May 10th Saturday

I woke up at 12:45pm to the sound of my phone. After some searching, I found the phone and discovered I’d gotten a text from Amanda asking me if we wanted to go see the continuation of the Europe Day celebration with her. I did so I started getting ready. I had 4 of my frozen ham and cheese crêpes before showering and getting dressed. Adrienne and I took the metro to the Hôtel de Ville and met Amanda. It was a lot of fun. The weather was sunny and warm so it was nice to be outside. We went to the booths/tents surrounding the square to collect various pamphlets and posters. Some places had food from member states. We liked the slogan for Slovenia. They had shirts that said “I feel Slovenia.” We went to one tent where there was a talk with various EU ambassadors discussing France’s upcoming presidency to the EU. There were two crazy guys that wandered in and started yelling things at the speakers. You can’t have a meeting in a public place without a few crazy people.

We collected some EU tote bags and flags and then decided it was getting pretty warm. We went to the nearby Quick restaurant to grab some burgers. I had the Suprême cheese with a coca light and fries. We sat upstairs to eat and it was really hot there. There wasn’t any air conditioning in the building and the customers were cooking as fast as the burgers.

After lunch (even though it was closer to dinner time) we walked back home. The weather was very pleasant and nice to walk home in. Once back at the apartment, I talked to my parents and my brother on Skype. After, I planned the rest of the night. The other people in the program were meeting at the Champ de Mars by the Eiffel Tour and then heading to a club called Showcase.

Adrienne and I went by the RER at 9:57pm to the Champ de Mars with a bottle of wine in hand. There was a fairly large group from our class there. The grass was packed with other young people enjoying one of the first warm nights of the season. We sat on a few blankets and ignored the men trying to sell wine out of backpacks. We got to hang out in front of the Eiffel Tower and drink wine. It was the most amazing spot to just hang out and drink I’d ever been. People started oooing and ahhhing at the sparkling lights. Eventually, some of us had to go to the bathroom and this was a very bad spot to have to pee. There weren’t any toilets in sight except for one or two very stinky public toilets. I went with Violetta and Christine in search of a place to take care of business. We ended up going into a nearby bar where they let us use the toilet for a few centimes. It was great relief.

We made our way back to the group and eventually, everyone got ready to either go to the club or go home. We took two taxis to the club and the fare was about €5.80. We got to the club after 1:00am. The people there were Amanda, Jeannette, Manu, Tobias, Adrienne, and me. Showcase is a very interesting club. It’s actually located under a bridge. The bridge is the Pont Alexandre III which is the one with fancy gold statues on it. The club is under the north side of the bridge. It was €10 to get in. The club looked interesting because the architecture tried to keep with the bridge style. There were plenty of colorful lights. The music was a little strange but we all danced anyway. We stayed for quite some time. The club was rather crowded and we lost each other before finding one another again.

Eventually we decided to leave and head home. Luckily, Adrienne and I lived within walking distance of the club so we didn’t have to worry about if the metro was running. We all walked to the nearest bus station and we waited until the others caught a bus. Then we walked home.
I was feeling a bit hungry so I had a yogurt before getting ready for bed. I finally was able to get to sleep around 6:00am.