bonne fun soirée

friday, all day, shopping for swing shoes and cute going-out-in-fez-and-andalusia clothes in les halles. accompanied by, of course, meredith benjamin.

friday night, soirée at the 5th bar with caro's friends, rue mouffetard. too much drinky smoky for me. not my scene. nice couch surfers though, have to seriously think about joining tea/coffee, because i don't at the moment have a couch on which people can surf. if i move in with kat in new york, we will have to get a futon and join couch surfing. best idea ever.

saturday afternoon, musée de la vie romantique. the collections of george sand. anyone know what other famous literary person she had an affair with? frédéric chopin for sure, i learned that in "impromptu" with hugh grant. there's someone else. cyrille suggested albert camus, but i'm not so sure. i don't think he was the same époque.

karine had the sweetest party for which i for some reason bought almost 2 kilos of super-expensive hummus imported from greece and a mix of delicious strong olives. needless to say, i returned home after a looong walk from the 18th with ivan the 6-language-speaking spaniard with half the olives and hummus. we ate sushi rice, drank ginger pineapple and kiwi lime juice (those are 2 separate juices, they were totally delectable and freshly made) and had fresh fruit salad and/or these other delicious tart-type desserts. even though it was a little chilly outside, the party was so nice, lots of artistic types, a lot of musicians, though i did meet a woman who has a british father doing her doctorate in art history here in paris (?) and works as a professor of "art plastique." she should teach me all she knows.

overall, a fine fine weekend, and the sun has finally come out! i read that the weather will be 60s and 70s-ish in spain and morocco. thursday night it's bon voyage for darcy and martha-she leaves by car from toulouse with some people, i'm flying out of charles de gaulle at around 10 pm and arriving in barcelona at around 23h30, and hopefully i'll find a taxi or somesuch to carry me off to the airport, where i will crash and wake up anew for my first day in barcelona!

the plan is: with darcy, 4 swingin' nights in barcelona, 4 nights in fez (possibly a train ride to chaowen for a day); solo, a boat ride nador-almeria, 2 nights at oasis hostel in granada, 2 nights in sevilla, fly back to paris april 17. true adventure!