May 4th Sunday

Another late night meant another late start. I got up at 2:00pm again and had some fruit cereal with milk. I watched X-Men cartoons until Adrienne received a call from our landlord M. Choupin.

I very quickly got dressed and cleaned up around the apartment. M. Choupin came over shortly after. We paid him our rent for May and discussed our housing situation with him. We told him that we were thinking of moving into another place and that we’d started looking for one. We asked if he would be okay with us staying until the end of June. He gave us the same old line. He told us that we needed to work it out with Karuna. He didn’t care how long we were here as long as it suited us (and by “us” he mostly meant Karuna). The discussion was very frustrating. We tried to talk to him about finding a new place and he treated us with condescending remarks. He told us that we couldn’t just wait for a new apartment to fall into our laps. I told him about all the research we’d done so far on the apartments. He treated us like we had no idea how to look for an apartment. I was getting sick of what he considered advice.

He left us and Adrienne and I felt like blowing off steam by walking. We walked north across the Seine into the Tuileries. We’d brought some old bread and fed the ducks. It was fun imagining that one of them could have been the one that I’d saved. After feeding the ducks, we walked around for a bit. We ended up walking out the exit that opens onto Place de la Concorde. There was a stand selling food there. I was hungry so I decided to buy myself some lunch there. I bought a hot dog. This is different from the hot dogs we Americans know and love. It was a foot long hot dog in a baguette with melted cheese on top. The baguette gives it that extra French touch. I had that for lunch as Adrienne and I walked back to the apartment.

It was sunny and hot out so I was hot and thirsty by the time we got home. I had to chug some water. I spent some time on my computer for a while. Today was Sunday so I was hoping that there would be trivia night at the Thistle. I got ready and took the metro to Etienne Marcel. I was a few minutes late and found Casey waiting for me outside the bar. None of the other Euromasters had shown up and the trivia had already started. I hadn’t eaten so Casey and I decided to go grab some dinner in the area.

We walked a few blocks and ended up in a restaurant called Le Pêcheur (the fisher). I had a very tasty salad with ham, tomato, and toast with hot goat cheese and honey on it. I had a glass of Muscadet wine with it. It was an interesting café. It had a very French café feel to it. It was dimly lit and decorated with random fishing items. Its clientele was mostly a few older men. They had a soccer game playing. It was between Marseilles and Bordeaux. The men there were really into it. I had a feeling that this game was one of the reasons that some of the people hadn’t come to trivia. Marseilles ended up winning against Bordeaux.

Casey and I had a pleasant enough dinner and then set off to head home. She took the metro back to her place and I took the metro back to mine. When I got home I wrote a postcard to Cari in French for her class. Here is what I wrote:

J’espère que tu vas bien. Moi, je vais très bien. Maintenant, je suis chez moi. Mon appartement est à côté du Musée d’Orsay. C’est dans le 7eme arrondissement.

Ce dessin est du Pont-Neuf. J’ai appris que le Pont Neuf est le plus vieux à Paris. C’est ironique parce que « pont-Neuf » veut dire « Pont nouveau »

Demain est ton anniversaire. Joyeux anniversaire ! Je vais célébrer avec des tacos et fajitas. Cette année, mon anniversaire est le 08/08/08 ! Tu as eu un anniversaire pareil le 05/05/05. Je veux avoir une grande fête chez moi. Qu’est-ce que tu vas faire pour ton anniversaire ?

Mes cours vont bien. Nous ne faisons pas beaucoup en ce moment. A la fin du mois les cours deviennent plus durs. Je dois bientôt commencer mes dossiers finaux.

Mais maintenant, il est mai à Paris. Il y a du soleil. Les fleurs sont arrivées. Il est très joli. Je vais m’en profiter. J’espère que tu vas bien. Dis-moi tes nouvelles.
Bisous de ta cousine,
Casey

After I finished writing it, I put it in the mail. It was on one of the pretty postcards that are pre-stamped for the US. I talked to my parents on Skype after that for a while and then talked to Tom on Skype as well. I went to bed around 3:30am.