Yesterday I went out with my fancy French friends to brunch around 3pm. Brunch, by the way, consists of a meat or veggie option of the same dish. My veggie version contained 2 eggs, sunny side up, 4 triangles of buttered toast, beans, crispy mushrooms, some kind of mashed potato thing, and about 10 slices of broiled cheese. It was good, but really greasy and filling. I could only eat about half. I would KILL for a pancake right now.

After brunch we went home for a little rest to get ready for a big party tonight. Audrey was nice enough to invite myself and Murielle to meet her at 10pm to head over to a White Party in Marylebone, which is a borough of London about 3 miles from where I am living. A White Party is where everyone has to dress in all white, and the purpose was to celebrate the summer solstice yesterday. At about 9pm, Murielle poked her head in my room and said she was too shy to go a party, and I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to go anyway. But we both said we should go for a little while and at least try to be social.

This group was 100% French (after I got there, it was 99% French). Everyone was French, spoke French, and danced in this newer style of French dancing called Tecktonik. There were a good 100 people there, and they would form little circles of people and one person would go into the middle and do their version of the dance, and so on. Here is what the dance looks like:

I think you’re supposed to have a mullet and wear super tight pants to do the dance properly, but I’m not 100% sure on that. Everyone was a good 10 years younger than me, so I have decided that my new age is 28. Actually Murielle and Tatiana (my other fancy French friend who is a Natalie Portman lookalike) decided that I look 26, but I feel it is important not to stretch the truth too much, and a 7 year difference is really the max I feel comfortable with. So everyone… I was born in 1980, okay???

Here are some observations from the party:

1. All French men have either the aforementioned mullet, or super curly hair (at least all the guys at this party did).

2. All French girls are unbelievably pretty. So are the London girls. They’re not pretty like LA girls, but very natural without a lot of makeup. Of course, the girls at this party were all 20-27 yrs old, and it is kind of hard to NOT be pretty when you are so young.

3. the French LOVE to kiss you in greeting and departure. Love it.. you have to kiss everyone. Murielle explained the rules to me, so if you have any questions, let me know.

4. The Tube closes around midnight.

5. Walking 3 miles with someone really gives you a chance to get to know someone.