1 February 8th, 2019: Space & Materiality 




Today I had my Space and Materiality class, where we all presented an object we chose from the Musée de la chasse et de la nature. Most of the things at the museum was not appealing to me at all, because it was just nauseating. However, not everything was unappealing as I came across this beautiful sculpture of a giraffe made out of marble and golden coating. It reminded me of the time I went to Tanzania almost three years ago. I have never been to the zoo but I guess I jump straight to a safari in Africa instead. After the safari we went to a small crafting hut where the local people were making unbelievable sculptures, even of giraffes. 




Going back to the object, we had to pick something and change its value. I chose the giraffe sculpture and because it was in a glass box, it exaggerates the importance and value of it. For my presentation, I photoshopped the sculpture by multiplying it and placing it on the shelf in a typical store, thus changing its value and make it less precious and more as a showpiece you could buy for decoration.    




2 February 9th, 2019: Turkish Delight 




As an attempt to not make today a lazy day, I got myself into the metro and went to Pigalle to see Gulce for lunch at Hotel Amour! It was very much needed because when the weather gets cold, I tend to be a potato couch. That’s what I have been doing ever since I landed in Paris after my winter break. We had a great lunch there and went back to her apartment as she wanted to give me something she got back home in turkey. It was simply the best, heaven-like thing: Turkish Delight.  




Something very funny about how Gulce and I connected was our culture and language. Our conversations usually has things about how in Turkish, the word poison is “zeher” and it is also the same in my language, which is hindi. Same for desserts, Turkish Delight reminds me of home even though its from Turkey and not India or Bangkok. However, the flavour is just a mixture of all my favorite homemade desserts I’d eat at my grandparent’s house. The connection I feel towards Turkish Delight is unbelievable (and hilarious to my parents) but my sister also loves Turkish Delight, we tried making it once… and failed badly. I also have a deep fascination for Turkey because one of my favorite bollywood movies was set there and as long as I can remember, it has been my dream destination to travel to.   




3 February 10th, 2019: Whale Vomit




Today I received a text from Henry Belloy:  




“ Hi Shrya, 

Tday evening or tomorrow lunch

Choose n Revert “ 





Who is Henry Belloy? Well, he’s like my guardian in Paris; Henry and my uncle have been business partners and best friends for the past 30 years. I usually go over for dinner twice a month and this was the first dinner since I got back from winter break. 




By 8PM, I was out the door and walking to his apartment. I stopped for a minute to buy a box of Pierre Hermes macarons because back home, we would never go to someone’s house empty handed. I wasn’t sure about french culture so I did not know how to explain why I got a gift, but they would appreciate it, right? I got to the place, gave Henry and his wife the box of macarons and they looked so overjoyed. Henry started cooking french food and I was so proud of myself cause I thought ‘wow, french food two days in a row!’. We had a lovely dinner and suddenly Henry gave me an object to smell. It was a wooden sphere container with beautiful designs on them. It had a flowery scent, as if I was in a spa. After some good smelling, Henry said to play the guessing game. An hour later, I guessed the correct answer: whale vomit. 




4 February 11th, 2019: Rumi 




I don’t have classes on mondays so it feels like an extra lazy sunday to me (not complaining! It’s great). However, doing nothing meant I’d get a writer’s block for today’s entry. To sum up my day, I cleaned my apartment, spoke to my family and friends back home, watched an episode of my show, and read the writer’s block section on the general guidelines sheet for this assignment.




I was determined to find something interesting so I decided to explore my apartment. Don’t get my wrong, there is plenty to explore here because my apartment is fully furnished with thousands of books. Also to mention, there are like two locked drawers that says do not open so my friends think it's haunted but let's not get to that. Browsing the shelf, I found one of my favorite poets ever: Rumi. It was such a beautiful book with illustrations but it was all in French, which isn't so bad because I recognize some of the poems, even my favorite one:  




“My heart is so small

it's almost invisible.

How can You place 

such big sorrows in it?

"Look," He answered,

"your eyes are even smaller,

yet they behold the world.”

I spent the rest of the day working, listening to music (bollywood, obviously) and finding interesting poets on instagram from time to time. 




5  February 12th, 2019: Cousin?




I made dinner plans today with my friend Tanya, who is studying masters at Sciences Po. The day I landed in Paris for the first time back in August, my mother told me to request her on facebook. Apparently, she’s a family friend. It was nice to know that I had someone in Paris to go to when I needed something. That makes two people: Tanya and Henry Belloy. 




I never met Tanya until the protests in Paris started because that was when I got a call from her saying the metros were blocked and she was in my area. She came over to my apartment for a few hours and we got along very well. It’s funny because we are not related however, it’s just easy to refer each other as “my cousin”. Whenever we would hang out, she’d tell her Science Po friends that she’s having dinner with her cousin and I would call her my cousin as well. 




Our dinners are always entertaining because we spend hours gossiping about thai-indians in our community and just being so fascinated by it. Actually, we talked about our families so much that we swore we found a relation between us. She might be my cousin after all.   




6 February 13th, 2019: Mooli 




I had a 10AM class today and after class, a few people and I would go to the korean street near Parsons to get lunch. I was born in an Asian country but I never had proper korean food until I came to Paris. Actually, I find myself eating Korean at least 6 times a week here! 




My usual order is bibimbap, which is a huge bowl of rice with many different vegetables on top and spicy sauce. Why am I talking about bibimbap? It’s because I know all the vegetables in the bowl but in different languages. For example, I know carrots as carrots while I know raddish as mooli, which is punjabi. It took me a solid 5 minutes of googling to find out the english word for mooli. Being a third culture individual, my brain mixes the three languages I know. So sometimes I blurt out a thai or hindi word when I’m talking in english and people think I’m just plain crazy. 




7 February 14th, 2019: First Valentine




I never celebrated Valentine’s Day, I also never hated it either. I just know that every year on the 14th of February, my instagram is loaded with girls posting pictures of their girlfriends and captioning it “Gal-entine’s Day”. Also to mention, the single people posting negative things about Valentine’s Day (“forever alone”) and everyone sharing memes such about the day.

I woke up today and realized that it was Valentine’s Day… and that I was not single. Roses were sent to me and celebrating this day was so interesting. Paris is definitely the city of love because I witnessed the people on the streets of Paris holding flowers and strolling around with their significant other. I didn’t get that experience though because I’m in a long distance relationship and spent the whole day at my OFII appointment. Also, I became a cliche and had a Gal-entine’s Day night as well, with Tanya.