Wagg

January 21, 2008

On Friday the 18th, I went with Henri from Morehouse College in Atlanta to the BHV to buy an adaptor. Oh my gosh it’s so huge!! Imagine a Target, JCPenney’s, and a smaller Barnes and Noble and Home Depot all in a six-story building.

At 9:30 we met up with Hayley, Amy, Shallon and Audrey in St. Germain. Gosh that area is cool. We mosied around for awhile and then settled on Café Jade, this hip little bar/restaurant/café. They were playing (fairly loud) really cool techno beats, although it’s January and kinda cold, a lot of people were sitting outside lining the street, smoking and ddrinking these drinks with the craziest garnishes—pineapple wedges and marshmallows. We grapped a couple tables near the door and admired how chic the place was. Our waitress was the pretty blonde who spoke a tiny bit of English and was wearing a cute little blue dress that resembled a flight attendant’s uniform from the 60’s. We had a good time just talking, getting to know each other and laughing.

Later, three more girls met up with us and we went to a Boite, a dance club, down the street. It was suggested by our waitress and was a little cher for our blood so it will probably be our only time in there. It’s called Wagg and the theme of the night was “Disco Carwash” so the music was all disco and funky beats. (Hilarious French dance moves, obvi.)



Saturday I met Hayley and Amy on the Champs-Elysées for a bit of strolling and people watching. That is the place to do it. The “steeles” (Dad) are incredivble, everyone is dressed like they are set for a runway show or something. It’s all so sleak, chic and flattering.

At 9, we met with Eva from GWU at a wine bar, Les Tartines, in the 4th arrondissement. It was so cute! It seemed very old-fashioned and was playing oldies (Al Green and the Jackson Five mainly). We told stories about friends, guys, families and laughed a lot. We then met up with these two guiys we met from Florida at a nearby bar, Bar Five. We met a few Englishmen and Scots there, too.

So, I’ve got another Metro story. I got on by myself, heading into the centre to meet up with girls and was following the Metro rule of not making eye contact or smiling too much, I was just looking at the floor. Out of nowhere this little French guy sits down next to me and starts speeding a long in French. His buddy is standing by the sliding doors and I can hear him saying he doesn’t think I’m French. The one who I learn later is named Hills keeps trying to start a French conversation with me and insists I do know French I am just ignoring him. (Franchement, it was a little bit of both, but he spoke too fast for me to follow.) We ended up having a conversation when he realized I was American (obvi. asked if I liked Bush “Tu aime Bush?”). He would ask me broken-English questions and I’d answer in French with my awful accent. Pretty amusing. We exchanged numbers and he later texted me “C (I think that’s short for c’est) Hills. We can see us the thursday.”

Last night I sat in a brasserie/café, La Rosaraie, in my arrondissement and sipped an espresso while I read this book, “Almost Frnech” that I picked up at school. It’s about a young woman who follows her heart and moves to Paris from Australia. She talks a lot about cultural differences and the funny way French have of doing things. The café was really cute, decorated in burnt orange, red and deep purple with rectangular lamps hanging from the ceiling and there were quite a few étudiants in there studying. Rue de Tolbiac where the café is located has strung these beautiful blue Christmas lights that blink above it. Many of the rues in the city have this cute detail right now.

With my class schedule, it looks like I don’t have class on Monday or Wednesday. How cool! So I will probably be exploring and stuff on these daysJ