Okay not TOO much happened Thurs/Fri so I’m going to skip to the good parts.
After class on Thursday the weather was gorgeous. Dad calls them “manna days”. We were happy to be out of class at 3:30, and we headed to our favorite panini place to take advantage of the lunch special, as usual. We ate as we walked towards the subway, and I, like a little kid just out of elementary school, kept asking everyone what we were going to do. I just wanted to be OUTSIDE. Unfortunately, despite a few exciting plans, everyone pretty much separated to run mundane errands or to relax for a bit after a hectic week of school. I managed to enlist Iley and Matt for a trip to the Notre Dame area, however. We left a bit late, around 7 I suppose, and we “souvenired the shops”, as Iley likes to say. Since it’s gotten cold again and my old blue scarf as been worn to death, I got two more scarfs on an excellent deal. Matt bought a silly hat, and both him and Iley bought France soccer jerseys for the upcoming games. We also noted with some delight that all of the souvenir shops are run by people from India and play very loud Indian music, which we danced to a bit. We took pictures of Notre Dame from the Seine, and tried out a crepe place that Iley highly recommended. It was delicious.
After we headed back, we hung out in the basement for a little while, but we all wanted to go to bed early.
Friday, I don’t really remember what I did in the beginning of the afternoon. Maybe I didn’t do much. I think that was the day I had to find batteries and walked down to the quickie mart, and I also did a quick Monoprix trip at Saint Sulpice with Stephanie. I think that’s what I did. But anyways, at night, we had all planned to go watch the France vs. Holland soccer game at a little English pub called Bombadiers. Since everyone had separated, though, it wound up being just me and Kristen leaving from la Fondation, which I didn’t mind at all. Kristen reminds me a lot of Mandy Justice, and we get along well.
Bombadiers was overflowing with people, and we couldn’t find our friends in the crowd. I sort of didn’t want to stay, but Kristen seemed too excited to leave. And what I came for was the atmosphere, and this place certainly had atmosphere. So we stayed. We found a place in the middle, grabbed some cider beers, and started cheering on our team. I used to hate soccer, but it was easy to feed off the energy of the crowd, and whenever I didn’t understand, Kristen would explain. I sound found myself screaming “Allez Bleu!” with the best of the French fans.
Around half time, we took advantage of the fact that half the bar had gone outside to smoke, and found a place nearer to the back windows, where it was cooler and there was more space. We also spotted Matt walking down the street, and I ran outside to greet him. We got more beer.
Once the game started, I realized our move might not have been as fortunate as I thought. A girl with thick, blond hair was standing in front of me. After one too many drinks, she was bouncing around and cheering loudly – for Holland. I couldn’t see because of her jumping and moving, and her hair was starting to fall into my beer. I was getting so annoyed that my complaints to my friends soon got louder and louder. I was actually hoping she’d hear me and realize that her behavior was inconsiderate and annoying, but she didn’t seem to understand English. So finally I pretty much shouted something along the lines of, “I can’t see the STUPID game because of all this stupid bouncing, and that’s what I came here for, the game.”
The girl whipped around and smiled at me. “You can’t see?” she asked sweetly.
“Uh… no… no I can’t…” I was still annoyed with her, but embarrassment and guilt was beginning to temper that.
“Here, you should stand in front of me,” she said in accented English. “I’m taller than you, no? So that’s fair. And if you jump, I jump too! Who you cheer for, please?”
“France!” I said firmly as I accepted her gracious offer.
“Oh no no no, wrong team.”
I felt a little guilty for the rest of the game about that whole exchange, but I think I’ve learned a valuable lesson. I tend to assume people are annoying out of selfishness, but I think if I had just nicely asked this girl if she could stop jumping or let me stand in front of her, she would’ve, and then I wouldn’t have felt like such a complete jerk.
Anyways, France lost. The bar emptied out quickly afterwards, but we stayed to drink another couple beers. We met some really nice French people, our age, who talked to us about politics and the relationship between France and the U.S. They said they knew we weren’t all like Bush, and that we didn’t all like the president or our own policies, but that they didn’t like the ignorance they sometimes encountered in Americans. They freely admitted however that they don’t like their own government, that French girls are rude even to their own kind, and that France is one of the worst countries to learn another language in. They have trouble learning English, and told us the teachers were pretty inept. They said what they didn’t like about America is how our brands take over the world. All the movies here are American, all of the popular clothing is too. They just wish for a more mixed sense of culture, which I understand and agree with. It was hard to disagree with them, when they were being so fair and complimenting our French. The girl gushed over how nice we were. When we told her that her English was just fine, she squealed, “You’re so cute! American girls are so nice!!” We were all so interested in the conversation that the time got away from us, and at 12:20 I realized the metro would stop running soon. We raced off, with instructions and reassurances from our new French friends.
We made it home just fine, although a little late. I was tired when I got up the next morning, but it was an experience I wouldn’t trade for anything. I learned a lot about French culture, and I also had really nice political and philosophical conversations with Kristen and Matt, which I think brought us closer. So all in all, a great night, even if France did lose.
