Becoming French

---

After many experiences of miscommunication I finally felt French today. I walked home from the subway from a hard days work (lunch in Monmartre with friends and decorating an friend's apartment) and as I walked I stopped and bought flowers for my room, a little baguette, cheese, fruit and wine. And as I walked it began to rain, so I just whipped out my umbrella and strutted home, it was pretty great.
What were these miscommunications prior to my day of French perfection? I went to the grocery store for the first time to buy necessities for my place and filled up my basket to the brim. I got to the cashier and she looked at me like I was crazy. Not so kindly she told me I needed to weigh my fruits and veggies. This is actually cool in my opinion and you get this little sticker for your goods. I did this and returned and remembered that they don’t have bags for your groceries in many stores! So I filled up my mostly empty backpack with detergent and the like but was forced to carry my toilet paper under my arm. This did not match my internal desire to always be Paris chique. But it is me! I laughed at myself for the short walk home and moved on.
I went to a bigger department store place today because I was told they’d have Harry Potter. I think 20% of the Paris population was in this place-it was chaos. Mostly this was because the floor where the books were located was also where the school supplies were and parents and kids were pushing and shoving and yelling and the like. It was madness. Then when I checked out the guy laughed at me when I said yes the book was for me. He just doesn’t get it. His loss.
Yesterday we went to the Musee d’Orsay which was fabulous of course and it really hit me for the first time that we are going to be here for a year. I realized there was no pressure to do the whole museum in one day because it is at my doorstep! Haha! Last night we took a boat ride on the Seine, which was great fun.
The rain today finally has caused things to cool off here; it was getting too hot to move so I am grateful.
I hope all is well. The pictures are off my apartment and the sights around. I haven’t been very good about taking pictures but I’ll get better!!!

---

Photos

Room
bed and windows

Room3
from windows looking back

Room4
my view

roof of musee d'orsay
my view