Tea Time

The past two days have been wonderful and reaffirming. Saturday was the welcome lunch for IES students at Atelier Guy Martin. It was great fun... the students made the food in this fantastic restaurant, and were instructed by the chefs. We made (slightly burnt) quinoa with creme fraiche and tomatoes and peppers and onions and fennel, chicken breast, and CHOCOLATE SOUFFLE. this whole blog endeavor could easily become "the things Chenault ate in France" because I eat alot of really good things here, but this souffle was unreal. They also passed around the equivalent of souffle batter....good god.

As we left the restaurant, it was snowing! While I by no means miss the winter quarter weather of Evanston, an occasional snow flurry is one of my favorite things. Big thick flakes swirled around as we ran to the metro, and necessitated an immediate tea drinking session chez Rachel (a girl from Kenyon College who I like very much). She lives in the Marais, a part of Paris filled with great spots- jewish delis, falafel stands, vintage stores, gay bars. We munched on yeastless bread (her host father is a Spanish chef) and drank tea while planning trips for the rest of our stay here. I already feel like I don't have a long enough time here, and I think I am going toe nd up traveling less than I had expected because I don't want to miss out on this city. There is so much to do and see here, and it seems silly to waste what is at my fingertips by leaving every weekend...

After a mini sex and the city marathon (some things never change), Rachel and I bought street crepes and headed over to a house party we were invited to at lunch. The girl who was hosting, Kamila, is a year-long IES student. She lives with her French cousin, so it was a good mix of bilingual folks. Also, there was really good food and music (pasta salad type thingy and MGMT). For the first time, it felt completely normal to be speaking in French with local Parisians. I am by no means up to par, but I have noticed that I can understand so much more than I could even last week, and I can speak at least a little more than I could before. I met alot of year-long students, as well as some fun French guys who are planning a trip to Las Vegas. I also experienced the joys of Polish Vodka....never again will I look at this divine beverage the same way.

Stayed over with Rachel (taking the metro home by yourself at 1 am is scary), and bought fromage blanc (a yogurty type substance this morning) for breakfast. It was much nicer out today than yesterday, so we mossied around the streets of Paris for a long while. Ile St. Louis, one of the two islands that are in the heart of Paris, on the Seine, is a little less touristy but a lot of fun. It is filled with art galleries, tiny cafes, childrens toy stores, and beautiful homes. We watched a street performer make a complete fool of himself, and found out the hard way hoe prevalent dog poop is on every street corner....yuck.

Eventually, we found ourselves at Shakespeare & Co., a very famous English speaking bookstore right across from Notre Dame. I had been before, but felt much more comfortable this time perusing the sale books and everything else. As anyone who knows me well could vouch for, I would rather shop for books than basically anything else. And this store is magical-- they have so much in such a tiny space, and the diverse crowd it attracts makes for great people watching. A guy from the party told me that he works there and was going to have tea this afternoon, so we showed up expecting to go grab something from a corner cafe. I obviously misinterpreted- at 4 o'clock on the dot, we were ushered upstairs by a 70-ish woman with huge blue eyes to the 5th floor. There, in an apartment, was a room set up for tea. The apartment looked as mine will if I end up some old maid-- crammed with thousands of books, photos and letters from all over, decorated with mismatched chairs and tiffany lamps. I loved it.

The woman shuttled myself and about 20 other "guests" in (everyone downstairs shopping was invited up, and we were accompanied by five or six regular attendees). Immediately, she called for a show of hands of who wants milk and sugar in their tea. The vast majority of attendees looked as curious and naive as I was. Without further ado, our hostess began what would be a 2 and half hour tea party....

PART 2 tomorrow...my internet here deleted alot of what i wrote yesterday, but I will send the rest tonight or tomorrow. BISOUS.