Missing the boat (but I’m ok with it)

Last week I tried to go to 2 things that I ended up missing. One day, I was to go to Palais du Tokyo with Malika and Cowiya. Apparently they were switching exhibits or something though so we weren’t about to go... It was fine though because instead we got nice macarons. The most famous place here is Ladurée I think, and I do want to go there at some point, but we went to another fancy one, Pierre Hermé. The second missed activity was a literal boat :-). Within Europe there’s a program called Erasmus so college students study in other European countries. It’s pretty popular and in Paris they always have Erasmus events going on. After dinner at a really good pizza place, Ejona and I were planning on going to one of these events which was a boat party or something. By the time we came though, the boat had literally left and we were like .... oops :-) I think it would’ve been back within the hour, but low key we were both like, I don’t realllyyy want to go. It was one of those situations where I was not so secretly happy something is canceled. Another time maybe!

palais du toyko -- FERME

however, at palais du tokyo they were having stuff for paris fashion week or something. This is cowiya when we told her to pretend she was getting off the fashion week bus

this was at the macaron place and i didn't get this but it looks really good and I thought this guy was neat

this pizza was delicieux !!

Other than that, I started both of my jobs officially! The babysitting is fine although sometimes tiring. But it’s 2 days a week so nothing extreme. (pictures below of jardin des plantes where the little girl lives near. Tuesdays she goes to English lessons, so I have an hour to kill, so I'll probably be hanging out around this garden often! The second photo was this weird gourd arch they had going on and this one was particularly long.)

And as I type this, I’m technically on the job working with Patricia. It’s because she’s speaking with a doctor currently while I’m in the waiting room.

I met her Saturday, and she told me more about her life which is very interesting. Like I said, she went to Smith during WW2. Apparently there she lived in Dawes which was the French speaking house at the time. There was a Parisian girl there who she made friends with one day. Then, she basically invited the French girl to stay with her in San Francisco. But it was funny because she told her to hitchhike across the country to get there while Patricia took a train. This girl actually hitchhiked and later invited Patricia to a French diplomat’s party. Patricia really didn’t want to go, but in the end, she married the French diplomat?!

She moved around a lot it seems, but clearly she has definite ties to Paris. Her apartment is beautiful and facing the Notre Dame. Now apparently she can’t go anywhere without someone because of recent falls. So what I’ll be doing with her really depends on the day. She really keeps busy though!

It's interesting to see her in action interacting with all the difference French people. I always get self-conscious about my accent, but hearing these interactions, I better understand that comprehensible convo comes more from being able to follow the person (and of course form an intelligible response). What I mean is, an American accent won't stop people from understanding... it's kinda everything else :-).

Small notes:

I also went to a flea market Sunday which was really nice. I'll have to check out more!! I got a shirt for 1 euro!

shoutout to lauren, a new reader!