la premiere classe

Jeez louiz i must be the oldest person here. i awoke after a very long night of bizarre dreaming - see additional post for a full account - and was met, at the gates of Institut de Touraine, by another nightmare - under-age drunk crazies.. yipeeee...

guy 1 - like omigod where can we party?
girl 1 - I am so excited to get like...DRUNK
guy 1 - we can practice our french
guy 2 - je suis gayyyyy

Actually, a whole bunch of them were gay and really wanted to find a gay bar. And the girls just wanted to hook up w sleazy french guys ...tempting...
... so I decided to hang out w my roommate and her friends - a group of international students from China studying at Bard College in NYC. Now after several ours of hearing only rapid Chinese youd think id want to slice my head open with a cheese knife and stuff it with paté, but they were all so nice i actually had a good time. We all went on a walking tour for about an hour - the cobblestone streets were nothing close to anything i had seen before - even caesars palace in the great land of Las Vegas - surprise surprise - because these streets and these buildings resonated with the very weight of anicent. Très vieux. We passed by so many cool restaurants and so many small shops i have never felt so greedy in my entire life - wanting to guwwle EVERYTHING...all at once.
Upon our return, I rented a mobile for my " month stay - one which could receive calls but not dial unless i also purchased a phoen card. But My newfound friends from China were so patient and waited for me - so i decided to look fr a phone card on the way to lunch.

Me - where do you want to go?
Chinese friends - To a chinese restaurant
Me - ...really?
Chinese friends - yes.
Me - but we are in france...
*Chinese friends already walking down the road to a faux front bombarded by tacky, generic paper lanterns*
Feeling bad for making them wait for so long, i followed. but alas, the restaurant was closed.
OUVRE LES PORTES ( open the doors) - shouted one of my friends
We continued down the cobblestone street, past the delicious aromas of the various FRENCH restaurants..until we got to row of three different restaurants all covered w crappy paper lanterns.
Look- I cried, hungry enough to eat anything by now...
yes yes - they responded and headed toward the middle one..which was the only one of the three that was un restaurant japonaise, not chinoise.
We all sat down, the owner came out, and began to talk rapidly to my Chinese friends in Chinese. I tried to follow their expressions - but it was absolutely impossible - so I whipped out my french-english dictionary to look up the word for pre-paid phone card.
observing my non-participation, one girl leaned over - Our waitress is from Taiwan - she whispered.
Ah, oui? I responded, my go-to response to show interest for any passing comment
We ordered food, which came out to 12 euros for me - about 15 dollars - which is très pricey for mediocre asian food - one plate which came out with patches of duck furr remaining on the skewered meat...

I sat there, drinking my miso soup, thinking
There I was in France, sitting at a Japanese restaurant owned by a Taiwanese lady listening to rapid Chinese while speaking in English, holding up a French-English dictionary, and trying to find the right word for telephone card....which is, as I later found out...*in a french accent* telephone card.