Sans domicile fixe

           Since Sunday there have been lots of positives, but there is one big, nasty negative hovering over my head and it is housing. Trying to find an affordable place to live in or around Paris is absolutely terrible. For the record, Clare Longendyke is an angel. Since my arrival, she has let me have her room to myself, only coming in to grab stuff or practice piano. Being here at first is kind of like being a baby, I don’t know how to do anything. Clare graciously stepped into the role of mom until I could get my own food and phone and so forth. She has been above and beyond hospitable in every way she can be and I hope that karma pays her back in full.

            Anyways, I’m trying to get out of there before I exhaust her. I’ve cast out a million lines and none of them have come back with anything. I toured an apartment yesterday that claimed to be a legendary artist commune. It was really un-inspiring. They had built most of the rooms themselves and hadn’t done outlets in them so it was really dark. The space was for 10 people and they had one toilet. And I was almost willing to make all of those compromises, we were actually talking rent until they got into the house rules and said that they didn’t allow any visitors. I asked if that meant overnight guests and they said, no, anyone. No one is ever allowed to come in to the apartment ever, even during the day, even for a minute. That’s where they lost me. Just a little too weird. And not the good kind of weird.

            So, I’ve been calling and calling all over the place (slowly getting over my fear of phone conversations in French, which is a definite plus). I am learning that “open until 17h” in France means “open until we don’t want to be here anymore,” which could very well be 15h30.

I know that everything will work itself out eventually, I just wish it would hurry up and do it already.

            Outside of all of that chaos,  I’ve been able to make some progress establishing my French life. I set up a French cell phone and got my Paris metro pass. Both are awesome, but the metro pass might be the best part. I feel like I can go anywhere at anytime and it ain’t no thang.

           I went down to Guyancourt yesterday. It’s about an hour out of Paris and I had to take the same train the tourists take to get down to the Versailles Chateau. It was pretty fun. After a minute, I realized that the older couple across from me were Spanish. They were discussing where the Asian people across from us were from and decided on Japanese. It was quite the people watching experience.

            When I got to the school, the guard was really friendly and so was everyone in the office. Turns out that no one had ever told them that they were going to get an English language assistant. They knew about the Italian, Spanish and German ones, but no one had ever warned them of me. They had no paperwork or anything,  but they weren’t worried about it. The teacher that will be my mentor had already left for the day (it was 13h30…), but they introduced me to some of the other members of the English teaching staff and we talked about housing options. They said they think the rest of the assistants are living at a nearby high school, so with any luck I’ll be able to join them.             
           So, some things are looking hopeful. I knew this would all be challenging, but I’m hoping that I can get through most of the administrative/logistical challenges and start digging into the language and social challenges. Keep your fingers crossed for me! Or if you know of any place I can live in Paris, let me know…