Coming together

So on Saturday night, the locksmith FINALLY fixed the lock. He was 4 hours late. That's the way things work in France...

But it was samedi soir, and we had to go out! Me and my roommates were kind of late leaving the internet cafe, so we tried to meet up with NYU people at an apartment in our arrondissement to pre-game. Obviously, by the time we figured out which direction we were walking, they had moved to a bar called O CUB3. When I got the text, I was like WTF, how drunk are they? But no.

So when we finally arrive at O CUB3, we order deliciously strong drinks for 6 euro and join our little NYU group--there were probably 10 or 15 of us taking over the bar? But of course as soon as we sit down and get comfortable, a woman jumps out from behind the bar and runs around the place ringing a bell: "Ferme! Ferme!" The bar closed just as we got there. So we chugged our drinks and are about to leave when these random guys ask me if I want a shot of vodka. They're holding a tray of about 10, so I'm like only if my friends can have them too! They were delicious--mine was super sweet. So we introduced ourselves to  the guys, thanked them for the shots, and then ran out the door to catch up with our friends.

Surprisingly, most of the people wanted to go home at that point. I guess we had joined the party a little late. A group of us were still down though, so we notice a sign that says "Discotheque" and immediately walk up to the door. I'm the first one, and the bouncers says to me in French "You know this is an African club, right?" Ha. No, we didn't. He was definitely implying that we shouldn't go in because we wouldn't fit in. Oh well. We decide to just follow all the lights, and hope for something good.

Turns out the lights are the Moulin Rouge! There's a bunch of places that look promising in the neighborhood, and we end up at this random swanky lounge, and order some beers. It had very interesting decorations downstairs:

We're chilling and having a good time (even though our group is smaller and smaller.

Then this guy, who's pretty cute (he has this dark Mediterranean look) comes up to Maria--I guess he had seen her downstairs. He asks if he and his friends could sit with us (at this point it's just us 3 roommates--Maria and Liz and me). That's what great about Paris/France--American guys would be way too cool to do that! We say yes and start talking to them. The cuter guy has two friends as well, who are definitely less cute but super nice. I talk to one in French the whole time! I'm so proud of myself. But eventually they're tired, so the cute guy asks me and Maria for our phone numbers, and they leave. We ask them where we can go dancing, and they tell us to go to the red door a couple doors down.

We follow their advice, and wait in line for this club. It's taking a while and we start getting tired. We're about to turn around and just go home when this group of guys comes up and and asks us if we can go in with them. They seem nice enough, so I said as long as you can get us in quickly! We find out that they're international--Italian, Swiss, British, etc. Random. They do get us inside relatively quickly, where we proceed to ditch them? Maybe on accident or maybe on purpose, I was kind of drunk at this point so I couldn't tell how we lost them. The second bouncer inside the club tells us its 16 euros to get in, but there's a free club downstairs. So we head downstairs and find that it's a crazyyyy hardcore techno club. Way too intense for us. So we call it a night.

Sunday we wake up and the lady comes and FINALLY cleans our apartment. It's much more livable now, and we can actually appreciate the fact that it's huge and not covered in trash. It's funny how we totally overlooked that the first time around. (Pics of the apartment to come!) But alas, still no internet and not a lot of hot water.

After the lady cleaned our apartment, I went for a run. Which was an interesting experience. I had seen a couple guys running on the street, but no girls. I figured it was okay, but I got SO many stares and some catcalls, even though I was just wearing a t-shirt and regular shorts--not even Lululemon booty shorts! I felt so uncomfortable, but it was nice to move around. I went all around, and even found my way back to the Moulin Rouge. To date, I have seen two girls running on the streets, and probably about 10 guys. I must go to yoga soon...All this pain and beurre is getting to me for sure.

Sunday night ends with some wine and chilling. A girl in the program, Carla, came over with her brother and hung out with me and my roommates. It was good to hang out and get to know people a bit more.

Monday was a stupid scavenger hunt in the morning, a weirdly long lunch break (as usual, NYU is not very organized). In the afternoon, we had academic orientation. I think I might have to take a dreaded French class where I actually learn French--I thought I could avoid it and just finish my minor with "French History and Culture" and classes like that. Oh well. BUT I did decide to take a class at the Sciences Po, the Harvard/MIT of France. It's called "Globalization, the State, and Financial Marets", and I'll attend lectures at the Science Po. And then there's an NYU professor who I meet with to discuss the class, and who assigns me work and grades me and stuff. So as long as I can understand the lectures okay, it should be pretty sweet.

This morning, I started by meeting my friend Anne at the Science Po to try to figure out when the class would be. The French don't even post the class times online--you have to go to the hallway of the school and look. Ridiculous. But of course, only the classes that started this week were posted, and the ones that started later wouldn't be posted till next week. Not that I even know when my class would start. Ha.

As luck would have it,  the Sciences Po is right next to AMAZING shopping. My friend Anne had decided to get some Louboutins for her date with un homme francais on Thursday, and we went into the store. It was pretty divine. I tried on a pair, and I am pretty convinced that by the end of my stay I will have to spend the majority of my shopping budget on some. They're way cheaper here, even after the euro conversion, and you can get tax back. For sure worth the investment.

I go back to campus to try to work on the internet situation, buy a book for my class, and grab a delicious sandwich. The NYU woman who deals with this stuff is so nice, but we basically figured out that our landlady has lost her mind. She gave us all the info for the internet account that was opened and closed in 2009. Not helpful. So perhaps there's another account that she can just reactivate, but essentially she's LOST HER MIND and that's why the apartment has been in disarray. She's supposed to call and reactivate the account tomorrow, but I can only hope that tomorrow I'll actually have internet in my apartment...

Then this afternoon was my first day of the "Preliminary Course" that we take. It's 2 credits, 4 hours a day for 8 days. I was expecting something dreadful, but it was 2 hours of writing and 2 hours of speaking. The book we're reading doesn't seem to bad, and I only have to read 20 pages tonight. And my speaking professor just worked with us on our accents in a really humorous way. so it's all good. Life shouldn't be too bad for the next couple weeks. 

Then with a grumbling stomach, me and Maria get on the metro. There were strikes today, so only 1/3 of the trains were running. It wasn't too bad in the morning, but I have never been SO packed in a subway. And then the transfer station was ABSURD. We decided it was faster to walk, because were gonna have to wait for like at least 4 trains.

Then Maria and I stopped at the grocery store for food on the way home. Eating out all the time is getting expensive, as delicious as it may be. And I got the most AMAZING figs. They were huge. Things are just better here.

At the Cafe with internet now...my homework for tonight is to read 20 pages in one book. And also to find 5 French words with 5 syllables, 4 with 4, and 3 with 3. I somehow managed to get a class that has significantly less homework than everyone else so far. So there's a silver lining there.