semaine douze.

 Basic Pastry Graduation

"Big Mama" Chef and DJ

    On Thursday I woke up and got ready for my graduation which was at 11:30am. My friends doing the Grand Diplome had their ceremony at 9, so I would sadly be graduating separately from them with plans to get together later. The ceremony itself was interesting because I hadn't realized how many of the people from my half of the program were GD kids, so I actually didn't know a lot of my fellow BP grads. I did get my photo op and the ability to sign the golden book, and then we went upstairs to enjoy some small treats and champagne. My friends and I took full advantage of the treats provided, took pictures with our favorite Chefs (the ones in attendance, others were working,) and made plans to attend an upcoming gig for our Chef who is also a sound tech/DJ. He gave us the address and details and we were excited to see him outside of the uniform mixing some tunes.

Love these nerds.

     After the reception, I walked home, changed, and hopped on my bike to meet up with Goni. We were taking the metro up to Montmartre to meet up with Nora and the Joana's to celebrate and enjoy the afternoon. We acted super touristy taking tons of pictures, including essentially putting on a show playing around with panoramas. We wandered the neighborhood in search of crepes stumbling upon the café where Amelie was filmed along the way. The crepe hunt proved fruitless for what we were looking for, so we ended up at Starbucks for a hot beverage and to kill time before meeting up with the rest of the team for a meal at a great Korean restaurant for a post graduation celebration. The others wanted to metro to dinner, but Nora and I were in the mood to bike, so we wandered for a bit until we finally found available bikes, and eventually made it to dinner after a slightly epic hour and a half adventure. (My phone was dead, so I was navigating blind. Didn't get us lost, just took longer routes than normal since I was sticking to what I knew.)

Playing with Panoramas. Like I said, nerds. We're okay with it.

     We arrived at the Korean restaurant where we had a long table all to ourselves right in the center of the restaurant. We had an amazing meal (ordered for us by Yunwi, our resident Korean) with classic food and beverage choices. We were loud and jovial (plus there's about 20 of us, we mob everywhere we go), so the rest of the restaurant probably hated us, but we were enjoying the celebration. After the meal, we wanted to keep the festivities going, so we planned to head to Fernando's for a night cap. Half of the group left in a cab, but the rest of us opted to metro (cheaper.) Nora and I were in the mood for dessert, so we convinced the Alex to bring us to his place since he had Berthillon ice cream in his freezer. The other Alex also joined, and we hung out eating ice cream, drinking espresso, and watching snowboarding videos. A little chaos in communication with phone troubles later, we eventually met up with Joana again, said our goodbyes to everyone at Fernando's, and walked home exhausted from a long day.
    Insanely tired, I slept in ridiculously late the next day and spent most of the afternoon reading Amy Pohler's new book Yes Please which I'd purchased at Shakespeare & Co. I definitely recommend it! It was exactly what I needed after some craziness. Saturday I met up with Nora and her friend Piry from Finland, who is also studying here in Paris,

View from Pompidou

to check out Pompidou. Taking full advantage of our status as students under 25, we used our free tickets to enjoy our afternoon taking in some Modern Art. My reaction would be a combination of feeling impressed while at the same time asking WTF to multiple exhibits, but all in all an enjoyable afternoon.
     In need of a pick me up, we wandered over to Craft in Canal Saint Martin for our favorite cappuccinos to relax a bit before checking out restaurant day. It started in Finland and is spreading more around the world, but essentially different restaurants can try out new menus for the day or people can open a restaurant at their place, etc. Since it's still pretty new here, we were able to check out a couple of places that were restaurants providing different tasting menus and beverages that weren't part of their daily fare. We split a lovely Indian spread at the first place and Goni joined us to try some lovely Asian noodle soup at the next stop. We made a couple of new friends from Italy and Finland at the second stop while enjoying our meal on the sidewalk. Nora, Piry and I said goodbye to the others and wandered to a local bar for some signature cocktails that we had heard good things about. We enjoyed our drinks and the atmosphere, then said our goodbyes and headed for the metro.

