Subtle Differences

I'm going to do a big post soon, but I've had limited iNet so i will keep this one short. I want to write these down before i forget them... these subtle differences here in Paris.

1- everyone making out in public. there is so much of this and it doens't really bother me, but it's just weird to be walking by people making out, like everywhere.

2- dog poo. it's everywhere. nobody picks it up, they leave it there for either the street cleaners, or people to step on, which neither in my opinion is very nice.


3- littering. everyone litters. my waiter opened a bottle for me and threw the cap behind him into the street without even looking.

4- parked cars leaving their parking spaces. the scenario: the cars are tiny, there isn't much parking space, and they park literally 6 inches away from each other. hence, when they want to leave a space, the repeatedly hit the car in front and in back of them several times. this is the only way to get out of their space.





5- getting redirected to "google.fr" (in french of course) whenever i type in "google.COM"



6- it's cheaper to call the states than it is to use my mobile here.

7- wine, wine and more wine! un autre bouteille de vin si vous plait! (this one i am totally not complaining)

PS - if you leave a comment please be so kind as to leave your name too, i'm not a mind reader! although i am working on it..

X-Men

so you want an update...

X-MEN 3: go see it! be sure to pay attention when rogue goes nuts because wolverine told her that he is going to kill professor X... watch her face, it's hilarious. and then be sure to watch when archangel loses his wing to magento... the graphics are awesome.

Quick post... here's a pic thru my window

Last night we went to Chez Janou, good restaurant, had some yummy (but never enough) veal, scalloped potatoes (YUM) and apples, very delicious. After dinner Mario wanted to buy some booze before we hit up the bars so we went to a local shop and bought a few bottles of wine and drank at the Seine. If you dont know, the Seine is the main river through Paris and it divides it into the Left and Right bank, blah blah. Anyway it looks like crap during the day, but during the night, it sparkles. Heres a pic of it.. I'll post up a pic of it in the day so you can see. We stayed out until 630 and caught the metro at 7... last call is around 330 and staying out until the metro starts at 530 is something i'm not too used to doing! but i am sure i will adjust...

The Marais

Marais is Paris' gay district. I haven't noticed it all week, and then all of a sudden it's everywhere... guys making out on the street, me eating dinner next to and then talking to and then having a drink with a gay guy last night, to a madame/monsieur (i think she would prefer to be called a madame though) coming into the lavarie (laundromat) and asking for me to punch something in her phone, to which i think was my phone number, what else do I type into someone's phone? Speaking of which, I tried to do my laundry tonight, it took 3 and a half hours... 1 and a half just looking for the stupid lavarie which is supposed to be "turn left and it's right around the corner" de ma apartement. anyway, the dryer is super fast and i did two loads of drying, one that was supposed to shrink clothes (hot) and one that was supposed to keep my clothes the same size (cool/warm). Turns out i put the shrink load into a dryer that doesn't really work that well, and the (cool) dryer was on steroids and dried and shrunk egverything that i DIDn't want to shrink... what a mess. Each load of laundry was 3,50€ which is like $5 so that times 3 loads, plus drying i spent like $20 on my laudnry which is absolutley ridiculous.

All in all, however, I am absolutely loving my experience here. I've never been put into these things before, e.g. my first paris friend is a gay 30 year old man who is going to call me if he is going swimming or to go eat (i think i will pass on the swimming, but i would love to eat), i've never had friends from Australia, Sweden, Holland, and Milwaulkee in one group, i've never lived in such a small place before, i've never been not able to understand EVERYTHING people are saying to me, i've never not been able to communicate Back to anybody.... and the BEST part about it is, I can't leave it. It's amazing being stuck in a place where nothing is what you are used to... although that sounds like a bad thing, I am totally loving it.

Sunday Must Be

Paris's "walk your dog and let it poop all over the street" Day. I must have passed 15 smelly land mines from the metro to my apt, which is about a 7 minute walk.

Thank god Monday is Paris' "let's clean up all the poop" Day.

My Phone Number

I think it's free to call in, so get pennytalk and call me! I'm also looking into Skype.. anybody know stuff about this service?

+33(0)6 83 95 34 18

If you are calling from the states, you have to dial whatever international code, then France's country code 33, then my number without the first 0.

For example, from the states you dial (international code) 33 6 83 95 34 18

My first couple of days

So on Wed, I arrived at De Gaulle and got on the Roissybus which took me directly to Opéra, to which I took ligne 8 to Filles de Calvaire. Total trip costed me 10 euros. Found my street, Rue de Thorigny very easy and was actually early to meet my renter. Nick came a little early too so we caught up while we waited for the lady. The next couple days I spent registering at my school, and buying things for my place, like sheets and blankets. I've been getting out of bed around 2-3 pm every day and sleeping for like 12 hours. I don't know if it's due to jetlag or not. But this has caused me to be late to everything and running to buy my things at the Franprix and Monoprix just as they are closing.

