Libby, Pinky, and Pumpkin Coconut Curry

You can take the girl out of MIT, but you can’t take the MIT out of the girl: Despite the beautiful weekend weather, I’m afraid to admit I found myself spending much of my Saturday inside reading up on Indoeuropean and Afrasian linguistic evolution, studying German, and reviewing Spanish and Italian through various podcasts. I was kept company by Reese’s replacement, my new pet Pinky, a lithops. I’d been considering purchasing an orchid, but it seemed only too appropriate to buy the plant that looked just like a pot of brains given my purpose for living in Paris over the next half decade (besides to help boost the French boulangerie economy). When I was sorting through the lithops pots, I noticed one that had an odd sprout that was half green-brown (standard) and half vibrant pink. From here it was only one small step to naming my pot of brains Pinky.

By now you may be worrying about just how much time the nerd has been allowed to spend by herself, but never fear! This morning one of my Alpha Chi Omega pledge class sisters, Libby, arrived in Paris for a week-long business trip. As la Fête des Vendanges de Montmartre was just wrapping up, we made our way from the Cité U down to Montmarte after lunch outside a boulangerie in Denfert-Rochereau. We wandered around Montmartre, walking past all sorts of stands selling various wines, ciders, cheeses, breads, and escargot for the crowds of Parisians and tourists who’d managed to jam themselves within a few narrow streets. I stopped for a hot cider and a gelato while Libby was thoroughly pleased to have her first of what may be many Fantas during the upcoming week. (Apparently they don’t have these in Texas where she’s working for a company "you’ve probably never heard of," as she tries to avoid mentioning Exxon Mobile.)

All too pleased to escape the crowds, I led Libby through the sex district (what is a good sorority sister for, anyway?) on our way back toward the heart of Paris and the Latin Quarter. Near the Seine we stopped for what I only then realized was my first afternoon coffee in a café since moving to Paris. It was unexpectedly amusing to hear the latest news on all the alums with whom Libby has stayed in such close contact.

After some window shopping and a close call on some wonderful, discounted hot pink shoes which were only a little too tight, I left Libby in the Fifth where I met up with Koyel. We spent an hour or two working on vocal exercises over a piano at the École Normale Supérieure where Koyel’s researching and living before heading over to the Fourteenth to celebrate my discovery of pumpkins in Paris, or rather, potimarrons, members of the winter squash family which look deceptively like pumpkins. I wasn’t fooled into thinking they might be real pumpkins when I looked at the potimarron label in the French supermarket (yes, I shop in supermarkets still): my French vocabulary already includes citrouille, the word for pumpkin, as I have read all seven Harry Potters in French in addition to English. Thank you, Hagrid’s pumpkin patch! (Background: pumpkin, along with coconut, is one of my two favorite flavors and scents ever. Unfortunately, Europeans haven’t embraced the fall seasonal harvest pumpkin flavor that Americans enjoy.)

Anyway, we celebrated my discovery of nearly-pumpkins in Paris by making a pumkin/potimarron-coconut-lentil curry. It was the first time I’d pushed my kitchen to its limits via a real cooking adventure and it worked out reasonably well, though I’m not entirely sure if many more than two people will ever fit comfortably in my kitchen. It was also my first opportunity to test out my room’s ability to host a dinner party and I’m thoroughly pleased to report the success. My desk, relocated to the center of the room, conveniently doubles as a dinner table, making up for the lack of any public eating areas in my new dorm. (I already own an adorable set of neon green stools of the same height as my chairs for extra seating at dinner parties.) My recently expanded music collection--merci beaucoup, Mom and Dad’s CD collection-- provided a nice, calm background, especially compared to all the angsty teen music which previously took up a significant portion of my music collection thanks to the days before I stopped downloading free music for fear of destroying my laptops with viruses. After a very French (in other words, extremely late) dinner, I walked Koyel to the Cité U station just in time to catch the final metro back to the Latin Quarter. I returned home quite satisfied with the outcome of my first opportunity to host a French feast, nicely capping off weekend #3 in Paris.