lunch at Chinatown Olympiades and bouteillon chez Erik
heh waiting to wake zyfie up in a while. And I just got back too, been out since like 12 odd today?
Let's see, we've all been wanting to have Chinese food for a while, so I was in charge of planning it. I'd found out from Friedrich, one of the German students about a pretty good Chinese restaurant so I wanted to bring the rest there. I looked it up on Google and it had pretty good reviews so that was reassuring!
I'd told everyone to meet at 1pm and not to be late, because the restaurant closes at 3pm. In the end I was the one who was late! I left at 12.15, and I lost my map of paris recently so I had to ask how to get to the metro École Militaire (we're between 2 stations but this was more direct to where I was headed) and I only reached at 1.15! I was worried cuz I had just over 1euro of credits in my phone, and I had invited along also Isabelle, this french girl I had met randomly during lunch on Monday! I had to wait for people to call me cuz I didn't dare use my phone!
I thought that the weather would be nice today since it was sunny the past few days, so I decided to wear my gypsy skirt, and go sockless too cuz the socks wouldn't have matched. BIG mistake. It turned out that it was snowing. *bumps* Although it wasn't flaky white snow, but more of snow pellets. *ouch*ouch* But I wasn't really cold, surprisingly, throughout the day.. until I was given the task of waiting for Roberto at the metro tonight cuz that guy was so late and I was the only one who knew how to get to the residence - Erik had to bring the rest back first. But more about Erik's party later!
Ah about Isabelle! I had gone to school on Monday just to eat (I didn't have classes) and I'd sat opposite her. She was alone, seemed approachable (as opposed to a eating-alone-doesn't-mean-I-want-to-talk-to-you face) so I started talking to her. And it turns out that she was studying Chinese and C Lit! Her school had rented some space at Dauphine so that's why she was having her meals here. It's pretty funny how coincidences work out like this! Some time ago when I was house-hunting, I was lost so I'd approached this french guy for help. He then asked if I spoke Chinese, and proceeded to talk to me in Chinese! When he realized he didn't know the directions either he'd helped me ask this other old lady, and translated back her words to me. It was pretty funny! Anyway, me being me, I'd told her we were planning Chinese some time and invited her along (=
I was pretty busy the whole time at the restaurant though. Cuz it was 16 of us and at first we only had a table for 10. They wouldn't let us merge two large tables so we separated into two groups of 8. But that worked out well because it's so much easier for each group of 8 to decide what to eat together. Still I had to do a lot of advising and translation. Thank goodness I had Isabelle to help me out, since she reads and speaks Chinese and knew about the dishes. And both her and Mariana helped me convince the rest that sharing food was the way to go when it comes to Chinese food! Fortunately for me the restaurant staff were Chinese (as opposed to the one that Roberto and I went, where it was a mix of Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai staff) so I could communicate with them directly, instead of fumbling through English and French. My table ordered quite a lot! Let's see, for the mains we had 2 servings of har kau and siew mai, 3 types of soup noodles (prawn dumplings, char siew, and roasted duck), 1 fried rice (it's called riz cantonais here), 1 rice with roasted pork, 1 mixed meat platter, and HUGE yummy fried prawn dumplings (they were called lobster dumplings but I swear it was prawn, and luckily the prices were prawn dmpling prices) that stole everyone's heart. I'm really lucky that they were pretty game, and even ordered a round of Chinese tea! heh. And for dessert it was preserved ginger slices (I thought it'll be poached ginger but it was still really good) and everyone thought it was interesting. They loved the glutinous rice balls too, and we also had some sort of red bean soup. It was more like red beans in coconut milk though. It was kind of an eye-opener for them because they've only had beans as a savoury dish before, never sweetened as dessert. They were keen on lotus buns and banana fritters but the kitchen was already closed. bleah. Still it was good and we paid like 12.55euros per person. I was so relieved cuz I thought it was gonna be around 20! *phew* the other table made do with mains and ordered less so they only paid 8euros per person! heh.
There was a supermarket downstairs so I bought myself some food - namely Nong Shin Ramen! heh. I didn't want to go back till after Eric's party so I went to Mariana's house with Anna. I ate my noodles and it felt so happy. I haven't had my korean noodles for so long. Out of the pot too (= Had to get some more groccery after that cuz I realized that everything's closed on Sunday. *phew* Belgium waffles coated with chocolate for tomorrow, yay! However I cracked the eggs on my way home from Erik's so )=
Erik was staying at the residence at Porte de Cligancourt. The area was kinda rough but the hostel was amazing. It had individual rooms that came fully equipped with a shower and toilet, in addition to a tiny kitchen and fridge. I really regretted not having put this more expensive one as my first choice when I applied. Still! Money saved now. He was kind enough as to invite all of us over for a bouteillon before going clubbing. I picked up the term from Anna, which refers to drinking at someone else's house before partying, because it's so much cheaper than hitting a bar! And drinks are pretty cheap in France! 9euros odd for a 75cl of vodka is not bad at all!
