Sunday, February 15, 2009
about day six....
SO I MISSED A BIG PART OF DAY SIX: before class sami and I are having a meeting with our landlord to draw up the contract. After much confusion as to where exactly we were meeting, Samantha and I finally sit down with M. Aimard at the Grand Hotel. Which was hysterical for sami and I because we were just at that hotel a month earlier for the gala. And it was nothing but debauchery then. Pushing and shoving to get in, more shoving to check coats. Drunkenness, and when it was all said and done, a lot of passed out French kids. All over the fancy hotel reception. This time around it was nothing but class. Minus the fact that Samantha and I are carrying our very large bags with all of our clothes that we’re living off of with us. c’est la classe. In any case, we show up to the meeting and make up the contract. And then when he hands us the contract he says okay, so the money. Samantha and I look at each other. And then back at philer. (NOTE: at this point he is asking us for 9000euros, or $12,000 in cash.) We explain to him that we didn’t know we needed to get the cash. To which he replies that if we don’t have the cash, then he can’t give us the contract. He was also a bit angry at this point because we had misunderstood. In any case, we reschedule a meeting for the following night, and say goodbye. This means that Samantha and I have to come up with 12,000 dollars in one night. And day. And to top it off, it’s martin luther king jr. day in the US. So naturally, all banks are closed. Great fun for us. after calling back home and figuring some things out, I decide that I’m going to just do a money transfer. Samantha on the other hand is going to try to get cash from her relatives since he wanted it all in cash anyway. Also, the banks here don’t let you pull that much money out at one time. You need to give them a 36 hour notice before you do that. We didn’t have that kind of time. Regardless, here is where our night with the boys starts. (the other day six entry) now onto the eventful day 7…
clarification of big spoon and little spoon...
so, it came to my attention after i posted the blog, that some of you may be unaware of what big spoon and little spoon are. here is the dictionary definition according to urban dictionary:
1. big spoon little spoon
When spooning; the spooner on the outside with there back being untouched is known as the "big spoon" usually this person is bigger...The spooner on the inside with their stomach being untouched is the "little spoon" usually this person is smaller in some way.
clear? i hope so.
1. big spoon little spoon
When spooning; the spooner on the outside with there back being untouched is known as the "big spoon" usually this person is bigger...The spooner on the inside with their stomach being untouched is the "little spoon" usually this person is smaller in some way.
clear? i hope so.
day six : chez nacho.
DAY SIX: we wake up with good spirits and head off to our first day of class. This is sami’s first day of French class at all, because she didn’t have any French classes last semester. She was a bit nervous, super cute. in any case the class goes off without any issues, so we decide to celebrate by heading down to the school bar! We have a few cheap beers. Love the school bar and its cheapness. Then we get a message from our friends that says, hey, want to come get dinner with us. sami and i agree that that sounds like a brilliant idea. So we wait for them, then head off to find something to eat. And of all the places that we could go in this wonderful city, we go to macdonalds. Sami and I sit and watch the boys eat (neither of us were in the mood for macdo) and the boys and us wind up talking for about 2.5 hours. Ridiculous. All the while sitting in mcdonalds. After that, we get on the metro and sami and I mention that we need to go back to the banlieue still tonight, and one of the boys we were with throws a fit. Tells us we can’t and in his words exactly, ‘IF YOU GO HOME LIKE THIS, YOU WILL BE RAPED OR ROBBED.’ etc. etc. super sweet and cute. so sami and I, after much debate, decide to stay the night in paris at our friend’s house, Nacho. So in any case, we head back to Nacho’s to drop our stuff off, and we decide that since we’re staying in paris and we don’t have class until 130 the next afternoon we may as well go out and celebrate! Clearly. So we change clothes, and head out on the town. Making a stop at our friend Omar’s house so he can change too. After much hilarity on behalf of cultural miscommunications we were finally off to the bars. After a few drinks, it was back to nacho’s house for the big sleepover!!! Samantha, me, Nacho, and our other friend Edu. So after sitting around and hanging out for a long time, it was finally time for bed. We pulled out the couch and all settled down to sleep. Sami and I sleeping normally on the bed with edu sleeping at our feet. (see diagram below)
So, now that you understand how things were laid out in the bed, you will understand our issues better. So sami and I weren’t really tired so we were doing what any normal girls to at a sleepover, goofing off, gossiping and giggling, and edu really wanted to sleep but we weren’t letting him. But that’s besides the point. Sami and I quieted down for a bit, and then all of a sudden we hear this rustling sound. So sami and I say, ‘Edu???’ and he says, ‘yes?’ ‘are you making that noise?’ ‘what noise, this noise?’ and he rustles his feet again. So we say, ‘yes, that noise! Edu are you moving your feet?’ and he says, yes, it relaxes me. just like a 6 year old little boy. Too cute. so after a bit of time, sami and I finally decided that we couldn’t handle edu sleeping at the foot of the bed anymore. Mostly I couldn’t handle it because I couldn’t stretch out at all. So after a tickle match between sami and I versus edu we tell him that he should move and come sleep in the middle so that way we could all stretch out. After some argument we finally succeed in making him move to the middle. All was fine and dandy and off to bed we went. Until sometime in the morning, or the middle of the night when I get hit repeatedly by edu. I roll over and say ‘what?’ ‘what do you want?’ and in response I get edu fanning himself and sort of grunting, in an attempt to tell me that he’s hot and needs the covers off. Since he woke me up I was a bit grumpy so I respond with a, ‘so take your pants and sweater off.’ He does and after a quick rustle of his feet he’s back to snoring the night away.
