Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Snow!

It snowed! Okay, for a literally a minute, but it was snow! Didn't even get a photo of it, it was so short. As you can guess, the weather's turned chilly.

Last night, Erik and his housemates came by Paris again. We went to see the Eiffel Tower real quick before going out for fondue since it was so cold out. After dinner, we went to the Caveau des Oubliettes to listen to some jazz and then to a piano bar next door. Both seen in photos.

Monday, March 3, 2008

Me Write Pretty One Day

Today I went to the Alliance Francaise to look into taking writing classes since I make a lot of mistakes when writing in French. I took a placement test and after the lady reviewed it she realized that I am a special case student - meaning that I can speak and read just fine and even write well structure-wise, but I make conjugation mistakes and spelling mistakes. Looks like I'll be tutored in writing since no class applies to me. I am looking forward to finally getting it all straight in my head! I just need to learn "the rules" and ingrain them into my brain. And at last, I'll write purty.

Here a couple photos of the view from the apartment. It's like a changing canvas all day long.

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Have a Little Faith

This morning I went to the organic farmer's market, as usual, and bought all my little goodies including yogurt and seigle bread. The rain was threatening to fall so I hurried back into the metro. As you all know, umbrella's in a market are never a good idea. I heard the train approaching so I ran to reach it in time.
Holding my canvas bag and a wine bottle full of apple juice, I hopped into the metro car and sat down next to a tiny little old lady dressed in purple from head to toe. In her hand was a rosary made of blue stones. I sat there thinking about how she might have thought the bottle I was carrying was alcohol and thought she might feel uncomfortable. Now there's an assumption for you! I assumed that since she seemed like a good Catholic, rosary in hand (....wait....now that I think of it, Catholics are pretty accepting of alcohol). She was so still and seemed gripped with fear being in the metro. Was she coming from church or on her way to the second sermon? It was already almost 11 a.m..
Ironically, for the first time since I have been here, the metro stopped in mid track and then also completely lost power at one of the stops - lights flickering on and off, motor dead. I could see out of the corner of my eye, her little hands rolling the beads between her fingers. The lights came back on and the motor roared on again. Everything back to normal, I made it to my stop leaving the little lady in purple quietly and faithfully going towards her own destination.
As I unpacked my market goodies, I heard the church bells ring 11:00 and I couldn't help but smile.