Clarification

Okay, just to clarify. My birthday was on april 5th, but I didn't have time to post anything until now (omg I can't believe it's almost been a month since my birthday!!). So just wanted to clarify that in case it got people confused. Im sorry I haven't written more often as I had planned to, I'll try to post more often, specially since I only have 2 months left here in Paris! Sniff, sniff.

It's my birthday b****

That was a phrase I kept repeating in my drunken state. How embarrassing now that I am sober enough to realize how rude and annoying it is. Ah the things alcohol makes us do.

I had a whole plan for how I wanted to celebrate my 20^th birthday on Saturday. I wanted it to be special and different, to do something I cant do anywhere else. So I had planned to have a “apero”/picnic next to the Seine with my friends. One day I was hanging out by the Seine in Ile-St.Louis, next to Notre-Dame, and I saw a group of girls preparing a picnic for a friend’s birthday. They had food, wine, cake and to make it even cuter/romantic, candles. Yes ladies and gentlemen, candles. How cute is that?! I right then decided that I wanted that for my birthday. Unfortunately Mother Nature had other plans for me. We weren’t able to do it because it was cold and raining! The week before my birthday was so sunny and warm and of course for my birthday it decided to get cold and rainy, so typical.  Therefore we were only going to meet up to get dressed together and then go to a bar for pre-drinks before going dancing. 

Before meeting up with my friends I ended up going to the theater last minute with the kid's grandmother and her sister to watch a play called “ Un stylo sur la tete” (a pen on the head) with this famous French actor. It was a last minute thing because the grandfather wasn’t able to go and they didn’t want to let the ticket go to waste, so they invited me to go with them.

I was a bit hesitant about going to the theater since I had been invited to the theater once by this guy as a date and it was sooo boring! It ended up being a tiny tiny theater, for probably max. 20 people, it was a monologue and I did not understand the story at all. However, I really liked this play! I was able to understand what was going on and it was a comedy, unlike the other sad and serious monologue.

I then headed to my friends house to get ready. We were supposed to go to a bar called “Long Island” because they too have cheap cocktails for 5 euros. But again we ended up not going, because one of my friends didn’t have much money and well we all couldn’t afford to spend that much money, so we decided to buy drinks and pre-drink at my friends house. I bought a bottle of rose wine for myself thinking that that would be enough since I am so lightweight and specially with wine. However, I was almost done with the bottle and I was not tipsy at all! We were all trying to drink as fast as possible because it was almost 11pm and we weren’t tipsy yet, hadn’t finished our drinks and had to leave soon to get to the bar on time (we were heading to a bar called “The Financier” that has a dance floor). We were just goofing off and being silly taking pictures when suddenly it hit all of us, we were suddenly really drunk. We must’ve given people a very interesting show on the metro: 3 girls being so loud and just, well, drunk. I guess I was the worst of them. You know those girls you see on the metro who are so wasted and haven’t even gotten to the club? You know those girls who are so loud and annoying, and get looks from everybody inside the metro/public transportation? Yeah? Well we were one of those, and want to know my excuse? I even gave my friends a speech about this. My excuse was “It’s my birthday, I get to do what I want” Here's my speech:

"Shh, people are looking at me...well us. But you know what? I don't care because it's my birthday and you only turn 20 once. It's like...like a full moon which happens every..when does a full moon happen?"

Yeah... I can already see everybody doing this face:

Haha, I know I was so stupid and such a brat.

Anyways, after disrupting people’s calm train ride, we got off and I being the only one who had been to the bar before, was the guide, except that I guided us the wrong direction. Thankfully I was conscious enough to realize that we were walking the wrong way and I managed to find the bar. We got inside the bar and were waiting for our French friends to get there and another American friend. I will just sum up the rest of the night because even I don’t know in which order everything happened and I am still questioning if all of this happened.... I have no idea how much more I drank after my friends house, but Im guessing more than I thought because I apparently finished the bottle of vodka with orange juice we had brought (I had no idea I had done this until my friends told me the next day), I had some of my friends mojito and I finished my friends glass with redbull and jagger. For crazy stuff that I did, well I kinda ended up making out with 4 different people, and they were all somehow connected to each other haha. I almost got into a fight with a girl, okay no I'm exaggerating, but I did get quite angry at this girl and she was lucky enough that Im too nice/I was too drunk to defend myself. Here's what happened...I had a friends hat on, and honestly I had completely forgotten that I still had it until I felt somebody take it off my head as I was walking into the bathroom. I then I took it back saying “Hey, its MY hat” and put it back on but then this girl took it off again and said “No honey, it REALLY isn’t yours”. Oh my god! I couldn’t believe her attitude, she was so rude! I just kept thinking, “Its my birthday! I get to do whatever I want” (I know, how annoying is this? But hey I was drunk!) The worst part was that she was friends with one of my friends, so there was no need to be rude to me. We’re all friends!