Oh! I forgot something. Big spoon and little spoon. Samantha and I were discussing big spoon and little spoon before we went to bed. Edu, being from spain, and Spanish being his native language, did not understand that. Our friend Ignacio, who’s house we were staying at attempts to explain it in Spanish, but edu is still a bit confused, so in order to clear up exactly the difference between big spoon and little spoon, Ignacio came out of his room and his bed, and decided to demonstrate to edu (using him as little spoon) just exactly what big spoon was.
day five. dear god, i have so much to update still...
DAY FIVE: So this day was mostly a lost day for us. The party from the night before ended at 5am, per a normal ESCP party, so it was down to the metro to wait for the first train to arrive. This is where we seem to make a lot of friends. 5 or 6am while waiting for the metro. At this point sami and I are in our, ‘hey do you need a roommate?’ phase, where we keep asking everyone whether or not they need a roommate, and if they do, if they want to live with us. tonight was no exception. While waiting for the train we meet these boys named Yoann and Jean, brothers in fact, and we get to talking to them. They seem nice enough, and we talked to them for about 45 minutes while we were waiting for the train. So we ask them if they would want to live with us, to which they both then began to fight about which one of them would be able to live with us. after about 10 minutes of argument they settled on a rotating schedule of week on and week off. Meaning: one of them would live with us for the week, and the next week the other one would come. Brilliant plan at 5am I tell you, brilliant plan.
In any case, we make it back to our current home – the hotel – and ask the deskman (the nice one) what time checkout was for the following afternoon. He says noon. It is currently 630 in the morning. so in response sami and I say, ‘can we have a wake up call at 1130 please?’ he laughs, and agrees. And it’s off to bed. We get the wake up call in the morning, and start rushing to get out of the room and shower in time. Still with no idea where we’re going. We get all ready, and packed and sami and I look at each other and say, I really don’t feel good…. Wanna just get another night? Yes, yes we did. So we head downstairs, tell the front desk person, and the cleaning ladies that there’s no need to clean the room, and head back to bed. 4pm rolls around and we decide we best be getting up for the day.
Sami’s cousin calls and we decide that we should move our luggage out of sami’s old apartment and into Tanti’s (sam’s cousin) house in the banlieue (the suburbs). So we head across town to go do that. The new girls in sam’s apartment open the door and proceed to give us a death stare. Like what the hell are you doing in my house again. SCARY. In a valiant attempt at gaining brownie points with the girl I tell her I think her shoes are cute. NOTE: They were not. And she was not amused in any case, so alas, no brownie points awarded this round. So sami and I quickly packed an overnight bag for the next night in the hotel, and then started to re-organize all of our stuff to pack up and take out to VAUJOURS. The new home of our luggage until we move into the apartment on the 2nd of feb. so we drag everything down and pile it all in the entrance to sami’s old apartment. And the amount of stuff we’ve managed to accumulate is just obscene… so in any case, tanti comes, and we pile everything into the car. It was like a real live jigsaw puzzle. Hilarious trying to watch tanti drive away with everything, and just enough space in the car for her to sit in the driver’s seat. Soo funny. So off she goes, and off we go to Royal Pereire to celebrate one more step on our ridiculous journey toward apartment living. After a few beers at our favorite haunt it was back to the hotel to go to bed at a reasonable hour for our first day of classes the next day.
In any case, we make it back to our current home – the hotel – and ask the deskman (the nice one) what time checkout was for the following afternoon. He says noon. It is currently 630 in the morning. so in response sami and I say, ‘can we have a wake up call at 1130 please?’ he laughs, and agrees. And it’s off to bed. We get the wake up call in the morning, and start rushing to get out of the room and shower in time. Still with no idea where we’re going. We get all ready, and packed and sami and I look at each other and say, I really don’t feel good…. Wanna just get another night? Yes, yes we did. So we head downstairs, tell the front desk person, and the cleaning ladies that there’s no need to clean the room, and head back to bed. 4pm rolls around and we decide we best be getting up for the day.
Sami’s cousin calls and we decide that we should move our luggage out of sami’s old apartment and into Tanti’s (sam’s cousin) house in the banlieue (the suburbs). So we head across town to go do that. The new girls in sam’s apartment open the door and proceed to give us a death stare. Like what the hell are you doing in my house again. SCARY. In a valiant attempt at gaining brownie points with the girl I tell her I think her shoes are cute. NOTE: They were not. And she was not amused in any case, so alas, no brownie points awarded this round. So sami and I quickly packed an overnight bag for the next night in the hotel, and then started to re-organize all of our stuff to pack up and take out to VAUJOURS. The new home of our luggage until we move into the apartment on the 2nd of feb. so we drag everything down and pile it all in the entrance to sami’s old apartment. And the amount of stuff we’ve managed to accumulate is just obscene… so in any case, tanti comes, and we pile everything into the car. It was like a real live jigsaw puzzle. Hilarious trying to watch tanti drive away with everything, and just enough space in the car for her to sit in the driver’s seat. Soo funny. So off she goes, and off we go to Royal Pereire to celebrate one more step on our ridiculous journey toward apartment living. After a few beers at our favorite haunt it was back to the hotel to go to bed at a reasonable hour for our first day of classes the next day.
below is a photo of where vaujours actually is. it's the little yellow part. paris is the white part in the middle. it's one hour outside of paris by metro. ew.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
DAYS THREE AND FOUR.
