much to relate

Bon apres-midi from Paris,

I suppose I should figure out how to put in accents. Meh. There is much to relate. Stick with me.

Since my last post, Midori and I went to get our hair cut at this crazy salon called Jean-Louis Desforges, which is part of a chain. When we walked in, literally the whole salon turned to stare at us, and the guys who worked there kept asking, "So how did you find out about this place?" As it turns out, the place specialized in short haircuts, and there was a couture-like hair show being played on a flatscreen as we waited. There was only one woman who worked in the salon. Everyone was dressed completely in black, and the decor was really simple. Also, they seemed to have a few people on the go at one time, so the seating plan kept being juggled around. Evidently, since Midori and I were the only young girls in the place, "on a subi" (we were submitted to) typical service-industry-type flirting from everyone. Aah, Paris. Mid's stylist and I were conspiring behind her back to lose some length, and Meach took it like a champ. She made some good decisions, so her hair looks fabulous. I almost cried when mine was done, because I just told my guy to do whatever he wanted, and he cut me some blunt-cut bangs. I'm getting used to them, but it was pretty shocking at first! Also it's very short, but thankfully he kept some longer bits in front so i think the overall effect is good. However, the best part is that Mark told me that I can count it for my practicum project, so I can get reimbursed. (Don't ask me how that's possible. I need to find the receipt.) 

I think it was that night, Mark took the students in his classes to a CRAZY restaurant. It was one of the best culinary experiences I've ever had. We started off walking around the Marais district, where one of Mark's classes gave a fake tour to the other class. (i.e. Mark told us to make stuff up about our assigned locations, starting out with possibly true facts, maybe even mixing in some truth, then moving to things that were just absurd.) The tour finished around the Centre Pompidou (modern art museum), where he took us to the secret location of the restaurant. It was called "Dans le Noir" ("In the Dark"), and everything was pitch black except the lounge and reception. When you go into the restaurant, you have to put all of your belongings (especially things that emit light like watches and phones) in to a locker. Then you get in a single-file line, put your right hand on the shoulder of the person in front of you, and a blind server leads you to your table. You cannot see anything. Not even shadows of things. I literally had to feel around the table for my cutlery and glass, and good luck pouring the water or the wine! (You don't even know which one is which.) Our appetizers glowed. Also, the food was really good. You can imagine that, if you can't see anything, the food better be a good feature. Cutting in the dark is hard, and so is knowing where your food is. As a result, some of us resorted to primitive man techniques such as eating with our hands, or spearing something with a fork and biting it. After we were done and had filed back into the reception area, they showed us pictures and descriptions of what we had eaten. Like I said, crazy. We've been lucky to have Mark with us on this trip, that's for sure.

This weekend was our Bing trip to Flanders. If you don't know, Flanders is a region made up of the very northern tip of France, and part of Belgium. They speak Flemish, English, and French. Friday we took the train to Lille, where my host family's son-in-law is a Magistrat. (Roughly speaking he's a judge.) Lille was more fast-paced than the other places we visited. We ate in a brasserie for lunch called Les 3 Brasseurs, where they brew their own beer, and ate traditional food which I won't detail as this post is already too long. Unfortunately, this day marked the beginning of many walking tours, and our guide was awful. She was not interesting and seemed to always pick out the darkest, coldest, windiest spots for us to listen to her speak at. (That was an awkward sentence.) We also went to one of the coolest museums I've ever been to, which was located in the old communal baths of Lille! The tour guide there was very interesting. Dinner that night was on our own, and we sought out another brasserie where I tried frog legs for the first time! Props to Midori and JW for ordering them, I was too sketched out. (P.S. I have tried to teach the word "sketchy" to my host family. They pretend like they get it but I have a sneaking suspicion that they have no clue what I'm trying to say.)

