Day 13- 1/21

I really didn't want to get up this morning. I got up and all nice and ready and actually sort of dressed up because I decided I wanted to look more French today. I got all the way to the university, went to where I thought my german class was, and the door was locked and there was no noise coming from inside. This is the part where I remember that there's only CFLE classes this week. Crap. But this was a good opportunity to go see Sylvie. It turns out Sylvie wasn't there, but her husband was. I actually needed some help because my cell phone hasn't been functioning correctly. It's a touch screen and although I can press the side buttons and make it light up, it does nothing when I touch the screen. it's like it quit sensing when it's being touched. I went to the Orange store the other day to ask them what to do and they basically gave me a help line number that I needed to call from a landline, so I asked Leo and he talked to them and explained the problem for me, for which I was very grateful because while I think I maybe could have managed talking to them myself, I also ran the risk of not understanding and not being understood. And this is kinda important. Like everything else, getting a new phone is unnecessarily complicated. I can't just go to the Orange store, show them the phone doesn't work and my receipt, and get a new one. I had to make an appointment so that someone from Orange comes out to where I live to pick up the old phone and give me a new one. This is a tiny problem because I'm pretty sure I'll be at the fac when they come, so I left my phone with the concierge (as Leo said they said I could do). They made me write a note saying that they could accept it and if anything happened to it they weren't responsible. While I was there I told them I still needed a femme de menage to come and inspect my room for me. But mumble mouth was there and came with me to my room to do it for me. He's getting slightly easier to understand, but I know I will never ever understand him perfectly. I went downstairs afterwards for lunch. I'm still out of the loop as to when exactly meal times are around here, and there was no one in the cafeteria but they told me there was a pizza place upstairs that I could eat at. There wasn't anyone there either, and they didn't have pizza at the time so I had a kabab and fries. Now I'm just chilling out in my room and trying to get caught up on photo unloads. I might go out tonight with some of the girls, but I don't know yet.


I should take the time to describe where I live now. I live in Roche d'Argent, which is a "Residence Universitaire" or university residence. It's only 2 bus stops from downtown, which is really nice, and about 15 minutes on the bus to the university. I live on the third floor, which is a 6 flight of stairs climb, but thats ok. It's warmer up here. And the view is awesome.


As you'll see in the pictures, I have a big long desk, a twin size bed with huge drawers underneath, a ton of shelf space, a good sized closet and window, and my own bathroom, which is teeny tiny, no bigger than a train bathroom, but it's my own bathroom and I'm glad to have one. There's a nice kitchen on every floor and I have my own little space in a refrigerator that I lock with a padlock. For laundry I have to go down this really old castle-like corridor. I actually have to go through one end of it to take another door to go upstairs to the main lobby, and at night it's really dark and scary. I think I said this before, but I live near Cathedrale Saint-Pierre (construction begun in 1162) and Baptistère Saint-Jean (construction begun in 360... yes, 360 years after Jesus). I think I also live next to a museum of some sort. I should visit it sometime.

more pictures here