the rain has started and i imagine it'll never stop again.

on bagging your own groceries.

it's the little things that make living in another country different, strange, and sometimes stressful. whether its the difficulties recalling just how to do laundry and trying to read the manual in french to remembering to ask whether the store in which you're shopping has a return policy. to bagging your own groceries. in the states, it's your job to put your items on the belt, to take your cash or credit card out and pay away. sometimes you're expected to sign something too. here, there's the added pressure of bagging your groceries, which is actually a lot of pressure because often the sales clerk won't start ringing up the person behind you until you've finished. or (possibly) worse, they will begin ringing, and you'll have to separate your stuff from the person behind you. so while you're still putting your items on the belt, the clerk's already ringing stuff up, but you're not ready to bag! you still have to get your money out! it's especially rough for me since i don't go grocery shopping until i'm really desperate and then i buy so much stuff.

straight from the pages of glamour. (or, what i learned on my first shopping expedition in paris.)

deep purple and deep green are so in right now. i bought clothing both these colors. ballet flats with a nice string woven through them are also a favorite. scarves scarves scarves. cowboy boots (obvi).
i walked around my area and went to mango, zara, h+m (which is essentially around the corner from me), and some random stores that look like them but are slightly cheesier. i must admit, zara here is better than h+m in the states. it's a bit cheaper with cooler stuff. it's nothing like the one in the states though, because things are cheaper and it doesn't have as much of a "high-end" look going for it. h+m here reminds me of the h+m's in america that aren't as good as the original on 51st on 5th (like the one in herald square). mango's great. just swell.

on my way into h+m, they took my two paper bags with purchases from outside (always paper here, never plastic bags) and stapled them so i couldn't steal. nice.

kiss kiss.

i had dinner with my new french friends last night--there were about 25 of us in all and when someone new came in it was a whole production. a kiss on each cheek takes time! it's so different from a hug for me, but to them it's nothing. it's just polite. how strange.

i think today was the first day i saw one of these since i've been here.

it was in the very hot and stuffy classroom in which i had my first french university class--an "analyse de texte" on baudelaire's fleurs du mal, among other things. the class should be good fun, and it doesn't seem to hard. only thing is, more cell phones went off in that 40 person class than at penn. fo sho.

to backtrack--the shabbat thing in torcy (not in lyon) with other french students was really great. i'm glad i went even though the idea of going alone scared the shit out of me. however, i realized that had i just been another french student going and not knowing anyone, it would've been scary and probably not as good, but being an american i got a bit of attention which was nice. basically, it was run by this organization called uejf (union des etudiants juifs de france) and was the prepatory conference of sorts for students before they start university where they'll face anti-semitism and will have to be able to defend themselves. although this didn't really apply to me, i still went to (almost) all the meetings and stuff. the french kids came from all around france--lyon, toulouse, paris, etc. i got there on friday (the program started on thursday) and people were in the middle of lunch. loic, one of the organizers, was really nice and helped me by introducing me to people who spoke pretty good english and stuff. but i still tried to speak in french the whole time and practiced. i learned random words like "sympa" (basically cool), franchement (frankly), truc (stuff). the first person i talked to was a guy who was studying business (everyone was studying business, medicine, engineering or law, but the first two seemed to be the most popular. goddamn jews) and we talked about random stuff, including anti-semitism in france which he thinks people really blow out of proportion. that was interesting.

other nice people i met were: natalie, a girl who studied in san diego for a semester and spoke pretty good english, her boyfriend joseph who's black, father's jewish (but no connection) and got really into judaism and is in the process of converting, johanna, a lubavitch girl from lyon. most of the people there weren't religious, but knew hebrew songs and stuff. uejf is nice because they have a lot of programs (they take students to israel in the summer and have a conference every year, last year it was in new york) and a lot of people knew each other already. the fact that i'm from new york was really to my advantage because apparently that's like the center of the world to them. many couldn't understand what the hell i was doing in paris.

