An American Craving

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Day 15

Okay, so Thursday started off pretty normal. We had class in the morning and then a few of us decided to grab a bite to eat. Meridith and I were discussing our dining options and we both realized that we were going through a bit of a food crisis and were in need of some major stereotypical American food. Thus came the decision to eat at KFC. Quel horreur! I know, I know, its really terrible...I'm probably breaking a million rules by eating at such a place whilst in France, but I'm getting tired of baguettes and cheese every day. So, Meredith, Judy, Ryan and I headed off with Professor Erickson (yes, we invited him, and yes, he agreed to participate in the aforementioned atrocity that is KFC Paris). The five of us split a jumbo bucket meal that came with twenty crispy wings, fries and a bottle of Orangina to share. And I do declare it was one of the best meals of the week! Not so much because the food itself was of any particular quality, but the fried chicken and fries tasted so American that it was impossible not to feel good...until afterwards when you feel gross from the grease and hungry again a couple hours later...but at the time it was perfection! Also, a note on the experience of eating at a Parisian KFC: They obviously serve the usual ketchup, mustard and sweet and sour sauce. BUT, they also have CURRY sauce, which has a kind of sweet mustard tang to it. It was pretty good, I liked it. Too bad we don't have it back home, its kind of a fun spin on the whole chicken sauce thing. In addition to the sauce, they also have ushers/greeters who direct you to the available registers when you come in (although I think that's less a European thing so much as a necessity in a busy restaurant). The inside was also quite nice, and it was funny to see all the Parisian-dressed men eating fast food---it just looks like such a contradiction.

After enjoying our American meal with a Parisian-curry-sauce-twist, Meridith and I decided to head back home to have a homework/catch up day. So she came over and we did our journaling and she used my straightener since she left hers in the States and was having withdrawals (I know now why she wanted to be friends with me...just kidding). When we first came in I introduced her to Frederique and found that her husband had come home that afternoon. So I finally met the mysterious Christian. However, moments after meeting him I discovered that he was only here for about an hour and would be heading out shortly to go on another trip for a week. He came and said goodbye when he was leaving, and so ended what had promised to be a great relationship with the allusive Christian--and Marissa never got to see him at all!

After finishing up some homework Meridith had to go home but we were invited by some people in the group to go dancing later that night, so we agreed to meet at the train station at 9 o'clock to go together.

Now, I need to add a quick side note experience before I continue with my story about Thursday night....

So, Monday night (I forgot to put this in before) I was riding home on the metro after Family Home Evening at the Institute with a few girls, including Andrea and Meridith. It was around 9pm, which can be a sketchy hour on the metro system, we soon learned...Here's how it happened. Meridith was sitting on one of the fold out seats and I was standing near her. We were all talking about the evening and this older man who was a little hunched over, dressed poorly and looked a little mangey, as well as missing a couple teeth, was standing next to us. I noticed when we got on that he was standing a little close to us--closer than necessary since the metro wasn't really crowded at all, and closer than the norm for personal space--but I tried to ignore it because sometimes people just have a weird sense of personal boundaries and he wasn't being too obnoxious, I just moved away a little. Well, he kept moving towards Meridith who was sitting there and he started tapping her and touching her shoulder, arm and hair occasionally. At first she tried to move away and shrug him off, but he was persistent so she stood up by me. Then he sat down where she was and was smiling at us and started saying, "Coucou! Coucou!" Its kind of like "Peekaboo" in English, but that's not a perfect translation of the meaning. But you get the idea. Anyways, he kept doing that and trying to engage us but we tried to ignore him and move away. AND there was a guy sitting across from us who saw the whole thing--I made eye contact with him a few times and we had a mutual understanding of the situation and I tried to communicate that he should help us, but he just ignored it. I mean, the old guy was harmless--I'm sure any one of us could have taken him, but really, it was creepy. And then, the creeper got off at the next stop and we were all relieved. As he got off he smiled at us, said "Coucou!" and waved to us as he got off. Then he kept waving through the window from the platform. Then the train pulled away and we thought we were safe. FALSE. No, this guy got off from our door and then just walked down to the next door of our same car...we saw him a minute later standing at the other end of our car. Then he came back over and continued harassing us (not in a dangerous way, just annoying) and then got off at the next stop, where he waved to us from the window again and kept repeating his "Coucou" 's. Sketch.

