Chantilly, Encore

After a terrible run yesterday morning, I went to Chantilly with Paz, Brandon, and Rimi to visit Auriane and stay at her family's house for the night.
Rimi and I were the only ones on time at Gare Du Nord for the train, so we boarded the train and left on time without the boys. The train was absolutely packed, and so we managed to sneak into first class, no charge. Auriane picked us up at the station, where she brought us to the "Champs Elysées de Chantilly" for lunch. I ate a croque monsieur, of course. The boys called us during lunch to tell us that SOMEHOW (somewhat unrealistically, too, yet true) they had missed the train to Chantilly AGAIN! Auriane was livid, but held her cool as we waited for another hour for them to arrive and join us.
Chantilly holds the French Galops in the Hippodrome, where some international horse races are. Yes, some of these races you must dress up and wear a hat, but we were on an "off day", so trainers and jeans were alright...and not many people were there, really. After gazing at some horses, and placing cheap and uneduated bets, we watched some races. 3 total. Rimi, Brandon, and Auriane won their bets for about 26 Euros total, while I won absolutely nothing but the right to say I bet 4 Euros and lost terribly. But it was really fun to watch the horses run so fast in so many bright colors!
After our 3 races, we walked off to the château to meander through the gardens. We walked a whole lot, there. And in heels for me and Rimi. Rough. But we enjoyed ourselves. Had some funny communicaion barriers when it came to telling jokes between cultures. We got lost on our way to finding what Auriane claimed to be kangaroos...but were really walabies. No matter, we found them after claiming through a forest. And there was the groundskeeper there, so he let us come into the cage with the walabies and walk around them and we were so close we could almost touch them! until they bounced away. SOOO ADORABLE! And one of the 2 month babies already had a baby in its pouch! On our way out of the château we found ourselves surrounded by 4 weddings...one including lots of people in middle eastern colorful garbs and African drums. I wish I knew where they were from... It was chaos, and so much fun to witness. We chilled out in the park and ate some Chantilly Glace before her dad picked us all up to go back chez Auriane.

When we got to her place, her parents greeted us warmly and were ready to wait on our hands and feet. It was amazing! Wonderful people. Spoke only French, even better. They even bought us Champagne for a celebration! And dinner was being prepared.
Before dinner, however, we had some musical joy. Auriane is actually quite a good and accomplished singer/pianist, so we played the piano and sang some tunes. Actually, it was mostly her, but it was still wonderful to be around music again. I forget how much I miss it all...
Then dinner. A 4-hour dinner with more food than life. Granted all of the food was utterly amazing, but still....it was a lot of food to manage. They served us all fresh-from-the-garden vegetables....more meat kebabs I knew were possible to grill...a huge cheese portion of the meal, and finally a plateful of desserts...EACH! Speaking in only French made us foreigners timid, and subject to persuasion, so we just packed it in. Me, being dumb, said to myself, "Alright, Rimi is a small Japanese girl...she must eat not a lot...so, follow Rimi...if she still eats, you still eat." Much to my dismay, Rimi eats. A lot. A whole lot. By the end of the dinner, the parents asked me if I wanted more of something, and my eyes bulged out from the painful idea of food. People found my face humourous, and laughed. I didn't laugh.
Later on, Rimi told me that she was also watching me to see if I was still eating. Oh, the irony.
After a long period of complete food coma and music listening, we agreed to watch a French movie, Rabbi Jacob. It's this hilarious movie from the 70's, with a plot too complicated to both explaining. Just, watch it. It's worth it.

We went to bed late, and no one woke up Rimi and me until late...which made us feel silly because we were the last to get up and were an hour late. Of course, a large breakfast was provided...more food? Oh, good....
A quiet and calm afternoon was followed by us 5 piling onto the train back to Paris. We decided that we wanted Indian food (how could we think about food?!?!), so we found a nearby resto. Unfortunately, the food took forever, and the Chicken Tikka Masala was a bastardization of the real deal, but it was decent and did the job of quenching our needs.
Got home to take a phone interview for this summer internship with a nonprofit that I want to work for this summer. Unfortunately it doesn't pay, but it seems like it might actually be a career booster, so....we'll see, huh?