Tu Vas Faire Attention!

Things that have risen in my estimation this week:
Hand sanitizer
Barack Obama (still pissed about healthcare and how centrist he is and also Afghanistan but I watched the State of the Union and it helped)
the French healthcare system
movie passes that allow you unlimited movies for cheap
my job (well, making my job enjoyable through reading Vonnegut during breaks, planning ahead, telling the kids, "tu vas faire attention" -- you are going to pay attention -- or "je m'enfiche" -- I don't care, and having more of a sense of humor about the whole thing)
Kurt Vonnegut
Jens Lekman
after-work pastries in the afternoon instead of after dinner (my, my, I am becoming so French)
ordering a cup of tea in a cafe
the tramway at Porte d'Orleans

I also capped off a ridiculous day at work during which I ran a videoconference with the British kids because neither teacher could speak the other's language with the Serge Gainsbourg biopic. It was utterly ridiculous. Pretty, for sure. But made me think Serge Gainsbourg was kind of an ass. Also, Jane Birkin's French was apparently terrible. Brigitte Bardot was also a character in it, though, and livened it up. Made me want to wear copious eyeliner and order strange men to take care of my dog while requesting croissants. She was just that ridiculous.

And here's some really good commuting on the train music:



And my pinkeye is almost all better.

13 Things

It's really late, and yet again cold and gray in Paris, and since I don't have too much time to write, the time has come to list. So, things I've discovered so far:

1. French women DO get fat. Just not morbidly obese.
2. Starbucks has taken over the world, apparently. Even in the 13th, an "up and coming" arrondissement without the same level of affluence as other parts of the city, there's a stretch of yuppie chains just a ten-minute walk from my house. One of them is Starbucks. Clearly there is no escape from them. There is also no escaping Brigitte Bardot.
3. You know you're from Seattle when having a coffee maker in your apartment makes it feel approximately 1000 more times like home.
4. French kids are adorable. They also don't understand English, so when you introduce yourself to a classroom full of 8-year-olds in English, it's best to talk about your time with them in terms of years, not months.
5. On a similar note, the cutest thing I've seen so far was a little kid in the class I met today asking the teacher, " 'Seven,' c'est sept?"
6. The Luxembourg Gardens close at 7 in the evening. This means that if you try to go there in the early evening for a walk before dinner, you should probably reconcile yourself to wandering around the Latin Quarter.
7. ...which is not nearly as fun as wandering around the Marais.
8. Even though people don't greet each other on the street, everyone in my building says bonjour/soir if they run into each other in the hallway or the courtyard. I love this. It makes me feel like even though I live in a little tiny studio in a huge city by myself, I am still living in a community.
9. ...which is largely populated by people my age, and families with babies. There is also a man who walks his chihuahua at night.
10. The Paris in "Amelie" is a fairy tale Paris, but sometimes it still feels like I live in that world.
11. Everything here is named after famous people. The schools I work at are named after Denis Diderot and Yuri Gagarin, the park next to my apartment is named after Heloise and Abelard, the footbridge over the Seine is named after Simone de Beauvoir, and just a look at a Metro map is a bit like looking at the index of a history book.
12. It's funniest when these famous people clearly aren't French. I have so far encountered two Boulevards President John F. Kennedy.
13. The 13th is where I live. The more I see it, the more I like it. Although I'm still waiting for my apartment to feel like home.

But the coffee maker is helping.