Heh at first it was just a few of us but then a lot more people came later and it was super crowded. I was so proud of myself for drinking quite a bit of tequila and feeling perfectly all right - until Brian rained on my paradise and said that it was tequila beer so it wasn't that strong. Eh but I took quite a bit of the caipiroska, and those two crazy brazilians kept pouring in vodka into the bowl randomly. Oh we drank from the huge mixing bowl because we didn't have enough cups! And then caipiroska became the initiation rites cuz we went around getting everyone in the room to drink up and take a photo. I'm too lazy to reach for my camera to upload now though x=
Anna, Mariana, Roberto, Janire, and Gonzaga shared 3 bottles of drinks and chips. The tortilla chips really came in useful cuz some ppl hadn't eaten! And Cleopatra brought awesome tiramisu! I haven't had tiramisu in each a long time! Heh Erik really had barely enough utensils though! Mariana and Gonzaga had to go out and get some plastic cups so we can mix the other drinks, and Vanessa lent us her spoons too.
Some ppl got pretty drunk though! By the time we left, Roberto was pretty tipsy and I had to slap him a few times to sober him a little. Though the effect only lasted for like 5 minutes? Greg was way worse, and don't even get me started on the rubbish he was uttering the other day after the Erasmus welcome. gah.
I'm really liking how my group of friends are working out. Hmm I made a phone tree the other day (cuz it was crazy making sure we got everybody informed of outings, and quite a load on our phone bills for me, Roberto and Ania!) and someone commented (joked, I hope) if it was just for the "included" people. I really hope we don't give that kind of impression and frankly, our group just expands forever. Like today, there were a whole lot more people that I expected cuz we just brought more friends along. The rest are planning for Amsterdam during the winter hols and as much as I'm a little wistful about not going, I'm really glad for them! Especially that they finally started to work things out properly d=
Let's see, we've all been wanting to have Chinese food for a while, so I was in charge of planning it. I'd found out from Friedrich, one of the German students about a pretty good Chinese restaurant so I wanted to bring the rest there. I looked it up on Google and it had pretty good reviews so that was reassuring!
I'd told everyone to meet at 1pm and not to be late, because the restaurant closes at 3pm. In the end I was the one who was late! I left at 12.15, and I lost my map of paris recently so I had to ask how to get to the metro École Militaire (we're between 2 stations but this was more direct to where I was headed) and I only reached at 1.15! I was worried cuz I had just over 1euro of credits in my phone, and I had invited along also Isabelle, this french girl I had met randomly during lunch on Monday! I had to wait for people to call me cuz I didn't dare use my phone!
I thought that the weather would be nice today since it was sunny the past few days, so I decided to wear my gypsy skirt, and go sockless too cuz the socks wouldn't have matched. BIG mistake. It turned out that it was snowing. *bumps* Although it wasn't flaky white snow, but more of snow pellets. *ouch*ouch* But I wasn't really cold, surprisingly, throughout the day.. until I was given the task of waiting for Roberto at the metro tonight cuz that guy was so late and I was the only one who knew how to get to the residence - Erik had to bring the rest back first. But more about Erik's party later!
