So we wanted to go dancing, and my friends L, A, C, and G were pretty bent on having something to drink first, so we scoured the area around Club Mix for about a half hour. First, we found this general store-type place, but there were about 3 dirty-looking men hanging around outside. We decided we could find someplace safer than that, plus we weren't sure what the laws are about drinking on the street, but we figured it was a bad idea. G had explored the area a little before the rest of us had gotten there and knew of a bar where they have student Happy Hour every Thursday night, so we went there.
The bar was relatively small and pretty crowded, but there was a live band (well, two guys with earrings and overalls playing American songs on guitar) and the student specials were very reasonably priced. We hung there until about 11:30, figuring we'd have plenty of time to cross the street and make it to the club before midnight.
Haha, wrong. The line was about 300 people long and eventually dissolved into a mass of people pushing their way toward the door. We stuck it out for about half an hour, realized we had missed the midnight deadline, and peaced. As we were walking away, we were hailed by three guys standing apart from the crowd, "Eh! Eh!...Eh!" who we failed to notice, but they were persistent and came up alongside us. It was a pretty typical French-American conversation, "Oh, the US? Where? Conn-ect-ee-kuht? Chicago? Obama!" the only really interesting thing about the conversation was when we left to find our friend who'd gone in search of a bathroom and one of the guys said, "What, you leaving? Come on girl!" with emphasis on every wrong syllable. Nobody really wanted to go home yet, so we went back to the first bar.
The band was taking a break, but there was music playing over the speakers and we had another round of vodka and caramel (who knew so good?). This time we were able to actually secure a seat -- a whole couch, in fact -- and made a pile of our coats, then stood/sat around the couch but not on it. G was soon chatting up a young (?) Austrian guy, O, who then came to sit with us for a bit, leaving his coat atop our own mass of outerwear when he disappeared twenty minutes later. Everyone was kinda bummed he'd left, but we figured he had to come back eventually if he wanted his coat.
In the meantime, we tried to avoid eyecontact with the group seated on the couch across from us. There two girls and a few guys, one of which was slightly disfigured and kept asking to take pictures with us, pictures of his friends with us... but they didn't really talk to us except the little man who G had agreed to dance with earlier and then felt forced to talk to. At this point I was cornered against the wall by their conversation but I couldn't excuse myself and leave G there so I stuck it out until it was over.
At this point, O had reappeared and whisked Claire onto the dance floor. It was super cute until he started leading her around the bar where we had trouble seeing them to make sure everything was ok. We kept trying to gesture to Claire, "OK?" but she would just give this smile/laugh/awkward face so we weren't sure exactly... A few times we made excuses to check on her and she seemed content to stay, so we let her be.
Until we had to leave, anyway. It took several tries to convince her we were really going and that the bar was, in fact, closing. C was pulled aside to make sure everything was still ok, and the rest of us headed outside. O met us out there and came up to me to ask, "Are you all like her, no sex before marriage?" The warning bells had been ringing for about an hour now, but the siren started blaring at this point. "Um... not necessarily." "You are like her?" No. I don't think so, really, but for the sake of this conversation right here, "Yes, in many ways." He then tried to schedule another night where we would all meet up, "Maybe tomorrow, I'm having a party, maybe 20 people? What days during the week are you free?" "Well, ya see, we're hoping to have class next week... Ya know, I think we'll have to wait and see on that."
In the span of my conversation with O, A and L had managed to befriend 2 French guys and one of their girlfriends who invited us to go get food with them down the street at Hippopotamus. We were all set to go when we realized O had gone back inside the bar to get his coat and C had followed. About 10 minutes later they reemerged and made out most of the way to the restaurant, which was closing in 15 and therefore not taking any tables of 9 at 2:45 in the morning. They pointed us across the street to a place that was open to 5, but more expensive. We crossed the street in 3 minutes but it took 10 to encourage C and O to do likewise.
At the restaurant, L and I first headed to the bathroom where we were seperately greeted by a very drunken man who asked, "This is the one for men?" Yes. "And that's the one for ladies?" Yes. L came out of the women's stall and I went in, rinse repeat. G appeared on our way out and we went back to the table together. C had moved next to O and he was all up on her face. She was embarassed because everyone was right there and kept telling him to stop, my friends are uncomfortable, and we verified that yes, it was weird to be sitting directly across from two people kissing. C talked to L and me while O talked to the French guy next to him in our group while tried to eavesdrop. It was hard in French, but I heard something about "All the girls there..." and "This one's difficult..." so I figured it couldn't be good. I think he also asked the French guy's opinion on how to invite C back to his place, which he did a bit later. O ordered two glasses of white wine for him and C who had 0 interest in drinking it and asked if it was champagne.
The French guy next to me was as drunk as the one next to O but tried to speak to me very carefully in English, offering to take me around Paris,or we could just go to a museum if I didn't "want to get involved," had I been to Versailles. Yes, I've been there before. Should he take his American girlfriend there? Omg hilarious he has an American girlfriend? Yes, of course, you should, but the gardens are closed until June, I think. He asked for my number but luckily I didn't have my phone on me, it was trapped in my coat behind C and O. I told sorry, I didn't know my number by heart and he said, Oh, you speak French? Yes (I've been responding to you in French, you didn't notice?) You speak very well... Then I got to try and understand him slurring away in French... He got up to use the restroom when suddenly creepy bathroom guy reappeared and tried to sit in his place, but i held the chair with my foot just long enough for the French girl with us to insist, "No, someone is sitting there." Behind him, I shouted to G, "Meet creepy bathroom guy." "Oh, we met, in the bathroom." L and I almost peed ourselves.
Finally, at 4 in the morning it was time to head out. We said good-bye to our French company and told C one more time, "We're going, come with us." She refused, but said she'd call once she bought more credit for her phone. I said, "Ok," and then, "Wait, you don't have a phone?" I handed her my phone in case of emergency and we asked again if she wanted to come. She said no, we left.
I took the nightbus home and was asleep by 5:05, 25 minutes before the first metro starts running. I woke up this morning at 10.
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