I went to my first French language meet up. It was near the Pompidou center. Getting there from metro was a bit of a challenge. Le Chalet stop has a bizillion exits, and the directions from Paris' version of wmata.com (DC's metro itinerary creator) fails to tell you which exit to take once you get off the train. My plan was to just take the firs exit and use google maps on the smart phone to lead me there. This would have worked if the data network was reliable, but as soon as I turned on my phone outside the station google maps was blank. I guess not enough juice with the connection. So I just started walking and hoped it would work out. Miraculously I walked in the right direction because all of the sudden the map came up. I walked staring at the smart phone. At one point I was walking faster than the iphone refreshed so I missed a few turns. Eventually I made it. It turns out this cafe is right next to Centre Pompidou, so next time I will have a landmark to guide me.
The meet up itself was pretty useful. I got to practice speaking French. The facilitator was good at letting us speak but also explaining grammar points. The people who attended were also interesting. I met another Filipino from Australia. His German girl friend who was about to leave for an internship in Burkina Faso. And someone else who worked at my organization (who was also from Australia). Everyone was nice, and in one night, I doubled the number of people I knew in Paris.
Lessons:
1) Avoid le Chalet if you can. That metro station is vast, cavernous and confusing.
2) Don't completely depend on your iphone. Service is not guaranteed.