4 posts tagged “home”

In exactly six days, I will begin my descent into the New York City area. I can't wait. The past month has been a crazy rollercoaster of highs and lows. I've gained hope that I might be able to stay, and gained frustration at the way things work. I am still positive I want to be here long-term, but I am ready for a break.

Here, in no particular order, are the things I most want to eat when I get home:

• a medium-rare cheeseburger, with cheddar and sautéed onions, from JG Melon's
• sushi from Roppongi
• shredded beef Schezuan and Moo Shu chicken from First Wok
• sesame noodles from Tang Tang
• curry seafood flat noodle soup from Bo Ky
• mom's lasagna
• mom's sweet-and-sour brisket with orzo
• mom's spaghetti with meat sauce
• mom's curried lima bean soup
• mom's Chinese noodles
• mom's gunky chicken
• a grilled cheese sandwich, made with white bread, Kraft singles, and served with Campbell's tomato soup
• Diet Dr Pepper
• a tuna melt, again with Kraft singles, and way too much (Hellman's) mayo
  
• the house salad at Cosí
• a mild chicken banh mi at Nicky's Vietnamese
• dates wrapped with bacon and baked brie in puff pastry at Salt Bar
  
• whatever it was that I ordered when Jeff and I had lunch at that random place in Chinatown

I think you can all see where my priorities lie. Screw my family and friends, and bring on the food!

Here are a few quick snapshots of my place in the 17th. It's not all done/organized/clean/set up yet, but you'll get a general idea.

View from the entry way into the living room:

View of my bed in its little bed nook: View from my bed, out the window (I love this tree):
I've spent a lot of time in this bed the past few days, as I've come down with a pretty bad cold. The transit strike is keeping me in my neighborhood anyway, and besides plans for coffee with Lisa this afternoon, I have a whole lot of nothing going on. It's starting to get a bit lonely.

I never posted any photos of my home in Paris, despite many requests. I also somehow neglected to take any until I had completely packed and my apartment was empty. Tant pis.

Here are the photos I did take. Use your imagination to add decorations.

The facade of my building, which was built in the 1600s, on Rue Dauphine:

My front door: The 55 stairs I took multiple times a day: My crazy-old walls: And lastly, the view from my pillow: My last night Rion and Mike took a few pictures of me and Anna with their fancy camera. Although you've seen many photos of the two of us on the quais, these two are some of my favorite: Aw. Isn't the second one cute? Tu me manques, pumpkin.

This past Tuesday I learned how to ride a bike. Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while know that this is a huge deal. Anna and I went to the Luxembourg, I strapped on a helmet, and after an hour and 20 minutes I had started the bike myself 3 or 4 times (that is by far the hardest part for me), biked 100 meters dozens of times, and stopped without falling every time. I did end up with massive inner thigh bruising, though. Anna is at least 10 inches taller than me, and although she lowered her bike seat as far as it would go it was still way too big for me. Every time I swung a leg over I banged myself, and had some impressive navy welts. I tried taking a picture, but the true beauty of the bruises cannot be captured.

I definitely need more practice, and if it ever stops raining we will go back out. But the main hurdle has been jumped, and I'm excited to get even better. That night I had delicious moules frites at my favorite cute-waiter-infested resto, l'Academie de la Biere, with Mike and some of his friends. Anna joined us for a bit, before a hot date.

The next day I got my last houseguest, Ward. We met at our hostel in Split, and since he's traveling around Europe for 10 weeks I invited him to crash chez moi when in Paris. He treated me to an evening at the Moulin Rouge, which was hilarious. The show was too long, but fun. There were more themes going on than I've ever seen on one stage. We had musketeers, India, Thailand, the circus, pirates, Siamese twins, comedic drumming, and some acrobatics. I might be leaving some stuff out. It went a little long, but the bottle of champagne helped things along. We didn't get home till ridiculously late and slept in the next day before going to the Musee du Quai Branly. It was completely overwhelming, but amazing. It's definitely the kind of museum where an audio or tour guide would be very helpful, cause there's just so much to look at.

I had dinner with the Lamberts after tutoring Benjamin and Juliette. I was so impressed that they spoke in English the whole meal! Although everyone in my family speaks or understands French, I just can't imagine talking to my parents in another language. The food was delicious, but even better was just talking to all of them. Benjamin is spending a few weeks this summer with a family in Nashville, and I'm really hoping they find a way to send him to New York for a weekend. I haven't corrupted any youth in a while, and have a quota to fill.

Here is the family, after dinner:

And me with the kids:
Friday Ward and I went to the Louvre, and walked around a bit. Here he is, a bit museumed out:  He caught an evening train back to London, and I headed out to a party with Anna and her friend Julie.

Yesterday Anna and I went to Tang Freres, an Asian supermarket in Chinatown. I got fresh sugar cane juice, which was surprisingly tasty. We went back to her place and made scallion pancakes, or rather she made scallion pancakes while I made hair and facial appointments for my return to New York.

Last night was Le Nuit des Musees, when lots of museums are open for free till late. I made my way to the Marais the long way, and watched the sun peek through some clouds for about 10 minutes from Ile St Louis. 

  I spotted this rather poetic statement on the French election: Before visiting the Musee Carnavalet and meeting up with Anna for the medieval tavern at the Archives Nationales. Hypocras is good.

Today I had lunch with the Augustes, before another knitting lesson with Lee Ann. Today I learned how to purl!

This coming week holds a lot of errands and packing (eek!), and just general wrapping things up. The weather has been really lousy, cold and rainy and pretty depressing. I hope I get a few more nice days before I have to head back to New York.

I'm actually really looking forward to going home. I'm ready. I don't want to go through the next 10 days of goodbyes and packing and stress. I just want to be there. But I'm also still pretty set on coming back to Paris next year. I might even get desperate enough to look into au pair situations. I found one family with a house on the Adriatic who spends half the summer at the beach and the rest in Venice. How bad could that be?