Just some kids in Paris

I’ve had a really nice past couple of days. Jan’s been here – he left this morning – and even though he wasn’t here for long it was really fun to be together in Paris, rather than in Cambridge. He, Reid and I would often have meals together back at school, so it was a little weird (but completely wonderful) to be, say, sharing a baguette in the Jardin du Luxembourg, rather than dining under the beams of Annenberg. We did a lot of tourist-y things together (read: Eiffel Tower, Le Louvre, ice cream at Bertillon, an attempt at the catacombs…) and, naturally, took lots of pictures. 

Last night was lovely. The three of us went to a Lebanese restaurant for a very non-French but very enjoyable dinner (Side note: I never thought I would say it, but I have had my fill of bread. Laree, try not to be too shocked. I honestly can’t wait just to have vegetables from the farmer’s market and freshly picked blueberries. Oh, and peanut butter. I have restrained myself from buying any here but I’m craving it badly.) Mind you, Jan just came from spending two months in Egypt, so he speaks Arabic pretty well. The benefits of this in Paris? He was able to bargain with the server in Arabic to get us a better deal on a bottle of wine. Meanwhile, Reid and I spoke to the server in French. It was such a mélange of languages, I loved it. Jan and I have had obviously different cultural experiences with studying abroad this summer, but similar experiences with learning the language, so he can relate a lot to what I’m going through. We sat there, talking about cultural stereotypes and politics over hommous and salade de fruits, interjecting with words from our native or learned languages to explain things that English couldn’t quite cover. Honestly, it doesn’t get better than that for me. The first night he was here he had dinner chez nous with some of Sophie and Vincent’s friends, so he was fully thrown into French conversation, despite never having taken a French class. He knows Spanish so he could often follow the gist, which was impressive. Sophie knows German, so sometimes she would translate in German instead of English. And Vincent – well, Vincent is always full of surprises. Not only could he throw out a few German words, but he knew also some Arabic slang. I spoke in French almost the whole time, except when he needed translating. When I have conversations like that, I feel so happy to be here, to have this opportunity, to feel like a more well educated global citizen, simply because learning a language teaches you about the culture. And then Reid, Jan and I of course get along so well so naturally we laughed a lot last night. It made me quite excited for the fall.

Then we walked along the Seine to the Louvre, took some bizarre pictures by night, and got on the Métro to go our separate ways for the night. I met up with him this morning for a quick coffee at a café before saying goodbye to him. Funny, I never in a million years would have thought when I met him this past fall that we would be seeing each other in Paris, but that’s Harvard for ya. It’s a very small world, indeed.