Playing the waiting game...

I got a call from Sandra last night saying that I should be able to move in on Thursday or Friday, but I will know for sure this morning. No word yet.

Making contact with my school has made me feel so much better about life in general. I am so grateful to Maja's teacher, Laurence for calling them for me. I have recieved a couple of e-mails from people at the school.

I got this one yesterday:

--

Hi,
Beth just gave us your email address. Welcome in the team, I'm looking forward
to meeting you on Friday. Hope you'll enjoy it.

See you on Friday then

Odile

--

I have no idea if Odile is a male or female, but they're friendly at any rate. I'm heading to the school on Friday morning to meet everyone. I now know exactly how to get there, and there is a bus that goes directly from the train station to my school, which is fantastic. I'm excited to meet everyone, they seem really nice so far.

I mailed in my OFII (

Office Français de l'Immigration et de l'Intégration,

pronounced "oh-fee") paperwork today so that I can legally work in France for seven months. Every little bit of productivity feels good during this waiting period before my real "French life" starts.

I'm supposed to go over and spend some more time with Lawrence, the boy I'm babysitting for, tomorrow as well. Then later I'm meeting up with my friend from high school, Flo, because I think Maja might actually sublet from him because he is heading back to the states. I found a free yoga class on Yelp at 6 so if I can swing that too, I will. Yelp has been an asset here already. It helped us find a fantastic falafel place for my birthday lunch...it was SO good.

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately as I walk around Paris. I have been keeping to myself a bit. As creepy as this may sound, I really enjoy listening in on French people's conversations. I like seeing how much of it I can understand. Also, little kids speaking French are probably the cutest thing on the face of the earth. I can't wait to get to know my own little French babysitting charge. As for the French of the adult variety, the worst is when you are having a conversation with a them (ordering food, asking directions, etc.) and they speak really fast, so you ask them to repeat it in French, and then they just switch to English. It's frustrating because I want to keep practicing, but they just want to finish the conversation and if switching to their crappy English will do it, then so be it.

Today I went to the grocery store to buy manila envelopes to send in my immigration paperwork. In French I asked the worker where it would be. She took me, but she told me sorry, they were out. I asked if there was another place nearby that might not have it, or if I should just go to the post office. She said the post office was too expensive, and gave me directions to a different grocery store in the neighborhood.

It is the simplest little exhange and back home wouldn't mean anything to me, but I walked out of the store grinning from ear to ear because I had had an entire conversation without asking anyone to repeat anything, or vice versa. As if I were a French person. Ha. But still. I realized today that that has become my unconscious goal: to fit in. I realize that I will have an American accent in French for a long time, but I have started studying the French as a people the way Jane Goodall studied apes. I want them to think of me as one of them, to blend in, to understand their ways. A French lady asked me where a certain metro stop was today, and I was able to tell her (all in French). Another win! I feel as though I'm learning a lot already, and it's been just over a week.

I'm also getting pretty savvy with the metro. It is such a comprehensive system of transportation. For 1.70 euro you can get to pretty much anything in Paris. Actually, some people don't pay, I've noticed. I've seen a lot of people jumping the turnstyle, and there doesn't seem to be any reprecussions like in New York. Maja told me someone she knew jumped it there and a month later got a ticket in the mail at home. The fact that they can track down the home address of a measly little subway jumper juxtaposed with the fact that the police straight up told me that they will never find my iPod is a little depressing, but I digress. Today my ticket didn't work and a French lady who was already in held the door open for me so I could duck under the turnstyle. Hey, when in Rome. ;)

I'm spending another quiet night in, which I've been enjoying. This apartment is very cozy in the fall weather. The comforter is SO thick! I love snuggling up under it with the book that Agnes recommended to me. I hope to finish it tonight before I leave in the morning.

Joyeux anniversaire à moi!

To quote The Beatles, they say it's my birthday. It snuck up on me this year with preparing for and experiencing Paris. I thought I would be sad today to not be home, and I am to some degree, but in a way I feel like this whole trip is a birthday present to myself. :)

I got up this morning and went running! Woot!

I am currently apartment-sitting for a friend, Agnes. She is an English professor and her apartment is absolutely lined with books. There are literally different sections like Sci-fi, Early English Literature, etc. It's very cozy. We had coffee together before she left and it turns out that she and her girlfriend have been watching the L Word! I showed her the picture of me and my friend Alyson with Jennifer Beals (of Flashdance fame, for those of you unfamiliar with The L Word). When I showed it to her, she said "Hold on," and immediately dialed her girlfriend. In French she said, "You won't believe what I'm looking at right now. A picture of my housesitter with Bette!!! And it's real!"

I could literally hear her squealing on the other end, and apparently she said she'd kiss my feet...lol. Too funny. They invited me to come watch the L Word with them sometime.

I've been enjoying quiet evenings at home. I made myself tortellini with eggplant, tomatoes, and mozzarella and enjoyed a glass of red wine. I started reading a book that Agnes recommended. It was really cozy, and an awesome book. I need to finish it. I'm going to be living here for a while and I don't want to blow all of my money. That and when it's this cold I can't motivate myself to do much. I can't wait for my winter coat to get here.

Well, I'm off to take a shower. I'm going to go do something fun for my birthday with Maja, meet up with some other language assistants tonight at a Canadian sports bar (insert Canadian jokes here), and see my French friend Maria who just got back from studying in Denmark. Oh, and eat birthday pasteries, bien sur! :)

**

Update:

I just took a shower. My God. Agnes wasn't kidding when she said, "Don't worry about water on the floor, just make sure it doesn't sit there too long." The water in the shower comes from the sink, and is connected to the tap. Apparently they used to build them this way in Soviet bathrooms, and whoever built this apartment building thought it was brilliant. You turn on the tap to the temperature that you want, and then pull a tab to make it come on in the shower. I had to pull a curtain around the tiny white porcelain square on the floor that is the shower, and pulled the tab. There are a couple of tubs on the floor to catch some water. I got in, started washing my hair, the water was hot, everything was good. Then I realized that the shower was quickly filling up. The other side of the curtain was bowing out with water. After dealing with complicated showers last summer, I told myself "People use this shower. It works. Maybe there's something you don't know." I tried to ignore the rising panic until the side of the curtain couldn't take the water anymore and collapsed out, releasing a wave of water onto the wood floor that is so NOT designed to be a bathroom floor. After swearing and shutting off the water for a moment, I realized the curtain was covering the drain. I pulled it back and instantly the shower emptied. Merde. Another case of "stupid American."