They were just so perfectly, adoringly, French

I've been meaning to write about this for a while, but hadn't gotten around to it until now. There are many, many reasons why I love it here in Paris (though also a few reasons why I don't, but I'll get to that another time) but sometimes there are moments that just come into focus and strike you, making you scramble to write down the memory in your little pocket book so that you don't forget to blog about it later.

I was at Kevin's school one afternoon like usual, waiting to pick him up. As 6 o'clock rolled around, children start to pour out of the doors, and I saw one particular little blonde girl in rainboots, catch sight of her father. She made a bee-line towards him and threw herself around his knees. While not very different from what the other children were doing, I was kind of captivated by the mundane cuteness of the entire scene as the father, in his long-ish overcoat and perfect/casual/sophisticated scarf, stuck the baguette he'd been holding under his arm, and took his daughter by the hand after she had made a big ceremony of jumping into a puddle on the curb with her rainboots. As they turned around and strolled on down the street hand in hand--the father looking down with the baguette still under his arm, the daughter looking up happily-- I mentally kicked myself for not having brought my black and white Pentax with me to Paris. Because what a shot that would have made.

A little reptilian, but hey, they survived the end of the world

Life. Just when you think you finally have a plan, that you've managed to finally grab a hold of the reins--however risky the decision was--something totally out of your control falls out of the sky. Hits you like a brick wall, like a slap in the face, a punch to the gut, all of the above? You're angry, disappointed, scared. And there's nothing you can do, little anyone else can, and so you simply just try not to dwell and dread on the future for every waking moment of your day. And yet, an intrinsic stubborness, something that rises up out of the evolutionary survival-driven abyss pushes you forward, keeps you from spiraling into misery. The unused gears in this repressed mentality begin to whir, their determination providing a new sharpness, a new focus. You draw up a new primal conclusion: you are done letting people get in your way, of bringing you down, of threatening your deepest dreams that you've worked so hard to begin. No more bending over backwards; enough is enough. It's time to shed the soft skin and grow some scales, even if it means disapointing some people yourself.
And so you plot.

A sigh of relief

Miracle of miracles! Got my deposit back on Tuesday night, after weeks of believing I might never actually see it again. I had to pester my old landlord again and again just to come to Paris, but she finally did--though she only let me know the day after she arrived and had already gone into the apartment and showed it to a bunch of other people. (The poor souls, they have no idea what they have in store for them...) It was my long day, and then I had babysitting afterwards, but as soon as I got the text that I could come by later that night, my heart rate keep up a galloping pace for the rest of the day. I ended up getting off from babysitting a bit later than usual, so I was rushing a bit, but I brought Alejandro with me in case she turned out to be crazier than I thought she was and pulled a knife on me or something. (Ah, the things paranoia with conjure...) That, and she also wanted me to pick up the carpet I'd 'forgotten' (read: purposely left behind in the hopes she would get rid of it for me) and some sheets, which aren't mine or Alejandro's...maybe ISA's?

So I got there kind of in a rush, but had Alejandro stay out of sight on the stairs so as to not make her more paranoid than she already was.

Pretending to be nice to her...was weird. In my mind, I'd composed again and again my 'goodbye and good riddance, paranoid bitch' speech, but had kind of been half ignoring the fact that I wasn't going to do that until I had my check safely in hand.

Well, the first few minutes were just her giving me my stuff, and basically going over things that I could have done better before leaving.

Finally, as I picked up the carpet, I couldn't take the whole dancing around the bush thing any longer and just asked her if I was going to get my deposit back. The pause as she looked unsure was probably one of the slowest of my life. But finally, she slowly--ever so slowly--said yes. Now I can assure you I didn't collapse into a puddle like I wanted to, but I can't say that the relief wasn't plain on my face as I remember letting out a relief-laden 'thank you'. Not that she deserved it, but hey, fake niceties, remember? And it's not like I had the check in hand yet, either.

Speaking of which. As we're about to exchange the keys for the check and she's extending the check towards me, she recoiled and said 'Maybe you should hand over the keys first.' Ha! The witch. I'm pretty sure I let out a half exaspererated laugh, but remember thinking, hey, I can always call the police if she decides to get coy about handing over her share. That, or as I outmatch her in height and strength, I could've just knocked her lights out and taken my check...kidding!

I handed her the keys, and the next seconds? The second longest in my life. But then the next thing I knew she was extending out her hand again and this time I was taking it.

And then, after a few more half-assed pleasantries, I was out of there with my carpet and junk and down the stairs with Alejandro, heading towards the nearest BNP to immediately deposit the check.

