Easter Eggs in the Rain

Matt and I decided to cook at his place last night. There are two grocery stores down the street so it was a quick walk to pick up some beer, a baguette, and a few other things. We combined some pasta sauce Matt had with onions, garlic, mushrooms, eggplant, and a little salt, and served it over pasta. The kitchen was a bit of a madhouse because Matt's flatmates were having a huge dinner party. Most of Matt's flat is Asian, and though it probably is silly of me to think this but it seems out of place for some reason or at least unexpected. We all managed to cluster around the stove and get everything cooked. Matt and I ate on a small balcony off the kitchen to stay out of the chaos.

Food was great as was the beer and bread. Matt spotted his friends walking along the path underneath us and tried to shout to get their attention. When this failed I stood up and yelled "HEY BOZO!". That worked. They were having a party later on with plans to dye Easter eggs and have an egg hunt. Sounded like it could be fun and we still might have time for a pub. The group Matt has found here is really nice so I wasn't going to complain either way.

The egg hunt was fun, we all looked silly running around the little green next to the student apartments trying to find eggs. It was raining lightly which probably added to our odd image, and to the difficulty of finding the eggs. It made everything reflective so the moon and artificial light played tricks on you. As it turns out most of the eggs were just nestled in the grass so my careful searching of bushes turned up few leads. I came in second to last with six eggs found.

Afterward we went inside to dye eggs, and got to know each other in the meantime, talking until late. One of Matt's friends, Matt, and I decided to have a quick jam outside (it had stopped raining) so we each grabbed an instrument (guitar, mandolin, and an Indian kind of uke that I have no idea how to spell). We camped out on a bike path outside, which turned out to be a bad idea since several cyclists tried to crash through us, interrupting our music. Besides one of the study abroad kids we'd been hanging out with all night a couple and their dog sat down with us to listen. We talked with them a bit while Matt tuned. The girl might have been studying something but the guy is trying to start a company/movement that would use art as a kind of transcendent experience to bring people together. It involved a bus and piano, and free food. We couldn't quite make sense of it. He also used to play the violin but had damaged his hands in an accident.

Its worth mentioning that the Vauban, where the students live and where we were playing our music, is "hippie central" and is home to one large squat. Caravans and tents extend down many of the side streets. The neighborhood is very eclectic as a result but feels pretty welcoming and homey. Permanent residences in the apartment blocks seem to get along fine with those who are camping etc.

Well, it was nice to have an audience, but after they left us we decided to call it a night. It was midnight and everyone but me had class in the morning. It had also gotten pretty cold outside. The walk back to Matt's place was short and we were both ready for bed before 1am. It took me awhile to get used to the wind since the blinds on the building are large metal sliding screens mounted outside the windows. You open the window to adjust the blind. In high wind they clatter and klang in a wave of noise up the building as the wind wraps around it. Eventually I fell asleep, because the next thing I knew Matt's alarm was going off for his 9:15 class. I got up by about 9am and answered emails, had a snack and showered, took some photos of his room, and that brings us up to right now.