Yes, I owe you all an apology. I haven't really updated the blog. To be honest, I just haven't known what to write. I've been on a couple trips, but I think you can get a good sense of them by going to my photobucket and checking out the pictures. They can be found here.
In the meantime, I just didn't know what to say. My brain has been working overtime, but most of the details would, I'm sure, bore you to death and besides you'd rather hear about Paris.
But what can I tell you about Paris? I don't know how many weeks I've been here - a little over two months, I do know that. But what that means -- I'm not sure I could say. Some days I feel like I only arrived yesterday -- most days, in fact. I really find it difficult to keep track of the day, the date, the weeks even. They go by very quickly.
I can tell you, I suppose, that occasionally I notice that life here has become habitual. I drink coffee in the morning with my host mom if we're up at the same time. Whoever's up first makes the coffee, whoever finishes it washes out the machine. I walk to classes, or more often take the metro. I buy paninis for lunch, or I bring cheese and buy a baguette.
I take it for granted that I can get a baguette at any time during the day from really anywhere, and that it will be really good. I feel shafted when, as the case has been the last two days, the boulangerie is out of them. I try to keep myself to one pastry a week but usually fail, because they are just. so. darn. good.
The first floor is not the ground level and when someone says "4th floor," I understand that means I go up 4 flights of stairs, instead of 3 in the US system. I get annoyed when the Metro magazine or the Direct Matin or the Direct Soir isn't around in the metro stations, and when they are there, I pick them up. The American TV series are dubbed into French and it surprises me whenever I hear someone on the TV speaking English.
I have finally mastered the 24 hour clock and can roughly understand what it means when it's 8 degrees celsius (cold). I have picked up several typical French speaking habits, like inserting "en fait," "fin," and "bah" in my everyday conversation, including my favorite, that something is "n'importe quoi", meaning it's nothing, rubbish, ridiculous. I don't think about answering people in French, and upon learning where I'm from, I'm very often complimented on my speaking ability. I notice American accents and am starting to hear the British accent.
What else can I tell you? I don't look at metro maps anymore. I know which lines to take in which direction and am working on remember where in the station to get on and off the cars to maximize my efficiency.
It has been two months and that seems like such an incredibly short time to me. There is yet so,so much time left here. I've been here long enough that I'm finally starting to miss certain places, and especially people. It's still a really long time until I see most of my family and friends, and that bothers me often.
I wish I could tell you more, be more specific, but my life is not specific these days -- it's just life. And that is, I suppose, the best indication that Paris is becoming home to me. I don't need to think about every day so much. It just is -- it is there, and I live it. So simple.
I'll try and be more creative -- and quicker -- with my next post.
Bisous à tous.
No comments:
Post a Comment