At long
last the weather has cleared up and Paris is delivering me the mild winters for which I'd signed on as I found myself at long last escaping
my wintery fortress in Boston. However, as I've consistently proven, you can take me an ocean away from MIT but I'll never really escape.
Two weekends ago, Koyel and I celebrated a very sunny Valentine's Day with a free organ concert in Notre Dame. Turns out they're offered nearly every Sunday afternoon, though now they've stopped for Lent.
This past weekend, Britni, an MIT '11 AXΩ spending this semester in Madrid, came to visit. Although we'd never gotten much of a chance to bond while both at MIT, she was a wonderful guest and proved once again that the bond forged through shared experiences at MIT only grow stronger the further you take us off campus. The weekend absolutely flew by. Saturday did offer us the chance to explore a few new places I'd yet to check out under yet more clear blue skies and weather finally mild enough to permit me to try out a new pair of tights with a jeans skirt. One highlight was hitting up the Bistrot Chat Noir's "Happy Hour," which happens from 5 to 9pm seven days a week. (I think the French have somewhat missed the idea behind "happy hour.") The Bistrot Chat Noir is the restaurant for which all those famous French black cat cartoons were made.
Located only a few doors down from the Moulin Rouge, it was a side-trip into a somewhat scandalous part of town following our trip to Montmartre and Sacré-Coeur, but a classic 
destination to which I might not be brave enough to venture on my own. We commandeered a table and, between our cocktails, even managed to discreetly share a pretty French chocolate mousse cake decorated with macaroons from a boulangerie near my home.
After refueling, we finished off Britni's visit (as she was set to leave early Sunday morning) with a jam-packed Saturday night. From chez moi, 14th Arrondissement, in the south of Paris, we headed northwest to catch some classic shots by the Eiffel Tower in the 7th Arrondissement before hopping on another metro bound even further northeast to the 11th Arrondissment where we had a lovely vegetable risotto at Le Petit Bal Perdu, 25 rue Oberkampf, 75011, before making our way down to the Bastille to catch the tail end of a lively free jazz concert by the Moreno Orkestra in a small restaurant and bar.
We soon caught ourselves slipping into the wee hours of the night so we caught a metro back home and were soon curled up fast asleep.
For a change of pace, I managed to spend this entire day socializing without a single MIT affiliate. I was thoroughly pleased to be once more wearing a skirt and yet another new pair of tights today in celebration of the much milder weather. Though my outfit made me quite happy, it wasn't a fair match for the chilly weather at the apartment warming where I spent my afternoon with my ENP friends. I always forget that in Europe one is still conscious of the seasons when indoors. They're not so into the 72ºF year-round deal.
After bidding my ENP friends farewell, I finally got to visit the Musée Quai Branly, one of most Parisian tourism books' Top Ten Destinations which I'd somehow never managed to visit. (I also pulled off a free under-26-years admission using solely my French carte de séjour, sans EU citizenship. Score.) The Musée Quai Branly is an ethnological museum which features all sorts of artifacts from indigenous cultures across the world in a very modern, artistic building. Most frustratingly, many of the items had scant descriptions of their past usage and significance. Nonetheless, the collection was impressive. The mask featured here is from a Native American people though it's beyond me to remember who. I loved the warped features and reflected that what is viewed as "primitive" in these ethnological museums seems to have a striking resemblance to what might be labeled "avant-garde" when placed in another museum only a few minutes away.
All in all, I had a weekend (or two) well spent, leaving me ready to hit the ground running for another week of lab work and exam prep. In some good news, I did learn that I passed both exams I took in January! Now just to survive Round 2 in March.
last the weather has cleared up and Paris is delivering me the mild winters for which I'd signed on as I found myself at long last escaping
my wintery fortress in Boston. However, as I've consistently proven, you can take me an ocean away from MIT but I'll never really escape.Two weekends ago, Koyel and I celebrated a very sunny Valentine's Day with a free organ concert in Notre Dame. Turns out they're offered nearly every Sunday afternoon, though now they've stopped for Lent.
This past weekend, Britni, an MIT '11 AXΩ spending this semester in Madrid, came to visit. Although we'd never gotten much of a chance to bond while both at MIT, she was a wonderful guest and proved once again that the bond forged through shared experiences at MIT only grow stronger the further you take us off campus. The weekend absolutely flew by. Saturday did offer us the chance to explore a few new places I'd yet to check out under yet more clear blue skies and weather finally mild enough to permit me to try out a new pair of tights with a jeans skirt. One highlight was hitting up the Bistrot Chat Noir's "Happy Hour," which happens from 5 to 9pm seven days a week. (I think the French have somewhat missed the idea behind "happy hour.") The Bistrot Chat Noir is the restaurant for which all those famous French black cat cartoons were made.
Located only a few doors down from the Moulin Rouge, it was a side-trip into a somewhat scandalous part of town following our trip to Montmartre and Sacré-Coeur, but a classic 
destination to which I might not be brave enough to venture on my own. We commandeered a table and, between our cocktails, even managed to discreetly share a pretty French chocolate mousse cake decorated with macaroons from a boulangerie near my home.After refueling, we finished off Britni's visit (as she was set to leave early Sunday morning) with a jam-packed Saturday night. From chez moi, 14th Arrondissement, in the south of Paris, we headed northwest to catch some classic shots by the Eiffel Tower in the 7th Arrondissement before hopping on another metro bound even further northeast to the 11th Arrondissment where we had a lovely vegetable risotto at Le Petit Bal Perdu, 25 rue Oberkampf, 75011, before making our way down to the Bastille to catch the tail end of a lively free jazz concert by the Moreno Orkestra in a small restaurant and bar.
We soon caught ourselves slipping into the wee hours of the night so we caught a metro back home and were soon curled up fast asleep.For a change of pace, I managed to spend this entire day socializing without a single MIT affiliate. I was thoroughly pleased to be once more wearing a skirt and yet another new pair of tights today in celebration of the much milder weather. Though my outfit made me quite happy, it wasn't a fair match for the chilly weather at the apartment warming where I spent my afternoon with my ENP friends. I always forget that in Europe one is still conscious of the seasons when indoors. They're not so into the 72ºF year-round deal.
After bidding my ENP friends farewell, I finally got to visit the Musée Quai Branly, one of most Parisian tourism books' Top Ten Destinations which I'd somehow never managed to visit. (I also pulled off a free under-26-years admission using solely my French carte de séjour, sans EU citizenship. Score.) The Musée Quai Branly is an ethnological museum which features all sorts of artifacts from indigenous cultures across the world in a very modern, artistic building. Most frustratingly, many of the items had scant descriptions of their past usage and significance. Nonetheless, the collection was impressive. The mask featured here is from a Native American people though it's beyond me to remember who. I loved the warped features and reflected that what is viewed as "primitive" in these ethnological museums seems to have a striking resemblance to what might be labeled "avant-garde" when placed in another museum only a few minutes away.
All in all, I had a weekend (or two) well spent, leaving me ready to hit the ground running for another week of lab work and exam prep. In some good news, I did learn that I passed both exams I took in January! Now just to survive Round 2 in March.
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