May 8th

Ah a day off to do things. No sleeping in this morning. In fact I was perfectly ready to seize the day with Kate by my side at 10:30 AM! Have forth on Le Havre.

My tasks included buying/picking up make-up from Sephora, submitting my departure date to Crous, and nabbing some goods for a surprise party. Kate nabbed herself a new suitcase due to the incident of a handle snapping in Paris two weekends ago. It was a dark moment in the Parisian subways. Anyhow she bought herself a bright orange suitcase with four rotating wheels. Sick! Those shenanigans/errands took most of the morning since Kate and I lounged around the mall and town center. By lounged I mean walked.

We enjoyed some Chinese food before making our way back to St. Nicolas. Kate and I were decently hungry but I wouldn't say we overate. I had room for a coconut pearl, rice, beef, and chicken. Oh good eats.

At St. Nicolas we had about twenty minutes before leaving once more for a task on our scheduled day. For this occasion Jaimie joined us. The three of us (with a few key bags of stuff) left the dorm and walked to Julie's apartment in a cooling drizzle. Rain no drizzle sure! In any case we arrived there in good time and all shared the jaw to jaw greeting.

Julie escorted us upstairs (literally up the stairs since MareBear isn't keen on elevators) and showed us in to her spacious and lovely apartment. Right then, Jaimie and I began our work. Today was when I finally was able to make pumpkin pie. Jaimie brought pancakes to the table so in a way it was an American culture party sorta. There were a few issues like not having a can opener.

When at first you don't succeed-

Fortunately I love to improvise. Such things included using a knife (do NOT attempt to this yourself) as a can opener by stabbing the can, using the side of a bowl as a rolling pin, and adding sweet flavors like vanilla and sugar to pumpkin in order to make it taste like pie filling.

Here's the low-down, everything was closed after noon in Le Havre today. I didn't realize that the pumpkin pie pumpkin can I had on my person wasn't fully mixed. It required evaporated milk, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger. I didn't have those with me and Julie (being a student) didn't have them either. So I somewhat made a pumpkin pie. It tasted sweet and the crust was flaky but it didn't taste right. Sorry bakers and pastry chefs out there, I did my best with limited tools. 

After that culinary adventure we returned to St. Nicolas for some chills. Then Kate and I stuffed ourselves into Scott's room with a handful of others and waited for Katerina to bring him upstairs. We yelled surprise and he about had a heart attack. Surprise parties, a possible killer. 

There was delicious food (potato salad) and good drink at the surprise shindig but I felt myself waning after some time. MareBear was tired. I felt disappointed in myself since Fabian was even DJing meaning awesome mixes of tunes yet I didn't want to stay and fall asleep on my friends. I said goodnight to everyone and walked the long thirty feet to my room. Waking up early has its price to pay.