Sorry for the missed entry yesterday kids. Not being able to get my computer online at home is a real pain in my arse. Finally this afternoon we were able to get my computer online but now I find that the signal in my room is not strong enough for my computer to pick it up. Serious pain in the ass.
So, clearly, I will be moving on. I have an offer on a studio apartment, all to myself, in a great neighborhood, a much easier/shorter commute to school, for €150 *less* than what I am presently spending to sleep on a child-size single bed, in a room without a desk, that doesn't get internet signal - where the woman I am renting from wants me to pay the charge that the provider is billing for helping get my computer on line (even though the answer to the problem was exactly as I had told her - they were telling us to connect to the connection that was not ours, so of course the password didn't work). No thank you.
In the building where the studio apartment I will move into is I will also have a friend, Anne. Anne is a woman in her late 50s or so who I met through John & Marylee, the lovely older American couple with whom I lived for the previous week. So though living alone, I will be far from isolated, and I will not have to worry about stepping on eggshells if I want to have a friend over, have a guest stay, or feel like walking around in my underpants all day. I don't have to worry about inpinging on anyone else's lifestyle or space. My space will simply be my own. Wow, that is a good feeling. At 30, I feel like it's about time!
So, I think I shall recap for you the last week. Ready?
ok: Sunday I moved into the apt on Ave. de Saint-Mandé. Dropped my stuff off (which was a million times easier to because Amelie picked me up from my previous residence and drove me to the new one, and helped me haul my stuff - my god, what a sweet girl!), and then Amelie and I ran back out to meet up with her beau and his friend to try to catch the last hours of the Picasso exhibit that everyone has been crazy for. We thought that we had outsmarted the crowds by going at 10pm on a Sunday night. For the last week of the show they had the museum open around the clock (honest) because the crowds were so nuts. Why we thought this night would be any different than all other nights, I don't know. To make all matters so much worse, this sunday was the one day of the month that the museums are free. So the 4 of us arrive, feeling quite proud of ourselves and very excited for the show. What we find upon our arrival is absolutely insane. There are two very dense lines encircling the lawn in front of the museum, leading up the steps to the entrance, and guards like riot police managing the scene. The ropes guiding the two lines (1 for tickets at the door and the other for those who'd pre-reserved them) have markers on them. The markers denote how long you should expect to be waiting inline from that point in the line. the point the line was at when we arrived... 4 HOUR wait. 4 HOURS. That means that everyone in the line up until that point had said, well, it's freezing and it's going to be 1:30 in the morning before I enter the museum, but sure, ok, I'm game. We, on the other hand, decided that 4 hours in line and not getting into the museum until after 2am was not happening. We bailed and went for a drink. Which, by the way was a lot of fun. I am feeling a lot like I am FES from That 70s Show.
Most of the rest of the week was just class and the battle over getting my computer onto the WiFi connection. Tuesday I visited Le Cactus cafe to get online and had a lot of fun chatting with my friends there (by my friends I mean the two guys who work there and are there every time I go - they are really sweet and I'm glad for any excuse to visit them), went to Sylvie's for Tea, and then went to Aimee's for dinner. I'm so spoiled here...
Last night - Wednesday, I was pretty much home, but met Sylvie over at Saint Germain de Pres, an old and historic church. It's really beautiful, and huge, and houses L'Ecole de Beaux Artes (if I understood correctly... which, all things considered, I likely did not). I did a little sketch of a broken statue of Mary holding the baby Jesus. It came out fairly well - and a lot of other visitors seemed to find me and my sketching an interesting part of the scenery. I bought my first crepe since my arrival in Paris that day. I decided that it was absolutely shameful that I hadn't had one yet, and went and had one. Sylvie arrived and we shared it, then went for a hazelnut one. Man, if I were without budget constraints I would quickly get fat on crepes.
More photos are coming in a separate post.
time to get back to my school work.
a tout la monde de Paris, a plus!!
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