brazillians and baguettes

a friend once told me that in college you had to pick two out of the following; schoolwork, sleep, and having a social life. it has become quite evident that "sleep" is the one that gets left out... especially seeing as paris opens at about 11pm. these late nights are followed by early morning and the occasional few hours of sleep. these late nights do, however, put you on the metro at the best time of day/night...right before closing. at about 1 or 2 you see some very interesting things on the metro, some of which i could do without but others that are just plain funny. the other night a very drunken couple tried to discreetly "hook up" underneath a jacket, while everyone was staring and laughing. they never noticed that they were being watched and weren't alone seeing as they were completely plastered.

the morning on the other hand is the worst time of day to ride the parisian metro. it is the time (apparently) that the homeless men of paris come out from their niches (yes i just threw an AP Bio word in there) and relieve themselves. at 7am pretty much the last thing i want to see is a homeless man unzipping his pants. you know the myth that the paris metro smells like piss? well here is the explanation.

the only thing possibly more unpleasant than the sight of penises a la metro, is an 8h (8am to you americans) phonetics class. although i think that when we go to the phonetics lab and wear the crazy microphone things, i look like a cute pilot. after that and a nice walk across jardins du luxembourg it is time for french. 2 hours of it. at 9 30h. it is slightly too early to understand all of the accents in our class (swedish, mexican, brazillian, iranian, turkish....etc.) it is like french with a twist.

our teacher is quite lovely, although she did get quite upset with us one day. the french are very picky about their boulangeries and she had said that she did not particularly like the one closest to our class. one day at lunch we all went over there because we were hungry and it was close (logical). she happened to be having a smoke in the square right near the boulangerie and saw us all. she was offended that we went to the "bad" boulangerie.

the good life

traveling is annoying enough without having to switch rooms once at your final destination (for the month at least). when i was told i had to move, then i didnt, then i did, then i didnt, then i did you can imagine how happy i was :) and yes there were actually that many switches, im not kidding. as i begrudgingly went to the front desk i talked to the man (who didnt speak english. at all.) and confused him with the whole situation i dropped hints as to how i like my corner room and bathroom (which compared to the others is relatively clean). after calling two other supervisors over the director said to come with him to his office and he would see what he could do. i know this sounds like the part that involves me getting drugged raped and sold into some sex trade. i brought friends no worries, and no funny buisness. after a stressful thirty minutes, we got it figured out! no moving for me (or my friend). i happily hugged the director of the dorm. which looking back is a little awkward, but he is cute so its okay. i am now back in my exceptionally large corner room with my clean (ish) bathroom.

paris is truly the city of love. whether it be love locks on bridges or very in love couples, if you are in love paris is the place to be. normally metro make out sessions are reserved for kids attempting to have some privacy (from parents at least). here it is all too common to see old/young/middleaged couples getting it on, on the metro. the sad thing is that for the paris metro this is quite normal compared to other events. events such as performances, drugged animals, rhubarb stalks on the ground, just to name a few.

we went on a walking tour today. despite knowing most of the places on the tour it was nice. the best part was either that our tour guide was a huge harry potter fan or the phone call from my dad (who since i havent been on social networking sites a lot in the last 24h thought i was dead). speaking of harry potter, let the countdown begin. 11 more days... 13 for all of you in the states HA. we have begun to plan the midnight excursion which will deffinetly be one of the highlights of the summer. other good news - jeff halpern is back on the caps. we needed a local and a jew.

we deffinetly fit into the poor student category seeing as we are buying three meals a day. paris purchases to date include my navigo, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, shaving cream, toothbrush, and towel. no chanel yet, unfortunately. today we did splurge on some 10 dollar chocolat chaud hot chocolate for you americans. it was pretty much the best thing ever, i feel many more trips to angelina for morning drinks in the near future.

the dorm life.

after a day that was too many hours to count, i was excited to get some sleep. sleeping is normally done on a bed (solely based on my personal experiences). a mattress about a foot off the bed that feels like a slab of concrete can be considered a bed, okay. as i lie here..with all the lights (aka lamps there are no real lights) on i can not help but be terrified that someone is going to come in and steal me from this rock of a bed. you can blame taken for making me paranoid, but when you are alone... and i mean really alone in a room the thoughts of being sold into the sex slave trade seems like a very good possibility. in addition to deadbolting the door i pushed the nightstand in front of the door so that any possible attack will be slowed down sufficiently for me to unlatch and jump out the window. its a good plan i know.

there are many awkward encounters that one expects heading into college. i was however un- prepared for the midnight bathroom run in. its late, im tired, and even if i was awake i dont think i would really be sure of the proper etiquette for opposite gender bump ins (in the cramped dorm bathrooms)... which i think you can guess by this point are co-ed. do you say hi? or just smile? do you stop and chat? and if so what language? too many questions and just too late. well at least i know one of my neighbors! (who looks to be about 35)

as most all of my friends know, i dont like the dark. even when i am with friends i dont like it, so imagine my thoughts towards it now, as i am in a foreign dorm room totally alone. yeah the lights will be staying on tonight.

the best thing about paris? no question, the water. this afternoon due to the unbearable heat in the dorm rooms (which arent air conditioned of course) we went out to do some grocery shopping. by grocery shopping i mean beverage shopping. perrier, evian, and about a million other fancy designer waters (which i am used to paying nearly 4 dollars for) are all under a dollar...for the huge ones!

if it wasnt already 12:30 then i would continue this post but tomorrow (since theres no class) is a shopping day, which requires being well rested. so i should really attempt to sleep, even though it is unlikely with the rumbling of the metro underneath me and the darkness and solitude. this is when having sex and the city on ones computer comes in handy- life lesson.