January 26th Saturday

I slept in until about 12:00. My breakfast consisted of peach yogurt. I’m still chipping away at my huge amount of yogurts that I bought.

Our plan for the day is to go out to the Chinese Quarter of Paris. While I showered and got ready, Karuna called people to set up our outing.

We took the RER and the metro out to Place d’Italie. We took the 5 line which is above ground part of the way. I wish they all were. It makes for a much prettier ride. We waited for everyone at the Place d’Italie. While we were waiting we were (wow. Lots of Ws) entertained by an older man who was dancing to music in hopes of earning some change. His moves were pretty basic but it still made me smile. I debated paying him some money to have pictures taken of the two of us dancing. Ah well. Maybe next time. According to Amanda he’s there all the time. We finally had all of us gathered. We had Amanda, Heidi, Adrienne, Karuna, her friend Tao, and me. We set off down the street to end at a Vietnamese restaurant. It was called Pho Bánh Cuón 14. We had pho soup for lunch. The one I ordered had beef broth and rice noodles with rare steak. We could also add bean sprouts, lemon, some very spicy red chilies, basil, cilantro, and sauces. I added all of the ingredients at some point. It was very good and similar to the pho in the US with minor differences. I cleaned out my whole bowl. I even broke the French etiquette and picked my bowl up to drink the broth. The price of the soup was also delicious at around €6 for a small.

Then I ordered dessert. I ordered the house dessert with bananas. It was very delicious. Unlike my friends’ desserts, mine was served warm. It was an interesting combination of coconut milk, tapioca balls, and bananas. It was like a Vietnamese banana pudding.

After our bellies were full of pho some broke off to go home while the rest of us continued toward the Asian market. The entrance looked like we were turning into a parking garage until we saw the bright red and gold of the entrance. There was a tented entrance where New Year decorations and candies were being sold. I grabbed some decorations and little stuffed rats. I was born in the year of the rat so I’m excited to celebrate this year. I bought candies that look like golden boats full of coins. We also went into the main part of the market. It was very busy and crowded. I was excited about the prospect of celebrating the New Year so I had to call my parents to check if it had passed yet. After I found out that it was still to come I decided we should have a party at my apartment.

I bought random fun food in the market. I got a can of bubble tea, some wafer cookies, and other snacks. I was glad that I didn’t let myself get anything too heavy. Finally it was just Amanda and me. Everyone else had gone home. We took our big bags with us toward the metro. We had to try many different entrances because I needed to buy a ticket at the window and they only had the turnstiles. On our way from one entrance to another, we smelled this heavenly sweet aroma. We came around the corner of this tent and found two men selling different candy by weight. I couldn’t resist and got myself a small bag of some random things. The most interesting was the candy the size of my fist that looked like a giant strawberry. We collected the things and found an entrance for the metro.

While we were riding toward our different connections, Amanda was guarding her new addition to the household. She bought an orchid at the market for half the price of the others she saw in Paris. She had to keep it from getting crushed.

I finally got home and was able to deposit all my large bags. I snacked on some candy and random food while we discussed and made dinner. Karuna, Adrienne and I made a dinner out of beef patties, rice, and salad.

After dinner Karuna realized that she was supposed to meet up with a friend and had forgotten. She wanted to go visit her. Adrienne and I were interested in meeting her friend and seeing more parts of Paris so we tagged along. We took the RER and the metro out to her friend’s apartment. Her friend is an American named Natalie who’s lived in France since she was young. She is with a French boyfriend named Thibaud. I had to ask how to spell it because it’s pronounced “tee-bo.” The conversation was in French which was a good change of pace. Lots of the students here speak English so I find myself slipping into the more comfortable language. We had a nice conversation and broke into a French bottle of wine that we’d brought with us. It was really nice.

We had to make sure we left with enough time to catch the metro. We left a little after 1:00am. We caught the last train for both legs of our journey. Yay!

When we got home I had a pain au chocolat to tide me over before going to bed. Karuna had a very early flight the next day and packed a bit before going to bed.