DAY THREE: it is now Friday of our first week of adventures. And after the escapades of the night before we woke up at 430 in the afternoon. Not a time very conducive to finding an apartment… oops. Made a few appointments to see some apartments for the next day and then we decided to just sit in our beds and do nothing for a bit. So we play spider solitaire – our new obsession – and watch our new favorite TV show MOT DE PASSE.
Note: mot de passe – is a tv show exactly like password in the states. So pretty much sami and I sit and try and figure out the definitions of words based on the clues that the contestants give. More or less it’s our really nerdy way of improving our grammar in a really ridiculously fun way.
So.. we sat online, played spider solitaire and watched ‘mot de passe’ for like 3 hours. Real amazing. Then, off to where our suitcases were being stored for another round of clothing. Then off to sami and my favorite haunt, ROYAL PEREIRE, for a beer or four. Then back to the hotel, drunk, giddy, and confused about all that had already happened after only three days of Parisian life take two. More internet and French TV. After that, it was bedtime. And yes, that was our entire day.
DAY FOUR: This day we awaken with high hopes, and three apartment showing appointments. WOO HOO. After a quick shower sami and I are off to the first showing. I feel like crap the whole way there. and then on the metro I start to get even worse because of my motion sickness. So by the time we get to the first apartment I feel like just laying down on the street and curling up into a ball. But I go in anyway, where I am then overwhelmed by the smell of paint. Apparently the woman is re-doing the apartment. Anywho, its super cute and we ask the woman if she’s willing to sign an 8 month lease. She more or less laughs at us in our face and says hell no. strike one.
At that point I can’t take it anymore, so we head back to the hotel to go take a nap/vomit (me). let me just say, that was the best nap I’ve taken in ages. So after like a 4 hour nap it’s off to our next appointment. One of our showings was already rented earlier that day and the other apartment is in the 9th arrondissement (Area) in Paris. And it was amazing. Something out of an IKEA showroom. Except in a good way. It’s huge. Two couches. Dining room. Living room. CABLE. A DRYER!!!!!!! (those don’t exist really that often in france, fyi) sami and I tell the landlord that we’ll take it immediately. He says he’ll call later. Back to the hotel. I get into the bathtub, and while I’m in there I hear sami talking on the phone, and then I hear her scream…. WE GOT THE APARTMENT!!!! He picked us!!! So after a very trying first few days of homelessness in paris we finally had something to hope for. Only issue: can’t move in until the 2nd of February. Oh dear. Oh well, another problem for another day. After much yelling, screaming, and girly giggling we decided it was time to go get ready to go get dinner and go out to the school party that was going on that night. we decided to head back to visit our new friends at pizza pino. We got the pizza pino equivalent of star treatment. Free drinks and extremely attentive servers. At one point, sami dropped her chapstick and got up to look for it, and literally, I’m not kidding you, literally every single server rushed over and asked her what happened. It was as though the world was ending, and yet it was a case of a tube of dropped chapstick. Hilarious. After our joyous reception chez pizza pino we head off to meet up with one of the Americans and her finnish friends and then to head to the party. All the while in a mood of elated giddiness because of our good fortune with the apartment. And then sami lost her phone at the school party. Something always has to go wrong. Oh well, since then (it has now been nearly two weeks) sami and I have been sharing a joint phone. Along with the rest of our lives. And a towel. (to be explained in the near future…)
Note: mot de passe – is a tv show exactly like password in the states. So pretty much sami and I sit and try and figure out the definitions of words based on the clues that the contestants give. More or less it’s our really nerdy way of improving our grammar in a really ridiculously fun way.
So.. we sat online, played spider solitaire and watched ‘mot de passe’ for like 3 hours. Real amazing. Then, off to where our suitcases were being stored for another round of clothing. Then off to sami and my favorite haunt, ROYAL PEREIRE, for a beer or four. Then back to the hotel, drunk, giddy, and confused about all that had already happened after only three days of Parisian life take two. More internet and French TV. After that, it was bedtime. And yes, that was our entire day.
DAY FOUR: This day we awaken with high hopes, and three apartment showing appointments. WOO HOO. After a quick shower sami and I are off to the first showing. I feel like crap the whole way there. and then on the metro I start to get even worse because of my motion sickness. So by the time we get to the first apartment I feel like just laying down on the street and curling up into a ball. But I go in anyway, where I am then overwhelmed by the smell of paint. Apparently the woman is re-doing the apartment. Anywho, its super cute and we ask the woman if she’s willing to sign an 8 month lease. She more or less laughs at us in our face and says hell no. strike one.
