Bonne Annee, everyone! Paris is an amazing place to bring in the New Year and we are excited to share our experience with you! Yesterday started out wonderfully as Mana had the chance to catch up with her friend from Kellogg, Damayanti, who studied abroad in Paris first quarter. We made plans for the evening since we were all planning on bringing in the new year at her friend's house party and see where the night took us thereafter! We then left for our day's adventures which involved purchasing cell phones. (We love how we have one small task a day and we call it a day's adventure...it goes to show you how productive we are being here - haha!)
After getting suggestions to hit up the Parisian Best Buy known as Fnac or as Mana likes to call it F-Nack (in the Aflac voice), we took a fifteen minute walk to Les Halles and found the huge store. Sahil fumbled through his French to communicate that we were trying to buy prepaid phones, but unfortunately they were completely out. Luckily a French local overheard our conversation and helped become the translater with his perfect English. He then took us in the direction of another store, Darty, which is perhaps the electronic store version of a Target and in the process told us how he was pursuing his PhD at NYU in cancer genetics. Once we made our way to Darty, we selected our phones in about 2 minutes flat only for the rest of the process to take about an hour and a half. They really don't like to work fast here...:)
We finally bought our cell phones and watched Destiny's Child music videos in the background of the store singing with French subtitles. We walked out with cell phones in hand and grumbling stomachs since it was now 5pm and we hadn't eaten yet. Sahil jumped up and down when he sighted a Pizza Hut; in his words, we had uncovered "a little slice of American heaven." We ventured into the Pizza Hut and waited for 15 minutes to get seated, 20 more minutes to get our menus, 20 more minutes to get our pizza, and 10 minutes to get our bill (after it was requested). Furthermore, Mana went up to go to the bathroom and waited 15 minutes behind a lady washing her hands who might as well have been washing 3 piles worth of dishes to scrub off ever nook and cranny of her hand. When Mana made her way to wash her hands she decided to bypass the lady who was now at the dryer and used her clothes to dry off her hands! Hopefully we'll get better at getting used to the slow pace of life!
We finally got back, took a nap from our long adventure (which we know, sounds just SO stressful and exhausting - hah!) and then got ready for New Year's Eve! Our friend Smruti and her brother Siddharth came over and we made dinner together after which we made our way to D's friends Matt and Quinn's place in Bastille. The combination of French, British, Canadian, and American personalities was hilarious and perfect. With a projector up on the wall, we partied, danced, and laughed through the night. We celebrated into the countdown and discovered an amazing local French vodka which we can't remember the name of right now (clear sign of a great night)!
After hours of partying, including a delicious late night pasta snack at a cafe (gotta love Paris) we finally got home at around 430 am. We slept and slept and slept and slept and are now writing this blog after finally waking up at 3pm! Sahil claims that he is trying to get over all the exhaustion of 2009. Mana claims that we are just being lazy bums and trying to adapt to the slower pace of life :).
We may meet Sahils friends from Chicago for dinner and have a low key night because tomorrow, we head off on a road trip with friends to Brussels and Champagne for a 2 day trip! Au Revoir for now! And HAPPY NEW YEAR or Bonne Annee again!
After getting suggestions to hit up the Parisian Best Buy known as Fnac or as Mana likes to call it F-Nack (in the Aflac voice), we took a fifteen minute walk to Les Halles and found the huge store. Sahil fumbled through his French to communicate that we were trying to buy prepaid phones, but unfortunately they were completely out. Luckily a French local overheard our conversation and helped become the translater with his perfect English. He then took us in the direction of another store, Darty, which is perhaps the electronic store version of a Target and in the process told us how he was pursuing his PhD at NYU in cancer genetics. Once we made our way to Darty, we selected our phones in about 2 minutes flat only for the rest of the process to take about an hour and a half. They really don't like to work fast here...:)
We finally bought our cell phones and watched Destiny's Child music videos in the background of the store singing with French subtitles. We walked out with cell phones in hand and grumbling stomachs since it was now 5pm and we hadn't eaten yet. Sahil jumped up and down when he sighted a Pizza Hut; in his words, we had uncovered "a little slice of American heaven." We ventured into the Pizza Hut and waited for 15 minutes to get seated, 20 more minutes to get our menus, 20 more minutes to get our pizza, and 10 minutes to get our bill (after it was requested). Furthermore, Mana went up to go to the bathroom and waited 15 minutes behind a lady washing her hands who might as well have been washing 3 piles worth of dishes to scrub off ever nook and cranny of her hand. When Mana made her way to wash her hands she decided to bypass the lady who was now at the dryer and used her clothes to dry off her hands! Hopefully we'll get better at getting used to the slow pace of life!
We finally got back, took a nap from our long adventure (which we know, sounds just SO stressful and exhausting - hah!) and then got ready for New Year's Eve! Our friend Smruti and her brother Siddharth came over and we made dinner together after which we made our way to D's friends Matt and Quinn's place in Bastille. The combination of French, British, Canadian, and American personalities was hilarious and perfect. With a projector up on the wall, we partied, danced, and laughed through the night. We celebrated into the countdown and discovered an amazing local French vodka which we can't remember the name of right now (clear sign of a great night)!
After hours of partying, including a delicious late night pasta snack at a cafe (gotta love Paris) we finally got home at around 430 am. We slept and slept and slept and slept and are now writing this blog after finally waking up at 3pm! Sahil claims that he is trying to get over all the exhaustion of 2009. Mana claims that we are just being lazy bums and trying to adapt to the slower pace of life :).
We may meet Sahils friends from Chicago for dinner and have a low key night because tomorrow, we head off on a road trip with friends to Brussels and Champagne for a 2 day trip! Au Revoir for now! And HAPPY NEW YEAR or Bonne Annee again!
Good to know, I am getting my cell phone tomorrow! :)
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