France. Edouard is Parisien, a student, loves music and has his own flat in the city, which is where we went last night. His friend Roman came as well, and Roman brought his sister’s au paire, Sophia, who did not speak any French. Luckily, everyone spoke English, but I could follow the French, I was completely lost with the German though. I have to say, while drinking 1662 and a bottle of wine, we were able to cover a range of topics and I was able to learn a lot about young French culture. It was refreshing to finally have access to kids our age living in Paris. For instance, Roman said that the most disgusting foods he ever had in the United States were seven eleven slushies and fluff. I’m just saying the French eat frog legs and snails and I’m pretty sure that melted sugar and frozen sugar cannot even compare to that horrifying cuisine of animals that should NEVER be eaten. Last night was a great decision and I hope that I’ll get to see the group again because once again this weekend I am heading off with my group to the Loire Valley. Should be wonderful. I’m looking forward to the wine tasting. PARTY.
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