March 29th Saturday

I got up at 6:30am. I worked on my paper for a while. I had cereal with milk. I’d run out of milk so it was nice to have milk in my cereal again. I continued working on my paper and then made ham, cheese, mustard, and butter sandwiches. I ate them and then headed to the library around 12:00pm. I worked on my women paper and researched my other two.

I felt exhausted and went home around 5:00pm. I called my parents and then talked to them on Skype. For dinner, Adrienne and I had bowtie pasta with marinara sauce. I worked on my paper some more.

Matt was still in Paris and was scheduled to leave the next day so I met him for one last drink before he left. We met at 9:30pm outside my apartment. We took the metro and tried heading to Oberkampf. I was really confused and we had to change the metro lines a lot. Eventually we made it to Chez Justine. I had Matt decide on the wine and we each ordered a glass of the Côtes du Rhône Vallée. My first glass was from an already opened bottle so it tasted really strong. Then we had a second glass and it was much smoother. We talked and drank for a bit. I taught him some French swear words. Then we found an M&M advertisement on the table. It was a hologram card that changes pictures depending on which way you turn it. It was the yellow peanut M&M stripping off his shell. Very French. I also wanted to note that our bartender there was amazing. He remembered what I ordered so that I didn’t have to repeat it a second time and he was able to remember our tab without writing it down. I was impressed. I know our orders weren’t that complicated but for him to remember it with all the other people he was serving is very impressive.

I was pretty hungry so Matt and I went to the crêpe stand next door and split a nutella crêpe. We were able to catch the last metro home. We both had to take the 12 but in different directions. As I was transferring lines, there was a group of lost people that I tried to help but I didn’t know the area very well.

I got home and was getting ready for bed. It was all of a sudden 3:00am and I didn’t know where the past couple of hours went. I realized that the time on my computer had changed because it was daylight savings time. We lost an hour right before papers were due. I went to bed at 4:00am then (even though it felt like 3:00am to me).

March 25th Tuesday

I got up at around 9:00am. I showered and got ready for the day. For breakfast I had some of the frozen cheese crêpes. At 10:30am I was at the library to work on my paper. I worked until 1:30pm when I went to lunch. I went to the cafeteria and had a chicken Panini with orange juice.

After lunch, we had our last class with professor Grossman. We were there until 4:45pm and then I went back to the library. I worked there until 7:00pm. I turned in some of my books and checked more out.

I walked back home. I got online to chat with Matt. I was originally going to use the night to work but it was Matt’s birthday and I thought it would be sad if he spent it alone. We decided what to do. I was going to go up and meet him near his hostel.

I took the 12 line up to the Pigalle stop at 8:20pm. Here’s a tip, Pigalle is in the red light district. Don’t reserve hostels or hotels there. When I came out of the metro I saw a bunch of neon signs that said “Sex!” Luckily, I didn’t have to wait for Matt. We met up and went to find a restaurant. I wanted to find a restaurant that I’d been to before. We wandered around and I actually found it!

It was the Soleil restaurant that I’d been to with other Euromasters. We settled down and ordered some dinner. I had the Assiette Sud. It had an olive tapenade, dried tomato, fresh tomato, hummus, cucumbers with cream, artichoke hearts, tiny sliced cucumbers, and mozzarella. It was an amazing dish. Matt had salmon with potatoes and green beans. For dessert, I had fromage blanc with honey and almonds. Matt had a dark chocolate cake. It had about 4 types of chocolate in it. He seemed to enjoy it.

We were at dinner for a rather long time. Afterward, we had an idea to try to find a shop and get some champagne. We hopped on the metro. All the places looked closed since it was so late. I didn’t have any idea where we could find champagne. We decided to admit defeat. I went home and Matt headed home on the metro. I went to bed around 1:30am.

March 24th Monday

I got up at 10:00am and had some cereal for breakfast. Adrienne and I got a call from our landlord asking if he could come borrow an egg. We told him we had some he could take. We answered the knock at our door and there was our landlord. He was holding a big chocolate Easter egg. He said, “An egg for an egg.” He only needed one egg so we gave him one. We were completely surprised with the chocolate egg.

I got ready for the day and checked emails on my computer. I tried to work for a while. I also got to chat with some friends. I talked to Megan, Heidi, and Meg.

For lunch I had some vegetable soup with bread and juice. Afterward I got a call from Matt. He was visiting from Westminster. He had arrived in Paris. I went out to meet him by the Musée d’Orsay. I told him to meet me by the elephant statue. We met there and tried to decide where to go. Matt was hungry so we went to find him lunch.
First we stopped by the apartment so that I could grab a coat and an umbrella. It was chilly out and it looked like rain. Matt got to say hi to Adrienne before we headed out. We walked along Boulevard Saint Germain looking for a place to eat. Then, I suggested crêpes to him. We went to the crêpe stand by Saint Germain des Près. Matt had a crêpe with ham, cheese, and egg. It was love at first bite. He said that he’d had similar crêpes in Japan. I didn’t know they had them there. I had a nutella crêpe.

After we finished, we went into the church that is on the corner. It is one of the oldest churches in Paris. After that we left and went to walk more. We went up and I decided to take him through the Tuileries gardens. We walked through and headed toward the Place de la Concorde. While we were walking it started raining very hard. We decided to go back to one of the cafés in the Tuileries. We sat down and ordered vin chaud. It’s like a mulled wine. It came in a tall glass with orange and sugar. It tasted delicious. It was nice to warm up with the wine after the cold rain. Once we finished our wine, we made our way back toward my apartment. We both needed to use the restroom. Once there, we sat around for a bit trying to decide what else to do.

When in doubt, go for food. Matt and I set out in search of a place for dinner. I decided to lead him over toward Rue Cler. We looked at some places along the way but we ended up at the Café du Marché. We both had the grilled steak with potatoes and a béarnaise sauce. I let Matt order the wine since he has taken classes to become a sommelier. We had a Saumur wine. It’s a red wine that’s actually served chilled. The entire dinner was €44. Not too bad for two dinners and a bottle of wine.

Since we were right by the Eiffel Tower, I thought Matt would like to see it. We walked over and took pictures by it. Then it was getting later. We walked all the way back toward my apartment. Matt took the metro home since his hostel was near the 12 line. Once I was home, I talked to my parents for a bit. I did some work and then I went to bed around 2:00am.