Anyways, we stayed at the club until it closed, which I think was too early because I could’ve kept on dancing (and making out with a super cute guy hehe). We then met 2 of my friends who had left earlier because one of them had been kicked out (apparently she had spent way too much time in the bathroom since she was feeling a bit sick. Since when is that a crime?!) and waited until 6 am for the metro to start. We finally got the metro home and let me tell you something, I am so glad we got the metro at that time.  We took the line 6, which at one point gives you the view of the Eiffel tower and the Seine, and it is the most beautiful view ever. Yes, the best view is at 6 am when everything is still quiet, the lights glimmer on the Seine, Paris is full of peace and quiet and you can see the sun slowly rising on the horizon.  That view seriously left me speechless and with my mouth wide open. It was the best way to end an amazing night.

20

I woke up the morning of my birthday hung over. I just kept thinking to myself as I crawled to my closet “Never again, bad bad idea”. I had to stop for a minute to just sit down and breathe because I honestly thought I was going to throw up. It was my body’s way of saying “You’re a year older now, sooner or later you wont be able to handle alcohol the same way”. I never get hangovers, unless I drink lots and lots, but for 2 drinks and 2 shots? I wanted to stay in bed all morning but instead I had to chase around a 2,4, and 7 year old, get them ready for school and take them to school. Trust me, it is not the easiest thing to do when you’re hung over and feel like any slight movement will make you throw up. But after giving them breakfast my body decided to give me a break and I felt so much better. By the time I was done taking them to school and the daycare I was no longer hung over. I then met up with my friends to go to the Mosque for some tea. If you’re in Paris and are looking for a cute place with cheap pastries and tea, the Mosque is the place to go. I love this place, its so cute with their 3 different tea rooms (2 of them are terraces), their mint tea is delicious and they have pastries for 2 euros, which are quite yummy too.  We then all went our separate ways to go pick up the kids and at night my host mom brought a chocolate and raspberry cake for my birthday. The kids sang happy birthday and helped me blow out the candles and then the family gave me my presents. I got a birthday card from the kids grandparents inviting me to “La duree”, a store that makes one of the best macaroons in Paris, to try the macaroons. I got very excited because I’ve tried some when my friend got a box of macaroons from a guy she was seeing, and trust me they are delicious! I have been meaning to go, but I know they are quite pricey. But now I get to go as a birthday present,yay! The family then gave a me bunch of small things. I got a pocket mirror, a small bag that can be used as a makeup bag, a headband with small white roses (I love this) and also got a cooking workshop as a present from the parents. I found this very funny because just a few days before I had screwed up cooking some ground beef for the kids haha. I kinda burnt it....lol. I guess they saw the mess of a cook I am and figured that cooking classes would be better than macaroon baking classes haha (the mom had said before that they would give me macaroon making class for my birthday). But I am quite happy they got my the cooking course, I do need help with my cooking! 

I then went out with the friend who wasn’t able to come out on Wednesday, and we headed once again to Crocodile so I could show her the place. We didn’t stay though, because it was even more packed than Wednesday and there was no place to sit or to move around for that matter. We headed to a café and she got some coffee and I got a glass of rose wine and a crème brulee. It was a quiet night compared to the night before, but that’s alright because we were going to go all out on Saturday. At the end of the night it felt so weird knowing that my birthday was already finished. The day had gone by so fast and I wish it could last a bit longer, well technically it was still my birthday back home haha, just saying! I can’t believe I am already 20! I never thought that I would be here in Paris at this point of my life. I feel so grateful and blessed to have this opportunity to be here.

Can I have another Crocodile please?

So on Thursday April the 5^th it was my 20^th birthday and I wanted to go big for this birthday, after all you don’t always get to celebrate your birthday in Paris (and no you Parisians don't count) and you only turn 20 once in this beautiful city. Therefore to start off my 20^th birthday my friends and I decided to go try out a new bar called “Le Crocodile” (it is not a new bar, it is quite old actually but it was a new place for us). What started off as a “I’m only staying for one drink” ended up as a 4am night (okay not for me, that was for my friends but then again it was my friend who said “just one drink”. I headed back home around 1 am, I still had to wake up at 6:30am to get the kids ready for school). This is how it all went down….

