Fishes and Quiches and Theatrical Pieces

Okay, so I lied when I said I'd never wait that long ever again to post... I had every intent of posting earlier, but I was all busy and stuff. Oh wellll. Now I have more stories to share! But in less detail, because I'm not interested in writing a novel, and I'm sure you're not interested in reading one.

That being said, I'll share some highlights from this past week.

Tuesday evening, my host family hosted a small dinner party. I later find out the woman sitting next to me, Eva, is like a known radio columnist at France Inter, and the other guest at the table, Jean, is director of Radio France, program director of France Inter, and created an app for smartphones like okay. They were pretty rad. And fortunately, Eva spoke English. Score! Anyway, we began simply with appetizers, wine, and philosophical discussions. Then with a little wine in our system and hungry bellies, we moved to the dinner table and began to feast. Next thing I know, it's 1:00am, guests are still here, and alcohol is still being poured. It wasn't until 1:30 that people actually left....on a Tuesday night mind you. I'm telling you, my host parents know where it's at.

It was my friend, Emily's birthday on Thursday! So we pulled together a lovely group of Arcadians in Paris and celebrated with a delicious dinner out. The celebration continued Friday night, and we all went to a club. My first club experience in Paris. Not as scary as I expected! (Even if the name of the place was called Panic Room). 

Croustillant de chèvre chaud aux petits légumes

The birthday girl and myself <3

And earlier that day, a few of us from my school went to L'Aquarium de Paris! I don't remember the last time I'd been to an aquarium so it was really really fascinating!

Pretty fantastic :)

Continuing on; the school offered about 6 different shows, from which we were to sign up for 2. Jordyn and I signed up for the "Opera Comique", which took place on Sunday afternoon. The theatre was absolutely beautiful! The only problem was that we couldn't see the stage from our seats, which, as you could imagine, made it slightly more difficult to understand what on earth was going on. All we knew was that words were being sung in French and that there was a woman with exposed breasts and a tiny dog, and after there was something about vegetables, and possibly a gypsy? I'm not sure. We enjoyed what we could see, but after the first act we decided that if we stayed for the second half, we'd probably grow to resent the opera, due to the neck straining and the inability to understand what was going on. So we left, having ended on a good note. Or at least that's how we justified it. I think it makes sense. Anywayyy, we walked around le Marais in search of a cafe, and ended up at a cute place on the corner where we enjoyed some "vin chaud" and some quiches. It is our tradition that we both split our dishes in half and trade. I find this system to be rather ingenious. This way we get to try twice the amount of items on the menu, without having to worry about twice the calories. Holla!!

And then there was yesterday. Ariane had been working on directing a small play for the past week or so, and the rehearsals have been held at the house, so I had the chance to observe the behind-the-scenes of the production. Her friend, Vincent Poussou wrote the play, and this performance was essentially a "sketch", where the actors only met to rehearse 3 times, and performed with the scripts in their hands. I should mention that Vincent is the director of public affairs and digital communications (or something) for le Grand Palais and formerly for le Centre Pompidou. So that's pretty damn cool. Anyway, he wrote this very poetic and intricate play called Eva (completely unrelated to the Eva mentioned before), and I had the privilege of going to the performance. All of the actors were extremely talented and did an absolutely incredible job, especially for only having rehearsed together 3 times. I'd say a solid 78% of it went right over my head, but I was still able to appreciate it.

After the performance ended, I made my way home to do some homework. None of which I got to because 20 minutes later, there was an impromptu celebratory party at the house with Vincent, actors--Julien, Michel, and Emmanuelle--and about 9 other friends of Ariane and Yves. It was a hell of a lot of fun! Suddenly, everyone came together, some scattered to find tables and chairs and silverware, and others took on the job of cooking, and then there were those, like me, who were simply mingling and enjoying a nice glass of red wine. Everyone was really friendly and willing to talk to me even with my extremely choppy Fr-anglais. Lucky for me, the very attractive Julien spoke English :) Anyway, the night went on; food was eaten, drinks were had, pianos were played, songs were sung... more drinks were had. It was a simply fantastic evening! (Which also ended at around 1:30am, surprise surprise!)

Note to self: Always expect random parties, and thus always have your homework done yesterday.