At that point I can’t take it anymore, so we head back to the hotel to go take a nap/vomit (me). let me just say, that was the best nap I’ve taken in ages. So after like a 4 hour nap it’s off to our next appointment. One of our showings was already rented earlier that day and the other apartment is in the 9th arrondissement (Area) in Paris. And it was amazing. Something out of an IKEA showroom. Except in a good way. It’s huge. Two couches. Dining room. Living room. CABLE. A DRYER!!!!!!! (those don’t exist really that often in france, fyi) sami and I tell the landlord that we’ll take it immediately. He says he’ll call later. Back to the hotel. I get into the bathtub, and while I’m in there I hear sami talking on the phone, and then I hear her scream…. WE GOT THE APARTMENT!!!! He picked us!!! So after a very trying first few days of homelessness in paris we finally had something to hope for. Only issue: can’t move in until the 2nd of February. Oh dear. Oh well, another problem for another day. After much yelling, screaming, and girly giggling we decided it was time to go get ready to go get dinner and go out to the school party that was going on that night. we decided to head back to visit our new friends at pizza pino. We got the pizza pino equivalent of star treatment. Free drinks and extremely attentive servers. At one point, sami dropped her chapstick and got up to look for it, and literally, I’m not kidding you, literally every single server rushed over and asked her what happened. It was as though the world was ending, and yet it was a case of a tube of dropped chapstick. Hilarious. After our joyous reception chez pizza pino we head off to meet up with one of the Americans and her finnish friends and then to head to the party. All the while in a mood of elated giddiness because of our good fortune with the apartment. And then sami lost her phone at the school party. Something always has to go wrong. Oh well, since then (it has now been nearly two weeks) sami and I have been sharing a joint phone. Along with the rest of our lives. And a towel. (to be explained in the near future…)
the continuation. DAY TWO. (it's long...)
DAY TWO: so sami and I get up and go to school to do some stuff, and then we head off to meet the girl who needed to see our apartment.
But now this is where the story gets interesting. Sami and are sitting on the metro, talking in English. And at one point sami looks at me and says, those girls in the back of the metro are talking about us. so I’m going to look at you, and then look at them, and continue speaking in English, just to let them know that I know they’re talking about us. Anywho, that happens all the time, people talking about us that is. In any case, we’re walking through the hallways to our transfer and sam tells me what the girl looks like that was talking about us, so I turn around, take a peek at her. Awful highlights in her hair by the way. In any case, sami and I walk up to the platform to stand and wait for the train. The girl who was talking about us comes up right next to sami, way too close to be comfortable and stops and stands. So I look at sami and we sort of switch spots so that she’s on the other side of me and we move down the track a little bit. The girl follows sam. Creepy. So I look at sami again and say, hey, I’m thirsty let’s go to the vending machine and get something to drink (mostly so that we can just walk away from this crazy girl).
Well, that plan didn’t work so well, because crazy girl follows us and gets in sam’s face and starts saying (all in French no less) ‘you know me, you recognized me on the metro. You know me.’ pointing her finger in sam’s face and starting to yell at her. Sam is like, i have no idea who you are. I have never seen you before in my life. Crazy girl keeps yelling. Then she changes from saying that sam knows her to saying, ‘you stole my bag. You stole my bag. You bought that from my mother, and you stole it from me.’ (NOTE: Samantha has a real louis vuitton bag) (ALSO NOTE: what this girl is saying makes as much sense to us, as I’m sure it is making to you right now) Crazy bitch keeps yelling at us switching between everything that she’s said previous, and then throwing in a new one: ‘ you know naima’ to which sami and I keep saying, no we don’t know you, we don’t know naima. At one point I interject and get into the conversation (if you can call it that) between sami and the girl and say, no, she bought the bag in the US, not from your mother, it’s not yours. To which I get a swift reply of ‘ta geulle’ and a hand in my face, basically meaning shut your face – both with words and a hand motion to go with it.
At this point the crazy ho grabs sam’s bag by the handles. And I love little sami dearly, but she’s not the strongest person that I’ve ever come across, so I get in there and make sure that I have a hand on the bag too, so that way there’s two of us in there versus the one girl. Well the girl starts to get a big violent at this point. Trying to pull and such. So I grab her thumb on her free hand. Without a thumb, you really can’t do much. Needless to say, she gets pretty pissed at me. Tries to elbow me in the face actually. Winds up hitting her elbow on the wall. In any case, at this point we’ve gathered quite a crowd around us. No one is really helping though… finally, this nice man comes up and says ‘I’m with the RATP (the metro staff), I’ll call security and we’ll get this thing worked out.’ With that the girl calms down a bit and lets go of the bag. So I get out my phone then and call the cops. Except at this point I’m too shaken up to speak French, so this nice woman calls for me. We explain what happened to the metro guy and he listens intently. The crazy bitch says her part of the story, all the lies that is, and he listens. Then this really nice woman comes up to us and says I saw the whole thing while riding with us on the other metro car. And more or less verifies our entire story. Even says that the girl gave her purse to her friend and told her to wait above ground. obscene. At this point the girl says something to the extent of I need to go get my telephone, I need to go get my telephone, you better be here when I get back! To which sam and I respond with ‘okay’ utterly confused, and shaken up, with adrenaline pumping.
Another nice guy who apparently saw the entire thing went to go find the girl after she didn’t show up for about 5 minutes and came back just saying that it was ‘voleuse’ which means stealers in French. So sami and I wait around for the cops, who by the way, apparently don’t think its necessary to come for a simple act of theft on the metro. Alas. After waiting for about 15 minutes for both absent parties to show up, we finally head off, a little less steady, to go meet up for the apartment showing. While in the metro sami and I realize that even at one point during the whole fiasco the crazy ho checked inside the bag to make sure that it was a real ‘vuitton’ and to make sure that she wasn’t wasting her time and energy on a fake thing. Dear god. All we can say, is it makes for a great story now, and thank god it was our second semester in france and not our first, because if this had been our actual second day here ever, I have no idea what I would think of Paris then. But I still love it. Mugging and everything.
