still here,,,

well everyone, im in paris at long last. i arrived friday morning and since then have been busy being unbusy. more precisely, ive been looking for apartments but without success and lots of time in between. the first day i got into charles de gaulle around 630 am but without any place to go. i waited and called and waited and called a couple friends until one picked up and let me come leave my bags at his place. i was at the airport for 7 hours!!!

so friday night was at his place, saturday through monday nights at an apartment rented for a week by 2 girls i know, one more night at the first guys place, and tonight in a hostel. basically, i approached this whole find somewhere to live thing rather naively and without understanding the necessity of getting a place, preferably an apartment to be rented short term but at least a hostel, for one week while i search for a permanent residence. the efforts i made this summer to find places to live have all come up nul, even the one i visited friday night. with 3 italians, but they smoke in the apartment and havent called me back. it would have been somewhat auberge espagnole-like, or at least auberge italienne. but alas i havent heard another word. i visited another on sunday with a woman in her 40s and two kids there every other week, but its expensive for whats offered. by the way, no apostrophes here, people.

i visited the 3rd apartment last night; it was big and nice and more than i want to pay, but i would take it if offered. the immediate vicinity was very diverse, with me being in the vast minority. theres even a daily market on the street right outside! and its not far from montmartre, which used to be and perhaps still is the somewhat bohemian, artsy part of paris. sacre coeur is there, moulin rouge and the sexodrome arent far away. actually, all of the aforementioned are at least 15 minutes away. but its not an undesirable locale. i think i didnt make a good impression on the person though(czech grad student studying in the us at ucsantacruz) and will be surprised to get the place.

all in all, i was very frustrated and sad and homesick at the beginning; now im more aware of the effort required, in particular the waiting, yet still anxious to find a place. im also bored at times, my day being filled primarily with walking around from the american church where ads are posted to the franco-american commission to use the internet and settle other matters and then eventually back home. today, on one such route(american church to commission) i stopped to sit on a bench near the eiffel tower and to read ads/call people. in the middle of finding an area on a map, a pigeon graced me with his particle presence, on my shoulder and messenger bag. lesson learned: when you think its bad, wait till a bird craps on your shoulder. so it must be an upswing from here on out.

today i think ill go read in the champ de mars, which is the big grass field in front of the eiffel tower. i may go to a small group bible study tonight, and earlier a happy hour with some other fulbrighters.

more to come, hopefully with housing secured.

bumps in the road

that last post was really just a test, so consider this my first official post. i, perhaps, had intended to wait till i was actually in france to start, but i think it's worth informing cyberspace and the non-descript "persons" reading this so-called "blog".

you should all know that i am NOT flying to Paris today, as originally intended. tuesday the french consulate in atlanta called me to tell me to reschedule my flight, my visa would not be ready in time and i needed to push my departure back a week to be sure that i would have passport in hand. the reason? their computer's not working, and hasn't been for over a week now. as of yesterday afternoon, it still hadn't been fixed. perhaps this is a special computer, perhaps a french one that requires a frenchman to hop over and fix it. and let me tell you, the french aren't exactly speedy. i hope that little cultural judgments either a)disappear, or b)remain because i've become convinced of them. in either case, i don't know why they can't just fix the computer in a city that means business and runs on machines. but i have to wait.

what was my reaction to this news? i have to say i was shocked; in part, i was glad to hear i had some more time to get ready, physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, etc. i was also glad to know that i wouldn't be spending 3 days in a hostel by myself in Paris with big bags and nothing to do cause it's the weekend. but at the same time it just feels so odd to not be departing as planned. i feel like a bit of a weenie for wanting the extra time. i'll expound on the weening thing another time.

so now i continue to wait for my visa. and pack. and go visit my uncle in Florida this weekend. and i watched Harry Potter 2 last night. and hopefully get more excited and less stressed/nervous about my little sejour across the seas.

and the beat goes on