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Street Art, Speakeasies, and Stationary

#25 in street artist Jae Ray Mie's Expressions Idiomatiques series
Bonjour!

After a week filled with new people and experiences, I decided to try for a more restful day yesterday. I spent the morning lounging around the house, and enjoyed cold pizza (the true taste of America) for lunch. On Friday, I found some really cool street art while I was walking to the pizza place, so I decided to go back and photograph it. I love the creativity and intricacy of street art; it always feels as though I have made a discover in a way that no art museum can replicate.

Aladdin and Jasmine take the streets of Paris! (by street artist Toctoc)

This one has strong Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children vibes.

My personal favorite piece of street art

In an effort to avoid wasting away at home, I decided to go to the papeterie section of Gibert Jeune to buy some pens, because the pens that I brought from home are on the verge of death. As stressful as my study abroad experience has been so far, Paris is an amazing place for a person who loves books and pens.  There were so many pens that I had never seen before! I wound up buying a ballpoint pen that takes fountain pen cartridges and a Pilot G1. The ballpoint pen isn't writing as well as I would like, but I'm pretty sure that that is a result of the cheap ink cartridge that came with it. When this cartridge runs out, I might buy a different brand of cartridges and see how they fare. The Pilot G1 was an exciting discovery, because I have spent my life surrounded by Pilot G2s without seeing a single Pilot G1. Thus far, I am a fan; it writes smoothly, and looks super classy.

Ballpoint pen and Pilot G1

While I was checking out, I heard people chanting. I looked outside and saw a larger mass of people near my metro station, with some wearing yellow jackets! It was a bit scary at first, but I was able to take a slightly more roundabout path to the metro station and make it home safely. Thus far, I definitely think that the United States media coverage of the Yellow Jacket protests really overemphasizes the most extreme actions of the group. Still, I'm definitely going to avoid being in a similar situation in the future.

For dinner, I went to a Japanese restaurant called Aki with friends from my home university. I had their tsukimi soba, which was very delicious. Afterwards, we went to a speakeasy called the Lavomatic, which looks like a laundromat from the outside. Our friendly conversation about people back home was precisely what I needed after an exhausting week.

Figuring out how to get inside

Au revoir,
Lydia
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