DAY TWO, PART TWO: so unfortunately our day of ridiculousness isn’t over. So after the mugging fiasco sami and I head back to our hotel to decide what to do next. Not long after we get a text message from the Texan girl that sami knows from back at home, Jennie, and she says that all the Americans are going to the Erasmus club (foreign people club) called MIX. Which happens to be right close to our hotel. So sami and I decide that there is no better thing to do after the day that we’ve had except to go out and drink and dance with random European foreigners. Wonderful. So off we go after a jolly half bottle of vodka—yes, between the two of us—yay us. we get to the club only to find out that the LAME Americans have in fact, already left. Losers. In any case, as we’re walking up to the club this nice fellow, named Vincent, comes up to us and asks if he can get in the club with him because it’s hard for boys to get in. we of course say yes, and start up a fine conversation with the young man. Turns out he’s in Paris for a ‘stage’ which means an internship, and he’s looking for a place to live. Sami and I immediately offer a room in the apartment we were thinking about getting (the first one we saw the first day we were here… the French girl didn’t want to live in that one, and we were desperate for an apartment) in any case, our new friend Victor tells us that he will let us know in a day and a half whether or not he can live with us. (he later found a place to stay with a friend) in any case, we go into the club, proceed to take numerous photos with unknown people. Dance the night away and slightly forget our sorrows for a few hours. But then it’s back to the hotel at 430 with a hunger pain rumbling in our stomach.
NOTE: the deskman who’s working the night was there the night before and treated us as though we were absolute morons, and then proceeded to tell the rest of the staff that we were in fact, morons. This is known because the next morning after sami and I stayed the first night she went down to ask a question about re-booking, IN FRENCH, and the woman when she was done talking with sami said, wow, you can actually speak really French really well. Real cool dude. Real cool.
In any case, we get back to the hotel, after taking a taxi no less, and ask the jerk deskman where we can get food near the hotel. Or just get food within a reasonable distance. His response was to laugh, and then tell us that everything was closed and there was no possible way we could get food now. So sami and I, disheartened, return to our room. While sitting we begin to think, we’re right by a train station, there HAS to be something open. So we go downstairs again, take a taxi right back where we came from – club MIX, right next to the train station GARE MONTPARNASSE – and what do we find… an open restaurant called pizza pino. It was near closing time that we got there (5am) so they made us our pizza, and then all the waiters sat down near us and started talking to us. We make new friends, and wait with them for the metro to open again (530ish). We all head downstairs and go to the metro, and once we get there sami and I realize that we both don’t have our metro cards. OH NO. well our new friends tell us that’s no issue, they have a police metro card. So we go, OKAY! Sami and I make our way back to the hotel then. Upon our arrival, the jerk deskman is still there, and sami says to him, ‘there was a restaurant open! Pizza pino!’ and then walks away. To which I then say, ‘yeah! And a lot of others too!’ and then we walk, with our heads held high, to the elevator. We sure told him.
Team AMY and SAMANTHA: 1
Team stupid desk man: 0.
In the morning we had quite a laugh over that. Oh, and the fact that about 10 minutes after that sam had to go back downstairs, shoeless because her feet hurt, to inform the deskman that we would actually be staying another night because we didn’t want to have to checkout in less than 6 hours. Yeah, we’re real cool.
But now this is where the story gets interesting. Sami and are sitting on the metro, talking in English. And at one point sami looks at me and says, those girls in the back of the metro are talking about us. so I’m going to look at you, and then look at them, and continue speaking in English, just to let them know that I know they’re talking about us. Anywho, that happens all the time, people talking about us that is. In any case, we’re walking through the hallways to our transfer and sam tells me what the girl looks like that was talking about us, so I turn around, take a peek at her. Awful highlights in her hair by the way. In any case, sami and I walk up to the platform to stand and wait for the train. The girl who was talking about us comes up right next to sami, way too close to be comfortable and stops and stands. So I look at sami and we sort of switch spots so that she’s on the other side of me and we move down the track a little bit. The girl follows sam. Creepy. So I look at sami again and say, hey, I’m thirsty let’s go to the vending machine and get something to drink (mostly so that we can just walk away from this crazy girl).
Well, that plan didn’t work so well, because crazy girl follows us and gets in sam’s face and starts saying (all in French no less) ‘you know me, you recognized me on the metro. You know me.’ pointing her finger in sam’s face and starting to yell at her. Sam is like, i have no idea who you are. I have never seen you before in my life. Crazy girl keeps yelling. Then she changes from saying that sam knows her to saying, ‘you stole my bag. You stole my bag. You bought that from my mother, and you stole it from me.’ (NOTE: Samantha has a real louis vuitton bag) (ALSO NOTE: what this girl is saying makes as much sense to us, as I’m sure it is making to you right now) Crazy bitch keeps yelling at us switching between everything that she’s said previous, and then throwing in a new one: ‘ you know naima’ to which sami and I keep saying, no we don’t know you, we don’t know naima. At one point I interject and get into the conversation (if you can call it that) between sami and the girl and say, no, she bought the bag in the US, not from your mother, it’s not yours. To which I get a swift reply of ‘ta geulle’ and a hand in my face, basically meaning shut your face – both with words and a hand motion to go with it.
