The Welcome Dinner

 This Sunday was the day I met my fellow CSU IP classmates studying abroad in Paris. Beatriz and I arrived where everyone is staying at (we opted out of the temporary housing since we already had an apartment) promptly at 4pm but when we arrived there was no one there so we thought we had entered the wrong building. Slowly but surely people started arriving from their walks or making their way down to the lobby. Beatriz and I shortly met the MICEFA program coordinator, Melissa, who is pretty cool and very easy to talk to. What I noticed once everyone was downstairs is that everyone was in their little groups, kinda like in high school- you're in a new unfamiliar setting so when you find someone who you feel comfortable with you just want to hang out with them. You get what I mean?

At 5:30-ish pm we headed out to Creposuk (27 rue Galande), a crêpe place which is owned by the same family that owns the Lebanese restaurant next door. Beatriz and I sat on the same table with Melissa while the rest just sat else where filling up the whole entire inside portion of the restaurant which made the place feel like a sauna. On the menu: the galette of your choice, a crêpe, and a drink. I ordered the Gargantua galette, the crêpe d'abricot (apricot), and Coke which I normally never have back in the States but it was the first thing that came up in my mind when the cute Lebanese waiter took our order. Luckily it tasted just like Mexican Coke and not the American version which I hate. The galette was good, the crêpe was ok, but the bathroom and the conversation we had with Melissa were awesome. The place has a disco toilettes (bathroom)! Come on, it doesn't get any cooler than that!

In the bathroom there were also signatures of various people including Mika and Lady Gaga. After dinner we headed out to Notre-Dame and we stopped to check out the street performers performing skate tricks. We had a boat tour down the Seine River programmed at 10pm which doesn't sound like a bad idea- I mean I don't mind going on the same tour twice on the same week but it was probably not the best idea to go on it when you have the flu. Yes, I managed to get the flu within the first 5 days of being in Paris! My immune system always falls victim to the common flu. I spent the majority of the tour breathing through my mouth and coughing. Yep, and now here I am back at home still coughing and feeling pretty ehhh. Tomorrow I'm going to try some antitussif (cough medicine) and maybe buy some a bag of pastilles contre la toux (cough drops) while I'm at it.