Ah about Isabelle! I had gone to school on Monday just to eat (I didn't have classes) and I'd sat opposite her. She was alone, seemed approachable (as opposed to a eating-alone-doesn't-mean-I-want-to-talk-to-you face) so I started talking to her. And it turns out that she was studying Chinese and C Lit! Her school had rented some space at Dauphine so that's why she was having her meals here. It's pretty funny how coincidences work out like this! Some time ago when I was house-hunting, I was lost so I'd approached this french guy for help. He then asked if I spoke Chinese, and proceeded to talk to me in Chinese! When he realized he didn't know the directions either he'd helped me ask this other old lady, and translated back her words to me. It was pretty funny! Anyway, me being me, I'd told her we were planning Chinese some time and invited her along (=
I was pretty busy the whole time at the restaurant though. Cuz it was 16 of us and at first we only had a table for 10. They wouldn't let us merge two large tables so we separated into two groups of 8. But that worked out well because it's so much easier for each group of 8 to decide what to eat together. Still I had to do a lot of advising and translation. Thank goodness I had Isabelle to help me out, since she reads and speaks Chinese and knew about the dishes. And both her and Mariana helped me convince the rest that sharing food was the way to go when it comes to Chinese food! Fortunately for me the restaurant staff were Chinese (as opposed to the one that Roberto and I went, where it was a mix of Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai staff) so I could communicate with them directly, instead of fumbling through English and French. My table ordered quite a lot! Let's see, for the mains we had 2 servings of har kau and siew mai, 3 types of soup noodles (prawn dumplings, char siew, and roasted duck), 1 fried rice (it's called riz cantonais here), 1 rice with roasted pork, 1 mixed meat platter, and HUGE yummy fried prawn dumplings (they were called lobster dumplings but I swear it was prawn, and luckily the prices were prawn dmpling prices) that stole everyone's heart. I'm really lucky that they were pretty game, and even ordered a round of Chinese tea! heh. And for dessert it was preserved ginger slices (I thought it'll be poached ginger but it was still really good) and everyone thought it was interesting. They loved the glutinous rice balls too, and we also had some sort of red bean soup. It was more like red beans in coconut milk though. It was kind of an eye-opener for them because they've only had beans as a savoury dish before, never sweetened as dessert. They were keen on lotus buns and banana fritters but the kitchen was already closed. bleah. Still it was good and we paid like 12.55euros per person. I was so relieved cuz I thought it was gonna be around 20! *phew* the other table made do with mains and ordered less so they only paid 8euros per person! heh.
There was a supermarket downstairs so I bought myself some food - namely Nong Shin Ramen! heh. I didn't want to go back till after Eric's party so I went to Mariana's house with Anna. I ate my noodles and it felt so happy. I haven't had my korean noodles for so long. Out of the pot too (= Had to get some more groccery after that cuz I realized that everything's closed on Sunday. *phew* Belgium waffles coated with chocolate for tomorrow, yay! However I cracked the eggs on my way home from Erik's so )=
Erik was staying at the residence at Porte de Cligancourt. The area was kinda rough but the hostel was amazing. It had individual rooms that came fully equipped with a shower and toilet, in addition to a tiny kitchen and fridge. I really regretted not having put this more expensive one as my first choice when I applied. Still! Money saved now. He was kind enough as to invite all of us over for a bouteillon before going clubbing. I picked up the term from Anna, which refers to drinking at someone else's house before partying, because it's so much cheaper than hitting a bar! And drinks are pretty cheap in France! 9euros odd for a 75cl of vodka is not bad at all!
Heh at first it was just a few of us but then a lot more people came later and it was super crowded. I was so proud of myself for drinking quite a bit of tequila and feeling perfectly all right - until Brian rained on my paradise and said that it was tequila beer so it wasn't that strong. Eh but I took quite a bit of the caipiroska, and those two crazy brazilians kept pouring in vodka into the bowl randomly. Oh we drank from the huge mixing bowl because we didn't have enough cups! And then caipiroska became the initiation rites cuz we went around getting everyone in the room to drink up and take a photo. I'm too lazy to reach for my camera to upload now though x=
Anna, Mariana, Roberto, Janire, and Gonzaga shared 3 bottles of drinks and chips. The tortilla chips really came in useful cuz some ppl hadn't eaten! And Cleopatra brought awesome tiramisu! I haven't had tiramisu in each a long time! Heh Erik really had barely enough utensils though! Mariana and Gonzaga had to go out and get some plastic cups so we can mix the other drinks, and Vanessa lent us her spoons too.
Some ppl got pretty drunk though! By the time we left, Roberto was pretty tipsy and I had to slap him a few times to sober him a little. Though the effect only lasted for like 5 minutes? Greg was way worse, and don't even get me started on the rubbish he was uttering the other day after the Erasmus welcome. gah.
I'm really liking how my group of friends are working out. Hmm I made a phone tree the other day (cuz it was crazy making sure we got everybody informed of outings, and quite a load on our phone bills for me, Roberto and Ania!) and someone commented (joked, I hope) if it was just for the "included" people. I really hope we don't give that kind of impression and frankly, our group just expands forever. Like today, there were a whole lot more people that I expected cuz we just brought more friends along. The rest are planning for Amsterdam during the winter hols and as much as I'm a little wistful about not going, I'm really glad for them! Especially that they finally started to work things out properly d=