This is my host family. How did I get so lucky?
I had the loveliest day yesterday! I was in the middle of writing this post last night when I was happily interrupted by an unexpected Skype call from Elliot, who I hadn't "seen" since winter break. I bet you can guess what happened next: we chatted until 2am, when I decided it was best to get some shut-eye. Needless to say I didn't finish the post and slept in later than I'd planned on this morning.
What started out kind of slow yesterday morning (I spilled my cashews all over the floor at breakfast, trying to get some protein in my famished stomach - this bread-and-jam thing is not working with my morning-geared metabolism) turned into such a self-indulgent afternoon/evening, in the best of ways.
The lunch of a poor college student. Feel bad for me.
I was feeling a little nervous on my walk to school because I had to prepare a group presentation for today's class, which I had yet to work on... I guess old habits (i.e. procrastination) are hard to kick. After throwing together some slides on the Marais, one of the pockets of Paris, and Wikipedia-ing some dates, we bought croissants for the class as a prize for playing "Qui veut gagner les millions des croissants?" ("Who wants to win a million croissants," instead of "Who wants to be a millionaire..." Honestly, I would be perfectly content with a million croissants. Sounds like a great game show prize).
Anyways, although I hadn't even run through the powerpoint a single time, I decided I'd just wing it. A real test of my language abilities, if I can B.S. in French. We were the last presentation to present, so we sat through presentations on the other quartiers, listening to our peers struggle with the passé composé and pronunciation, it was our turn. It went so well. I felt SO comfortable speaking in French. It was so exciting! At the risk of sounding snobbish, I could really see how much I've improved over my time here by listening to the mistakes of others, recognizing that I'd made those same mistakes only a month ago, but feeling way more confident. I hardly hesitate when speaking. I understand the jokes that the teacher makes that no one else understands. I'm also one of the few who tries to speak French outside of class, when we're out in the courtyard or whatever. A little sad that others aren't trying as hard to immerse themselves, but my stubbornness is paying off.
After class I walked home to greet Mandi, who was patiently waiting for me in the downstairs entrance our apartment building. It's so strange that we never knew each other before Paris. We have so many mutual friends at school and must have been in the same room so many times before. Oh well. Better late than never. We chatted about our lives, how much we love Harvard, our friends, before running to an over-priced Epicerie (everywhere else was closed) to buy ice cream and whipped cream to put on top of the blondies I'd made. Hehe. It was a world away from fancy French cuisine, but sometimes you just need to have ice cream for dinner.
Caught in the act.
After Skype-ing my Dad for his birthday (where Mandi got to here me use yet another language), we embarked on watching feature-length episode of "I Love Lucy" on my laptop, joined by Reid halfway through. We were both craving a girly movie and, as Sophie and Vincent don't have a T.V. and Netflix hasn't yet been brought to France (seriously?), Youtube was our only option. Us poor girls, having to resort to poor internet quality uploads. It was so great, exactly what I needed. Just hangin' out with ma' girls, feeling lots of love in our drafty apartment. We chatted with Vincent for a bit after the episode ended, him cracking ridiculous jokes as always. Soon it was time for them to go home, tiredly taking the Metro all the way North. Which left me to wonder: are people supposed to have lives this good?
I never get tired of this view.
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