Concerning Mexicans, The Marais, and Hot Deliciousness

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Monday was a cool day. Tash had her first class (I don't have class on a Monday... Or Friday, for that matter) but I went with her because we South Africans stick together! SciencesPO is kinda like Wits: there are different buildings with many labelled rooms (sometimes arbitrary labels... As anyone who's ever had a class in John Moffat will agree). There's one difference though: SciencesPo's campus is a suburb, not a separated area. You walk to class down the street. It's pretty awesome, considering St-Germain is one of the most beautiful areas in the city. It's a crazy expensive shopping area (Ralph Lauren and Armani are just around the corner - not that Tash and I know anything about fashion) but it still reeks of old-world Paris.

Tash introduced me to Marco after class, her hot (I mean charming) Mexican friend. The exchange students are both friendly and easy to spot: confused, disorientated, complaining about the weather. Hopefully we'll soon begin to fit right in.

After meeting Marco we decided to walk around a really beautiful suburb called the Marais. It's got a really high Jewish population, which means that many of the shops are Kosher and there are very serious memorials to Jewish Holocaust victims dotted around. The streets are winding and cramped with bistro tables and pedestrians, but it's truly beautiful.

We accidentally stepped into a gallery (it was mainly to get out of the drizzle), but as with anything in the Marais, it became a mistake we would not regret. The gallery itself hosts 20 artists from around the world, and asks them to work in specific formats so people can easily buy the completely unique works. The girl who works in the store was so nice to us, and although she spoke English, she decided to explain the concept of the gallery to us in very slow French to help us build our vocab. We're definitely going back there to practice our French :)

After that Tash and I missioned to one of the most famous falafel places in the city, aptly named "La Falafel". A sign on the door says that Lenny Kravitz recommends it, and if that's not a great draw, I don't know what is :) after asking for a table for 2 (one of the only things we can ask for in French) we were led through the crowded joint to a tiny table in a room that had more Jewish nick-knacks and paraphernalia than we could count. Sharing delicious falafel and icy lemonade in that place was definitely a cool experience. Totally recommend a visit if you're ever in the area. After going shopping in a cute novelty store nearby, we headed home.

This is a really long post already, but just one more thing. Tuesday was great too. We did two exciting things: 1) went for hot chocolate at Café le Deux Magots, one of the most famous spots in the city. Around the corner from our varsity, it's super-fame comes from the fact that lots of famous people hung out there in the 1920s (Picasso, Satre, Hemingway). It's very Midnight-In-Paris, with red velvet curtains and crystal chandeliers. The hot chocolate itself was probably sourced from Willy Wonka's river (only that would explain its glorious flavour), and we had a great time even though the waiter "Englished" us (spike English to us when we spoke French to him). The number 2) exciting thing we did was go to our first philosophy class, but I should probably end here. I kinda have to run to a History lecture :)