Virtually Home

Okay, so not as dramatic as "Veni, vidi, vici", but I guess it'll do. Today was a tremendous day for me. I accomplished, mostly today, all the things I wanted to get done in the first week of my stay here. It just took a lot longer than I initially thought. I was able to enroll (or, mostly, I'm still missing one form), get a student ID made (which took all of thirteen seconds while the ladies helping us played a video game), pick up my checkbook, activate my Carte Bleue, transfer money between bank accounts, find a recharge card, learn how to recharge my phone, and, as a bonus, found out that the package my mother sent me over three weeks ago (probably) didn't get lost after all. In other, unrelated news, today I saw a 4-wheeler in the middle of downtown Bordeaux. Totally incongruous. And then I ran into the guy who owns the neighborhood pizza joint, who we've talked to at his restaurant a few times and have run into in multiple situations. I guess tha...

Today I left the apartment with the full intention of finally completing my administrative enrollment and getting my student ID card made before I leave town this weekend. So, I hopped on the tram in time to get there about 30 minutes after the office workers were supposed to come back from lunch -- I figured I'd give them some time to NOT be back when they were expected...since that seems to be what's expected. And, of course, the tram service was "interrupted", since it so often seems to be, a few stops from my apartment, for a "suspicious package". At least, that's what I translated it as -- I hope I was correct. I guess it was a terrorist scare. Anyway, we had to disembark, and we walked what google tells me was 2.3 km to school, on the way passing the "suspicious package" which was completely invisible, but roped off and sort of swarming with police who only seemed to be keeping foot traffic away, and not really looking at the problem at...

The last few days have been pretty un-noteworthy, which I guess explains the lag in posting. I guess I've mostly been playing guitar, watching Star Trek: TNG and X-Files, and surfing YouTube. For instance, today I finally heard about President Obama's speech for the first day of school. That's one frustrating thing about living abroad -- I keep not being apprised of presidential addresses or  major pop culture events until way after. Most of what I have to show for yesterday involves successfully finding the laundromat, which was about a 3/4 of a mile from my apartment. I know there's one closer. In fact, I remember walking by one a few days ago and remarking aloud to my roommates that we should remember where it was, in case we needed it. As it turned out, we did have need of it -- and I didn't remember where it was. I'm sure it was closer than the one I found, but I didn't want to invest a lot of time and energy into the hunt when I still had to fetch...

This morning I woke up to find that the hall of records across from our apartment was, for once, flying a French flag. One of the things that is a little strange about living here is that I really only see flags on official buildings. People don't hang flags in front of their businesses, schools, or homes like they tend to in the States. I'm not sure whether that makes any kind of meaningful statement about patriotism or not. The other thing about the flags here is that they seem to be a lot thinner than we make them. I think the photo sort of illustrates that well -- all the flags are transparent. Yesterday, my roommate Alex turned 22. We went out to a really nice Indian restaurant not far from our place, and had some korma lamb, some chicken vindaloo, a vegetable I can't remember the name of, some rice, some naan, and a tasty bottle of Bordeaux. It was really my second time to go out and have a sit-down meal since getting here, and the first was pizza with Maria'...

There were a lot of topics I was thinking about blogging about, and I realized they all had to do with cleanliness, mostly. So there's your theme. THEMED! Today, I waged war on the apartment, which, for some reason (either my particular landlady or the European custom) was not cleaned before I moved in. Until now I'd been sort of cleaning things as I could with whatever products and materials were available to me. Today, I went to Monoprix and went sort of crazy on the cleaning supplies. I got back and vacuumed with our strangely-shaped and relatively inefficient vacuum cleaner. Then I Swiffered. And then I Swiffered again. I cleaned the bathroom(s) and the kitchen, and every available surface, really. It made me feel a lot better about my life, but the apartment is still not up to my usual cleanliness standards. I'll continue the campaign tomorrow, maybe. Maria cooked some delicious risotto with sundried tomatoes and mushrooms and chicken, and made a salad with blueber...

So this photo doesn't actually have anything to do with today, but since I didn't take any good photos today and they have been such a hit...Well, it's a shot I took at St. André yesterday as the organ concert was sort of ramping up. I spent the day mostly at home. I did have an adventure to the post office while trying to mail some stuff internationally, which turned out to be a sort of spectacular demonstration of either my incompetence or theirs...but probably both. When I walked in, I looked around and decided I should probably get in line. Then I was promptly yelled at to use the automated machine. Having had several frustrating experiences in France that were based around the apparent unwillingness of French people to use automated services when they could otherwise be helped by a person, I got out of line and made a brave attempt. The machine, predictably, spoke French. Probably better than I do. I navigated my way through the buttons -- yes, I want to se...

which means that all of the churches and public buildings were having events, giving tours, and the museums all had free admission to the public this weekend. I missed out yesterday. I spent most of the day inside playing guitar, except for one trip to the riverside to indulge my childhood dreams. The other day I got a (probably) silly idea to start learning to skateboard. Not like the kind of skateboarding I wish I'd learned to do when I was still young enough to learn it, but just kind of A to B. For fun. So that's what I did yesterday afternoon. It went surprisingly well, except for my being completely right-side-dominant. I am virtually incapable of balancing if I use a left-handed stance (right foot forward) so the act of propelling myself forward is exhausting, since I can only push with my right foot. I'm not sure if that made any sense. Anyway, I had a lot of fun, and came home happy. Maria came home from her trip last night, and the three of just kind of hung out a...