I think that's pretty ok

Saturday I decided to go to Paris with a couple of my friends. It was Tytti, Oliver, and Dan. Tytti was going to meet with her friend Joonas from Finland and we all wanted to go to the HUGE outlets just outside Paris called Val d'Europe. Ito was 3 finns to 2 North Americans (Dan is Canadian) and 3 boys to 2 girls.


In the metro-
Matt this is how you should dress when you come to France:



The Mall was all christmased out!



Dan hated this picture on the metro advertising English language courses


Joonas is a student studying on exchange in Germany right now, specifically in Mannheim. He's one of those people that are ridiculously nice and ridiculously funny so we got on quite well from the start. My favorite thing about Joonas is that his favorite phrase in English is "That's pretty ok." which he uses it where we would say "that's not bad." So I've decided that his phrase is pretty ok and I think I might try to use it.

It was a day full of adventuring. The weather was really nice as well which was amazing since it was supposed to rain. I was worried about that since I don't have an umbrella right now since mine decided to commit harakiri.

The fancy outlets are called La Callee Village and is full of store like Longchamp, Diesel (I wanted the entire store!), Armani, Tytti and I went into the Jimmy Choo outlet, etc. In the mall place there was also an aquiarium and a whole bunch of regular stores like Pimkie, Esprit, Mim, etc. Tytti bought a hat from Diesel and a purse from Longchamp.

After the mall we decided to head back downtown for lunch before meeting 2 more of Tytti's Finnish friends. Dan and Joonas have never been to Montmartre so we decided to take them there for the rest of the afternoon.



Tytti and Joonas goofing off

Paris!


On the steps to the Basilica there were 2 guys playing Hotel California on guitar and they weren't bad. Here's some video of it:

On the way down we heard another band playing down at the bottom of the hill and they were AMAZING so I took to videos for you. There were also some goofy young boys playing football and dancing to the music. The band's name is Samenakoa (click to go to their myspace to listen to their music)

After Montmartre we went to St Michel which is in the heart of Paris where all the cheap food is and Notre Dame. There in front of the fountain we met Laura and Miro Tytti's friends from Finland that are studying in England and were visiting Paris for a few days. The key to eating in St Michel (or Brussels) is to eat using the special menus. They are menus with a set price for usually a 3 course meal (appetizer, main entrée, desert) that you get anywhere from 3-6 options per course. The menus range from 8-20 Euro most times you can get the restaurant to throw in free drinks as well.

We went to an Italian restaurant and got free sangria with our 9 euro meal. I ordered calamari, lasagna, and ice cream. If you eat off the menu you do get smaller portions but you get more variety for less money. At most restaurants the meal total is less than all the items on the traditional menus.

Dinner was really funny because there was 7 of us in total. 5 out of 7 were Finnish. 4 out of 7 were boys. We yet we spoke English at the table because the Finns are super nice and didn't want to leave myself and Dan out. And we were eating at an Italian restaurant in France. It was a funny moment.

After dinner we had to literally run to catch our train back to Rouen. Joonas came with us on the way back to stay in Rouen until Monday. Back in Rouen it was a girl from Canada's roommate so we hung out in the common room a bit and socialized and I learned more Finnish words.

Sunday and Monday were lazy days for everyone, we just watched movies in Corey's room and hung out. Sunday was Old School and Monday was Anchor Man. I hadn't seen either so it was good.

Tomorrow night is a Soirée that my school is putting on and it is superhero themed, I'm pretty excited.