I can’t even begin to describe the feelings I have about looking for an apartment in Paris…In a matter of a few days a few things have happened…

One: I have learned more about the north of Paris in two weeks of apartment searching there than I have in the past year and a half. Constantly looking at maps. Memorizing street names. Remembering what the different quartiers are like…it’s incredibly educational…I love the north of the city. I love it’s diversity. I love the people and the feel. I am glad that we are being beckoned to go there. It will be interesting to see where we end up…

Two: My french has taken major steps…phone call after phone call of speaking french…I could say my phone number in french in my sleep now. I am understanding most of what people say too…except when I get an impatient person that wants to talk as fast as they can even when they know I’m not understanding (that happened today and I was not pleased). I am learning to embrace the fact that I am going to look and feel dumb most of the time and it’s really a great opportunity to not take myself too seriously.

Three: I have seen the ugly side of apartment hunting in Paris…yesterday we went to look at a place (and it was perfect) and there were two other young couples there…both French. They were all acting sneaky with each other…trying to be the first person to give the woman a check…trying to not the other people know what they were doing. That seems ok in poker, but this an apartment. And on top of that they were doing their best to pretend that the rest of us weren’t there. But that’s what the game of apartment searching is…pretending. The basic goal is: Be the first there and have the most money. Be aggressive and outdo everyone else. Pretend that you have ‘it’ more together than everyone else. We’ve started participating in this game…we’re dressing up for appointments! I wear nice pants and a nice shirt about two or three times a year…but I’ve worn good clothes two days in a row…even shaved! Seeing as we are playing in a game whether we like it or not forces us to play by some of the rules…but we’re disobeying the whole being disrespectful part! We’re really hoping that we won’t be homeless in two weeks…

All in all I’d say that I’m optimistic about finding a place. We’ve had days where we saw a few great places and were excited about it…despite the odds being against us! We’ve had other days where we’ve spent hours traveling all over the north to look at a bunch of overpriced, strange, and obscure apartments…those are the hard days. Where we wonder if we’re ever going to see something that we feel is ‘us’. We’ll see what happens…I’m really looking forward to the day (hopefully very soon) that I can post pics of our new place! Later for now.