life in paris

i have started to have a routine here in paris, and i feel as if my life has begun here. each day i have been taking my walking tours of various parts of the city. most recently i visited ile st-louis, auteuil, montmartre and buttes-chaumont (thank you wayne for convincing me to bring my sneakers!). these tours come from my guidebook and are good for giving me historical as well as architectural history of the city (thanks peter!). in auteuil i was able to visit le corbusier's villa roche (which was very cool to see).

the tours are taking me all over the city and i have become quite familiar with the metro. my hamstrings and tush are getting quite a workout. i get home and am quite pooped, and my muscles ache. oy!

i am practicing my french every day with my rosetta stone on my computer. i am on the last section of level 1 and it's getting much harder, so it's harder for me to get through each lesson. at my roommate's suggestion i put an ad on craigslist for conversation exchange. apparently it's something people do here a lot. you meet someone in a cafe for an hour. half the time you help them with their english, the rest of the time they help you with your french. it doesn't cost anything but a cup of coffee. hopefully you end up with someone who is a good teacher. i had two respondents to my ad, and this evening will be meeting with a woman and her 12 year old daughter for our first exchange. i'm looking forward to it because i think it will help me with just every day language (and pronunciation, which i am terrible at!).

i am trying to meet people here in order to network and hopefully eventually find a job. so to all who have given me leads, thank you! i have followed up on every one of them. we'll see how they all pan out.

i buy groceries a lot. our refrigerator is a tiny under the counter type and we have only one cabinet for plates, pantry items and staples, so there isn't much room for anything. many trips to the market are common and normal. you can pick up what you need for a meal at supermarkets, small convenience stores and the open air farmers markets. the farmers markets have prepared food, meat, fish and sundry items as well as fresh fruits and vegetables. the larger supermarkets are similar to target; today i bought cat food, a chocolate bar and a trench coat at the supermarket!

tyrone and lenny are getting more used to this place. it's much noisier here than l.a. and they don't have a place to go outside. i let them run around the hallway of the building a bit, until they get scared when a stranger comes and they run back into the apartment. kathryn and i are looking for another place for june or july. i hope we can find something that the cats will enjoy too. lenny is getting over his cold.

kathryn has been a really terrific roommate (again, thanks peter!). she loves the cats and they are slowly warming up to her. she is helping me get oriented (showing me stuff i need to know about; it's been a huge help). she even showed me how to download american television shows on my computer, so we have been watching "the amazing race" and "flash forward" together. she and i went to dinner last night at a nice thai place close to the apartment (i had a "real" parisian sighting there: a woman at the next table was having dinner with a friend while her little dog sat on her lap). she's really easy to be with and i look forward to our vacation in estonia.

so, that's life in paris right now. not too shabby.