The next day, we woke up really early and took a bus to Gent (sp? There are like a million ways of spelling that town's name). We crossed the border without much fanfare, as the north of France and Belgium more generally just seem pretty pastoral. Gent was my favourite place we went this trip, and I highly recommend seeing it if you're ever in the area. It's very picturesque, with crazy stepped roofs, and twisty-turney alleys that surprise you with glimpses of the river. Also, the beer is very good, and so is the waterzoi (supposed to have a symbol there that I don't care to find). Waterzoi is a traditional fish or chicken dish in a light cream sauce. We took a walking tour, this time with an awesome guide who could speak 5 different languages. For lunch, we split up and found a brasserie to order lunch at. It was pretty good, though there seemed to be only one waiter serving a full two-floor restaurant, so the service was very slow. We didn't get waffles, which we had highly anticipated. That afternoon we took a tour of a castle, which was freezing. (As a side note, this entire trip was freezing cold. I think our last day in Belgium it was -10 including windchill.) That night was when we had waterzoi for dinner, which was very good. Funny enough, Roberto (Stanford staff) chose a really hip and trendy restaurant for us to eat at. We got cocktails first up in the 2nd floor lounge before dinner, and then moved to the first floor to eat. The staff was young and good-looking, and there was a noteworthy failed attempt to collect a number amongst the guys. (Sorry, it had to be put in for posterity but I won't name names. :) ) The washrooms were very cool. The glass was transparent when you first walked in to a stall, then it became fogged as you locked the door. One last comment about the meal: the presentation was excellent. Good choice, Roberto.

The next day was all about Bruges, which actually was a bit of a disappointment. First of all, it was way too cold. Coming from a Canadian who has played sports wearing shorts, a long-sleeve and a jersey in sub-zero temperatures, hopefully you know that I'm not just being a wimp. People were wearing two pants, some people wore 7 sweaters = too cold. Our tour guide was pretty bizarre, and had very bad teeth. Thankfully, we still managed to have a pretty good time though at this point we were all veeery tired and somewhat cranky. Highlights of Bruges included hitting some skipped boxes on the list: moules frites, chocolate, and waffles, all of which were excellent and memorable. During our free time before the lunch break, Heimunn, Midori, JW, Michael, Mackenzie, Farah, and I went to the restaurant across the street from our lunch destination (with the rest of the group) to get mussels and fries. It was really good, and the food was made even more enjoyable thanks to a very warm fire that we were sitting next to! We ran across the street (it was going to take too long to put all of our layers back on) for our Stanford-sponsored lunch, which wasn't as good but was still nice. (FYI, Stanford is set-menu, that's why we went to the mussels place to make sure we got them before we left.) After that, we took horse-drawn carriages around the old town, and visited the museum inside the old hospital. It was creepy, our tour guide was boring, and we were too sleepy to care much at that point. Overall, the museum was a failure. After thaaat (I promise this is almost done), we had some free time and decided to gear-up and get some coffee and waffles after chocolate shopping. I had a waffle with bananas, whipped cream, and chocolate. The server didn't want to give me chocolate (which I had asked for) because he said the combo would be too heavy for the waffle. Well, it was still delicious if not traditional. After that, we bussed back to Lille to catch a train back to Paris. We watched "In Bruges" on the way back and pretty much came to the conclusion that we agreed with Colin Ferrell that Bruges isn't all it's made-up to be. Gent was definitely the winner.

So after all that adventuring, I decided to come home and get some sleep, right? Wrong. Even though I had had basically no sleep, I went with Natalia, Heimunn, JW, and Midori to a 24-hour, extremely popular art exhibit called "Picasso et les maitres". Props to Midori for finding this online, because it was packed and pretty cool. (But not pretty cool because it was packed.) The time we bought our tickets for was 2am, so no rest for the weary. Instead, it was unpacking, uploading photos, and getting coffee at a brasserie beside the Grand Palais, where the exhibit is being held. People were waiting in line for hours, so thank goodness we bought our tickets ahead of time. There were news crews, and even Europe 1 (I think a European radio station) was there. When we came out of the exhibit it was snowing, so we had a very chilly (and beautiful) walk to the Champs-Elysees to flag down some cabs. (The metro doesn't run at that time.)

So this is long now, but I pretty much woke up and started writing this while it was all fresh in my mind. I'm still very tired, but am feeling better than yesterday! I have painting class at 1:30, so I had better get a move-on before too long. After that, I'm going to Midori's host family's house for dinner at 7pm. I am living a crazy, busy life at the moment. Will try to add photos/details when possible.