The bar from the outside looks a bit scary and sketchy, not the first place you would stop by and say “hey I’ll try this place out”. However, it seems to be a very popular place because it was quite busy for a Wednesday night. Then again that might have to do with the fact that happy hour is until 11pm and their cocktails are 6 euros. (If you are in Paris, this is a must go to place! They have a menu with like 365 different cocktails) We got lucky that we found a table because it is quite small (very small), then again every bar in Paris seems to be this way. One thing I didn't like about this bar was how the waiter at one point made my friend move to the other side of the table so these 2 girls could sit on her chair (their friends were in the table next to us) without even asking my friend first. He just told her to move! Anyways, so we got our drinks after 15 minutes of deciding what to choose (there's just so many options!) and the best part of the drink, beside the price, was that they put a crocodile gummy in your drink!!!!!If you know me, you know I love gummies and the moment I saw the gummies at the bar I got so freaking excited. I know, I was about to turn 20 and I was getting excited over a crocodile gummy, I guess the kid inside of me is still there.  After our first drink we were already tipsy, those drinks were preeetttyy strong let me tell you, which made us want to stay longer and of course drink some more. Unfortunately we are all on a budget and didn’t have more money to spend, but thankfully we were at a bar that has cheap alcohol and found out that we could have shots for 3 euros. So we all ordered shots, I being the birthday girl got 2 shots (there was a promo 5 shots for 10) vodka with raspberry and vodka with caramel, my friends got absinthe and another friend also got vodka raspberry. Then the people who were next to us left and this group of 4 guys (I think, I was somewhat drunk by this point and can’t remember how many of them there were) sat in the table next to us. One of them, started talking to us and of course, we all ended up talking and hanging out. I had been eyeing the guy who talked to us before, he looked cute but older than me. But when I saw his friends I realized that he was waaayy too old for me, because they all clearly looked like they were in their mid 30’s. However we kept talking to them and hanging out. Then the one who had started talking to us at first saw that we had all stopped drinking and asked us why we had stopped drinking. We answered that we were good (we were too embarrassed to say we have no money haha) he took out his wallet and gave us 30 euros to buy drinks  (he was quite drunk) and at first we were hesitant about taking his money, it just felt so weird being handed money instead of him buying us drinks, but at the end we took the money and ordered drinks before happy hour finished. Yes, we were already drunk before 11pm. When midnight approached everybody said happy birthday and my friend wrote on her hand “Happy Birthday G” (she wrote my whole name, but since I want to remain anonymous, I will only write the first letter of my name hehe) and this somehow led to everybody writing on my left arm as if I had some kind of invisible cast! My friend wrote on my hand “It is better now that we have a pen” (yes, she was drunk) and something else that I cant quite remember. I wrote on the palm of my left hand “20” and the guy who had started talking to us, wanted all of his friends and of course himself, to sign my arm with just their names and wrote “Joyeux Anniversaire”. His friends decided to start writing messages, writing in big letters and one of them even wrote his number! These 30 year olds seemed to be teenagers under the influence. I,being so drunk,didn’t care. I in my drunken moment thought it was a different/cool way to start my birthday until I realized that my arm was completely covered and I had work the next day (when I woke up in the morning I headed to the bathroom and started to scrub all of the ink off, thankfully it wasn't so hard! But I then realized the ink had somehow been also imprinted into my pijama! So now i have random writing on my t-shirt haha).

Then one of my friends came back talking to these 3 very bearded guys, and if you know me I have issues with beards. Urgh beards, I really don’t like them, I find them so unattractive! But my friends found the guys very attractive sooo they also ended up joining our group. The 30 year olds were then leaving and the one who I had been talking most of the night with (the youngest one and the one who started talking to us) asked me if I could go outside for a while to talk. He then confessed to me a bunch of stuff that I honestly can’t remember since I was quite drunk at that point. I somewhat remember the point of the conversation and what he was talking about and pretty much he had asked me to talk because he wanted to see me again (oh I forgot to mention that in one of those drunken moments I had written my number on his arm haha). I feeling high on life and thinking what the hell you only live once, I said yes. Yes my dear readers, I had said yes to a date with a 30 year old. There was just something inside of me saying, why not? Of course the age difference is 10 years, and that’s a lot, but there was a thrill to this for me, or maybe It was just the alcohol haha.

I then headed back to the bar and we stayed for…I have no idea actually how much longer we stayed in since we lost track of time. I think we stayed for another hour and then I took the night bus home. My friends however stayed a little bit longer with the bearded guys, and oh boy I wish I could tell you what happened after this because even I couldn’t believe it! They ended up staying out until 4am and took a taxi all the way home( it’s like a 70 euro taxi drive for them) to get there in time before starting work and in-between 1 am and 4 there was lots of interesting things happening....

As you can see, whenever you say “I’ll only stay for one drink” never ends with one drink. Ahh, here’s to the start of a new decade!