Now here's the funny part: so on the way, Alejandro told me a little story about how he'd once received a fake check. (Thanks for the extra paranoia Alejandro..)

Well we get to the first BNP a few blocks away and it's closed. Annoyance. I decide to play it safe, as it was getting late, and so instead of trying to guess at which one may have one as well, we just headed to one I know for sure was still open, about 15 minutes away. We get there, it's still open, and I proceed to deposit my check.

And it doesn't take it.

It didn't take it!

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.....the first time.

In the few seconds it took me to decide to try putting the check in another way, I was already planning my frantic return to the apartment, hoping Alice hadn't already skipped town, or something like that.

But then it took it, and it was in.

I'd almost had a heart attack, but in retrospect, I think my reaction was kinda funny. Alejandro certainly thought so..

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Anyways, I now have money again! And while it's tempting to go splurge, I've since only since used what I got back on paying my phone bill, and food. As soon as I saw the check go in, I decided to treat ourselves to a little celebratory sushi dinner next to our apartment, so that was nice. I think it's better if I save my money for now and at least wait until I get my last financial aid fisbursement at the end of this month.

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Hup! Well I'm glad I got that taken care of before my first French test of the semester on Thursday. Think I did, ok, but we'll see on Monday..

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Cheers!

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Rachael

Happy Thursday

Been in the new apartment for just over a week now, and everytime I climb the flights of stairs to the top, I'm surprised yet again by how quick and not out of breath I am. I suppose going from a 5-story to a 3-story building will do that to you.

Anyways, it's nice not to basically see this anymore when I look up:

Also, been having this stomach thing lately..not sure what it is, and though it's not major I imagine, it's annoying and want it to go awayyyy.

Oh well, at least it's my weekend now (aside from babysitting tomorrow) though I should/kinda hope I'll be spending most of it studying and doing the large amounts of homework I suddenly accumulated.

Happy Thursday,

Rachael

To have a roommate again

Hey guys,

It's been a little while, but it was time to update a bit.
So I'm now all moved into the new apartment with my new roommate, Alejandro. To be honest, it was a very stressful week, and not just because of moving stuff, but it's done and these last few days have been much better, if not perfect.
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But a little about the moving part: So I had to have all my stuff out by midnight on the 29th (as per the request of my crazy/paranoid/rude/bizarre landlord. And being the poor students that we are, we just put what we could in our suitcases and bags and lugged those from one apartment to the other..making about 5 trips. We no doubtedly looked ridiculous all laden down like we were on the metro, but whatevs, it was much cheaper than renting a moving truck or whatnot.
Unlike my last apartment, which is kept solely for the purpose of being rented out, this new one is normally lived in by our landlord. She's renting it out to us for the next three months while she's on a trip through southeast Asia. There's pros and cons to this:
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Pros:
-She has just about all the home supplies we could want
-More home-y feel
-Because it's actually lived, it's been updated over the years (fairly new floors, tile, walls)
-Her CD collection, half of which I'm going to rip onto my computer
-Recipe book collection, some of which are exotique
-Wifi
-Has a semi-big tv
-Washer
-The shower has a shower head holder!
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Cons:
-Even with all the home supplies, she doesn't have a coffee maker or spaghetti strainer (apparently not a coffee drinker, which is verrry rare in Paris)
-The more home-y feel is due in part to all of her stuff that she left behind, which hasn't left a lot of room for ours..
-The apartment gets steamy really easily for some reason, even when the heater is off
-No couch, and
-She has a pretty large table for the living room, but as we're only two and that's also where Alejandro sleeps, it's kind of annoying
-Wifi sucks half the time (shares with a neighbor and the modem isn't in her place)
-The tv has no cable and only a VHS player=useless/takes up more room
-I'd almost prefer a dryer (=jeans that don't sag easily)
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I'm going to be perfectly honest now about the whole having a roommate again: I definitely miss my alone time. I suppose I've always been more of a independent person who can deal with solidarity well and enjoyed cleaness, plus doing what I want, when I wanted it. Alejandro is no longer in school here and is instead looking for an intership or job, which means that so far, I have yet to be in the apartment all by myself because he's always here.
But having a roommate again is kinda nice, too. I hadn't realized that I'd begun to really miss daily interaction with a fellow American--not to mention fellow Washingtonian, as Alejandro is from Spokane-- (something I hadn't had as often last semester). And we have similar interests, big one being Hispanic food (he's also Cuban, which isn't Mexican, but close enough). He may not be as neat or cook and clean as well as I can, but I think I just need to keep being insistent/persistent. (He's already gotten better on a few things.) As for the alone time, he told me just earlier that he has a job interview lined up, so hopefully that will give him something to do. Also, it's just been nice having someone to sit down and have dinner with every night.
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Now, just gotta hope my old landlord gives me my deposit back and/or doesn't take money out from it. She'd orginally said she come back at the end of February, but I guess she couldn't be bothered, so now it's either the 11th or 15th of March. Only about another week or so to go..


