Home Sweet Home

It is morning in Paris… I’m in my bed again. Feeling a little sleepy, and not exactly sure what time it is. Last night was France’s equivalent of Daylight Savings Time. So, it is currently either 9, 10, or 11 am. I’m hoping it’s 10. I’m going to wait until I don’t hear any more noise coming from the kitchen, and then go have a tasty French breakfast. But for now, I’m avoiding awkward conversations in a language I don’t speak by informing all of you about my living arrangement… So, here we go.

Yesterday: After dragging my approximately 100lbs of luggage all over Paris, I arrived at the home of Madame Jeannine Serra around 1:30pm. Madame Serra is in her early/mid 60s. This is just a guess. It's hard to tell with these French women. She's very thin, very healthy looking. Her hair is reddish, short, practical, but perfectly in place. But, her face shows her age. When I arrived I met another foreign student who was living here named Yoko, from Japan. I say was living here because she left as soon as I arrived. I also met another guy who I believe lives here, but I'm not exactly sure. I only understand about half of what is said to me. I didn't hear his name, and I don't know if he is her son or another foreign student.

The inside of the apartment is .... interesting.... haha. The decor hasn't been changed since the early 70s. But, everything is very clean, comfortable and nice. It reminds me a little bit of my Grandma Omer's house, but just in that it is very inviting, but dated. The apartment isn't large, but isn't small either. My room is a nice size... About the same size as my room in McCabe, only it's just me here! I have a desk, closet, drawers and shelves. There is plenty of room for all of my things. My bed is a bunk bed, but no one else will live in this room. I'm sleeping on the bottom bunk and the bed is a little bit bigger than a twin size, but smaller than my big bed at home. I feel like the room was planned out in a very French way. Maybe I'm wrong but this is the perception that I have. It's sort of like someone issued of check list of things necessary in a bedroom: closet, hangers, drawers, desk, shelves, mirror. It seems as though it was done very methodically. Everything that is necessary is here, nothing is missing, and there is nothing extra. It's interesting, but I'm very comfortable and thankful for my living arrangement.

After being shown around the apartment I unpacked my clothes and did a little setting up. Then, Madame Serra took me for a tour of the neighborhood. The apartment is in what appears to be a very lovely part of Paris. It is in south eastern Paris, on the northern bank of the river Seine. The apartment building is on the Rue de Bercy. From the outside it looks very nice, lots of grass and trees. I'll try and take a picture soon. It is very close to the Parc Bercy. The Parc Bercy (if I understood correctly) is the largest park in the eastern part of Paris. It has lots of flower gardens, gorgeous trees, soccer fields, a skateboard park, jungle gyms for children and just about anything else you could imagine in a park. There is also an outdoor shopping center and a movie theater in the middle. There is a walking bridge that goes from the Parc Bercy across the Seine. On the other side of the river there is la Bibliothèque Nationale (the National Library) and a swimming pool. At the north end of the park there is a large sports arena. It looks fairly new and is an interesting looking building. Maybe I'll take pictures of the Park this afternoon, if it doesn’t rain. This map isn't the best, but it sort of shows you the neighborhood I'm in. The parc is the green rectangle by the river with Palais Omnisports written on top of it. The Palais Omnisports is the orange dot at the top right hand corner of the green rectangle. I live on the street that is covered by words, parellel to the park and parallel to the Seine. The metro stop I'll use is marked Gare de Bercy.

After the tour of the neighborhood and park, we returned to the apartment. I checked my e-mail and decided to just lie with my eyes closed for a minute. I, of course, promptly fell asleep. It was just a little embarrassing when Madame Serra came in to wake me up for dinner haha. At dinner there was another person I hadn’t yet met. His name is Monseiur Flavien. I'm not sure if he is married to Madame Serra or what is going on there. Neither of them wore wedding rings... and he looks a lot like an older version of the other guy I met this afternoon, so perhaps that man is Monseiur Flavien's son. There are pictures on the wall of people, but I didn't want to overtly snoop... so I'll have to wait until I’m alone to figure that all out. Also, I don't know where these other bedrooms are, because so far I've only seen one other besides my own. Although, I think it is probably typical French to not show a guest rooms in the house where there presence isn’t necessary. And that’s fine… I’m just curious as to where they even are.

Dinner was very nice. It was definitely a little taste of what my French teachers called "l'art de la table" (or something like that). We ate at a very leisurely pace, with lots of conversation. Well, I'm not sure you could call what I did "conversing"... I think smiling and nodding is the more appropriate name for it. I attempted a few full sentences in French, but it was exhausting. I understand about half of what they were saying. I feel like we talked about a lot, especially considering I don't speak the language. We talked about Chicago, Springfield, horses, cheese, Lincoln, peanut butter, Obama, Clinton, McCain, Sarkzoy, conserving water and electricity, the Grand Canyon, Yosemite and Alaska. I found out that Flavien works as a stock trader. He asked me what I thought the dollar would do. I told him I thought it would get worse, but then get better... at least that's what I wanted to say. What I could understand of the conversation was very interesting. What I couldn't understand was probably also interesting...

We started out the meal with something similar to cold couscous. It was really good, kind of spicy. Then we had pork and green beans. They eat pork with a type of mustard. It was good. Madame Serra asked me if there was anything I didn't like to eat. I said no, because really- it's true. I eat anything. Then she named off some meats... and she got to lapin. Lapin is rabbit. And I have known since my 4H days that people eat rabbit. And, I would probably like rabbit if I tried it.... but I don't really want to try it.... because they are bunnies and I love them and I'm just not going to eat them unless I'm starving or something.

For dessert we had cheese, baguette, wine and clementines. So delicious. I’m going to get so fat! I ate so much cheese! I can’t remember what all the different types were all called... but I remember that I didn't really like the goat cheese haha. I ate it all anyways because I didn't want them to think I was wasteful. Not being wasteful is very big with the French. After dinner I watched a little bit of what is the equivalent of either PBS or the History Channel with Flavien. It was about Joan of Arc. I felt like I was at home, with my dad who doesn't like to waste food, water or electricity and loves the History Channel. When I excused myself to go to bed, it was 10:30pm already. We spent 2 and a half hours eating dinner.... crazy.