A Parisien Pendulum: Le Premier Weekend

During our first few nights here, Jenn and I decided to go to Zurich on a total whim. We bought our flights without any concrete plans, but we were really excited to go and enjoy all the scenic beauty that Switzerland has to offer. After a few days though, we noticed that our cards weren't being charged, so we were a little confused and decided to give the booking agency a call. Turns out, they never charged our cards and cancelled our transactions.. for no reason. We were annoyed at first, but then came to realize that a. we just saved ourselves $300 and b. maybe it was a good idea to stay in Paris this weekend and familiarize ourselves a little more with our new city.

Friday was the last day of our orientation, and we were really excited to go on a boat tour along the Seine with our classmates. It actually ended up being pretty boring, but it was nice to familiarize myself with the main attractions and tourist spots of Paris so that I can show my friends around when they visit. Afterwards, we had falafel with the girls, but it ended up being a lot more 느끼해 and less tasty than the first time around. Garam and Erica went to go move into their new apartment in Montmarte, and I went shopping with Jenn. We figured that since we were saving so much money, we could afford to do some retail therapy after this rough week.

On Saturday, we had planned on going to Versailles, but we overslept so we ended up eating lunch at home and visiting le Jardin du Luxembourg. We've been eating Korean food at home a lot lately, and for some reason I kind of like it this way. French food is very rich and yummy, but I'm not sure if its completely suited to my palette. Plus, the price... need I say more?

The Jardins du Luxembourg were kind of tricky to get to, but it's ok because we made a pit stop at the Notre Dame and had some wonderful sorbet/ice cream beforehand. The garden is more like a huge (and I mean huge), carefully curated park filled with families, lovers, and freestanding individuals- all engaging in their respective practices and relaxation. It was really beautiful, and since it's so close to school, I think I'm going to end up studying there once in a while.

We visited Erica & Garam's place afterwards, and I must admit that it makes our apartment look very cozy and humble. I couldn't help but to feel a little envious, but I am so happy for them because they went through a lot of stress with apartment hunting this past week. We had a wonderful meal of pasta & wine/cheese/baguettes, and proceeded to enter into a few hours of food coma on Erica's nice big bed. We figured that we shouldn't waste our Saturday night, so we walked around the Moulin Rouge area, which was cool BUT NOT REALLY. There were so many creepy guys following us around, and the area is filled to the brim with weird, creepy, porno/sex toy stores. It made me feel really uncomfortable, but it was also kind of interesting to acknowledge that Paris, with all of it's haute glamour and glory, also houses a much seedier kind of populace.

After some deliberation, we visited an Irish pub for some beer. It was once again very refreshing to hear English all around us, and we got 2 orders of a beer sampler. We tried an IPA, a wheat beer, a double IPA, regular Irish lager, and some dark Russian beer. I liked the IPA and lager, Jenn liked the lager, Erica liked the wheat and IPA, and Garam preferred the dark beer (ew). It was pretty docile for our wild~~~ first Saturday night out, but we actually had some really good conversations going and I felt so refreshed. T'was a good night.