At this point the crazy ho grabs sam’s bag by the handles. And I love little sami dearly, but she’s not the strongest person that I’ve ever come across, so I get in there and make sure that I have a hand on the bag too, so that way there’s two of us in there versus the one girl. Well the girl starts to get a big violent at this point. Trying to pull and such. So I grab her thumb on her free hand. Without a thumb, you really can’t do much. Needless to say, she gets pretty pissed at me. Tries to elbow me in the face actually. Winds up hitting her elbow on the wall. In any case, at this point we’ve gathered quite a crowd around us. No one is really helping though… finally, this nice man comes up and says ‘I’m with the RATP (the metro staff), I’ll call security and we’ll get this thing worked out.’ With that the girl calms down a bit and lets go of the bag. So I get out my phone then and call the cops. Except at this point I’m too shaken up to speak French, so this nice woman calls for me. We explain what happened to the metro guy and he listens intently. The crazy bitch says her part of the story, all the lies that is, and he listens. Then this really nice woman comes up to us and says I saw the whole thing while riding with us on the other metro car. And more or less verifies our entire story. Even says that the girl gave her purse to her friend and told her to wait above ground. obscene. At this point the girl says something to the extent of I need to go get my telephone, I need to go get my telephone, you better be here when I get back! To which sam and I respond with ‘okay’ utterly confused, and shaken up, with adrenaline pumping.
Another nice guy who apparently saw the entire thing went to go find the girl after she didn’t show up for about 5 minutes and came back just saying that it was ‘voleuse’ which means stealers in French. So sami and I wait around for the cops, who by the way, apparently don’t think its necessary to come for a simple act of theft on the metro. Alas. After waiting for about 15 minutes for both absent parties to show up, we finally head off, a little less steady, to go meet up for the apartment showing. While in the metro sami and I realize that even at one point during the whole fiasco the crazy ho checked inside the bag to make sure that it was a real ‘vuitton’ and to make sure that she wasn’t wasting her time and energy on a fake thing. Dear god. All we can say, is it makes for a great story now, and thank god it was our second semester in france and not our first, because if this had been our actual second day here ever, I have no idea what I would think of Paris then. But I still love it. Mugging and everything.
DAY TWO, PART TWO: so unfortunately our day of ridiculousness isn’t over. So after the mugging fiasco sami and I head back to our hotel to decide what to do next. Not long after we get a text message from the Texan girl that sami knows from back at home, Jennie, and she says that all the Americans are going to the Erasmus club (foreign people club) called MIX. Which happens to be right close to our hotel. So sami and I decide that there is no better thing to do after the day that we’ve had except to go out and drink and dance with random European foreigners. Wonderful. So off we go after a jolly half bottle of vodka—yes, between the two of us—yay us. we get to the club only to find out that the LAME Americans have in fact, already left. Losers. In any case, as we’re walking up to the club this nice fellow, named Vincent, comes up to us and asks if he can get in the club with him because it’s hard for boys to get in. we of course say yes, and start up a fine conversation with the young man. Turns out he’s in Paris for a ‘stage’ which means an internship, and he’s looking for a place to live. Sami and I immediately offer a room in the apartment we were thinking about getting (the first one we saw the first day we were here… the French girl didn’t want to live in that one, and we were desperate for an apartment) in any case, our new friend Victor tells us that he will let us know in a day and a half whether or not he can live with us. (he later found a place to stay with a friend) in any case, we go into the club, proceed to take numerous photos with unknown people. Dance the night away and slightly forget our sorrows for a few hours. But then it’s back to the hotel at 430 with a hunger pain rumbling in our stomach.
NOTE: the deskman who’s working the night was there the night before and treated us as though we were absolute morons, and then proceeded to tell the rest of the staff that we were in fact, morons. This is known because the next morning after sami and I stayed the first night she went down to ask a question about re-booking, IN FRENCH, and the woman when she was done talking with sami said, wow, you can actually speak really French really well. Real cool dude. Real cool.
In any case, we get back to the hotel, after taking a taxi no less, and ask the jerk deskman where we can get food near the hotel. Or just get food within a reasonable distance. His response was to laugh, and then tell us that everything was closed and there was no possible way we could get food now. So sami and I, disheartened, return to our room. While sitting we begin to think, we’re right by a train station, there HAS to be something open. So we go downstairs again, take a taxi right back where we came from – club MIX, right next to the train station GARE MONTPARNASSE – and what do we find… an open restaurant called pizza pino. It was near closing time that we got there (5am) so they made us our pizza, and then all the waiters sat down near us and started talking to us. We make new friends, and wait with them for the metro to open again (530ish). We all head downstairs and go to the metro, and once we get there sami and I realize that we both don’t have our metro cards. OH NO. well our new friends tell us that’s no issue, they have a police metro card. So we go, OKAY! Sami and I make our way back to the hotel then. Upon our arrival, the jerk deskman is still there, and sami says to him, ‘there was a restaurant open! Pizza pino!’ and then walks away. To which I then say, ‘yeah! And a lot of others too!’ and then we walk, with our heads held high, to the elevator. We sure told him.
