le 7 mai
Well, my weekend has already been awesome, and it's only Saturday afternoon! On Thursday, which was Cinco de Mayo, we went to a delicious burrito takeout place for dinner and hung out along the Canal St. Martin in the 10th. Then yesterday morning Hannah and I met at the crack of dawn to go to our medical examinations, so late in the semester because OFII forgot our program existed. Way to be, French medical system. Anyway, this examination was awkward because we had to be toplessly x-rayed for pulmonary diseases. Cool times. We got through that in a surprisingly efficient hour and a half (and got to keep our x-rays... yay?), and then Hannah, Caroline and I went out to a second breakfast because we are hobbits. Then last night was the API Easter party -- or according to Delphine, who doesn't know English very well but sends us adorable emails nonetheless, the "Easter's party." There were great homemade dinner dishes and desserts, live music (Jules' falsetto continues to be amazing), and a quiz on French culture and history that Delphine had prepared. After about seven tie-breaker questions, Will and my team won! Our prize was a box of chocolates that we wound up sharing with everyone anyway, so that was nice.
Then we came back to the dorm and hung out in the kitchen for awhile before going out at midnight. Elena, Rachel and Hannah all have friends here, so there were nine of us. We went to the Long Hop and danced to the awesome mix of '90s music there until 1:30, at which point they closed (much too early) and we headed to Le Violon Dingue (the Crazy Violin). At first it was kind of rowdy and people kept dropping drinks and at one point my sandals got beer on them, but whatever. They have now been officially broken in. Rachel and I were then courted by two of the sweetest French guys I have met since being in Paris. The one I was talking to was named Julien, and he is 24 and an engineer. We talked about accents, comedians, geography, school, and a wide array of other topics in mostly French but a little English and even Spanish when Rachel's friend Erika came over and said she'd just been in Spain. That bar closed at around 4 and the guys offered to walk us to wherever we were going (seriously, so gentlemanly). We took the Noctilien (night bus) home from Notre Dame and got back at almost 5. Then I slept until 1:30 and woke up to a market outside that stretches the length of the street in front of my dorm.
Dear Paris, please never stop being fun-filled. Love, Lindsey.