Busy Little Birthday Bee

In place of working on the scholarship essay I should be writing, I am going to inform all of you what I’ve been up to the past week or so, as blogs are a little more off the top of the head and less stressful than real essays.

As you may or may not know, it was my birthday on the 8th, also known as last Thursday. Somewhat like my experience with Christmas, it didn’t exactly feel like my birthday on Thursday, but I was plagued by feelings of homesickness nonetheless. Basically just a weird feeling, which I should be getting used to by now, as even sometimes I walk around and ask myself if I really realize I’ve been living in Paris for the last 6ish months. That’s beside the point. I know you’re all eager to hear me list off what I did, so here it goes.

For lunch, Victor and I got some tasty and pretty cheap Indian food on Montmartre. A dog in the restaurant spilled a bowl of water the owner gave it to drink from. I resisted my urge to also spill the contents of my plate over the floor to see what treatment I would get compared to the dog, but after realizing that humans are rational beings and are held accountable for their actions, I held off. Actually, that thought never crossed my mind, I just needed a way to make the paragraph more interesting than simply saying I got Indian food, as even though I had a lot of fun, nothing adventurous or exciting happened so it seems boring writing it down. Anyways…

Rotary, being the great and caring organization they are, decided to organize a concert at the Sorbonne (oldest and most famous university in Paris) for my birthday. Or actually that’s probably more like on my birthday. It was a classical concert, and I learned the lesson that it’s better to be over dressed than under dressed in these situations, after taking ‘wear your rotary blazer’ to mean that it wasn’t too formal, I decided to wear jeans and then felt awkward the entire time. Lesson learned. Afterwards my Rotary counselor took me out to the oldest Parisian restaurant, Le Procope, which was founded in 1686. I tried a French culinary specialty, Tartare, which is raw, spiced meat. On the plate, it looks similar to pre-cooked hamburger meat, but in the mouth it tastes lovely. I’m sure you can find disgusting Tartare in France, but I figured at a classy restaurant they wouldn’t screw up too bad and thus give me food poisoning. I was right (as in them not screwing up), and the night was great with the meal ending at 1 in the morning after I had great discussion with my host counselors friends about topics ranging from the politics of the young to the War in Iraq.

I spent a total of probably 4-5 hours in cafés on Friday. After school some friends and I went to one, then went to a movie, Molière (about the famous French playwright) a few hours later. After the movie, we walked to another café where my friends surprised me with a cake for my birthday. I couldn’t stop smiling. To think that these people that I’ve known for less than 6 months would do something so loving to make me feel a little more at home gave me goose bumps. It was a good night.

Victor and I met up on Saturday afternoon and he took me out to a Japanese restaurant where we shared great food as well as great conversation. I proceeded to then kick it at my house, as I knew it would be my last calm night for a while.

I woke up Sunday and warmed up my cold pizza I had asked my host dad to save for me, which he found extremely bizarre, and then met my friend Brittney (exchange student in Beauvais) as she was meeting some of her exchange students in Paris to explore the catacombs. Her friends turned out to be amazing, and we proceeded to have an equally amazing day. First was the catacombs where we joked about the excess of bones and bone dust and were loud to the chagrin of Anna. After winding our way through over a mile of dark, bone infested, underground tunnel, we emerged to a gorgeous day. While walking by an outdoor market street, we had the wonderful idea to have a picnic. In true French fashion, this picnic consisted of two bottles of wine, 10 euros worth of cheese, chicken and 4 baguettes. We ate in a beautiful park all scrunched on a bench and reveled in our Frenchness. Some of us (and although I’m not going to name any names, I’ll specify that it wasn’t me) reveled a wee bit too much in the wine aspect of the Frenchness for our own good, which provided some entertainment for the rest of us during the remainder of the day, which consisted of exploring the famous cemetery Père Lachaise and spending some quality time in a café. So, Leah, Anna, Taylor, and Brittney, thank you guys so much for one of the most amazing Parisian days I’ve had.

Have I emphasized enough how thankful I am for the church I am a part of? On Monday night, three of my best friends from the church, Paul, Taro, and Andrew threw a little birthday celebration for me. Taro brought a cake with 19 candles, “not enough” according to one of Paul’s roommates. This was my second inadvertent compliment about my apparent age this weekend, the other coming at the catacombs where I was carded to see if I was under 26 so I could qualify for the youth price. We had some aperitifs there, then meandered over to Chez Justine where we had an incredible dinner filled with wine, laughter, and good food. These are some of the most amazing guys I’ve ever met, and again I was so touched by their efforts to make my birthday away from home special. So, Taro, Paul, and Andrew, thank you guys so much.

Well that wraps up this week in review. I leave Friday for my seven day bus trip through Southern France and Spain, which I cannot stop thinking about. So I don’t know when my next blog will be up, but it will be filled (hopefully) with adventurous stories and glorious pictures.

Much Love,

Brent