January 24th Thursday

I had an alarm set for earlier but I ended up turning it off and getting up at 11:00am. I had been really exhausted before. We all got ourselves dressed and decided to go to the grocery store so that Karuna could get some groceries for the coming days. We walked out to the 6th arrondissement. We decided to go to lunch first and went to a restaurant that serves traditional French cuisine. I tried to order the Salade d’Hiver but the waiter told me that the chevre had run away so I had to order something else. I forget the name of the salad I ordered but it was very interesting. It had green lettuce, house smoked duck breast, gizzards, bacon, and scalloped potatoes on top. I wasn’t sure what to expect because I didn’t understand all of the words on the menu, but it was very good. It was kind of strange having hot potatoes on cold salad but it worked somehow. Our waiter was very funny and treated us well.

After lunch we went to buy groceries at a place called Shopi. It’s slightly more expensive than a Franprix but has more choices. We got a few things for Karuna’s stay. This included ingredients for a quiche as well as some bottles of wine for upcoming visits to friends’ houses.

We walked back home. It was a slightly long walk that lasts about 15 minutes. It only felt long because I had a bag of two wine bottles that felt very heavy. I did manage to stop and collect some more pictures of French door handles though (including one at the Prime Minister’s). We managed to get home and then make plans for the rest of the evening. I talked to Heidi and told her that we were hoping to go to the Indian Quarter that day.

We all met at H&M first. Karuna, Adrienne, and I walked there and it was soon pouring rain on us. We all shopped around a bit. I was excited by all the cheap prices. I bought some cheap eyeshadow there. This made me happy because I’d left all of mine in the states and all the stuff I’d seen in France was ridiculously expensive. We had fun shopping there for a while before heading to dinner.

We took the metro to the Gare du Nord. From here we were able to walk into the Indian Quarter. It was interesting to see the morph of shops. They were selling saris and Indian food. It was an interesting transition. We finally ended up at a restaurant that Karuna knows very well called simply “Ganesha Restaurant”. I ordered the chicken with curry vindalou sauce. It came with a plate full of rice and other food. It had chicken coated in red spices. There was also a yellowish paste that could have been chickpeas. Another was like coleslaw. The final food was similar to spinach casserole in color and texture but had a totally different flavor. We ordered Lassi to drink. It was a yogurt based mango drink. It was delicious. I also ordered thé masalaa which turned out to be like chai. It was all very good. I was extremely hungry so had to keep myself from eating like a fool. We tried to look for an Indian candy store that Karuna knows but everything was closed by then.

We took the metro back home. Karuna was going to meet some friends. Adrienne and I took the metro to the Sèvres Babylone stop and walked home from there. On the way we encountered a crêperie and even in my full state, I couldn’t prevent myself from ordering a crêpe with Nutella. It was absolutely delicious. I felt like my insides were melting in utter pleasure. We also passed a bookstore that was selling postcards out front. I bought some very strange postcards hoping I can keep some and send others to my parents.

When we finally got home I had the sweet tooth going and I ate some nougat that I’d bought at the store the other day. It was the softest I’d had. Quite yummy.

I read online for a bit and then tried to go to sleep. Unfortunately I couldn’t sleep until about 4:00am. I had eaten too much sugar.