Lawrie and I have way too much fun online at work:
Rue Etienne-Marcel, Paris
I’m writing a post because I’m in a french cafe and it feels like I just have to. I found a cafe that had free wireless through free-hotspot.com and I decided to come to try to do work here today. It turned out to be a great idea! When I got here I ordered an (expensive) club sandwich and Schweppes Argum and sat inside while doing some research for a paper review for an upcoming conference. I saw people come and go as I read and ate my sandwich (and charged my laptop on an outlet I found!). Then I decided to get an espresso and come outside and go online while I continued the research and chatted with friends, and people watched. Since today is a holiday in France, everyone is being super friendly and pleasant, which is always a plus. So far my day has consisted of:
* croissants
* espresso
* sandwich with schweppes argum
* wifi
* meebo, chatting with friends
* youtube
* boingboing
* del.icio.us
* digital picture taking
* blogging on wordpress
* sitting on a french sidewalk watching the trendy people on motorscooters
It’s just all too trendy *not* to blog about. I’ll repost this later with a picture!
The wonderful cafe hosting this post today is called Lina’s.
This is exactly what they are like:
from la fille en rose’s post a-little-slice-of-french-life-aka-why-on-earth-do-they-do-this
I am hardly the first expat to write about the exact change phenomenon. I’ve mentioned it to a few French people, and they have no idea what I’m talking about. I think it’s so ingrained in their culture that they just don’t notice it. But today I experienced a prime example, and wanted to share.
I went to MonoPrix and picked up some necessities. The total came to 6 euros and 77 cents. I dug through my change purse and came up with 6 euros and 80 cents. I thought that was pretty good, and was half-expecting a nod of appreciation.Instead, the cashier rolled her eyes and said, “you don’t have 7 cents?”
(The comments on that post include similar experiences)
If I wrote blog posts like that, I’d be writing all day (and feeling sorry for myself, and for them). I keep telling everyone, it’s the little things that make the hugest difference.
And they don’t just want the exact change, they yell at you and make very annoyed expressions when you don’t have it.
Everything is your fault, you are always wrong, you owe it to them.
I spoke about the ‘exact change phenomenon’ with my French labmate and Russian labmate the other day, and apparently it’s the same in Russia, it’s normal. Cashiers hate it when you waste their precious time, how dare you ask them to make change? Blah.
I made this the other day while I was on the phone.
My blog was featured today on a new blog about flea markets! Check it out at:
http://fleaspeech.typepad.com/fleaspeech/2007/03/puces_de_st_oue.html
First of all, today I saw L’Institut du Monde Arabe and I’m pretty sure it’s my new favorite building that I have ever, ever seen.
I haven’t seen actual mosques in real life, so those don’t count yet.
Pictures to come when I visit it again with my camera!
Also, today I realized I am finally learning to cope with certain…differences…
[22:40] evhan55: hey you’d be proud of me
[22:40] evhan55: i went to the opera to buy a ticket today and
[22:40] evhan55: there were people in line for last min tickets to tongiht’s show
[22:40] evhan55: so i tried to get in line and a beautiful, uniformed red head came up to me and i knew what was gonna happen
[22:40] evhan55: so i decided i wouldn’t let it get to me
[22:40] evhan55: it went like this
[22:40] evhan55: her: ‘can i help you?’
[22:41] evhan55: me: ‘oh is this a line for tonight?’
[22:41] evhan55: her: ‘no well yes but there are no spots left this is just for last minute tickets and you have no chance to get one so you cant stay in line i mean look at how long this is you shouldn’t even try it never happens and as of right now there aren’t any tickets left yet so you should probably leave line it just…..’
[22:41] evhan55: me: (smile, step out of line)
[22:42] evhan55: her: ‘doesn’t help you to stay in line it just never works out you should probably leave’ (keeps shaking her head)
[22:42] evhan55: me: ‘ok, thank you, can i buy a ticket for another show?’
[22:42] evhan55: her: ‘oh, yes! here is the schedule for march/april, look through it and then go down to the cashier there’
[22:42] evhan55: me: ‘thank you very much!’
[22:43] evhan55: i think it was cuz she was so beautiful and young and so trained to be french..
[22:43] BazCell: i’m proud baby
[22:43] BazCell: although that would be enough to drive me nuts
[22:43] evhan55: just
[22:43] evhan55: you
[22:43] evhan55: wait
Today I finally went to the Picasso museum in Le Marais. It was about as great as I expected it to be (Picasso was my favorite artist when I was little). There were pieces from many points of his artistic career, the styles really varied. My favorites, of course, were the colorful cubist/abstract pieces that came to be known as his style, I think. I don’t know, I just know I really loved them. The museum also featured a lot of sculptures by him, a style of his before with which (haha Lawrie) I wasn’t familiar.
The architecture inside the museum was also really impressive. At one point I stood on a staircase and took a picture of the ceiling and then I noticed another very young girl (10 maybe) was doing the same. It made me really happy to see that she had noticed the ceiling enough to take a picture, how many ten year olds do that? Then, in the museum store, I saw the same little girl again grab a post card and run to her mom and say ‘Mommy please please can I get this?’. When I looked at the postcard I noticed that it was a picture of Picasso with a quote by him:
If you know exactly what you’re going to do, what’s the good in doing it?
What an interesting little girl…
I enjoyed hanging out in Le Marais afterwards, Parisians generally seem happier and more relaxed on Sundays :) I also went to two great dinners this weekend and I’m glad I got to finally spend time with people!
Paris St. Ouen, France
Today I went to the Puces de St. Ouen which is the weekend antiques/flea market of Paris up near the Porte de Clingancourt metro stop. I think it’s supposed to be one of the largest antiques markets in the world, and man was it huge!!! I walked around for hours and got lost and my mouth was wide open the whole time. Everytime I thought it couldn’t get more amazing, it just would. I can’t even describe it. There was so much to buy, everything was so fancy and beautiful. It really felt like ebay.com come to life. I almost got the urge to become a toy collector. One cool thing was that during lunch time all the vendors got out their little tables and coffee and food and had proper French lunches right in the middle of all the mess. It was great.
I am writing a test blog post from instant messenger!! I am literally instant messenging this blog post through meebo with my imified buddy on gmail (but the buddy also exists on AIM and MSN). No pictures but hey!
I finally feel like I live here.
And I found another space invader today! It’s on the way to the first decent bakery within walking distance to where I live, which I also discovered today.
That is all.