saturday night there was a party with music and alcohol (gasp) and it was fun. i got to chat with some random people and stuff, and went to bed at 4, which wasn't so good for my 10am wakeup call for more conference crap. i sort of drifted in and out of each speech because there were often things i didn't get. anyway, i have to rush this because i need to write a paper here at reid hall before it closes in 3 hours, so maybe i'll have some good additions later in life. i should be getting internet in two weeks or so which will make me very very happy. i do hope people haven't forgotten about me.

oh and dalia, screw you.

is it ironic that i was arguing over the definition of irony yesterday?

here's how i was originally going to start off this post: i can't tell you how many bites i have just on my back, but the number's definitely close to ten. then there's a bunch more on my neck and ankles. last night, i began to worry that the bug bites weren't even mosquito bites--but "les punaises" or bed bugs. this worry came from two things: 1. that i'd heard of someone here having them. and 2. last night we discussed in depth what bed bugs are and if it's a possibility.

the "we" is me, two other reid hallians, and this lovely woman whose house we went to last night for a vegetarian cooking class. it was a really nice house in montmartre, with antiques and interesting old maps everywhere (her ex-husband's an antique dealer), two adorable french kids, and a whole lotta good food. she was born in canada, lived in africa, and was very interesting. i walked in there and decided i needed to be french.

she taught us to make a great salad with phenyl and mushrooms (which i thought i'd hate), ratatouille (which i thought i'd hate), orange glazed cake (no contest). anyway the meal was great, except for all the discussion of bed bugs. she was really interesting and i so want to be her friend/live in her house.

the bed bug thing scared me, but everyone assured me they're sure it's not bed bugs. i was a bit worried because i do keep waking up with more bites and haven't seen a mosquito in days, and don't leave any windows open.

here's what made me want to change what i said in my post first: the last two nights i kept returning home after a long day of reid hall and going out, not ever going home first. so i see this post on the door but can't read it because it's too late and too dark. this morning, as i'm leaving the building, i finally take a look at it and it's a fumigation notice (i think!) about cockroaches (i think). nevertheless, the whole thing makes me wonder. what the hell are those bites on my back?

last night i went to the comédie française to see le malade imaginaire, a play by molière.

which was fun. i had read the summary before so i luckily knew what was going on. otherwise, i'm not so sure i would've gotten it all. the theater itself is quite beautiful--red and luxurious, and our seats weren't too bad--maybe even good considereing they weren't up in the balconies. afterwards we went to go get drinks and then we walked through the louvre and other pretty sites to go to odéon and went to some british pub.

i don't think i've learned paris well enough, which i really need to work on, but i keep going away for the weekend to sit around and really get a feel for things. i'll try though--oh i'll try. otherwise, i've been hanging out a lot alone--i went to buy a ticket for rufus wainwright yesterday which was lovely. i'm oh so excited to see him. that'll be all.

bet you don't know what an ornithorynque is.

i didn't either until my very adorable grammar teacher tried to explain to us what it was in french, having no idea how to do so. he came back the next class with the english name of this animal: duck-billed platypus. could you ask for a better word to know in french?

the little mint that could

so while packing to leave amsterdam, i saw the craziest ad for some mint on tv in which the guy who eats the mint suddenly grows super long/erect nipples and walks down the street with them and all the girls get turned on. he can do so much with his new nipples--use them as a rack for hanging his sunglasses, spin on a turntable, and other crazy things. it was really weird and i could never imagine anything like that getting on tv in the states.

anyway, the night before i departed i made dad get wireless for the day which would be finished at 9am the morning i left. i tried to download the oc and it said it'd take 6 hours, so when i woke up in the morning to find 98% downloaded, but that the wireless had shut off right before it was finished, you could imagine my dismay. oh internet, how you taunt me.

i walked to the tram to get to the train station (central station) and on the way passed through the fredrikspl., a park i'd walked through many atime that weekend, but which had seemed shady and deserted. now, on a monday morning, it was booming with kids, and i was greeted by a ball being kicked right near me when i walked through. i saw this one kid, off to the side, rubbing two sticks together and trying to make a fire. it was very cute.

the train ride was nice, i sat near a cute couple from san francisco and across from a man from houston who'd moved to amsterdam for business and said absurd things like ï wish you could pay people to exercise for you". please be more american. he looked like dr. jucovy (my high school american history teacher, for those who are just joining me)--pasty white skin, similar smile, etc. but talked nothing like the guy. not that i have such respect for that man either.

