Night walk

I made a short little night walk down to TATI and some other local shops before I came home for dinner. On my way I happened across a very cute street with lots of Asian (mostly Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai) restaurants and 1 truly American shop: a bagel café that had a full stock of peanut butter and bisquick. Let me say one thing: these products are EXTREMELY expensive in France and completely defeat the point of living in another country (in my opinion), but I did enjoy that the American food was placed amoung other foreign or "exotic" restaurants as I believe it should be in France.

I returned to the apt. for a dinner that included no products with American labels: spaghetti with basil tomato sauce, an end of yesterday's baguette, a glass of wine, and lunch's chocolate cake (heated up in the microwave, yum!) for dessert. All products of the fabulous F.R.A.N.C.E. Quite a good day for my gastronomical senses, if I do say so myself.

I just got a text from Samouille and hope that I'll get to see her tonight. If not -- definitely one of these days we'll have to cross paths. I'm so glad there are wonderful Pomona grads in Paris to make me feel more "at home."

Pictures to come

Plans for tomorrow:
1. Sleep in
2. Check out CROUS
3. Consultation with Monique (the "directrice") about the classes I want to take
4. Ramen for dinner before a concert at Saint Chapelle (6:15-9:00)
5. Maybe rendre visite à Sam?

The Sketch Factor: La Drague

I am, for the most part, completely tolerant of cat-calls and things of that sort -- Especially in Paris where the catcalls consist of "t'es belle!" instead of "hey baby, nice ass." However, I draw the line when they don't stop, and get increasingly invasive. In America, I know how to deal with these wont-take-no-for-an-answer guys pretty well, but in France I have no idea what to say to them. I don't want to be rude, but at the same time, I do want them to leave me alone like all the other men who say their 2 or 3 words and continue walking. I've been pretending that I don't speak French, smile, shake my head, and walk away, but I would prefer a nice one-liner like we have in the states. "I'm sorry, I'm engaged," "I have AIDS," or even a simple, "Not interested."

So today when I left for Montmartre in an outfit that I thought was pretty cute, I didn't know what to say to the man who thought that I was pretty cute. I looked around me and noticed that I didn't look much different than the other girls on the metro, except that I was wearing very very tall shoes. So tall that when I was walking to the metro a little boy asked his mother if he could wear shoes like mine so he could be tall, too. Still, I remember seeing tons of girls in my neighborhood wearing even taller shoes, shoes that were brightly colored and would attract much more attention than my black suede closed toe heels. Maybe there is some unwritten "no heels in Montmartre" rule that I haven't figured out yet, or maybe I just got unlucky and happened to cross the path of the one sketchy guy in Montmartre.



After a gorgeous trip up and down the stairs of Sacre Coeur, I went one metro stop down to the local TATI where, as Samantha and Christelle had informed me, the prices were much more reasonable. I saw things I could actually afford! I bought 2 wine glasses (we only had 1 in the apt.) and a little hanging thing for the shower (we're girls, and we have a lot of shower products). At Monoprix, the shower stuff started at 9 EUR, but I got a large container for only 3 EUR at TATI. The pair of wine glasses was less than 5 EUR.

I finished up the afternoon with a walking trip to Monoprix and ED (in jeans and my most mundane looking shoes, of course). I picked up a quick pain au chocolat at Monoprix where they cost only ,60 EUR but are not quite as yummy as the ones at my local boulangerie. When I stopped by ED, I just intended to look around as I had at Monoprix, but then I saw that I could buy a whole kilogram of pasta for ,91 EUR and then there was the bordeaux for only 3,09 and the tomatoes... well lets just say I caved but honestly not the worst place give into temptation (did I mention the bordeaux? That wine sells for 13 EUR/ glass in many cafés around here, not that I've been looking...). My total damages at ED came to 5,53.

