How Peculiar!

Yesterday was rather ridiculous.
I found myself in my apartment looking at my friend Peter (Scotland) in his underwear on my couch, eating dinner and drinking wine. Why so much class, you may ask? Peter called me to plan a night of me cooking chez moi for both of us. Then his fountain pen broke and ruined his jeans. So, we tried to wash them in the machine and let them dry on my radiator...but it took a lot longer than we thought it would.
And we got red wine all over my rug (stupid clumsy sober kids), which really sucks. But Peter had a system of getting it out, so let's hope it is successful.
After we scarfed down our Meringue puffs from my patisserie, Peter and I SOMEHOW managed to stumble upon something that may have been the most peculiar thing I've seen here yet. One of the public TV stations (N11?) was playing porn. Soft porn. On public television. It was probably THE WORST porn ever produced ever, too. Not only was it dubbed from some language like Spanish or Italian, but it was quite obviously fake! In every possible way. The moves were fake and they looked like they weren't even enjoying it. And then Peter and I realized we were watching and critiquing pornography, in which we immediately stopped.

Before Peter came over, I was at the Cité working on a project. Lorena (Peru) AND Nico (Italy) both ran into my on my way out. Lorena tried bullying me into going out with them all (a LOT of the exchange kids) to the Erasmus party. But because of Peter's pants, we were unable to attend. She's going to kill us.

Today was really busy and fun! It was the last day of our "stage d'integration" (AKA orientation), which means classes start on Monday but let's not think about that....so it was a sad day for my orientation group. Some (4-5) of us are being moved up to level 2, so we are being seperated. In celebration, our French coach brought us out of the classroom to go on a tour of St.Michel. We walked all around the older parts of the city with the super small passageways and miniscule squares with itty shops and whatnots. All around the 15th-17th century. We visited St.Germaine and St.Sulpice. And we also visited one of the original towers/walls of the medieval Parisian fortress! It was accompanied with interesting conversation, too. 2 hours of ancient buildings and french and really amazingly picturesque locations hidden in the core of Paris? Yes, please!

Afterwards some of us walked back to school about 30 minutes after our class normally ends. Normally I go out to lunch with Paz (NYU buddy), Rahul (Georgetown), and Peter (Scotland) after our classes let up at the same time, but I thought it was just a convenience-type occasion. I get back and notice (expectedly) that the guys aren't around the main hall, so I start talking with one of the Mexican girls in my class. Soon after, though, I get a text from Paz asking me where I was, and that they were waiting in the basemend for me to go eat lunch with them.

Now, the funny thing to me is that it means I'm part of the group. 3 guys, 1 girl. Which is ALWAYS (literally, no joke) the gender ratio with me and my close group of friend. In Massachusetts; in New York; and now, here. 3 guys, and me! ALWAYS! Granted, I love my boys. All of them. But my question is: Does god package boys in groups of 3 or something? Or is it just me?

So we went out to a cafe just a block away from school. It was a great ambience, slightly uber-flambouyant. I loved it. And the lunch was great! Sandwiches, as usual. Europe is all about sandwiches, I've realized. I eat more bread here than in America by far. Anyways, we popped a bottle of red wine and chit chatted. I noted the entire time how amazing I find it that I so quickly found my niche of 3.

After my other last class, where we gave a hilarious presentation (good job, us!), the guy in my class from Holland, Johannes (beautiful, yes. but taken), and I got to talking about joining the tour at the Louvre with some of the other exchange kids. I got roped into it.
So now I find myself in the Louvre with a group of exchange kids that I'm not familiar with, sans Johannes and Annalise (Australia). We have on headphones, and are listening to this woman in front of us speaking in complete (and FAST) French about the paintings and sculptures around us. We are walking around the museum in a huge cluster, trying SUPER HARD to grasp onto SOME, ANY French words that we can understand. Truly frustrating. And we didn't get very far in the tour, either.

The boys (yes, the 3) went to the Louvre independent of the group, and waited for me and Annalise & Johannes (and Ashley) to get dinner with. After much debating and pacing around, and deliberating, and grabbing a pint at Grolsch (for Johannes' Dutch roots), we finally chose to go to the Marais (Jewish-Gay Quarter) to this great little restaurant, Equinox. They put our large party in the cave (which is the basement, essentially....usually looks like a brick cave...lots of the old bars and restaurants here have places just like this). We bought 2 bottles of wine and spread it around the group. Entrées were delicious. My salmon was great. And the desserts were innovative. The dinner was a complete success. And we all enjoyed each other's company!
We plan on going to Annalise's sometime soon for vegemite toast. And we left each other with bises all around. And some good tipsy feelings.
I love bises (by which I mean kisses on the cheek). I think it really is a lot more affectionate and polite than waves or hugs or NOTHING at all. We must integrate this into normal everyday life always.