Disenchanted continued...

Maja and I returned home and I had a glass of wine and tried to calm down. I had a really hard time falling asleep because I was so angry. I kept replaying the whole thing in my mind. Endless “should’ve could’ve would’ves” were thrashing around in my head: “I should have been paying better attention,” “I should have grabbed his hand”, “I should have tackled him to the ground,” etc. I literally couldn’t sleep for hours. I called Dave and he made me feel a lot better about it, and I finally went to sleep.

Both of us slept until 2:30 P.M. the next day as a result. We decided to go to the police station and went into a few stores to ask for directions because for some reason there were NO signs anywhere. It seemed like everyone told us to go the opposite way, but we finally found it. Then, we walked in and I explained the situation to a female cop, who to be honest was really rude and told me she couldn’t understand me. Then Maja took a whack at it, and she said she didn’t understand her either even though the friendly lady behind the counter was nodding and making comments about my story. There was a French actress waiting to report her credit card stolen and she got up and offered to translate. The lady cop scolded us and said that we should have reported it right away, which made me mad because we had TRIED but I wasn’t going on a wild goose chase for the police station after midnight in Paris, which has proved difficult enough to find in the daytime. We waited for about an hour on a bench and exchanged stories with the French actress and a mother and her little girl on vacation in Paris from Georgia (the country not the state). Someone had stolen the Parisian's “carte blue” in a bar, and charged $1000 that she did not have to begin with. It was a little comforting to know that even French people can be fooled too, because I was sick of feeling like a stupid American. The Georgians had been getting on the metro when they saw a band of about eight gypsies coming toward them. The mom clutched her purse and moved down to the next car, but the gypsies surrounded them and pushed her around a bit, grabbed her cameras and jumped off the metro just as the doors were closing. The little girl was really upset because it was their last day in Paris and all their pictures were gone. However, they had travel insurance so at least with a police report they could get reimbursed for their stolen cameras.

When it was our turn to go, the policeman sat back in his chair and said, “Okay Britney Spears, what can I do for you?” I cringed and said “Britney Spears? Vraiment (Really)?”

He replied, “Okay, Cameron Diaz? Sharon Stone?”

First of all, I am not blonde and second of all, have you SEEN an American movie recently? Yikes. He was a regular comedian and typical French flirt, but honestly, as Dave later said, any levity in this situation was appreciated. However, it was so strange because that would never happen in the U.S. He asked me if I had come to report that I needed a French boyfriend. He made me speak French for most of the interview even though he spoke English, because “we are in France after all!” It was kind of nice to be made to speak French though because I had been falling into speaking English with Maja or letting her speak because her accent is very good. He asked if we liked McDonald’s and we said no, we don’t even eat meat but wanted the wifi. He said, “Oh, so do you eat men then?” and from then on there was a running joke that we were American man-eaters in Paris. I told him I was on a diet. J He assured me that this crime happens to a lot of people, not just American man-eaters like myself.

PARIS LESSON # 1: NEVER LEAVE ANYTHING ON A TABLETOP.

The craziest part about this whole thing is that you never know what to expect. You have people who will rob you in front of your face, and then there are people like the man who caught up with me on the street to give me the free pen that I dropped that got from the Counseling Center at Grand Valley. Go figure.

With that finally done, we headed off to meet Maja’s friend from home, Alex, who will be a teaching assistant in Toulouse but is visiting Paris for a week before heading there. It took FOREVER to find him. People staying in Paris who don’t want a cell phone contract get pay-as-you-go phones, and minutes can go very quickly and add up to be very expensive. Most people text to save money. However, most companies offer free incoming calls and texts, so it is always a tug-of-war to try and get the other person to call you. Maja had a hard time hearing where he was and there is always a rush to get off of the phone so we walked around for about an hour trying to find him. We finally got him to text the name of the bar he was at, and we had already passed it.

PARIS LESSON # 2: ALWAYS TEXT OR SPELL OUT THE NAME OF YOUR LOCATION TO PEOPLE TRYING TO FIND YOU SO YOU KNOW THEY AREN’T HEARING SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.

So, we found Alex who was having a beer outside of a bar and had just arrived this morning. He reminded me a lot of my professor Dan who took our group to Nice last summer but younger. He could definitely pass for French on the street. We all went to meet up with some other language assistants who were having dinner near Place Monge. It turned out I had been on that street last summer with Maria and DeAnna. It’s a really nice place. I had grabbed a sandwich on the street to save money, but they had an inexpensive three-course meal for 9 euro, and it looked delicious. The waiter kept teasing me for not eating, and moved the flowers on the table away from me saying, “Don’t eat those because you are hungry!” with a wink as he passed by.

After dinner we went to a bar to get to know the other language assistants. There is Maura, who is also American and also has a boyfriend back home which made me happy to know I’m not the only one. There was also a hilarious Scottish girl named Janine, a couple of Brits, and an Irish guy named Dave. It reminded me of last summer to be hanging out with people from so many different countries; I love it. We had a good time getting to know them. There is supposed to be a bigger meetup on my birthday next Tuesday as well. As much as I like meeting the other assistants, I really need to start spending more time with French people so I can practice my French. I feel really rusty, but I am gaining a little more confidence every day.

The next day I went with Maja to meet the teacher she will be working with in Brunoy. She is lucky enough to have gotten in touch with hers. Her teacher picked us up at the train station, and we went back to her house and met the family. They were so sweet! Maja is very lucky. The seventeen year old son happened to have an English test that day so he practiced by speaking with us. Apparently Two and a Half Men is very popular here, along with How I Met Your Mother. I told him to watch Arrested Development. When I told the teacher that I have had no luck reaching my school she commented on how unorganized this program is (THANK YOU!!) and called my school for me! The teacher responsible for me is supposed to call her back, so at least contact has been made and they won't be like "Who the heck are you?!" when I show up next Friday. I was so grateful because making phone calls in French can be very nerve wracking. They made us lunch and then we went and saw her school. The atmosphere was so much like the schools I have taught at in the states; I was surprised. It was nice to get out of Paris and see a smaller town. I hope I hear back from my school before next Friday!