MPD

Monday morning, I packed up at the hotel and headed over to the B&B on the Metro. Younghee met me at the station to help me move my stuff to Mr. Lee’s house. My bed was one of ten six-foot-long bunkbeds in the basement. After we filled up our waterbottles, we left for the city.

The same company that runs the free Berlin walking tours also organizes free NewParis walking tours starting at St. Michel Plaza, so we wanted to go on it. Again, the tour guide was very eloquent and excited about her city. We saw Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Seine (we smelled it, too), more churches, the Champs d’Elysee, and more museums. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate this time, so partway through, the rand became unbearable and everyone was soaked. Soon after the tour was over, though, the sun came out again. We decided to walk to the Eiffel tower, since we were so close.

Well, the tower ended up being a bit more of a walk than it looked on the map, so by the time we were standing under it, we were all thirsty. Younghee bought a drink from a street vender, while Eunhee and I decided to get ice cream. One thing I noticed about the Eiffel Tower at this time is that it doesn’t disappoint. Sometimes I’ve found that getting too close to big landmarks makes them lose their splendor, but at no point did the tower lose my attention. It’s so much bigger than you expect from photographs.

Next, we thought we should find the jazz club that the tour guide recommended and maybe get dinner on the way. The club was back near St. Michel square, so we took the subway over there.

Since my map wasn’t actually detailed enough to show the street with the club, we ended up walking around quite a bit. Things always turn out alright, though, as evidenced by the fact that Sam saw us from inside a crepery and yelled out my name. Sam was with two girls, Jen and Jenny, whom he met that day for MISTI. Everyone introduced themselves, then Younghee, Eunhee, and I left to find the club.

It was actually really close, so after we learned that there would be a show at 10:30, we decided to eat at the crepery with Sam. The MISTI folks were almost done, but they stayed to talk while we ate. I ordered a smoked salmon crepe, sparkling cider, and an apple crepe for dessert. Everything was good, but the smoked salmon became a bit overpowering, and I couldn’t finish my main course.

After dinner, we all went next door for ice cream and to continue talking. I felt a little bad for Younghee and Eunhee because we were all talking about MIT and people we knew, plus our English was probably too fast for Eunhee, if not Younghee. Everyone ended up talking until almost 11:00, so after that, we jsut headed back to the B&B, since we had to be home by midnight.

Back at the B&B, we talked with Lee a bit, then went to bed. I think all the Korean guys downstairs were a little surprised to see a set of white feet in sandals coming down the stairs at 12:30…

Perhaps surprisingly, I slept great. The basement was pitch black and all the Korean guys were very quiet sleepers. In the morning, I woke up at 8:45 to the sound of Hotel California resonating in the floor above. I was fairly well rested and didn’t know what time it was, so I got up for breakfast.

Upstairs, the kitchen table was full of girls and strange food. Lee indicated that I should wait until a seat opened up, then get a bowl of rice and a bowl of soup. Younghee and Eunhee weren’t up yet, but I decided to just go for it anyway. Lee didn’t agree with my choice of one and a half ladle fulls of soup and insisted that I fill the bowl completely (even though I then had more than any Korean…). I finally sat down and before I could reach for a fork, a friendly girl looked at me with a sly smile and handed me a pair of chopsticks. Haha! Thanks to many rebukes from Chen, Ling, and Sally, I wowed them all with my unlikely dexterity.

Over the next few minutes, I sampled tiny worm-like dried fish, bean sprouts, assorted vegetables (one of which I thought might be tripe, but was actually really tasty), spicy corn salad, and kimchee soup. I was very happy to find that what looked like pickled chicken bones in the soup were just pieces hotdogs. The kimchee soup was incredibly hot, but I had been so worried that I was relieved to find it bearable at all (at least with rice and water at my side).

Soon, Younghee showed up to eat with me and refill my water. She said that the kimchee soup was not very god and actually more spicy than it should have been, and that I shouldn’t feel obligated to finish. Still, I felt bad, so it wasn’t until another Korean guy spoke up and said that he wasn’t going to finish either that I finally stopped eating.

When Younghee was done cleaning our dishes, she told me what really happened. Her roommate saw me sit down and ran upstairs to say, “Wake up! Wake up! Mike’s eating breakfast by himself!” So Younghee got out of bed and came down to take care of me. Still, I thought I did alright, particularly when I learned that everyone had been talking about how great of a guy I was; both because of my skill with chopsticks, and because I didn’t complain about any of the food.

Today, the plan was to see art. Eunhee wanted to see the Centre Georges Pompidou, so we went there first. We looked at some sculpture outside, then decided to go in. Before we got to the door, though, we were stopped by a man wanting to draw my picture. We said no, we were on our way to the museum. He informed us that the museum was closed today, so surely we now had five minutes to spare so that he could paint my “funny hair.” We wouldn’t even have to pay unless we liked the drawing. Still, our response was no, so we left to get Eunhee breakfast at McDonalds.

I really wanted to see the extra museum by the Louvre with the moder and impressionist art, so we walked there next. Luckily, the weather was better than on Monday. Unluckily, this museum was closed, too… Isn’t Monday supposed to be European museum-closed day? Maybe it’s Tuesday in France. So, we kept walking. Eunhee, as a future museum curator, knew another good museum we could see.

Eventually, we found it, and this one was open. I think it must have been a private museum, though, because it didn’t offer the discount for art majors that Eunhee expected in Paris. Here, we saw three temporary exhibits and one permanent exhibition.

The first exhibit featuring the work of a Russian painter-turned-photographer Rodchenko (he switched after declaring that he had achieved all that was possible with paint) was my favorite. Most of his works were photographs. Some of the compositions were very striking, and some now seem a bit dated. My favorite was a picture of a woman carrying a baby up a set of outdoor stairs. I liked it because of the combination of the high-contrast geometric shapes (one of his trademarks) of the stairs and the more natural and organic image of the mother and baby (made more interesting by the choice of viewpoint above her head).

After the museum, we had dinner, then decided to buy some wine, fruit, and chocolates to have back at the B&B. When we got back, Lee joined us. We talked for a long time about Korea, languages, B&Bs, America, etc. I learned about a Korean word ‘zhang’ that describes a relationship in which two people feel connected and will provide favors for one another and miss each other when they are apart. The Koreans spent a long time explaining this concept, but I couldn’t think of one single English word to describe the same thing. Perhaps someone who knows both languages can help.

At the end of the evening, Lee invited me to try some Soju, a special Korean alcohol, and another Korean boy joined us. I had already had three classes of wine, because everyone else claimed to be weak drinkers while insisting that I have more, so I was happy (I could probably end the sentence here, but I won’t) when Soju turned out to be much weaker than I had expected. All-in-all, it was a pretty fun day.