Random pleasures

Today was a pretty funny day because of little things. I'm not going to write much, because it's rather late, but here are some cute moments that only seem to happen in Paris. 

1) In the bus this morning, I heard two little French children (a boy and a girl) discussing Astérix (the French comic book). They were talking about that, then the boy decided to pretend he was asleep. The girl asked "c'est quoi dormir?" (what is it to sleep?). Deep, philosophical question, right? The boy responded: "c'est un verbe" (it's a verb). Excellent response. She then responded: "C'est quoi un verbe?" (what's a verb?) and he responded "c'est un truc grammatical" (it's a grammatical thing). This conversation went on for a while, and entertained me to no end! 

2) A girl actually said "bisous ciao" when finishing a phone conversation! I was pleased at my blog title. 

3) I got Berthillon, went to my favorite garden to check my emails with the free wifi, and had an email from my friend Liliane (who lives in Paris but is currently in Spain). In the email, she mentioned that she hopes I'm not eating too much Berthillon. I finished my cone with two scoops (sésame noir and noix de coco) and then emailed her back that it depends on her definition of "too much." If she thinks that eating Berthillon 5 times a week is "trop," then I guess I am eating "too much." 

4) Tonight, I went to an Italian/French polyglot party! It's a sort of conversation table, super fun, and you're not allowed to speak your native language! It's for enthusiasts who want to learn new languages. This particular one on Wednesday nights is for French people who are learning Italian and Italians who are learning French. And me. Fortunately for them, I've been well trained not to speak my native language when speaking to French people in Paris. No one understands me anyway. I wanted to speak Italian, and boy was this an ego boost. These people thought I was the most amazing person in the world!! It was essentially two hours of: wait, so you got a triple major, play the flute, do math, speak three languages, have only been studying Italian for under two years, are getting a doctorate at Princeton, are so young, know all these Italian pop songs, have memorized 40 musicals, etc. I don't know why they thought that was impressive. I mean, I think it's awesome that they live in Paris, but do I go on and on about it for two hours? No! Oh well, good practice for my Italian. One lady brought her guitar, and we all sang Italian pop songs! Good thing I took the class on Italian pop music the first semester this year! Simone Marchesi would have been proud (in fact, I should email him and let him know)!