Today was my second day in Paris and it happened to also be Christmas Eve. It was nice because I stayed relatively busy walking all over Paris, which was necessary. But I mentioned my family a lot and I am sure my friends were getting rather annoyed. Everyone will get a kick out of this at home. This morning when I got up I really had to go to the bathroom (and thus had to walk down the hall since my friend shares a communal bathroom) but couldn’t unlock his door from the inside. I ended up having to climb out his window (since he lives on the first floor and his window basically opens on to the courtyard). I just had to because I had to go so bad and didn’t want to have an accident. But it was so embarrassing, the whole time I prayed that a French person wouldn’t come out and see me climbing out of his window. I made it to the bathroom and took his key with me and opened it from the outside, which is much easier. After about twenty minutes of tinkering I was able to open it from the inside too, so thank god I won’t have to do that again.
The most EXCITING piece of news today is that I accomplished a life goal of mine (no joke, I am serious). Today I ate French oysters in Paris, and it felt wonderful. They were brine-y and delicious (as my dad pointed out they would tasted different then Kumamoto, the ones in San Francisco that I am use to, but they were still great). They guy at the oyster stall told me that I should have them with lemon or some type of sauce but I just had the straight, just the way I like them. They were rather hard to open but Jonathan came to my rescue and opened them for me! I’m pretty sure that Jonathan and Greyson thought I was absolutely nuts when I told them that it was my dream to eat oysters in Paris, but it really made my day (slash my life!). It will definitely be a memory I’ll never forget… sitting on the steps down to Jonathans apartment, hearing some children talking and playing in French over the wall next to his building, sitting in the courtyard and enjoying the slight sunshine on a winter day in Paris, and eating yummy, earthy oysters.
Ok so I just had to get that out of the way and tell those who know about this lifetime aspiration of mine, I wont babble on about oysters any longer I promise. This morning I woke up a bit later then I had hoped but I was out the door by 11 and met Greyson and Jonathan down by Saint Michel. We walked around for a bit then stopped in a café for lunch. I got some toasted baguette with country pâté on it. Then we walked around for a bit longer then went to Daryl (Jonathan’s brother)’s flat to pick him up so that we could go Christmas shopping at the market by Jonathan’s flat.
These are pictures from Daryl's flat...
The market by Jonathan’s house usually is there so its not just a Christmas thing but there were a lot of people out shopping for Christmas and such and everything was done up a bit festively. There where meat stalls with whole baby pigs and chickens still with there heads and feathers (somewhat to the horror of Greyson) but I think if I ever had a well set up kitchen near by and had access to those kind of ingredients I wouldn’t let the opportunity pass me by since they are so fresh. There was also a cheese shop that filled the air with the smell of cheese (sooo good) and we got a couple kinds for Christmas tomorrow. There was also a vegetable stand where I got some fruit for myself (persimmons, figs and lychee) and the old man that was there poked fun at me and my lack of French but he was cute and sweet and gave me some cherries for free. I also bought a bit of marzipan for a Christmas morning treat. We then proceeded to buy me my oysters (sorry I mentioned theme again) with the help of Jonathan interpreting (again to the horror of all three of them who couldn’t believe I was going to eat them). All three of the boys (Daryl, Jonathan and Greyson) and I proceeded to walk back to Jonathans flat and drop our stuff of (and I then ate my oysters) and we had a bit of a rest.
Pictures of the building where Jonathan's flat is (and where I am staying) In the first picture in the left corner you can kind of see the window I climbed out of this morning...
Pictures from the market and me enjoying my oysters....
Daryl went back to his flat to get some work done but Greyson, Jonathan and I went and walked around town and had some drinks. The first bar we went to was in a really touristy street and was cute, but scared me because whenever someone ordered a cocktail they lit a sparkler inside and brought it to them (oh those crazy French).
Pictures of us walking around and Notre Dame... (the last one is my attempt at taking a picture of the cocktail sparkler indoors at a bar...)
Needless to say it was an adventure, he and I decided to walk all the way back to Saint Michel passing Notre Dame one last time. It was actually really cool because the square was packed with people trying to get in for mass and there were police everywhere trying to keep things orderly. We kind of got lost on our way back but Greyson’s Italian skills and my Spanish skills (and my propencity to ask strangers for directions) got us back to the station in time to catch out trains since the trains closed from what I could tell thirty minutes early since it was the holiday season.
On the train an old French couple wished me a merry Christmas in French. I couldn’t answer them but knew what they were saying and wished them a merry Christmas in English, which made them smile. I’m finally at home laying in bed and want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas Eve! I miss you all and hope you all are doing well! My skype will be on all night so please call me if you want to exchange Christmas wishes (tomorrow I am getting up early and walking with Greyson). Drink some hot chocolate or hot buttered rum for me tonight!
Xoxo
Glatty
No comments:
Post a Comment