Salut tout le monde,
So I cut my distribution list down to you guys. Knocked out the old professors and distant fraternity relations. You're either somebody I really care about or somebody who I really want to visit me. Either way, clearly I like you. That said, if you're not interested in this kind of an email, I won't be offended if you want off the list. I'll probably send these little trinkets every month or so.
Anyway, I made it to Paris! Now, a day later, I've gone so far as to make it to work! Here's a super-quick overview of my first workday in Paris:
- Didn't get in until 9.45 because the Metro was down. I still beat everyone else in the office in except the receptionist. No kidding. 10.15 before the next exec showed.
- I spent about 2 hours looking through the 900 cords in my office (Mine! I have my own office! With a window and high ceiling and closet full of computer cables!) for the single cord that would make the internet work. At 5 am Houston time, I called IT who told me just to go steal one from the conference room. Whatever. Now I have a computer.
- Went out for lunch with 4 colleagues (a "Bienvenue Lunch") (it means somebody else was paying) The highlight was Jean-Michel's "babar" (sp?) which was his dessert. The waitress brought him this nice-looking pastry and, i kid you not, a bottle of rum from which he could take as much as he wanted. This would never fly in the States. Now, I have a bartending license. I learned a little trick so that by repeating the unforgettable chorus to Ludacris's timeless classic "Move Bitch, Get Out the Way," I can pour more or less a perfect shot without measuring. Jean-Michel poured 3. 3. Then went back to work. I have a new hero.
- Worked until almost 8 pm because there's a War Conference in London tomorrow and people in 3 cities were asking me for stuff. Then I walked home since I'd been inside all day. Took a couple pictures of the Louvre, Invalides, l'hotel de Ville, and Notre Dame since they are ON MY WAY HOME.
- I needed tissue so I figured I'd go for a short run and stop by the convenience store on my island on the way back. I'm still recovering from a cold, so I thought I'd just run the perimeter of the two islands and call it a night. And then at the point of Isle de la Cite, I saw the top of the Eiffel Tower glittering. (Whitney, it still glitters every half-hour at night! Hooray!) Since I hadn't actually laid eyes on the thing since I got here, I thought I'd run a few extra blocks south to try to get a look at it. Naturally, I got wonderfully lost.
- At the end of my much longer run, I found my convenience store and thought I'd buy a bottle of red wine to knock myself out tonight, rather than take a sleeping pill. (No offense, Mum.) I learned that a) soy sauce is ridiculously expensive. Two really small bottles of soy sauce cost more than my bottle of (decent) wine, b) I still don't remember how to say "bottle-opener" in French, and c) despite the fact that half of the store was wine, there were 3 kinds of smoked salmon, 80 kinds of pasta and 16,000 kinds of cheese (this store was MADE for you and me Jonathan), AND one could purchase the complete, unabridged Proust from a special shelf in the back... convenience stores in France do not sell tissue.
Love, snuffles and red wine,
Lucy/Lark/Alouette
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