Oh well, we still love France.

....

Okay, back to Thursday night. I met Meridith at the train station at 9 to head in to Paris to meet up with a few people to go dancing. We got on the train, which was a double decker, which we were excited about and sat on the top level, of course. The car was basically empty except for two or three people so we took a section of four seats and sat diagonal from each other so we could rest our feet on the opposite seat. We sat like this for a couple stops when at one of the stops I heard someone get on and looked behind me. It was a quick glance but I saw an older grungy man who looked like the same creepy guy from Monday night. Well....yes, it was. Meridith and I both looked at each other and he came over to us--of course. We both still had our feet up so I thought we would be safe. No. He came up to Meridith who was on the outside and motioned for her to move her feet so he could sit down. At first, she told me, she wasn't positive if he was the same guy so she didn't want to be rude if he was just an old man looking for a seat, so she moved them and let him sit across from her, and next to me. But let me remind you that the entire car was virtually empty--he could have sat anywhere and he chose to make Meridith move her feet off the seat. Right. Okay. Well, the train came to the next stop and we got up and pretended it was ours. Mere goes, "Oh Brit! This is our stop, let's hurry!" Ha. Ha. We went to the lower level and waited the next two stops for our destination. Creeper. What are the odds? It was about the same time of night and he got on around the same stop. I guess he makes the same round every day. A lot of homeless people do that. They just ride the metro all day and night and sleep in the metro stations. Its sad. And sketch. Meridith and I were a little creeped out.

However, we got to our stop safely and met up with our friends. It ended up being a good number of us: Meridith and I, Ryan, Giles, Richard, Andrea, Jessica, Whitney, Sarah and Jenny. We had to wait about forty minutes for everyone to show up and the club to open. The club opened at 11pm and we were able to get in free with our student cards. It was so fun! Since we were among the first there the whole discotheque was basically empty and we were able to just dance around with the place to ourselves. But it filled up pretty quickly. The music wasn't that great (it was all the same techno-y kind of deal that wasn't great to dance to) but the club itself was sweet. It was weird being at a legitimate club. Lots of kids were drinking and such but it was a lot of fun. And there were some very attractive boys I saw that looked British. I made a point of dancing where I could see them--and before you judge me I will have you know that attractive men are few and far between here in Paris (I know, that sounds ironic, but its true!) and I craving eye candy. So there.

One interesting note about the discotheque: the bathrooms are co-ed. Meridith had to go so she had me come with her so she wouldn't have to venture into this new phenomenon alone. It was so weird. Guys and girls walked in and they had the stalls on one side and the urinals on the other that were blocked by a little wall. I just stayed by the stalls trying not to think about how awkward I felt. It was funny too because a guy came in to use a stall and thought I was waiting so I motioned for him to go ahead. Weird, that doesn't happen every day. Strange European customs.

Second experience:

We could only stay for about an hour because the metro closes around 12:30/1am every night so we had to leave to get home in time. As we're walking out a guy who looks Italian (and actually reminded me a little of the young guy from the mac/pc commercials) leans in to Meridith and says something and then leans in to me and says, "Vous etes tres jolie." (You are very pretty). Ha. Oh, merci monsieur! It was funny. And this seems to happen a lot. I told Mere this and she said he said the same to her. Haha. European men are very forward here. Its interesting.

It was lucky we left when we did though because we caught the last train of the night to get home with only five minutes to spare. Of course, we could have found another train from a different station, but it was still cutting it close. Phew! Jessie didn't realize that we had five minutes though and had misread the monitor thinking we were about to miss the train so she started running ahead with Marissa and Katherine and Merideth and I tried to call out that she didn't have to run, but she didn't hear. So we all ended up sprinting to the platform only to find we had five minutes. The funny thing was that a guy who was heading to the same train saw us running so he did too. Poor guy.

Well, we made it home safe and sound, albeit a little late. Merideth and Andrea were kind enough to walk me home (Merideth was still concerned about creepers after our metro experience). That was nice though, I felt a lot better having them--its not a fun walk at night.

I made it to sleep at about 1:30am ready to get up at 7:30am for our 9am class (we switched to the earlier class period this week, joy).