Walking around Paris is so great. I can't understand anyone is saying, and I can't wait until my classes start this coming Thursday. Nick has been busy with school stuff so he hasn't been able to hang out much. I've just been wandering around the city. Whenever I try and talk to people in French I practice to myself before I go up to them and then I get really nervous and start sweating. All of the French that comes out of my mouth is in a really bad accent and doesn't sound anything like it should. The people here are pretty friendly, I haven't noticed much dislike yet. Paris is kinda just like San Francisco... excpet way cooler. Every couple of hours as I'm walking down the streets, I keep thinking, wow I can't believe I'm in paris... I really hope this feeling lasts for a long time! Aside from the greatness that I've been experiencing so far, I miss everyone back at home. Not knowing anyone here gets me kinda lonely. I hope to meet people once classes start.

Finding internet is somewhat difficult for me right now... there is wireless available sporatically in my apt but it is too hard to keep checking to see if I can get connected. There some at my school, but it closes at 6 or something. So I'm at a random cafe right now using theirs. I'm going to go visit the major places in Paris again, Museé de Orsay, Eiffel Tower, etc. this week before classes start. Da Vinci Code comes out on the 17th.. two days earlier than the states! I'm definitely going to watch that.

I live in

an expensive shithole. Let me see if I can describe my humble abode to you without feeling embarassed. I live on the sixth floor, which is actually the best part, and I'll get to that later. My room is smaller than any room I have lived in, and it includes a huge shower, just big enough to fit me and but definitely not my elbows. The drain goes really slow so consequently I must turn down the power of my shower head to almost the minimal so that my 4" basin won't overflow. Also the showerhead has a hook on the wall, but unfortunately it points straight ahead and so the water shoots against the wall and not down on me. So I hold the shower head while I shower, but like I said my elbows barely fit so I have to put the showerhead down every time I want to wash.

Enough about the luxurious shower. The toilet is located next door down the hall. I share it with my floor. It has a nice blue seat. But that's not all, it gets cleaned once a day, better than anywhere I've lived at! My bed squeaks every time I move, but at least I don't hit my head on the ceiling like freshmen year of college. I have a nice window that opens up to see directly into the apartment about fifteen feet away's bath tub. Also to note, I have no curtains. So we can both see each other. They however do have curtains so I guess they can see me but I can't see them. Although I did see their foot/toes one morning. I sure hope it was a woman's foot. But I think it was because guy's don't take baths on a regualr basis, right. So if I lean out my window I have a great view of some tall old building with a dome on top, but I have no idea what it is. I am thinking of trying to find it in the next couple of days.

I'm sitting here (Wed May 10, 2006)

in Heathrow waiting to find out what gate I’m supposed to be at to connect to Paris. Here’s a quick recap of what happened today, albeit only a couple things happened. But I need to do something right now otherwise I’m going to fall asleep and miss my flight. I finished packing quite up to the time I had to leave Moraga, in fact I was a little late. All my Davis stuff is sitting in my living room and I had to leave it there for my Dad to push into other rooms until I get home and can put it away.

Anyway after I stuffed most everything back into boxes we left Moraga and picked up Jen and ate at Yik Sing (is that the right name?) in Rincon Center in the city. This was the nicest Chinese restaurant I had ever been to… the customer service was excellent! The servers were saying “thank you” left and right, our food was coming out, and they were bringing us fresh food. I asked my sister if the restaurant was expensive because not only was the service good, the bathrooms were clean too… and not just clean as in no soaking wet mops and dirty food bins, it had nice counters and fancy lighting. Jen said it was maybe a little more than average but had never seen a bill because Splendora always took them out. Anyway the bill comes and it’s $77 for my Dad, Jen and I! Whoooaaa! The Sir Long Bow’s were $14 each which made each bow a little under $3. I think I ate 5 of them. So we thanked my Dad for lunch and apologized it was so expensive. Dropped Jen back off at work and then went to the airport. My dad took pictures of me unloading my suitcase, just like he did for my Japan trip… now that I think of it I should have taken a picture with him. Oh well. So I got on my flight… slept a good majority of it I think, and now I’m here at Heathrow typing away trying to stay awake and get a start on this blog thingy. But now my battery is about to run out and I don’t have a plug so I’m going to stop here.