"I'm very much into the saloon"

Tonight there will be explorations of new recommend areas of Paris, namely the 11eme, around Bastille and a bit north up towards rue Oberkampf, where, according to my married friend in my French class, there are lots of cool and cheap dive bars. Now, everyone knows a dive bar serves primarily beer, which has become my M.O. going out here in Paris: to find decent-to-delicious beer for a decent-to-free price. Now, as I have done some research on the recommended spots, it seems as though "L'Orange Mecanique" (A Clockwork Orange, happily) has some of the best prices not only in the area, but in fact in the entire city. Though this evening will probably end up a late one, their typical happy hour (from 6-9pm) cuts prices of almost all drinks (and beers!) in two, leaving cocktails at around 3 Euros and beers at even less. Yessss.

Not much to report otherwise, other than Onze Novembre which consisted of me Sally and Abby having various adventures on Pont des Arts (where I had to get this creepy homeless guy to fuck off not once but THREE times and I ended up just yelling at him in English because that's the best way to get rid of anyone in this country), at Galeries Lafayette (talk about opulent, with the best salt displays I've ever seen!), and subsequently on the metro, through Forum des Halles, various cafes, and finally! a Mexican restaurant with the greatest tamales in the world (other than in Mexico, probably). Then we saw 2012 in a French movie theatre (my first time), which was quite an experience in itself, especially after a pitcher of margaritas and Sally's ever-so-handy flask-sized bottle of Label 5. Whenever anything amusing or impressive happened, the entire theatre would explode with shouts and applause, followed by lots of laughter. French people are almost always in a good mood and when they get irritated at something, it rarely lasts for more than a few moments. This is something I appreciate and respect and also strive to achieve myself.

My film teacher is insane, we have 2 weeks of class left, and the best part of all is that it was about 60 degrees all day today. In France in November. Thanks, global warming.

A bientot!