the white bike experiment and other things i learned in amsterdam.

so apparently amsterdam's the biking capital of the world. there are bike lanes everywhere and definitely more bikes than cars. it's amazing. back in the 1960s, when the world was all about free love and all that other stuff which seems to still be around in amsterdam, a fun-loving group of people/activists decided to put white bikes all around the city so that people could just pick them up and drop them off wherever. unfortunately, like the random acts of kindness group on penn's campus who put umbrellas in various locations when it'd rain, the program was unsuccessful--people stole the bikes.

i arrived in amsterdam on friday and hopped in a cab to the luxurious amstel hotel. the cab ride over consisted of the following songs on the radio: radio gaga (queen) and then a commercial with the cheers theme song sung in dutch. it was just sort of amusing. in france, i've learned, many american songs are translated into french because the law is that a certain amount of the music played on the radio each day be in french. i guess this isn't so weird when you think about the clearn channel bullshit that goes on on the radios here and the recent sony payola scandal. it's just a bit strange.

anyway, the cabride from the station was expensive (13.80 euros), and then dad and i ordered room service for dinner. sat we went to shul and met my cousin who's actually pretty cool and then went to the rijksmuseum to see the nightwatchers and other vermeer/rembrandt situations. then we walked around for a while, played some scrabble, and enjoyed the city. it's a wonderful city--the bikes are great, these beautiful canals with pretty canal houses alongside them, old streets. it's great.

last night we went to go see mrs and mrs smith (stupid). in the theater we got ben and jerry's which had clearly been defrosted and refrozen and dad said that i shouldn't eat it bc that's how you get sick--bacteria gets in when it's defrosted. priceless. then i went to a coffee shop that had internet. internet, beer, pot all at once. it's crazy that pot's legal here.

so today dad and i went for a bike ride all around the city after we went to breakfast at the american hotel, this art deco breakfast room. it was really nice to see the city that way and ride around, and go through the vondelpark--a really nice park. we walked around the red light district where prostitutes are in the windows--although it wasn't in full force because it was like 1 on a sunday. but it was crazy, they just stand in the window and hope to entice you. and at one point i stopped to wait for my dad in front of a window with a girl who was blonde and about my age (if not younger) and she finally banged on the window to tell me to get out of the way. apparently i was bad for business. dad didn't want to rent bikes at all at first, i think he was nervous about getting run over or something ridiculous. he was also pretty shaky on it in the beginning. then dad and i parted ways, and i took about a 3 hour walk around, got myself a little lost, and enjoyed it all.

my butt's sore from the bike, though.

hello, amsterdam.

with a joint in my mouth. in a coffe shop. just saw mr and mrs smith with dad. now i'm alone. this coffee shop has internet! but aim isn't allowed to be downloaded. FUCK THAT.

so much to say, but who knows what i'll be able to get in right now.

got aim!

we all know i'm not a fast walker, but...

this is a city of slow-walkers. particularly so. and i'm from new york, where weaving in and out of people, through the crowds, to get from point a to b as quickly and efficiently as possible, is the goal at hand.

the other thing to note is the ipoddage. many students claimed that the ipods do not abound here, which i find to be somewhat false. i have seen many a parisian--mostly students, but sometimes working folk too, with little earphones shoved in their ears in the same callous many they do it in the u.s. of a. which is nice because i didn't want to feel bad walking around somewhat oblivious to the world, with some very american artist playing in my ears. but i was going to do it anyway. and now i don't have to feel bad.

the sounds to which i go to sleep.

tuesday night it was whistling. it started as i was reading a paris to the moon essay and someone, somewhere in the courtyard that faces my window, or in one of the windows across the way, was whistling a happy tune. they'd start and stop at random intervals, which made it all the more infuriating for me, since every time i was about to get out of bed to investigate, the whistling stopped.

