Ignacio's Apartment

Ignacio's apartment was the biggest one I've seen so far in Paris. It had a huge entryway, four bedrooms and a really large living room with high ceilings. It also had some really fun furniture which contrasted nicely with the old style molding and structure.

I think we were all a little tired and wired , so we lounged around, chatted, and looked at Ignacio's cool interactive installations while he prepared dessert and yelled "panna cota. panna cotta" repeatedly. The oft-yelled home-made panna cota was actually really good, and was garnished with fruit salad. It was 6am, so thankfully he made espressos to go with it.

Chau and Leslie had trains to catch in a few hours, and I was starting to get zonked again, so we bid Ignacio goodbye. We walked Leslie to her apartment and then I walked Chau to hers with plans to meet in the SF when we were all back.

Second Night- No Sleep

Later that evening at around 10:30, I headed over to meet Chau. I had tried to take a nap, but I was wired from not sleeping, so i just took another shower and figured I'd sleep later.

We met at Kubanito, where Leslie was working. The place was really crowded but we settled into a booth, and, since it was her last evening, I braced myself for what Chau said was gonna be a long night.

A few hours later, and after a round of Monacos and virgin pina coladas, we took a snack break and went across the street to buy lebanese food.

By 4:30 am, and a few more round of drinks and the acquaintance of Ignacio, an Italian interactive architect, we were the only ones left in the place. We waited for Leslie to finish closing up so we could walk her home, and started heading down the street when Ignacio asked, "Why don't you come over for panna cota?". Why not indeed. So resigning myself to no sleep for yet another evening, we all headed over to Ignacio's for dessert (breakfast?).

Chau's Last Day

I got to the dorm from the airport at around 11:00, so I rested for about an hour and then went to meet Chau to hang out with her on her last day in Paris.

We started off at Cafe Jade on Rue Bucci, one of her favorite restaurants. The food was pretty good. I had a duck terrine to start and then a steak au poivre, but skipped dessert as we had planned to have a chocolate africain later. The manager of the cafe had lived in San Francisco 10 years ago, so she stopped by to chat for a while and reminisce.

Afterwards we went to Gibert Jeune to buy some books, and then met her friend Leslie, who's also a bartender at Kubanito. She was totally fun, and took us to some good, less pricey shopping areas to look for shoes. She was very patient and insisted in talking french to us for practice.

After a long afternoon of shopping we tried to go to Angelique's for the chocolate africain, but it was too crowded, so instead we went to Rue Mouffetard, had some crepes (I had a Grand Marnier, butter and sugar crepe which was good until it cooled down and then it just got gross), and then went to a bar that Leslie knew around the corner to hang out for a bit.

We ordered hot chocolates, and they came with the cutest chocolate-covered bear-shaped marshmellows (grrrr!). Afterwards, we walked Leslie home so she could get ready for work and then made plans to meet up later to hang out.

Hanging out with Chau

That night I met up with Chau, one of the only other remaining program people left (other than weird Pat). I hadn't hung out with her that much before, but Meredith mentioned that she was staying some extra days so we got in touch. It was a lot of fun.

Chau is a teacher in San Jose and has been staying with her cousin close to the Gobelins Metro Station. And that's where we met. From there, we went to her favorite area, Rue Mouffetard, which is filled with bars, restaurants, little shops, a very busy central square, and all open very late.

We settled at her bar of choice, K-Banito, and, thankfully, had some virgin drinks, including a very dangerous pina colada. The drink was delicious, but came garnished with the whole dried top of a pineapple. It looked cool, but when I went to have my fist sip, I almost poked my eye out. Thank God for my glasses or I'd be wearing an eyepatch right now.

We ended the evening with some awesome hot chocolate and a good gossip trade-off. Since Chau hung out with mostly people from the Conde dorm, I told her all about Rachel and Starbucks, Martha Dumptruck, and Courtney. In return, she told me about the teacher who was trying to put the moves on Ben, which two people with significant others slept together, and how Pat thought she was Don's wife.

We also traded info on Gregoire, and the fact that Paul only spent $96E the whole month, which is freaking amazing. We probably spent that much that night. Maybe he was trying to save money on soap by not showering.