Paris

My flight landed in Orly about 30 minutes late. I immediately pulled out my phone, found some wifi and shot off a couple quick emails to Baudouin and Paul letting them know the deal. It also seemed to take forever for our luggage to hit the carousel. I began to wonder if the luggage handlers had decided to momentarily strike in favor of a siesta. But after  about 45 minutes our bags finally arrived and I made my way into Paris. 

It took me probably about an hour and 15 minutes to get to Paul's apartment and once I arrived, I had no way of letting them know I was outside. I didn't know their apartment number, nor did I have a phone, and I didn't know the code to dial up to them. I tried shouting up at the building a few times in the hopes that a window was open but I didn't succeed. Thankfully, a guy was walking down the street and let me use his phone and Paul quickly came downstairs to meet me. It was around midnight at this point and they'd started getting worried about me, wondering if something'd happened. Nope, just tons of delays.

Up in the apartment, Baudouin had arrived a short time before from Angers and the two of them were hanging out with Paul's other roommates, Justin (who was also in Peace Corps with us) and Lisa (who is a classmate of Justin's). Baudouin and I hadn't really had time to have dinner so Paul made us a little pasta as we sat around and had some beers. Lisa and Justin soon found their ways to their respective rooms and Baudouin, Paul, and I stayed up in the living room which doubled as Paul's room. We talked, drank beer and attempted some fighter whiskey sachets that Paul had laying around. Whiskey sachets had been a very common and popular thing in Cameroon and a few former volunteers who rolled through Paris a few months before had brought Paul a few which he'd dutifully kept for Baudouin's and my visit. Well, those sachets were terrible, really made us wonder how the hell we'd had them in Cameroon. Anyway, the three of us stayed up until around 5:30am. Our spirits wanted to stay up and catch up more but our bodies were achingly tired so we hit the hey.

Paul made us breakfast the next day of Eggs and yogurt with a spot of coffee. The three of us wandered around Paul's neighborhood and tried to check out this event at a park nearby that was billed as a "cirque d'hip hop," the idea being to mix hip hop and circus into a cohesive whole. Well, it wasn't starting until later that night and it also looked to be a bit pricey so we decided against it. Nearby, though, we grabbed some kebab which really hit the spot.

We strolled through the neighborhoods and came close to where Baudouin had volunteered for a few weeks a little while back. Part of the program for his masters in teaching is that he needed to volunteer at some organization with children that didn't involve education. So he found a little children's cafe that was established near his girlfriend's former apartment in Paris. We decide to stop by this children's cafe and it was under huge renovations. It was a really cool place and seemed like an awesome place for kids to hang out after school. There were a couple "bars" where the kids could get teas, juices, or sodas; some places to play cards or foosball; and a little area they called "le marché" where kids could bring old toys or the like and sell them to other kids. This was a very cool place and of course everyone remembered Baudouin and were so happy he'd stopped by for a visit and brought along a couple friends!

After a bit of time there and Baudouin promising to come back once the renovations were finished, we left and walked along a canal for a while. Baudouin knew a bar nearby that was permanently located on a docked boat. Well, the beer was surprisingly good, not too pricey, and the view was awesome sitting on top of an old junker and looking at the canal and rows of trees and buildings. We then decided to walk around a bit more and contemplated maybe trying to go watch the Liverpool-Newcastle game. Ultimately, though, it wasn't on anywhere nearby so we went to this weird artsy place not too far away. The place was almost like a big warehouse/art gallery. We got a beer and sat down outside only to have the workers come and kick us out after a few minutes because the place was turning into a restaurant in a very short time. No matter, we went to a little area outside the door where a bunch of other people had congregated and hung out there for a while until we got too cold and decided to get up and move around. 

We were debating about what to do for dinner and settled on getting some frozen pizzas at a store and taking them back to Paul's. Well, along with the pizzas we also picked up some beer, a bottle of champagne--to celebrate our reunion!--and some limes for a bit of tequila we had. The teller looked at us with a smile and said something like "that looks like a balanced meal." Baudouin responded that with the limes we had our greens and the teller raised an eyebrow and said "that's not for the tequila?" "No," Baudouin responded, mock shocked. "Those are our vegetables for the meal." We all laughed as we walked out and made our way back to Paul's. HIs roommate Lisa was sitting at home and we quickly started cooking the pizzas and opened some beers. Somewhere along the way we also opened the bottle of tequila. Lisa was convinced that we were going to finish the bottle that night. Paul and I responded that we didn't think we'd be able to, but we definitely would finish the salt and limes! That was a refrain we kept coming back to throughout the night: "On doit finir le sel!" We must finish the salt! Well, we ended up putting some Cameroonian and Nigerian music on and dancing out hearts away that night. I realize that I'm not an unbiased party but I think Cameroonian music is probably the best to dance to.

The next morning Paul again made us some food. It was an interesting stew (from a can!) that had hot dogs, beans, and rice (among other things) in it. We then made our way over to Lions bar, an English pub only a couple subway lines away, to watch the Arsenal-Man United game. Paul is a big Arsenal fan while Baudouin and I are United supporters. United had just sealed the title the previous game and so this was a bit of a victory lap. Well, it turns out Lions bar is an Arsenal bar and Baudouin and I had to seriously mute our celebrations when United scored. All the Arsenal fans were singing songs and a couple guys were shouting obscenities and cursing profusely at the screen, in particular at a few United players and the United coach. Another guy in the room, evidently another closet-United supporter, began singing a few lines of a new United song that said something along the lines of "We've now won 20 titles, when's the last time you won anything?" Well, he quickly disappeared after the room fell silent and he got some death stares from everyone. The game was a good one but I was very happy I'd decided against wearing my Rooney jersey as that wouldn't have gone over too well.

After the game, we made our way up to the 18th arrondissement to go to a Cameroonian restaurant we'd heard of, Chez Mich. What I really had been craving was a little koki which they were unfortunately out of. So instead, we all got poisson braissé, grilled fish. In typical Cameroonian style, it came topped with sliced onions and a spicy chili sauce on the side. I'd gotten mine with grilled plantains while the other guys stuck with baton de manioc, crushed cassava that's boiled and then wrapped in banana leaves. Incredible meal. After that we stopped at one more bar to have one last beer together and watch the end of a French game. We took the metro home and then I read a bit and fell asleep.