Wish me luck!


Rachael

AAA: no shame

Hi everyone,

So there's something I'd like to confess. I feel like I should have done this a while ago, but sometimes there's no 'right' time to do it, y'know? But admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery, or so they say. So even though it might not be to everyone, at least I'm getting it out. Here goes.

I have

an apple addiction.

Yes, yes, I should have seen this coming, what with the apple being France's national fruit or whatever. Like many others before me, I thought myself resistant to this innocent-seeming fruit, but I underestimated it's subversiveness. Let us not forget what the original Forbidden Fruit was...

My daily sporadic cravings have gotten better since the worst; now I am down to 3 a day from last week's 4 (with peanut butter..). If I can get down to 1 and maybe a glass of the juice, I will consider myself accomplished.

But for now, I appreciate all of those that follow and encourage me in this time of struggle.

Just remember, an apple a day may keep the doctor away, but more than that and you tempt the devil...

Yeah...it's been one of THOSE days ;)p

Love y'all,

Rachael

Disappoint?

Wednesday, I started my third class, written French without having too much trouble finding the classroom. Y'know, which is always good. I'd had a pretty awesome day beforehand, despite having woken up a little later than planned for our last trip to the new apartment before moving in. I caught the right RER B train just in time, made my connection with almost no waiting, and was able to meet Alejandro and walk to the apartment a couple minutes early. Once we'd settled business less than 10 minutes later, we made the relatively short trip up to my school's quartier and wandered around looking at leather bags and glasses before getting hungry.

But here's the best part. We ended up coming up from the metro from the wrong exit, making us walk a couple blocks to where we wanted to go, but on the way we caught site of a place that said it was a Mexican restaurant. We were a bit skeptical, but decided to check it out anyways. (I like to think that it was in this moment that the nostalgic culinary gods took pride in my faith of good Mexican food. )The place was authenticly Mexican-looking (none of that Tex-Mex feel!) though not overly done and with good taste. The music playing, while I couldn't exactly name the singer, it was definitely one of the CD's Mom listens to a lot at home. We ordered from the lunch menu, which gave us a pretty good deal: entree and main dish for 13 euros. Alejandro and I decided to each order something different so we could try a little of everything. Me: sopa de tortillas for the entree and 3 tacos (1 chorizo, 1 carne asada, 1 of carnitas) plus rice and beans. For entree, Alejandro got a tostado de tinga, and for the dish, burrito de piccadillo. When we got our plates, we were a tiny bit disappointed to see that the portions were significantly smaller than what we'd received back home, but then again--this is France. Huge portions are kind of a no-no here. But while the taste wasn't exactly like what we were used to from home, it was close. Maybe as close to it as we were gonna get. Or maybe not?

Well, we went back last night to try the dinner menu. As we'd enjoyed our lunch there fairly well, we were once again pretty excited. Unfortunately, after looking over the menu, we saw that they didn't have much else in addition to what we'd already had for lunch a couple days before. And it was expensive. Each main dish was at least 17 euros, and each entree was at least 8. After thinking of a way to get the best deal we decided to each get our own main dish and split an entree. Three quesadillas for the entree and carne asada plus a chicken taquito with mole poblano. As for myself, I ordered the dish of chicken mole poblano. The entree, while not bad, was a bit of a disappointment, mainly for the price. First, they were more empanadas than actual quesadillas, and they were small. Didn't think they were worth the 8 euros..At this point, I was beginning to get a little skeptical on how my mole poblano would taste. After all, mole is the specialty of Papa's hometown, and I've had some of the best. So when I got my plate and found that the mole tasted almost exactly as I remembered it, I was pleasantly surprised and pleased. And there were corn tortillas, which again, while not exactly the same, were close, so definitely used those to clean my plate. Alejandro however, didn't like the mole (sad for him) but then I just ended up getting his taquito. We got our bill, and cringed a bit. A total of 47 euros. I felt a little bad as ok, yeah it wasn't horrible for me, but it wasn't worth that much, especially when one of us hadn't enjoyed it. In the end, We skipped dessert there and went to the McDonald's a couple blocks away. I got a brownie ice cream thing (really good) and Alejandro ended up getting like an entire meal. All in all, I think we've decided not to go back for the time being and instead have kind of made it our mission to scope out other good Mexican and/or Cuban restaurants that aren't overpriced. But hey, at least if we get desperate again, we know this one is there.