Day 10

Today, I ventured out into the big (albeit rather chilly) city, in search of a French language course to enroll in. I had the address for one place, so I set out on my adventure for the day. Soon after I had started, someone had actually stopped to as me directions to a different street. I was surprised, and actually kind of complimented! Thankfully, an old man overheard her request & helped her, so I headed on my way and made it successfully to my target. I took a placement test, but they didn't have any openings for the level I placed in, so I'm back to the drawing board, but with several other locations to try on Monday. It wasn't a total loss, though, b/c on the way back to the metro station, I somehow overshot it, and eventually wound up staring at the signage outside of a concert venue. None other than the head Parrot himself, Jimmy Buffett, is playing tonight here in Paris! That's going to be a fun concert :)

I turned myself around, got on the metro, switched lines, and got off at the stop for one of Paris' few HUGE stores, BHV (short for Bazar de l'Hôtel de Ville, which makes sense, given that it's right across the street from, well, the Hôtel de Ville, which is like Paris' city hall). It's like someone took a Bed, Bath & Beyond, stacked a Best Buy on top of it, with a make-up section beneath that would take up an entire department store on the first floor. My description doesn't do it any justice...the place is friggin ginormous. (That's right. I maybe just made up a word.) The alarm clock I purchased yesterday needed batteries, and anywhere you go in Paris, batteries are going to be ridiculously expensive, but at least at BHV, I'd be able to get a slightly better deal than if I'd have bought just 4 for about the same price that I got 15 (I think) today. I did well to find the batteries, then wandered aimlessly around the store for what felt like an eternity, but in reality was only about 2 hours. Needless to say, I'll be going back there to explore more.

I ate a late lunch today, grabbing a bagel-sandwich from a shop in my arrondissement called Bagels & Brownies. They've got all sorts of bagel-sandwich options named after well-known American cities, though there's seemingly no relation between the city the sandwich was named after & the contents of said sandwich. (I think the Atlanta had pastrami on it...) I wound up ordering the Las Vegas- two thick layers of cream cheese, tuna salad, tomato slices & cheddar cheese. It was actually really good, and I might wind up going back there again for a different bagel-sandwich.

After my sandwich, I almost took a nap, but instead wandered the streets around the apartment a bit before picking up the kiddos from school. Before I headed out, the secretary downstairs handed me a letter from one of my church members back home. It was a sweet note, and reminded me that though I might feel alone over here, I've got so much support coming from my home church.

It was cloudy again today, and it decided to rain, but (thankfully) only while I was inside eating my sandwich. This did make the temperature drop, however, so I made sure the kids had their jackets before we went to Luxembourg Gardens again today. I think I'm finally starting to get into the swing of things (at least when it comes to the kids), and that's helping a lot. Eldest collects Pokemon cards, and today he gave me one that was in English, a gesture I didn't expect, but really appreciated. I think we're starting to get along better & figure each other out. Though, I don't know quite yet what I'm going to do when the Garden's hours change, because it'll be closed before the kids get out from school...that's going to take some serious creativity on my part. That should get interesting, to say the very least.

The mother of the family came home early today, and even made dinner, which was delicious. It was homemade pizza! One part had pesto, cherry tomatoes, & mozzarella, one part had red sauce, sliced roma tomatoes, mozzarella, & black olives, and the other part had red sauce, feta cheese, & more black olives. I used to dislike olives, but lately I've come around to them. It's been a slow process, though. And again, there was music during dinner, because someone had rented the sanctuary to hold a concert. Tonight, it was piano & a female singer. Still, very beautiful music.