When Taylor came back from her weekend trip, I decided to take her for a walk along the Seine so that she could scream like a little girl the way I did yesterday. We celebrated her homecoming with dinner at a cute café right along the Seine. A prix fixe meal (I chose frites, steak and salad, and a fruit tart) with an orangina, a view of the seine, and a place to rest our tired feet came at 14,00 EUR a piece, and we even got a compliment from the chef about our French. :)

Might go out dancing later :)

Total damages thus far:

Wine glasses: 4,99 EUR
Shower container: 2,99 EUR
Pain au chocolat: ,60 EUR
1 kg spaghetti: ,91 EUR
3 vine ripened tomatoes: ,60 EUR
1 package of chunks of meat (I swear it looks delicious): ,90 EUR
bordeaux: 3,09 EUR

Where to buy your towels in Paris: a journey

How can a bottle of champagne cost only 1,90 EUR when a shitty cotton towel sells for upwards of 16,90?

Welcome to Paris, kids.

This is the kind of stuff they never tell you about. We are all educated about how to use the metro, how and where to eat, how to communicate, etc... But no one ever tells you where to buy a cheap towel if heaven forbid the ones in your apt. smell like mildew.

Now I'm not your average study abroad student -- I did my fair share of research and I knew that I would be able to buy a towel at Monoprix, the Parisian version of "Target" or so I had heard. Well, the place looks like a Target, in that you can buy your towels within 2ft of your baguettes, but sadly the prices were not very Target-like. I mean, 16,90 for a small crappy bath towel? The ones at Target cost 4 USD!

This was when I wish someone had taught me something about Parisian stores. I had so many questions: Is there a "bed, bath, and beyond"-style store here? where? are they just as expensive as Monoprix? I thought my French would help me here, so I asked the woman next to me in the Monoprix towel isle. Unfortunately, she was under the impression that Monoprix was the best deal in town. I wanted to tell her that in the United States, I could buy the same towel for only 4 dollars, but I just sighed, picked up a couple groceries (including that 1,90 EUR bottle of champagne and some ,90 EUR saucisson sec) and went out the door towel-less.

I was now determined to get a towel that wouldn't break my bank so I headed down rue du temple thinking that I would have to find at least one store on this long and store-laden street that sold towels under 10 EUR. I was right -- after I passed the American Apparel and about 30 jewelry stores, there it was -- "texaffaires: le linge de maison à prix dégriffés." Ah yes, "dégriffé," looked like just about the most beautiful French word I could have found next to "le linge de maison." I walk in and the towels are 7,60. Not good towels, but cheap. "I have triumphed!" I thought, and rewarded myself by continuing some window shopping down the rest of rue du temple.

I went as far as I could but then I ran into a monument (oops!) and hooked a right. Much to my surprise and pleasure there was a Zara and an H&M just waiting for me to faire le lèche-vitrine. I returned home with my victory towel in hand wondering if I couldn't find other cheap stores in my neighborhood.

It was lunchtime and I was looking for a fresh baguette so I walked to the 2 minutes to the centre pompidou and quickly saw a boulangerie with ,85 EUR baguettes fresh out of the oven. I picked one up and started nibbling when I noticed the ED on the corner. When I walked inside, I found prices lower than Monoprix offered and almost frantically grabbed everything I could in my excitement. I realized I had done my grocery shopping earlier and settled myself down a bit, but I kept mental notes of the fabulous prices. Diet coke for ,30 EUR? Yes, please!

When I returned to the apartment, I fixed myself a much needed sandwich with the ingredients that I bought earlier. I washed it all down with an enormous hoegaarden which was actually more expensive than the bottle of champagne, if you can believe it (though both were under 2 EUR). One much needed shower later and I'm just about ready to go out again.

As a side note, I want to point out that my Parisienne friend, Sam, informed me about "Tati" which is apparently THE place to buy cheap things. Thanks to Sam, I wont have to repeat the towel fiasco again.


Damages today thus far:

Towel: 7,65
Groceries: 7,80
Baguette: ,85
Toilet Paper: 1,03