Team AMY and SAMANTHA: 1
Team stupid desk man: 0.
In the morning we had quite a laugh over that. Oh, and the fact that about 10 minutes after that sam had to go back downstairs, shoeless because her feet hurt, to inform the deskman that we would actually be staying another night because we didn’t want to have to checkout in less than 6 hours. Yeah, we’re real cool.
so i suppose some clarifications are necessary...
so i suppose that some of you are thoroughly confused at this point as to what is going on with me.
here are the necessary clarifications:
1. i am not going to milan second semseter.
2. i decided to stay here in wonderful paris. i love it. why ruin a good thing?
3. i went home for christmas. and surprised everyone. not even my mama or my papa or my lindsay knew i was coming home. GRAND FUN. everyone should try it sometime.
4. i really did go to egypt and i will post a few pictures soon just to prove it. as for stories, best to just ask me in person so i can talk your ear off for the better part of two hours rather than type for the next eight in order to get them all out.
5. gros bisous = big kisses
6. do not panic for me after reading my day two post. i am alive. and functioning. and still having loads of fun despite being banished to the banlieue.
7. banlieue = parisian suburbs = horrendous = a bit ghetto
8. ghetto = http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ghetto
for further clarifications and questions, please email.
here are the necessary clarifications:
1. i am not going to milan second semseter.
2. i decided to stay here in wonderful paris. i love it. why ruin a good thing?
3. i went home for christmas. and surprised everyone. not even my mama or my papa or my lindsay knew i was coming home. GRAND FUN. everyone should try it sometime.
4. i really did go to egypt and i will post a few pictures soon just to prove it. as for stories, best to just ask me in person so i can talk your ear off for the better part of two hours rather than type for the next eight in order to get them all out.
5. gros bisous = big kisses
6. do not panic for me after reading my day two post. i am alive. and functioning. and still having loads of fun despite being banished to the banlieue.
7. banlieue = parisian suburbs = horrendous = a bit ghetto
8. ghetto = http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ghetto
for further clarifications and questions, please email.
the beginning of our first two weeks here. DAYS ONE AND ZERO.
So at this point and time I’m not even sure where to begin with this story. This story that actually takes up a week and a half of my life back here in fine EUROPA. Well so I suppose I’ll start at the beginning.
Day One: Sam and I arrive at Charles de Gaulle airport. I get in an hour before sami and wait in the airport baggage claim in some back terminal somewhere. American airlines gets some back ass terminal, clearly getting the shaft because they’re not European. OOOH I FORGOT SOMETHING.
Day ZERO: so I get on the plane from Madison to Chicago, and there’s literally no one on the plane with me. it’s about half full. Which is nice. So I’m sitting looking at my ticket and all of a sudden I realize that the transfer between my flight in Chicago is only 45 minutes. So I’m like oh no. but the flight goes on and the flight attendant woman reads off where everyone’s gate changes are and PHEW I was only just a few (or so I thought) gates away. So I get off the plane and am walking to my gate, and I see a starbucks, and immediately think, oh no, I’m going to be in Europe for a really long time (where starbucks just really isn’t as good) so I had to get one last American starbucks drink. So that was pit stop one. Then I make it almost to my gate, and decide that I best be peeing before I get on that tin can thing we like to call an airplane where you can’t even turn around in the bathrooms. In any case, I do that, and I make it to my gate finally. I literally sit down and they start boarding the plane. Not 30 seconds after I sat down. RIDICULOUS. And yet totally amazing. No waiting. When does that happen in Chicago? Yeah, that’s right, never.
Anywho, I get on the plane, and I’m one of the last ones on the flight because I’m in the section right behind first class, so we’re the last to board. I get on and see that I’m seated next to a nice lady. Except in my section of about 50 seats, there are about 12 of us. literally. Totally amazing. I got 3 whole seats to myself. Which would have been amazing had I been able to sleep at all on the airplane, but even one sleeping pill couldn’t knock me out. So I sat and listened to a fuzzy French version of Ratatouille. Ahh, the joy of airplane flying.
BACK TO DAY ONE: so sami and I reunite and have a wonderful reunion. Get her bags and then proceed out of the terminal to go find her cousin who is supposed to come pick us up. We find her and then she tells us that we need to go back to her Chinese restaurant in the suburbs of france, a terrible, horrible place called Vaujours, that sami and I will later in this blog get to know better than we ever wish we had. Enough of that nonsense though. We go back to the Chinese restaurant. Where we then wait for TANTIE (sam’s 47 year old cousin who we have endearingly named tantie) to work the lunch shift. TON-TOHN (sam’s cousin-in-law) was with us too. Later in the story you will also meet sam’s real aunt who we call grand-mère (grandmother in French).
