Getting Married

Classes are going alright. I'm taking all English-speaking classes because I don't trust my French. I thought that it would mean that I wouldn't meet any French kids, but boy, was I wrong.
I went to French Opera, and there are about 15 French kids, and maybe 7 exchange students. My 2 teachers have extremely thick accents. Apparently all of the French kids want to take English, because my friends in French-speaking classes say they're full of exchange kids.
Same situation for my International Economic Negotiaions. Except...I think I've already taken this class before at NYU, and my professor is a guest professor from Columbia U. This means that not only is it, essientially an American-taught class, but that I have to stay in it and listen to everything I've already learned all over again. All for the price of getting referencs at Columbia.
My European Business Environment class is a bit different. It's early, so Paz and I agree that the class better be good. It's mostly exchange kids; alright, I can deal. But when the professor doesn't even seem to care about the material (that you have probably already studied before at Stern), that's when things aren't as right. Shoot.
I have 2 classes I've yet to take, though. Let's hope they're fun! Word usage is essential for sarcasm.

Anyways, Monday Rahul calls me while I'm at school to tell me I'm eating dinner with him and a group of our friends for his 21st birthday. Surprising, but I agree. Wine, cheese, baguette...and vodka? Now, I stand firmly on my 100% alcohol-free weekday-nights rule, so I didn't drink. But the other kids did. Designated Dave, meet Kim. We ended up going to Le Mandarin (and yet, it's Thai food) for a big dinner, where there was a heated debate about what Europe is and who should be allowed in the EU and whatnot. You know, cultured things to talk about with a bunch of drunks. Loud English speakers, meet Parisians who are not happy with your loud talk.

Yesterday I went out with Pierre for the day. We first made our way to La Mosquée Arabe for tea and pastries (which were formidable, by the way). The restaurant area is stunning! With completely authentic decorations ceiling to floor. Birds flying through, animals flying through (sounds dégoutant, but trust me, it was charming). The colors were marvelous. It was quite a site for sore eyes, I'll tell you that much.
Six hours after having gotten there, we left the place and started for a walk to find a place to eat. Yes, it was maybe 10pm, and we were trying to find dinner. He brought me over to this Japonais area and we ended up getting sashimi bowls (and a bastardization of Spicy Tuna Rolls) and sipping on green tea (of course). We were the last people in the restaurant before they closed up (and there was a huge mishap with a waitress and a glass wall....glass everywhere....hard-to-control laughter from our side of the restaurant).
Walked around a bit more afterwards, and finally got home around 2am.

Let me tell a little bit about Pierre. He's working on finishing his masters at EHESS. He's 22-ish. He's originally from Toulousse. His dad's American, and he frequents Seattle to visit. He speaks English perfectly, knows Italian, and speaks Russian. And he is simply amazing to listen to. This guy has not only been through inimaginable situations and had such luck (and misfortune) bestowed upon him, but he still manages to be normal! Twelve hours of finding out about him, and my jaw still hurts from dropping it so often. AND he just landed a job I could only dream about (regarding some high-end, high-brow diplomacy position....it's complicated, and I'm not going to explain it). And to top it all off, he's a nice guy and EXTREMELY patient when I bumble through broken French. He's a jem of a person, I'll tell you that much. We agreed to marry so I could get a French passport, and he could get a US one.

Back to reality.

Today Paz woke me up so we could go walk around Paris a bit on our day off. Lorena met up with us after we had lunch nearby campus. They decided to gang up on me all day. I hope they know that the wrath of Kim will be coming to them soon. Do I really have a wrath? HAH! No.
We ended up walking around the 1st and 2nd arrondissements (they're just blocks of Paris...), found a church, shoe shopped...Paz "rock climbed" up a statue. I dragged the kids into a music shop (just so I could touch a piano again...gosh, I miss it). We also ate an early dinner at this REALLY GOOD Italian stop. The panini was delicious, and the tiamisu was what I needed at the time. I need to go back there.

By the way, I love how if someone reads this blog and know me, they're going to automatically freak out and skim through this whole thing just because of the title.
Otherwise, I went to FNAC (like a Borders) to get some French reading books. I have been sitting here all night working on my CV, and thinking I might need to end this day.