Dungeons and Dragons with a Side of Sushi

This trip has already held some interesting new experiences for me. I've spent a lot of time with my friend Aurélie and her boyfriend Oliver at their apartment. We've cooked together, watched some TV and now we have made sushi and played Dungeons and Dragons together. I didn't know they were into it until they asked me if I had ever played. Until yesterday, I had not. But now, oh now, I am a Ranger Elf with expert agility and wicked archery skills. I didn't really understand quite how the game is played, though in my defense it was all of the magic swords and enchanted gauntlet vocabulary but in French.

We also made awesome sushi two days ago. Delicious indeed, I ate many pieces as we spent the evening with another couple, a Canadian (Quebeqois) and African (of a country I can't recall) respectively. I had another embarassing French moment (even though I've spoken the language for twelve years, I still make stupid mistakes, Such is language)- The Canadian's girlfriend was named 'Jolie' (which means 'pretty') so when she introduced herself I thought she said 'Hello, you are pretty' (instead of 'hi my name is Jolie'- yes these phrases CAN sound the same in rapid French) and thus I replied giggling 'You are too!'...

All in all it really is just a matter of being comfortable with mistakes and comfortable with yourself. I'm finding my place in the city. Not in the sense of finding my way around- that is the easy part. What I mean is that this city moves differently than a city in the United States. It's incredibly busy, yet the French know very well how to stop and relax. It was actually physically hard for me to sit for more than a half hour in a café (and I succeeded- I stayed for over an hour!) or even to just sit down from time to time! This city is teaching me to slow down. A lot. Not in the sense of the deep south slow down, but rather the way one can still move but savor things more deeply, even the banal or obnoxious things. Sirens. I kind of hate them, but at three in the morning I'm a little comforted to hear it. Paris has literally caused me to let my hair down, and it's good for me. For two months after college I felt like I was waiting for something (well, in a sense I was watiting to be here) but now, in the same situation as I was when I letf home- jobless and financially limited, and depressed. I find a new vigor to life, even when I'm slowing down. Granted, it IS the place. Paris. It's special. But I see now the side of reality in Paris, one without the goal of tourism or school- simply being here and being in the state I am in my life. It's very good.

This city isn't perfect. I used to let mysellf think it was. Now I see it as still my beloved, but with it's dingy details revealed I love it more still. It is a love I hope to preserve for a lifetime, and I hope to see the rest of the world and its inhabitants this way as well. Such are the hopes of an artist.