I am taking it easy today since I woke up around 4:30 with a sore throat. I'm not surprised since I’ve been bruler la chandelle par les deux bouts (burning the candle at both ends). We all know that I don’t eat well and yesterday, after only about six hours of sleep, I bundled up against the cold; got wet from a few sprinkles; was hot and cold from getting on and off the Metro; and walked, walked, and walked. I must get past the idea that I have to do everything in five days—I am here for another nine weeks, for Pete’s sake. Plus I haven’t even explored all the books, appliances, instructions, etc. here in the apartment.
I got up at 6:30 yesterday morning so I could see what time the sun comes up. (The skies finally began lightening up around 8:30.) 6:30 is very late for me in Houston but I am adjusting my days to the French lifestyle. (The guy upstairs {hmmm, why do I assume it’s a guy?} doesn’t get home until around midnight; and Adrian, my landlady, called at 8:30 PM one night to have dinner with her and my neighbor, Pascal—I asked for a rain check.) I try to stay inside until my hair dries but I also like to get out there and get going.
I found the closest Monoprix (cheaper grocery and general merchandise) yesterday—definitely less expensive than the local market I shopped at a couple of days ago—and took my time surveying all the shelves, merchandise, and prices. Since I didn’t plan to grocery shop when I left the apartment, I didn’t have my market basket on wheels. Therefore, I didn’t buy more than two bags—remember the 48 steps….
I then took a long Metro ride to La Defense, where there’s a huge shopping center and a Wal-Mart-type store that I’d read about and wanted to explore. My sister and I stopped at the mall in September when we toured the La Grande Arche. Auchan is enormous; the prices look good; it will require a field trip and a serious shopping list the next time I need stuff.
A note about my technical challenges and issues: I created my email account on the laptop and tested sending and receiving before I left Houston. Here at the Paris apartment, either plugged into the cable or wireless, I can only receive email on Outlook—I can not respond or send email from Outlook (message is “None of your email accounts could send to this recipient.”). So I use Houston Road Runner webmail to send and reply to messages, which is a pain because I have to type in the email address each time. Plus if I want the original message to appear in the email, I must copy and paste it into the email on webmail. Someone out there probably knows how to fix this—or it could be that Time Warner knew what they were talking about when I asked how to read and send email from France. “Use webmail.” This morning I discovered another “pain:” By the time I finished composing my message en francais to my tutor about our rendezvous next week, the session had timed out. #$$#*@
Google loads in English; blogspot (my blog host) loads in French. Some of the pop-ups on the US websites that I access are in French; some are in English. I wanted to watch the only regular show I watch in Houston (Friday Night Lights) on http://www.nbc.com/. It told me that the video wasn’t available from my location. I do have a TV in the apartment; it gets many stations, only one in English, Britain’s Sky News…which repeats and repeats as if you were watching in an airport, of course. I also have a DVD but Suz was correct—I won’t be able to watch my copy of "The DaVinci Code" that I brought from home.
The reason I decided to create a blog documenting my Paris adventure: I didn’t want to spend time repeating all my happenings and thoughts in emails to my numerous pen pals. The blog also allows me to post pictures, which again, I didn’t want to post in individual emails. This has turned out to be a good thing considering my issues with email.
A post script regarding the plight of the homeless: Yesterday, while waiting for the holiday lights to come on along the Champs-Elysees (they didn’t), I saw a barefooted man huddled under an old quilt slowly plodding up the Champs toward the Arc de Triomphe. Even in Houston where the weather varies between mild and ferociously hot, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a homeless person barefooted. And to see him on the Champs among all the stylishness and elegance (me excepted..)…very sad.
