The hood

I am now settled and content. I live in a chambre de bonne, or essentially, a maid's room in the attic of a really nice appartment building in the quartier latin. Fortunately everything in my little shoebox is new and redone so its not really like living in the roof....My favorite part about it is that its called a chambre de bonne (bedroom of good), and then the sign on the door to the 7th floor says 'étage superieurs' or something, but you get up there, and its a whole slew of tiny apartents with numbers stenciled on jail-style and the whole floor looking like maybe its a step up from alcatraz, bc at least the cells have doors not bars.

Observations thus far.

Mad Props. I don't know why but I'm seeing canes everywhere! I was thinking god why are all these (mostly women) young and old needing canes is it the whole 4 inch heels on cobblestone ruining your knees thing is that the direction that im going too?? but then i saw one lying on the floor in the corner at a nightclub over the weekend, and i realized that theyre probably all just a bunch of fakers, and remembered that it does take a lot to get any pity out of a french person, nevermind a kind word or a door held unless they think you're attractive. so i give them props for their props.

Macarons at McDonald's. Ok so this is kind of brilliant. I know Charlisse said Starbucks in Seattle has macarons (the ones here do not but they DO have pancake specials...???) but, its sort of brilliant that not only do the french McDonalds have your everyday fatty grease-dripping meat burgers, but also, they sell petite light-as-air and multicolored pastel pastry burgers... genius. Some places in the US call macarons 'luxembourgers'... I'm not sure if thats what MickyD's calls them here, but bravo macdunaldz, bravo!

Flower shops. I think the most common types of businesses in my neighborhood are 1. flower shops 2. bakeries 3. cheese shops 4. butchery. How can a country like this NOT be #1 for quality of life??

Le job. My neighborhood is a cobblestone square with a notre dame style cathedral and a windy cobblestony street with markets and little shops. I got a job at one of the tiny tiny restaurants on this tiny windy street, but I don't know anything about the pay, how often, or anything else. I know its called Chez Nadine.

After being completely berated by a stodgey irish woman in the 6th arrondisement for speaking french to her ('Yer stoopid yeh know dat??' for introducing myself and why I was there in French not in English, as apparently this was an IRISH bar despite all the french people)I've filled my job hunt with more smiles than actual words.

So... when the ity bity restaurant around the corner, Chez Nadine, said to me, 'Come saturday,' I said 'Ok.' And then I turned around and left. And on saturday, I will do as I'm told.

Classes start tomorrow! I'm in the intermediate level... though I'll have an extended review period because I don't remember much french now!!