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Published: January 11th 2011
Let me just start by saying that I got 2 that's right 2 compliments on my French...AND they were both from French people!!!! Yes that's right; I mean not that I was ever in doubt of this OBVIOUS fact....it's just nice to have it reenforced by the oh so generous populous. Well let me get back to where I left off last night with my expedition into laundry territory (eep!) So I started by trying to sort out my clothes according to color. I had three main piles one with really colorful stuff, one of gray stuff, and one with blacks. Okay correction I had four piles. The fourth was this striped white and black polo that I was unsure about. Well I knew the color pile was good for a load by itself so I knew that one would go into the washer. I decided since my piles of grays and blacks were only a few articles a piece I'd be like the women in China and hand wash them. I know...it already sounds like a disaster and it was. I won't go into details but let's just say that I was super pissed when I was done and my bed was wet. Yeah, that. Ok phase two was in motion after I skyped with mom and Clay. A little side note to anyone who cares....Clay was going to talk to the lease lady person about his new place and I think its all done and they moved in today....though I could be wrong. So here I go down the stairs, walk past the dude sitting at the reception desk (bon soir (you say hello/good evening/etc. to practically everyone you see here..local niceties)) and head to the laundry room and start doin my thang. It's about halfway through the wash cycle when the receptionist comes in and tell me that it's forbidden (interdit) to do laundry after 9pm. What?!? Who does that? Since when is it a liberty to let your dog poop all over the sidewalk but not to do your laundry at 1 in the morning????? Well he was nice enough to let me keep going even though I was CLEARLY at fault....right, okay... Well phase 2 went much better than phase 1 even though I got yelled at in phase 2. I was so embarrassed I walked back to my room the creepy, scary way so as to avoid seeing the receptionist on my way back. Shameful I know.
SO! Today. I woke to thunder and lightening which eventually went away by the time Marissa and I left. I was so surprised by the weather. Never in my life have I experienced a legit thunderstorm in January before. So strange! We went down to ask the receptionists where to go to get our university cards and we directed to building B. We set out into the lapse in rainfall and decided to head to the library (bibliotheque) first to try and make some photo copies we would need for Tuesday. Well what do you know but at the library you have to have a university card to make copies. Not only can we not eat here but we can't make copies here without this precious card! Well we decided to get that out of the way as soon as possible so we could stay on track. Well little did we know....We went to the correct room and asked to get our cards. It was a no-go. We needed a number that we would only get after we had signed up for classes (tomorrow). Did anyone spot the paradox??? We need copies for tomorrow which we can't make because we don't have university cards and we can't have those until we register which we can't do because we don't have the necessary copies. Sick place Nice is. We decided the next best step was to go talk to the guy who we would register with on Tuesday and explain our situation and see what he said. I don't think he got it. He made us fill out a bunch of forms and got half of the paperwork done for our session but that was it. We didn't make any headway on the id card front. Oh well. At least when we go back tomorrow it won't take as long and we won't be late for our meeting with the Bank to get accounts. We tried to get Marissa some more pictures but the machine ate her money because she didn't put the right pieces in. While I was waiting for her I saw two of Titou's friends with whom I had had dinner with in the cafeteria. They recognized me and I waved and said Bonjour. They returned the favor and even smiled at me (a rarity for the French when they don't know someone!) I was excited to see that I wasn't completely invisible to them and that they remembered me.
As we were leaving the Fac (shortened term in French for la Faculte) the rain began again. It started out as a slight mist which progressed to a steady drizzle and soon turned to torrential downpour. Awesome. We both got soaked and decided to take just wait until Tuesday to do anything further. We went to find somewhere to eat after the rain stopped and found this place called Chez Coletta. It was owned by this Italian family and we had a good lunch of panini (I had jambon (ham) and cheese with tomato) and Coke (in France you un Coca). It was almost the same as coke at home but better tasting because they use real sugar and less preservatives. The guy who owned the cafe came and talked to us while we ate and I tried so hard to concentrate on what he was saying but found it extremely hard to do because he had to most EXTREME unibrow I have EVER seen in my life. I was a perfect 'W' on his forehead in a deeply black and curly eyebrow hair. Fantastic. He told us all about how he had three kids and was divorced...a clear winner in my book and ended our conversation by giving me a free delice (dessert). Flirting? God I hope not. The dessert was called un petit coeur (a little heart). He said there was chocolate in it but it tasted more like something that I couldn't name. It was a perfect ending to a great lunch. He told us to come back and see him. I added mentally only if I could get a picture of him with that winning specimen. Say CHEESE!
