A few weeks ago my Friday class was canceled. This past Friday my professor issued a “make up” class disguised as a scavenger hunt. This was the professor’s way of giving us a class she owed us without actually giving us a class. I teamed up with two other students who speak French more than English (they speak Chinese and their French isn’t bad and I knew that we would only speak French, so I chose to be in their group instead of partnering with a bunch of Americans) so I could practice my speaking skills. We were given a dossier and told to go to the 13emearrondisement in order to finish the packet.
The 13eme is a pretty cool area, which serves as the de facto Chinese quarter and it used to be the area of anarchists and rebels after World War II. There are lots cool posters and drawings plastered over the walls of restaurants and cafés in this cool area and plenty of history as well. I would’ve been down for all this touristy crap if I didn’t feel like I was walking around naked in a freezer while a fan blowing cold, dry air in my face, remains in front of me with every step I take. It was so cold that I could hardly feel my hands and it didn’t help that I wore only a t-shirt and a thin army jacket, trying to look cool.
The three of us went to a popular Chinese restaurant for lunch. After the wait, we sat down but my hands wouldn’t warm, no matter how fast I rubbed them together. I could hardly grip the chopsticks and the fork kept falling out of my hands. I was like Edward Scissorhands but with immoveable fingers. My hands were ice cold, frozen solid.The girls giggled as they watched me fumble with the utensils and splash my food everywhere. Pathetic.
They wanted to do some shopping, so we went to the huge mall, Place d’Italie, and I plodded silently behind them, as they tried on clothes. One of the girls bought a cool jean jacket that was the last one on the rack and marked down almost 200 Euros. She got the jacket for 95 Euros. That’s larceny. After the mall, we split up and went home to beat the cold.
Check out the photos for some of the cool sights from the scavenger hunt.
For Your Information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Place_d’Italie