last night it was the faint melody of a music box in every sense of the comparison. it was a jilted, if melodic tune that drifted in and out as if the box were being opened and closed. this time it didn't come from the window but from the wall behind me. without internet, homework, or television, i find myself going to bed earlier and earlier (i was pajama-ed and in bed by 1:15). the music box didn't even bother me, it simply made me relaxed. maybe i'm gaining some sort of calm. although i did pop out of bed to remind myself to write about this once i did have internet in the morning.

i guess i didn't realize how much i depend on my computer for the instant gratification of everything i desire, from looking up random facts, to maintaining connections i worry about losing, to blogging. am i ok with this obsession? absolutely.

hello from rue de rivoli

the motorcycles/vespas/mopeds [whatever the hell they are] make me nervous.

why, you might ask. well, for one, those things are so dangerous and whenever i drive (granted, this is not a usual occurence) i get nervous because they just weed in between cars and scare the crap out of you (or me). anyway the drivers of these machines here always drive on the sidewalk and i never expect them to be behind me until i turn around and boom! there they are. what.is.the.deal.

in other news, i had three classes today. from 9-12 i had the state and political life in france. seems interesting, although the teacher doesn't give much background which is hard, and i never took ap euro or anything like that. however, he's really nice. nevermind the fact that i was so tired i kept dozing off. at one point, this teacher wanted to write on the dry erase board, so he grabs something that looks like it could be a marker from the bin. only he can't figure out how to work it and he's so confused until the girl sitting behind me goes, "i think that's an epipen". so then she explained that it's for allergies and not writing on the board. later today i, along with everyone else at reid hall, received the following email:

Nous avons trouvé un Epipen (auto-injectable en cas de crise allergique) dans une des salles de classe. Il appartient vraisemblablement à un étudiant. Pourriez-vous demander aux vôtres si quelqu'un l'a perdu ? Je l'ai dans mon bureau.

priceless. anyway then from 12-1:30 i had grammar with an extremely cute teacher. which reminds me, dominic, the dude from bar 10 the other night--not cute.

theeeeen from 2-4:30 (and what will be 2-5:30 every other week) i had this Paris Walks : Itineraries on the architectural, urban, cultural history of Paris class. which was terribly boring, although it counts for a general requirement so i may as well take it and suck it up. my tuesdays will suck but i'll be fine. that's all for now.

my first day of school. by lisa tauber.

so i only had one class--and it's one of the ones i'm unsure whether i'm taking. it's about french/african post-colonial relations. not sure just how interested i am in said class, but it might work well with my schedule so i'll see. after class i applied for some internship with the paris times, which is a new paper written in english that will be distributed at hotels and such. we shall see. then, a bunch of us walked to the latin quarter and chilled in a hookah bar. hadn't done that for some time and it's always enjoyable. yessir. that's all i got for you folk today.

a great overheardinnewyork:

Man, It Was Probably Gates or Clinton

A girl and guy are making out on the street.
Guy: I gotta go.
Girl: Wait, come back.
Guy: I'm busy.
Girl: What's your name?
Guy: Bill.Girl: How can I get in touch with you?
Guy: Google it.
--11th Street & 3rd Avenue

i'm becoming sort of a loner. i think i might like it.

tonight i went to this bar called le 10 near st. germain by myself. i think today was the first time i ever drank alone at a bar and i did it twice. do we see an alcoholic emerging? perhaps. anyway, the bar was nice and small and plastered with old french posters, and had a juke box with a nice selection (i put some velvet underground on).

i got a beer, sat alone and was kinda bored. i started reading my lonely planet guide and staring at the only other person alone in the bar--a guy smoking cigarettes incessantly. midway through my second beer, when i was starting to lose faith in the idea of drinking alone, two girls (about 30) are seated at the table next to mine, which is basically on top of mine, and some guy starts chatting them up. eventually, he sits across from me to talk to them and he (dominic) involves me in the conversation. they begin debating feminism, what it is, whether the guy should pay, etc. it was sometimes hard for me to follow, so i sort of shut my mouth, but it was nice to listen to. then he left and the two girls, sandra from holland and irene from mexico continued talking to me. they were very nice and when the ordered another pot of sangria, the house specialty, they got me a glass which was very nice. sandra, the more outspoken one whose english was much better (we eventually had to regress to english because my french is impossible. i know i need to force myself), told me she wanted to move to new york to do her post-doc at the new school in sociology. interesting. it seems like everyone wants to get the hell out of france.

