February 14th Thursday

We had decided to go to the Carte de Séjour office again now that we had all of our documents. I got up at 8:30am and had some cereal. I felt like I was the walking dead. Adrienne and I split up to do separate things. Adrienne went to the school to make copies of our letters for the Carte de Séjour. I ran to the post office to pick up my mail. The morning was cold and foggy. We haven’t had many mornings that foggy. I could see my breath puffing out as I walked. I made it to the post office and got my letter. It was a piece of mail from the bank that they needed me to sign for. I went and took the metro to the Sèvres-Babylone stop and waited for Adrienne to join me. It was my first time using the ticket and I ended up having to get a new one because I had demagnetized it. Luckily I’d already put my picture over Amanda’s in the little card that comes with it.

I met up with Adrienne on the metro and we headed to the office. Sadly, we’d been so slow getting ready and doing our other errands that we didn’t get to the office until 11:00. There was a line out the door and the hours said it would only be open until noon. We realized we couldn’t make it in so we decided to do it the next day. I stomped off and threw a mini tantrum because I had gotten up early for nothing. I just felt so tired! Of course, there was always the Franprix right there to cheer me up. We bought some groceries there which included pasta, rice, sauces, spices, and peach candy.

We carried it back on the metro and got home. I cooked up some of my Parisian mixture for lunch. Then I went online and researched how I could bake two whole chickens. I’d only ever worked with chicken breasts before. I also emailed my mom to see what advice she had.

I did a quick cleaning of the apartment to make sure it would be ready for our guests. I swept the floors and put away all of my things.

Then it was time. I rinsed the chickens and placed them on the baking pan. I then cut up an onion and stuffed it in the cavities. I used our typical Thanksgiving trick and rubbed olive oil over them to help the spices stick. We don’t have many spices so I used what we had. I seasoned them with pepper, salt, garlic, and paprika. I popped them in the oven and went to take a shower.

While in the shower, I heard Karuna arrive. She had just flown in from Spain. I said hi to her once I was out and dressed. Then I set about making our side dishes. I made garlic mashed potatoes from scratch. We had some frozen carrot slices that I heated up in some butter. I also prepared the spinach we had for a salad.

The chickens were done and I cut into them just to make sure they were cooked. When I pierced the skin, a bunch of juices poured out. They’d been wrapped so tight with string from the store, it held in all the juice. I placed them aside with some tented foil to keep them warm until Heidi showed up.

She eventually did and we set the table. I had bought two bottles of red wine called Passion Vin Pour Deux. We dug into our meals. It turned out amazing! I was so glad that everything worked out. I was worried about my timing but things stayed hot. After dinner we had some cookies and our chocolate hearts. The hearts turned out to be hollow with little fruit gels inside.

As we finished dinner, Karuna left. Heidi stayed and we started talking Valentine’s talk. We traded stories about the most romantic thing a guy’s ever done for us. It was fun to relive those cute memories. We were briefly interrupted when M. Choupin dropped by with the bank forms that he’d signed. It was nice to have the final forms for the bank accounts.

We talked a bit longer with Heidi about the uprising we’d had in class the other day. It was pretty funny to talk about the differences we’d noticed. Heidi had to leave a little after midnight to catch the metro.

It was late and I decided not to go to the prefecture the next morning. I could go the next week. I got online and got to talk to my brother. I don’t get to talk to him very often so it’s nice when I do.

We went to bed around 3:00am.