Nutella

Day 2 in Paris

Don't judge me but it's 4am in Paris and I can't sleep. So, instead, I am eating nutella on brioche while talking to people on Gchat in the States.

Vittel and Nutella, the only things I'm running on. I'm glad Beemo is able to sleep though...

First Day in Paris

Day 1 in Paris

Arrived in Paris at around noon today. Surprisingly, I was able to sleep on the plane for about 3 hours, which is something I never do. Since I was relatively rested, I was able to get started right away trying to rebuild my French life. I'm staying in a temporary place right now, a room rented via AirBnB. With any luck, I'll be in more permanent housing by the end of the week. But for today:

Step 1: French Outlet Adapter - Took the Metro to Hotel de Ville so I could go to BHV (which sells literally everything ever), and buy a cheap outlet adapter for my laptop. I recently got a new laptop and didn't realize that the plug had a grounder which made it not fit into the one adapter I've had since 2005. So, now I have two.

Step 2: French Phone - Went to Orange to get a pre-paid SIM card for my iPhone. I've decided to forgo having 3G and internet on my phone since WiFi is now pretty much everywhere. Also, I'm living the broke grad student life, so it's only fitting.

Step 3: French Sandwich Get - Walked to the Maison Kayser in the 5eme to get a sandwich mixte, which is just a half baguette, butter, emmental cheese, and ham.

Step 4: Groceries - Stopped off at the Franprix attached to the apartment building. It's funny how all the Franprix in Paris all smell the same: a mix of packaged cheese and cheap laundry detergent.

So considering I did all this on 3 hours of sleep, I'm going to call it a successful first day. But more importantly, walking around Paris today was a bit strange. Paris never changes (plus ça change...). There are the same smells (aside from the Franprix, other smells include: the strange rubbery smell of the Ligne 1, the stale moldy--yet not wholly repugnant--smell of every Metro station, the smell of rotating meats at the Maison de Gyro); the same sights; the same stores. At some points today I was able to close my eyes and feel like I had never left.

The Farewell Tour

T-2 days until Paris

A lot has happened since my last update. I packed, I all but officially secured housing (more on that in a bit), and I have been trying to see as many people stateside as possible before I go. I've also been eating as much American food as I can.

Pies n' Thighs on Wednesday. Then up to Boston for a long weekend for a grill out, eggy brunches, and some North End Italian. Then, Sunday barbecue dinner (see pic) and diner coffee.

But more important than the food has been the company. I have the extreme good fortune to have an incredible array of amazing friends that I'm sure I don't deserve. Saying goodbye has been hard, so I'm pushing hard for everyone to come visit.

But more about this apartment. It's in the 19ème arrondissement with a roommate who seems awesome and I just found out the landlord is a graduate of the same university I'm going to. Once i get to Paris, I have to visit in person and get all my documents in order, but it should work out. For now though, I've arranged a room for myself on AirBnB near the apartment just in case.

Fingers crossed!

Packing

T-10 days until Paris

With close to one week left until Paris, I've been busy trying to get things together. This means mainly one thing: Packing, which also means humoring my OCD tendencies. For example:

Yes, yes. All the things.

This was for a two-week trip to California. And keep in mind, before I actually start laying things out to pack them, I've probably been thinking about what to bring for weeks. Needless to say, I've had a packing list for Paris for about two months now. But when I say I think (obsess) about what I'm going to park, I actually mean I'm thinking about what I can get away with not bringing.

Why? This quirk--like many other things, as you'll learn--comes from the last time I lived Paris. When, as a 20-year old young adult with still questionable life skills, I didn't think at all about packing or preparing to move all my stuff, including 10 months worth of accumulated things, back to the States. So imagine my surprise when I got to the Air France counter and told that my bags were so overweight that they were over the limit for overweight bags. In other words, there was no amount of money I could have paid for them to take my luggage. I was forced to part with 12 kgs of my belongings there and then at the counter.

I love my things. I'm not ashamed to admit it. So having to Sophie's Choice my things (French things!) was particularly traumatic, especially since so much of what I had to leave ended up being books (French books!). Hundreds of euros in books, abandoned right there on the Air France counter. My eyes still water at the thought of it.

So, I'm trimming down my things. Less is more. My Europe life will fit into one rolling luggage, one carry-on duffel, and a backpack.

My Running List of Things I Will Miss About New York (and to a lesser extent, the United States)

T-13 days until Paris

If you had asked me a month ago what I would miss about New York during my stint abroad, I would have come up with shockingly few items. I was feeling burned out from the City, always going to the same places to eat, same bars, same crowds, same parties. But with the big day getting closer, I remember that the last time I lived in Paris, I started to hate it too by the end of my stay. A very recent two-week trip to California, while exceedingly pleasant, also forced me to think about what I will be missing about my hometown.

So, here it is the first installment of things I (Will) Miss About New York/USA. Unsurprisingly, they're nearly all about food.

