All we can do is keep breathing

"Remember what Bilbo used to say; it's a dangerous business Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept of to." JRR Tolkien

There's been a lot of wandering over the past few days. The thing I love about Paris is that each neighborhood has a very distinct atmosphere about it. The latin quarter is very intellectual, le Marais is very trendy, the Champs-Elysee is very glamorous, and our neighborhood (Le Canal St. Martin) is...if I had to choose a word...chill. It's not as fast-paced as some of the other districts, we've got the canal which makes everything more peaceful, but there are decent amount of boutiques and restaurant that have a lot of character. It's a blast to explore.

So over the past two days we've wandered throughout the Louvre, through a few food markets, in Le Marais, around our neighborhood, through some bookstores, and along the Seine. I love getting lost in this city. I'm so glad Gabi (my roommate) and I have that in common. And we're both food junkies. We can't wait until it gets warmer and we can have gourmet cheese and bread picnics in the parks.

But don't be fooled, there has been some trouble in Paradise as of late. First of all, not all of our meals are what one would describe as glamorous, or even Parisian. In an attempt to save some money, we've decided to take advantage of the subsidized lunches through the different Crous cafeterias throughout the city. It's sort of like a dining hall and we are very much out of place there. We're those weird foreign students that sit in the cafeteria speaking another language with no friends. And we don't exactly know how the system works yet; today the cashier made fun of us because we didn't know what to do. And we know he's making fun of us, but we don't know enough French to make a smart-ass comment back. BUT, it's a decent meal for 3 euro, which is unheard of in this city.

Also, the living situation is...interesting. I love living with Gabi, we have so many of the same ideas about what we want out of this experience and we get along great. Mme Dugan is...interesting. She's very accomodating, and she loves to talk with us. I feel bad because I think she gets lonely; her son is not a pleasant person and we get the sense that maybe her husband left her. So we have some interesting philosophical discussions every night at dinner. However, if there's one thing that I've learned so far, it's that the French are very stubborn (a trait I do recognize in myself so I have come to appreciate it in others to some extent). And the internet has been a bit dodgy since we've been here. Mme Dugan is under the impression that this is due to the fact that Gabi and I both have Macs. It's a belief that she is having a hard time letting go of. Her son, Damien, is under the impression that this problem is due to his mother. He likes to curse at her in french about it every time something goes wrong. And last night something went wrong. I won't get into details...all's well that ends well, but it was an experience.

But I suppose that's why I'm here. All about experiences. Good and bad and everything in between.