p a p e r d o l l

Today, I allowed myself to stay at home. Ok I lied. I was so bloody tired of being out that I stayed in. Stayed in! The luxury of staying in. I slept till noon and ate a hugeass brunch. I had a Chinese steamed cake I bought from Chinatown yesterday, I made buckwheat noodles with sesame oil, soya sauce and toasted sesame seeds. Then I read Stephen Clark’s A Year in the Merde in bed while eating crème chocolat from a little pot. The book’s good and I screamed Yes! Yes! Yes! silently when he described his painfully amusing experience applying for his carte de séjour. Watched two movies slumped against the comfy couches in the salon (living room) with my housemates -Team America and Van Helsing. Team America, I love. It’s very funny. Van Helsing is at parts unintentionally funny.

If you’ve watched L’Auberge Espagnole or Spanish Apartment, you’ll understand what I mean when I say that I’m staying at La Maison Francaise, or French House. It’s fun. A Russian girl had her birthday party a couple of nights ago and there was wine and music and talking and dancing. It was brilliant. People cook in the evenings and on weekends (because it is bloody expensive to eat out) and we get to sample food. Not everyone’s very chatty, of course, but a good number of people are. There’s a Welsh vegetarian judo-lover my room-mate and I have been hanging out with quite a bit. There’s an Arizonian who talks about himself all the time, I swear. There’s an Indian girl who’s like the nice Queen Bee of the place and has a gorgeous boyfriend and you can’t help but feel happy for the couple. Just to talk about a few people. One night, a number of us took a walk to the park, which was gorgeous by the light of the full moon. At first, it looked like we were walking into a dense and dangerous forest, but the dirt path gave way to a lake and it was breathtaking.

What have I been up to? My room-mate and I went a little crazy at Flash Bazar (no it’s not missing an a… and it’s like Spotlight, but crazier) buying things to make our room pretty and comfortable. It’s been ooh-ed and aah-ed at by our housemates. We’re so proud. Makeover success! I had an evening picnic in front of the Eiffel Tower two nights ago. Yesterday, I applied for my Louvre Youth Membership card on which I look like crap because the woman caught me unaware with the round ball of a camera and refused to use the photo I had brought along. It does entitle me to a year’s visit of the museum without ever having to queue, plus a few other perks. Pretty good for 15 euros. La Jaconde, or Mona Lisa, is much bigger than I’d expected it to be. Friends find it hilarious that I think it big, but not really… if you keep in mind that many people have told me it’s really small which made me believe it to be the case and so I was pleasantly surprised at the real deal. I finally bought a pre-paid SIM card so I’m now contactable at a 10-digit Parisian number. Nothing like that to make you feel like you’re staying for real. I’ve also bought a return train ticket to London for next week. Note that the all the above was done wearing chic black boots with heels. Hell yea. Although after a day of walking up and down train station tunnels and stairs and what seems like too many traffic crossings and sidewalks, I feel icky and tired and my feet want to kill me for being vain. Maybe I should take the cue from a lot of Parisians who really aren’t very stylish and wear comfortable ugly shoes. We’ll see.