1. Ice: America is the land of freedom and ice cubes. Ask for glaçons with your water or soda in Paris and you will get two, maybe three, ice cubes. And we're talking about sad tray-made ice cubes, not like those industrial cylindrical beauties with the hollow centers, or the amazing gravel-sized pellets like at Sonic (which we don't even get in New York), or even the standard hotel ice machine-sized briquettes. You can cool a .33L cannette of Coca-Light as much as you want, but it will still be lukewarm in 5 minutes. 
2. Real Chinese Food: Or, not even "real" Chinese food. Paris doesn't even have decent fake Chinese food. Paris has terrific pho. It has decent Japanese and even some Korean places. And, believe me, its not for a lack of trying that I don't know of any decent places. Most of the saddest meals I've ever had in Paris involved me trying to sate my craving with some reheated poulet au miel (aka sesame chicken without the sesame) at the traiteur chinois around the corner for my apartment. I would sell my first-born for Xi'an Famous Foods or Prosperity Dumpling to come to Paris.
3. Mexican Food: New York Mexican food isn't even that good I'm told. Of course, it's the Californians (and the odd Texan or two) who tell me this. But it does more than just fine for me. And in comparison, Paris got their first real taqueria in 2011. While I was there from 2006 to 2007, we either had to settle for unbelievably bad "Tex-Mex," or try to approximate it from scratch at home. Have you ever tried finding an avocado in Paris? It's not the easiest task, especially on a student budget. Also, we found out that canned guacamole is really gross and, strangely, not even that green. 
4. Comfort Food/BBQ/Southern Food: This is my own fault. Far too many trips to Fette Sau, Hill Country BBQ, Hill Country Chicken, Pies n' Thighs. Heck, even to Dallas BBQ. I have no shame. 
5. Bars: This sounds ridiculous, but I will miss terrible dives like the Levee. I'll miss No Name. I already miss Darkroom. With time, and if things are particularly sad, I may end up missing Lit Lounge. I know I'll miss $5 beer and shot combos when I'm laying out 10 euros for a mojito that I don't even like/want. Also, do they play Cut Copy, Passion Pit, Holy Ghost!, etc. at bars in Paris? M83? I mean, he's French, they have to, no? God, I hope they do. It can't all be Pitbull collaborations with David Guetta.

I don't want to dwell on these things, so I'll stop there. Also as a grad student I realize that my priorities should lie elsewhere and not with nightlife and mac n' cheese (as it does now, clearly).

And that is not to say I'm dreading Paris. I love Paris. I fit in in Paris. I understand Paris. It has great things going for it: cafes and bistrots; good affordable wine everywhere; Nuit Blanche; Fête de la Musique; 1 euro baguettes; Chocolate Hazelnut Muesli; incomparable culture and art; a functioning and expanding public transit system (ahem, not the MTA), etc. I just wish I could get some decent dumplings and some ice cubes in between all that when I'm feeling homesick.  

The Quest for Housing; or, There is a 75% Chance I Will Be Homeless in Paris

T-14 days until Paris

I've been told I'm a decent roommate. I don't nag. I'm not disgusting. I don't bring home people of questionable provenance/nature/hygiene. I clean regularly, and always when prompted to. I cook and bake. And pretty darn well I should say. I always pay rent and utilities on time.

Needless to say, my utter lack of success in securing any kind of viable living situation has been a deflating experience. I understand that I'm not in Paris, and that fact makes things exponentially more difficult. It makes people less trusting of me as a candidate. It makes anyone else on the same continent more attractive as a potential roommate/renter than me. Needless to say, this has done nothing for my fear of rejection.

Since I've left my job a month ago, looking for housing has been the only thing I would comfortably call a responsibility in my life. I go about it seriously. I get up at 9:00 a.m. and get set to work. I spend hours reviewing housing message boards, searching roommate network sites, and contacting friends of friends of friends. I've written hundreds of emails and gotten perhaps ten responses. Out of these responses, I've gotten only two that were even willing to talk to me via Skype. And today, one of those two cancelled our call and informed me the spot had been filled. Womp.

It's unnerving to me that I've had more success in getting a job interview/offer than I've had getting people agree to talk to me about me possibly spending my money to live with them/rent their apartment. I have so many things to worry about when I get there, setting up my cell phone, opening a bank account, completing my registration, finalizing loans, etc. that I was really hoping to have this part of my stay settled. Ultimately though, I know it is not a huge deal. But I find that I have to keep telling myself that I will go to Paris no matter what, and hopefully I will be able to crash on a couch or two while I look for something in person.

Greetings

Hello,

If you are reading this, then you must already know me--or at the very least--have been cyberstalking me cursorily, and as such any sort of formal introduction I need to make is redundant.

For those of you who don't know, I am moving to Paris for a year to start a dual degree masters program at Sciences Po. The other half of that dual degree will be at the London School of Economics. In other words, in 12 months, after having acclimated to Paris again, I'll be traumatizing myself all over by moving to yet another different country. So, you should probably stay tuned. Make some popcorn, tell all your friends, and watch me inevitably shorten my lifespan with anxiety, stress, and what I'm sure ill be a thousand-fold increase in my baguette-based carb intake.

Andrew