all in all, a lovely evening, and i think i'll email sandra, who said she'd invite me to parties or whatever. let's hear it for making friends!

dogshit, dogshit everywhere and not a place to step.

apparently the french don’t believe in cleaning up after their dogs because they pay high enough taxes that, like, somebody else should really do it. i wonder if they think somebody should be wiping their ass too.

today is 9/11. i wonder if i would feel different/things would be different if i were in the states.

this morning, when everyone else went to chantilly, i went to the market at bastille. i've discovered that my train line (the 4) isn’t terribly convenient. so this morning, transferring at châtelet to the 11, there was such a strong smell of urine i might’ve even have vowed never to transfer there again. the market was very crowded with tourists and parisians. i heard many different languages: english, german, portuguese (i think), and probably more i couldn’t detect. the locals distinguished themselves by coming with small rolling carts to put all their finds in, which, of course, got in my way while trying to navigate through the chaos. most of the vendors sold fruits, vegetables, fish and seafood, cheese, bread. some sold actual meats (which grossed me out), and others sold sarongs and other tapestries. there were a few that sold kitchen appliances who were selling in the same manner as an expert infomercialer.

after i left the market, i walked to le marais to do the lonely planet’s walking tour. it’s a pretty amazing area—the streets are small and windy, the buildings are old, and then you walk into the super chic part of it which i guess is comparable to soho. there were gorgeous clothing stores (very unaffordable, though), cute bars/bistros, and very well-dressed people. walking around was great, especially with rufus wainwright accompanying me, with the random french interjected in his songs. my god i love him.

i stopped in a random bar/café on the marais to get a drink (with happy hours in effect). i sort of figured it was a gay bar because everyone in there was a man except for one couple, and the marais is the gayborhood as well, but i guess it all really made sense when i went to the bathroom and there was only a urinal in it. the urinals in a lot of these places for guys aren’t even the regular kinds we’re used to—it’s a hole in the ground. so i certainly wasn’t going to use it. let’s hope a guy doesn’t have to poo when they’re in that bar, because they couldn’t either. oh look, i’ve started and ended this post with talk of shit.

tout le monde fume. i miss tap water.

shabbat was really nice. the family i stayed with was very welcoming, although the dad was a bit strange. apparently everyone needs to wash their hands when they come in the house from outside. weeeeeird. also, he seems to be somewhat strict--he told me he didn't let his daughters pierce their ears. i'm pretty sure his opinion of me was majorly affected by my nose ring. otherwise, i ate well, slept well, felt very comfortable. in shul i met a very nice french girl named ora who i'll hang out with a bit, et avec qui je peux pratiquer mon français. today she took me for a walk around the bois de boulogne, which is supposedly like the french central park. we didn't get too far because i was wearing rather uncomfortable shoes, but i guess i saw the resemblence. you can't really compare much to central park, though. i also met jessie's weirdass cousin who she's talked about before. it's a small world. especially when it comes to the semites.

i'm learning that a lot of the young jews here don't see a future for themselves here--they move to israel, canada, or america.

french/american fusion.

that's what it felt like when i put my ipod on for the first time since i got here and sublime randomly came on. i walked down blvd. montparnasse with brad nowell singing about smoking two joints. might go to amsterdam this weekend where my dad will be staying at a sweetass hotel. but people here are discussing prague. qu'est-ce que je ferai?

yesterday i didn't do much besides continue unpacking and dealing with my digital camera. such a life i lead. i need to start planning where i'll go here and stuff like that. i plan to read the guidebooks in depth over shabbat which i'll be spending with my parent's friends. should be a good time. i sure as hell hope so.

the dinner last night wasn't with french kids, i dont know how i confused that. i accidentally switched groups and ended up at a boring table where no one spoke french and the "french" woman leader was actually from seattle but clearly wanted to identify as french (read: just criticized everything american, in an annoying, trying too hard sort of way). then we went over to the champs elysées to hang out with the french guys erica and i had met the night before. only we were in this sort of huge group which was kinda not what the guys were expecting, because they had like one bottle of wine waiting for us. oh well. i can't do these big groups anymore. i decided i hate this early transition period where people are making friends. i never feel like myself and i find it annoying. i know i'll eventually find the right people (it probably won't be in some group, like the way i'm hanging out with people now), but it's an unfun period.