At this point I was intent on getting dry clothes on and fixing my hand washing attempts from yesterday (my poor clothes). Down I went again to try my hand at the darks....I took my striped polo with me and decided to tempt lady luck. While down there I sat in awkward silence with another girl who was also doing her laundry. I tried for a couple of minutes to think of something funny or nice to say so we could talk but failed and settled for staring at her out of the corners of my eyes. Our laundry finished at the same time so I asked her in my best French if she wanted to share the dryer because there was only one. She agreed and we laughed at me when I told her I had no idea how laundry worked because my mom was an olympic laundryer. The dryer was an hour long and she took her stuff out after like 30 minutes and we said goodbye.
At that moment this other guy came in and asked me if we could share the dryer because for some unknown reason he had a bag of wet clothes...weirdo. After we sat back down he accused me of being German, but its ok I set him straight and we started talking in French about ourselves. Turns out he studies Italian here too so I might have some classes with him. His name is Fabrizio and his family is from Corsica but he grew up in France. (Corsica is an island that has been harshly disputed between France and Italy for centuries. Currently it belongs to France...I think). He told me about his life a little and his language escapades. For example: he's studying Japanese, English and Italian currently. He knows French and Corsican. Impressive. Right now he sounds super awesome but don't be too hasty there because he was a ginger...and he had a huge head...and tiny ears. Don't worry Clay, he was even a blip on the man-dar. He did explain my middle name to me. I was told when I came here not to go by Renee because it is seem mostly as a male name these days even though it is the feminine version. Well good ol' Fabreeze told me that the name Renee was popular two generations ago and that the masculine form Rene was popular a generation ago. So basically I'm blacklisted with an old people name like Eunice. Thanks mom. He then told me that his name means someone who makes things with his hands....thanks? As our conversation got weirder and weirder the dryer finally told us it was done and we said our goodbyes and I went back to my dorm to make sure I hadn't accidentally taken his underwear. I just want everyone to know that it was 3.50 euros for the wash and 1 euro for the dryer. Go to www.xe.com for the latest conversion rates to see how much money I wasted in the past 2 days on laundry!
Once I got back to my room I realized that my striped shirt was not as white as it used to be. It definitely has a kind of gray look to it. I don't know if that's fixable or not. Suggestions? For right now I'll just look like a hobo. I had a very uncomfortable shower after that and got on the computer just in time to skype with my hawt cougar mom. I was starting to get kind of hungry so I got off the "phone" and Marissa and I went in search of some food. By this time it was 9pm and most everything was closed except for little Arab shops that sold stuff like kebabs and socca. Socca is really good. Titou had me try it when he showed me around Nice the second day I was here. From what I understood, he said it was mashed couscous or maybe chickpeas? and they spread the mash thin on a stone for cooking pizzas. It's baked in an oven and the taken off and ripped up onto a plate. It was really good with just salt and pepper. Marissa and I walked for probably a mile before I finally decided on a greasy place that claimed to sell American food. It was owned by some Arabs that were really good at pretending I wasn't there for like 10 minutes. I asked for chicken nuggets. I know, but I was sick of paninis and bread. I wanted some GREASE!!!!!!!!!!!! We saw on the menu that they had something called an American. It was two patties of some kind of meat (viande) with lettuce in a pita with an egg. I don't know about you but that is as far from American as you can get. They even claimed to have tex mex but I didn't believe it. Whatever. We walked back and ate my food in my dorm while watching funny youtube videos and looking at my book on the region so we could start planning our first day trip. It was really exciting.
That was pretty much it for today. I'm excited about tomorrow and all that will hopefully get done. Oh Clay I want you to know I watched my first Cowboy Bebop episode this morning and it was great as always! Wow this was a long one! My fingers hurt!
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Galadriel
non-member comment
Long day
Wow what a long day! I'm glad that you are settling in. I can not believe that you have never done laundry. I all you did was dingy up a few white stripes I think you will be fine. Besides your Netties daughter and no one does laundry like she does. Some of htat had to have worn off on you. Well hope to talk to you soon. Love tons Galadriel