So, What Is Your Name?

And so goes by another week with only a few interesting tidbits to report...

My first class at Université de Paris was cancelled because of a massive strike. Apparently whenever the French are discontented about a seemingly wayward political figure, they simply refuse to go to work in favor of parading through the streets yelling things, carrying signs, and occasionally lighting small fires. I got to experience this first hand as an angry mob came barreling down the road in front of the center for about 3 hours. I'm still not entirely sure what they were so discontented about. I tried to google it, but to no avail.

Several days later, my friend, Cally, and I went shopping at a giant underground mall in the center of Paris. We were trying to determine which escalator to take up to the next floor (as there were about 12 that all seemed to go to different places) when a Japanese boy stopped Cally and asked if she was with me. I was several paces ahead, and per usual, was so engrossed in finding the correct escalator, I was almost completely oblivious to my immediate surroundings. Cally flagged me down and the two of us listened intently to the plight of the Japanese boy. He decided to speak in English in order to remove one more filter of translation as none of our first languages is French. He asked us what the best line was to pick up women, as he was tired of trying to find one on the internet and he had decided it would be best to try to meet one in person. Cally began giving him advice as I warily stared at him with a perplexed look on my face. She told him that it would be best to go up to one and ask her name. The boy promptly asked us our names. He then went on to inquire as to whether it would be a good idea to ask if said hypothetical girl thought he was gay. We responded that this would probably not be the best approach. After coaching him for several minutes with no natural end in sight, the two of us told him that we needed to meet a friend but we wished him luck and speedily departed.

There you go people - you knew something awkward would happen eventually. The weekend was otherwise fairly uneventful, and was marked by copious drinking in one of my friend's apartments whose host was away from the weekend. I did complete one very successful mini-keg stand (a homage to Ben, DJ, and James) and drank much wine out of a box. France is not necessarily more classy than the states.

Real classes start this week so I should have slightly more responsibility, although I'm not necessarily looking forward to it.