so, the girls wanted to go dancing so we went to some kinda famous club called the latina cafe where everyone danced salsa. i did my part.

i wish i had more to say about the city and the people, but i don't yet. i need to hang out more, find my niche and stuff. i need to practice my french. well, classes start soon so that should all be possible.

this is a bronx bound 6 train. and other metro differences.

unlike that lovely city of new york, the metros here are not air conditioned. the cards for the metro are made of paper. you have to pull a lever to open the doors. there's no automatic voice on my "4" train. but the stop is closer to me than the one in ny. so beat that. other differences: the subway maps are way easier to read. i also take the metro a lot less here because i've been walking like it's my one and only job (which it isn't).

yesterday we walked around the latin quarter for a while, so i got to see the area. apparently rue mouffetard (which i remember danny used to like) has now become touristized, so i asked our master-degree american tour guide of the day where we should go. she told me of an area called oberkampf which has a lot of "bobo"s. wanna know what that word means? it's everything miriam wants to be (read: the bourgeois bohemians). so i must go make friends with them.

i also learned about the extra curricular activities that are open to me. one is writing for this paper here, where you'd get to do cool things like interview parisians and write about it (in english). i may do that. i'm also looking into tutoring french kids.

last night, after some trying to fix my bed adventures, meeting our very nice 30 year old neighbor dorothy, and discovering that our dryer is actually only a washer, and to dry our clothes a clothes stand comes down from the toilet's ceiling, erica and i popped open some wine, chilled, then went back to the latin quarter to hang out with some folks. most of whom decided to go dancing, so we (erica, carrie, whitney) stayed around and went to some bar called the latin corner. it looked kinda clubby from the outside bc of loud music/smoke machines, and when we went in we discovered all the waiters/bartenders were in jeans with thongs sticking out, and there were thongs and bras (supposedly gotten off customers) hung all over the ceilings and lights. you could also pay a waiter to give another person a lap dance. it was rather hilarious.

so i'm starting to look into classes, bc next week is our "shopping period" and we have to preregister tomorrow. i took a placement exam on tuesday to see if i should take classes at a french university--it was a literature passage with questions. i placed relatively high so they said i can take a class. i would take it at paris VII, aka jussieu to everyone over here, which apparently is better with lit stuff than the sorbonne. im going to find out if i can take whatever class i decide pass/fail so that i wont have to worry as much about it messing with my grades.
besides that, the reid hall classes i'm looking into are a french cinema class, a contemporary french thought class (derrida and all that crap), a french history class or state+political life in france class, a grammar class, and then if i dont take a class in jussieu, i'll take a parisian walks class.

also, there's the possibility that i'll do a directed research/independent study which probably would be great. there was another class at jussieu i wanted to take but it won't fit into my schedule, so i'm thinking of proposing something like it and doing it one on one. the class was a shakespeare class where they read king lear and macbeth (translated into french! how intteresting!) and then compare it to ionesco's macbett and edward bond's lear. i think that sounds really interesting and if i like it enough, i could probably do my senior thesis on something like that. i'd have to write a 20-25 page final paper, and depending on whether i want the french credit for it, i have the option of writing it in english or french.

tonight we go to dinner in small groups with french people, which should be fun.

i've become an official blogger

blogging every day and all. loving it too. yesterday evening we went on the bateau mouche (a boat ride on the seine) which was fun. i've been on it at least twice before, so i didn't pay attention to the woman telling us all about what was on our droite and gauche. then we walked to the marais and went to some very hipstery/trendy bar called la pearl which was cool. beers weren't quite as expensive as the previous night so that was good.

i still have a pretty crappy sense of direction but i'm working on it.

the first night, the apartment, coke light.

so i did get through that first night, despite many a kinks. no matter how great your housing is, how great your roommate is, how great the program is going to be, the first night is always difficult and lonely. you feel like everything's a mess and won't get better. at least i did last night.