In any case, we go back to the Chinese restaurant, and all sami and I want to do is go back to her apartment, put all our traveling stuff down and take a big ‘ol nap. But we wait for tantie to finish her lunch shift, eat some Chinese food, and do some much needed internet surfing/apartment hunting. Sami and I have some luck with apartments and actually get one woman on the phone who tells us that we can go see it later that night. So sami and I hurry our little butts up and get on the RER to go back into paris. Make it in to paris with just a little bit of time to spare. We go see this cute little apartment right in the 1st arrondissement (section of paris). Right near the big shopping center called les halles. Adorable little place. We’re immediately in love. But we have to talk to the other girl who’s gonna live with us and see what she thinks. Well, so we call her, and set up another showing. But that’s another day. This day continues by us going back to sam’s old apartment. (note: we’re under the impression that we’re going to be staying in this apartment until we find a new apartment) We’re walking up on the sidewalk and of all people who do we run into? Sam’s old landlord, who proceeds to tell us we need to give him the set of keys that we had and that we should be getting our bags out soon. To which sami and I respond with, oh no. So much for that plan. So sami and I go into the apartment and quickly pack a bag with her landlord PIERRE watching our every move. Scary I tell you. So sami and I leave with a small bag packed, and no place to go, and no idea what to do. So to solve issues we go to McDonalds to use their free Wifi. Off we go.
(see photos below for our feelings on our situation...starting with hope and fading to despair)
At MacDo we buy two beers and proceed to search hostelworld.com to find a place to stay. We find this nice hotel, only issue is that it’s all the way at the end of line 12 waaaay down south in paris. Literally not near anything, to the point that it takes 45 minutes just to get to school. so awful. But that’s all done for day one, we went to the hotel and went to bed.
Day One: Sam and I arrive at Charles de Gaulle airport. I get in an hour before sami and wait in the airport baggage claim in some back terminal somewhere. American airlines gets some back ass terminal, clearly getting the shaft because they’re not European. OOOH I FORGOT SOMETHING.
Day ZERO: so I get on the plane from Madison to Chicago, and there’s literally no one on the plane with me. it’s about half full. Which is nice. So I’m sitting looking at my ticket and all of a sudden I realize that the transfer between my flight in Chicago is only 45 minutes. So I’m like oh no. but the flight goes on and the flight attendant woman reads off where everyone’s gate changes are and PHEW I was only just a few (or so I thought) gates away. So I get off the plane and am walking to my gate, and I see a starbucks, and immediately think, oh no, I’m going to be in Europe for a really long time (where starbucks just really isn’t as good) so I had to get one last American starbucks drink. So that was pit stop one. Then I make it almost to my gate, and decide that I best be peeing before I get on that tin can thing we like to call an airplane where you can’t even turn around in the bathrooms. In any case, I do that, and I make it to my gate finally. I literally sit down and they start boarding the plane. Not 30 seconds after I sat down. RIDICULOUS. And yet totally amazing. No waiting. When does that happen in Chicago? Yeah, that’s right, never.
Anywho, I get on the plane, and I’m one of the last ones on the flight because I’m in the section right behind first class, so we’re the last to board. I get on and see that I’m seated next to a nice lady. Except in my section of about 50 seats, there are about 12 of us. literally. Totally amazing. I got 3 whole seats to myself. Which would have been amazing had I been able to sleep at all on the airplane, but even one sleeping pill couldn’t knock me out. So I sat and listened to a fuzzy French version of Ratatouille. Ahh, the joy of airplane flying.
BACK TO DAY ONE: so sami and I reunite and have a wonderful reunion. Get her bags and then proceed out of the terminal to go find her cousin who is supposed to come pick us up. We find her and then she tells us that we need to go back to her Chinese restaurant in the suburbs of france, a terrible, horrible place called Vaujours, that sami and I will later in this blog get to know better than we ever wish we had. Enough of that nonsense though. We go back to the Chinese restaurant. Where we then wait for TANTIE (sam’s 47 year old cousin who we have endearingly named tantie) to work the lunch shift. TON-TOHN (sam’s cousin-in-law) was with us too. Later in the story you will also meet sam’s real aunt who we call grand-mère (grandmother in French).
In any case, we go back to the Chinese restaurant, and all sami and I want to do is go back to her apartment, put all our traveling stuff down and take a big ‘ol nap. But we wait for tantie to finish her lunch shift, eat some Chinese food, and do some much needed internet surfing/apartment hunting. Sami and I have some luck with apartments and actually get one woman on the phone who tells us that we can go see it later that night. So sami and I hurry our little butts up and get on the RER to go back into paris. Make it in to paris with just a little bit of time to spare. We go see this cute little apartment right in the 1st arrondissement (section of paris). Right near the big shopping center called les halles. Adorable little place. We’re immediately in love. But we have to talk to the other girl who’s gonna live with us and see what she thinks. Well, so we call her, and set up another showing. But that’s another day. This day continues by us going back to sam’s old apartment. (note: we’re under the impression that we’re going to be staying in this apartment until we find a new apartment) We’re walking up on the sidewalk and of all people who do we run into? Sam’s old landlord, who proceeds to tell us we need to give him the set of keys that we had and that we should be getting our bags out soon. To which sami and I respond with, oh no. So much for that plan. So sami and I go into the apartment and quickly pack a bag with her landlord PIERRE watching our every move. Scary I tell you. So sami and I leave with a small bag packed, and no place to go, and no idea what to do. So to solve issues we go to McDonalds to use their free Wifi. Off we go.
(see photos below for our feelings on our situation...starting with hope and fading to despair)
At MacDo we buy two beers and proceed to search hostelworld.com to find a place to stay. We find this nice hotel, only issue is that it’s all the way at the end of line 12 waaaay down south in paris. Literally not near anything, to the point that it takes 45 minutes just to get to school. so awful. But that’s all done for day one, we went to the hotel and went to bed.
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