Trying to get Goni packed

     Goni was heading home to Israel for a couple of weeks, so Joana, Nora, and I met up at her apartment to take some perishables from her fridge off her hands and to say goodbye. When her cab arrived, there were hugs all around and we wished her safe travels. A little saddened and not wanting to be alone, the three of us headed to a café for some coffee and a croissant. In front of our table, a huge queue was forming for a bakery right next door, so we decided that stopping in to buy this fabulous bread would be necessary for us to enjoy at our movie night later that day. We bought the delicious baguettes, said goodbye to Nora until later that evening, and headed back to our neighborhood. After finding an open grocery store for the remaining necessities for the evening (not an easy feat on a Sunday in Paris, seriously), we took our time walking home chatting about movies and life. I cut through the park on my way home to take in the fall colors and reflected on how grateful I was for my amazing friends. We've all bonded so quickly and Paris wouldn't feel homey without them.

Stroll through the park

     Later that evening, Nora and Joana came to my place and we mixed up some a healthy Tuna Greek salad to eat with our baguettes while we watched our movie. We stayed up chatting and watching New Girl until everyone was too tired to go anywhere, so like the precious co-dependent unit we are, we all crashed at my place. The next morning I made us coffee and breakfast and we hung out for a bit before going our separate ways to lay low the rest of the day.


A Priori The treats.

     On Tuesday, I was originally going to try to head to Amsterdam for a quick 2-3 day trip with Sara, but the train fare was more expensive than what we were planning so we opted to save it for another time when the fares were down. Instead, we decided to meet up for a coffee at a really cute little tea room at the Galerie Vivienne near the Palais Royale, a covered passage of shops and restaurants that were designed so that ladies in the 19th century could shop at their leisure regardless of the weather. I enjoyed a delicious scone and coffee while we caught up and dished all of the latest news and gossip. We wandered over to the Palais Royale to do some window shopping and then did some shopping for gifts and such near rue Saint Honore.


The Lovely Galerie Vivienne

     Nora was at home sick and Sara and I were hungry, so we decided to head to a bagel shop for some salted caramel bagels that Joana had told us about and Nora and I had been coveting and waiting to treat ourselves to for quite awhile. We enjoyed our bagels, I purchased an extra for my sick one, and we said our goodbyes for the evening. I picked up a few more supplies for Nora, dropped them by her place to check on her and say hello, and then headed home for the evening.
     Yesterday, the Hunger Games third movie was premiering here in France (two days sooner than the States, hoorah!) and since Nora was feeling a bit better, she Joana and I decided that we would definitely have to go. I booked our tickets online to be safe and we headed to the theater. The movie did not disappoint (I love them and the books, no judgments, they're awesome), and we were all hungry and wanting to unwind and process after the film. Having made her a convert the week before, Joana suggested Chipotle, so we found and walked to the nearest one. I was feeling all sorts of American after the film while eating my burrito and drinking my Corona and lime, but after almost three months abroad it was nice. The real talk with friends was also super lovely and comforting of course. We decided to head back towards home, and hit up the student bar for a night cap and to catch up with some friends.

Spoils from Albert

Cheers! Student Bar adventures.

     We ended up seeing Albert, Fernando, Joy, and Carla, and all sat around chatting over a drink. Albert then brought out some special Chinese alcohol that he had brought to share with us, so after getting the okay from the bartender and sharing a drink, we all tried our little tasters of Albert's present. Definitely interesting. So sweet of him to share with the team though. After hanging out awhile longer, we said our goodbyes and Joana and I walked back towards home together (we're basically neighbors if I hadn't already mentioned).
     Later today, the Champs Elysees Christmas lighting ceremony happens and Chef's DJ gig is happening after that, so excited to see what the day brings!