we went to the st. germain area for a late dinner (erica, carrie and i), where i ate a bit and also ordered a leffe blonde beer, which i later discovered was a whopping 8.50. some issues i had discovered about my apartment prior to dinner, when i arrived earlier that day: my room, though not tiny, is about half the size as ericas, with one window less and infinitely less storage space. no biggie, i know. then, the wireless erica told me we had was actually just a stolen connection from downstairs which only works sometimes if you beg it a lot and cradle the computer in just the right way. oh yeah, you have to click repair a lot too. so, i decided, even though erica is very much against the idea, that we must must must have internet. i realize this probably still means i won't be able to have it in my room. but i need the security. call me crazy. next thing: we were told we'd have a washer/dryer. we just have a dryer. if that's not silly i don't know what is. and lastly, there was the problem of my bed (which is actually just an ikea futon--in fact, all of our furniture is shockingly ikea). first, i sit down on it and a bar immediately falls off. in the process of trying to put it on, i discover that actually another bar had already been off. the bed is not sturdy and then in the process of trying to fix that, we fold it into the couch-y shape of a futon, and it won't come down. so we call the landlord who can't come till friday and tells me to put the mattress on the floor. i'm pissed.

so when we go back and my internet is still being frustratingly difficult, and erica wants to go to bed and i'm jetlagged, can't unpack much because i dont have anywhere to put my shit, i'm upset. bummed, if you will. however, our apartment is quite lovely. it has a big common room/kitchen with a tv (!) which shows about two channels. the toilet and shower (furiously small, and one of those handheld deals) are separate. the floors are wooden, the five flights of stairs are heave-able but not horrible, and the ikea unboringness is quaint. anyway, last night when erica went to bed i got nervous about not being able to sleep, i tried unpacking which made me lonely, and then frantically searched for my alarm clock, and when i couldn't find it, freaked out that i wouldn't know when to wake up, wouldn't know how much time had passed in which i wasn't sleeping, etc. at around 2:30 i calmed down, found it, read a bit of crappy magazines, and slept.

this morning i took a placement test for the french university, if i decide to take a class there has yet to be determined. i learned that the first year of french university is for the "destruction of the student" so they can weed out the good from the bad. of the 250 that go their first year, only 150 return. interesting stuff.

finally: coke light just isn't the same as diet coke. dammit.

first nights are hard. especially when your wireless sucks, you can't find your alarm clock, and you're jetlagged.

paris is prettier than i remembered.

but maybe i didn't remember too well. i arrived at 7:30am in charles de gaulle airport, got my luggage and went to wait on the never-ending taxi line. i took an ambient before takeoff and was pretty much knocked out for the rest of the flight, which was nice. i woke up for long enough to take a few groggy bites of whatever dinner was and had a croissant at breakfast time.

leaving ny was sad, although as soon as i'd gotten on the airplane, a man was helping a girl up with her bag, and her water bottle fell and hit me smack in the eye. that was all it took for me to feel ready to depart for the city of lights.

once i got in a cab, my driver didn't know where rue de chevreuse, which is where reid hall is, was. he looked at the map a lot while driving, which of course made me extremely nervous. the taxi ride was about an hour long and i slept much of the way. by the time i'd gotten my keys and such, it was time for orientati0n, so i didn't make it back to my apartment. in fact, right now i'm still at reid hall waiting for erica to finish so she can help me move my bags up the vicious 5 flights of stairs we'll have to face at our apartment on rue du regard.

today we were oriented with why it's important to get insurance, to the area surrounding reid hall (montparnasse, near jardin du luxemberg), and a bit to each other. so far the people seem nice. i've spotted one or two pretty cool looking people, and have talked to one or two in particular i see myself getting along with, but it's true that these things never go the way one expects them to. so the people i'm befriending now are likely to not be the same people i call my closest friends by the time i leave. i'm ok with that.

at this point, my goal is to really familiarize myself with paris, to speak french as much as possible, and to meet some french people. immersion.

posting so i can test this sucker out. props to miriam and co. for help with the title.

note: i originally wanted this blog to be called freedom kiss, but that was already taken by a 14-year-old girl named april who can't speak proper english to save herself.