May 17th Saturday (photo album)

Today was a very busy and fun day. It started at 9:30am when Jacques called me. Adrienne and I had been looking for possible apartments to move into at the end of June. Amanda and Casey would both be leaving then so we showed interest in their apartment. The call from Jacques was telling us that we got the apartment. When Amanda originally started living there the rent was €990 per month. Then, as the landlord got to know her, the rent was lowered to €900. I asked him how much the rent was going to be and he said “Well what did Amanda tell you?” I told him that she said she paid €900. He said “Yes. That is what it will be.” When we hung up, I turned to Adrienne and we both got excited over the fact that I’d saved us €90 a month on rent. Actually, most of the credit is due to Amanda who got the reduction in the first place. Thanks to her we could slide in at the cheaper rate.

I fell back asleep and got up at noon. I had some fruit cereal and then got ready for the day.

I met Amanda at Sciences Po. Today was the day that they opened up the sale of tickets for the Gala. We were the first in line for the non-BDE group members. We waited in line with our CVs on flash drives. We saw a bunch of other students there. We saw Jeannette in line as well as some others from the program. We all requested to be seated at the same table. We even had to fill out questionnaires on where our interests lie so they could seat us better.

I bought tickets to both the soirée and the dinner. It was €65. I was hoping it would be worth it. I was getting excited thinking about dressing up and going to an amazing dinner.

Amanda and I walked to my apartment after buying tickets. Emeric was hosting a barbecue at his house later and I needed to get some things before then. I gathered my things and we said hi to Adrienne. She wasn’t going to the Gala so she didn’t need to go get tickets. We looked at some of my pictures on my computer that I hadn’t put online yet before going on the metro to Amanda’s place.

We got to Amanda’s and went to the Shopi near the metro station to get ingredients for lunch and for the cookies we were taking to the barbecue. It’s hard to find all of the ingredients for chocolate chip cookies in the French grocery stores but we found some stuff that would at least make good substitutes.

I was helping Casey make lunch while Amanda ran out for more stuff and she got caught in a very sudden and very heavy downpour. She was only outside for a minute but when she came back in she was soaked. It was strange weather. The storm dispersed as quickly as it had gathered.

For lunch we had salad with ham and couscous and a vinaigrette. I had some sparkling water to drink.

We baked cookies in Amanda’s tiny little oven. It worked okay except for the fact that we had to make many different batches in order to fit them in the oven. We were constantly trading them in and out. We also had to be mindful of the hot pad because it caught on fire if it got too close to the heating element in the bottom. We were eventually successful though and had some yummy looking (and tasting) cookies.

We headed out at 5:45pm to go to Emeric’s. There had been much Facebook debate over the arrival time that had escalated into drama. It’s complicated and not that important really. I just found it quite amusing. We headed out on the metro. We took line 10 to line 9 and then hopped on RER A. We took this to Vesinet where Manu was waiting for us in a car (7pm). We found some other Euromasters at the station and so we tried to all pile in the car. Amanda, Ludo and I were left behind while Manu took one load of people over. We took some silly pictures in front of some of the nearby houses. It was a very nice neighborhood. Eventually, Manu came back for us and drove us over to Emeric’s.

Emeric’s house was just as nice as the surrounding ones. After living in tiny apartments in Paris, it was amazing to see an actual house with a sprawling lawn. It was no bigger than the average two-story American house, but it was very pretty.

We walked around to the back where we found people gathered on the porch. Manu began firing up the barbecue while Emeric showed us around his home. The house looked huge after my apartment and it looked like money. You could definitely tell that his family was well off. We got to see the living room, kitchen, and the bedrooms and office upstairs. Amanda demanded that he show us pictures from his childhood. They were pretty adorable. He had some crazy curly hair.

So after we’d given Emeric a hard time, everyone dispersed between the kitchen and the porch where food was being prepared and set out. There was a fairly good turnout there. Adrienne had been caught in the downpour as well so she’d texted saying that she was staying home. Those that had made it were: Amanda, Ludo, Manu, Emeric, Tobias, Casey, Jeannette, Milva, Anna, Luis, Christine, Irene and I. The deck had a beautiful view over the expansive backyard. The sun was moving towards setting and the clouds were magnificent. Eventually, Manu had the fire going and started cooking up the meat. While it was cooking we all had various chips, other snacks, and drinks. Karuna had arrived late and Manu had to make a special trip to go get her. As soon as she arrived she had Emeric show her his bedroom so she could take a nap.

Dinner was served. There were brochettes d’agneau (lamb skewers), hamburgers, and sausages. Some things had been slightly overcooked but it was delicious. We had lots of fun sitting around the table and chatting. Karuna had eventually come down from upstairs to join us. But, as soon as she joined us she asked what we were doing tonight. Everyone silently looked at everyone else before saying, “Um. We’re doing this tonight.” She said, “Well not all night I imagine. There’s a party I’m going to later that you all should come to.” So to recap, she had come in, taken a nap to rejuvenate herself for this later party, and then invited everyone to somewhere else while at a current party.

After dinner came dessert. We had the chocolate chip cookies that we’d brought and also fromage blanc with banana and sugar. Anna had prepared the latter and it was simple yet wonderful. Emeric also brought out a lemon cake and a chocolate cake. They looked very pretty and we all said “Oh! Emeric, did you make these yourself?” He said “Of course I did.” We ribbed him a bit more about them because they looked so professional. He maintained that he’d done them himself. We suggested that maybe his parents had made them and left them behind while they were on vacation. Eventually the truth came out and he confessed to buying them.

Once dessert was finished, some of us went down to the large “shed” in the backyard. It was bigger than my apartment and had a beautiful exterior so it was hard for me to call it a shed. Inside, there was a Ping-Pong table set up. We began trying to play. Some people succeeded. I was not one of those people. I settled with taking pictures instead.

Eventually it was time for everyone to head home so that we wouldn’t get stranded on the last metro. To tell the truth, I found Emeric to be rather cute so I was kind of hoping we’d miss the last train so that we’d have to stay longer. We were a sight walking to the station. It was such a large group of people to be walking at night. We arrived at the train station with plenty of time and got on the RER A. We had fun joking around on the train as we took it to Châtelet. I took line 1 to Concorde and then took the 12 from there to Solférino. I walked to my apartment from there and was finally home.

I said hi to Adrienne and then got to talk briefly to my dad. I was in bed around 3:00am.