Week 4: Paris
Jun. 11th, 2017 07:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
indigo_rose99So I'm in Paris. Well, just outside Paris proper, they tell me. The view out my hotel window is fantastic. My room overlooks the Seine (the river).
My flight landed on Saturday at about 8pm local time. I caught a taxi to the hotel, unpacked, attempted to shower (couldn't figure out how to make it a shower instead of a bath), called T, and fell asleep. With the help of the lovely melatonin, I slept for a glorious ELEVEN HOURS. It has been a long long... four weeks? Yeah, four weeks. I think I got to perhaps sleep in one morning in late May... but beyond that it has been nose to the grindstone. Yay, sleep! Yay restful sleep! I love sleep!
So my aspirations of "Seeing Paris" today may be in vain.
This morning at about 11am I set off to find a grocery store. Google maps said the closest is an 8 minute walk away. I optimistically set out with my Google Fi gps turned on... and promptly got lost. When you walk at my speed, the GPS isn't exactly sure which direction you are headed in. Combine that with many tall buildings.... and the best I could do is vaguely move in the direction toward the grocery store... Nope. I'm moving away again. Go the other direction. Nope... wrong again. Argh! A stranger who spoke zero English stopped to help. I showed him my destination on the phone. He pointed and said a lot of things in French. I set off in the direction he pointed. Two turns later, I was thinking I was doing pretty well... And a car was honking. There are only 3 cars on the street! ...."Madame! Madame!" Oh, no, what have I done now?! It is the same guy, but now driving. Evidently I was headed briskly in the wrong direction. He pointed some more and made more hand gestures to go with his long speech in French. I thanked him as best I could and headed out in the recommended direction. Which turned out well, because the red dot seemed to be getting closer and closer.... Yep, I found it. Respectably sized grocery store (about the size of four 7-lls). Yay, food! I bought a crazy lunch of sushi, a chocolate croisant, and an apricot pie. Yay, food! And breakfast for the rest of the week. Plus possibly lunch for at least one day. The entire experience took me over an hour (yes for an 8 minute one-way walk). Nothing is simple here.
I also stopped in at the front desk. Seriously, last night I fondled that damn shower like I was the friendliest lover. I twisted, pulled and pushed EVERYTHING. And I mean EVERYTHING. No water from the shower head. And it turns out that my body is no longer happy about attempting to wash my hair under the faucet of a bathtub. *sigh* When I was 12 it wasn't a problem. But now? Ouch. So today I stopped at the hotel front desk and asked the nice person there how to turn on the shower head. It turns out that it is a 2-fer. I have to push and turn 2 things TOGETHER to get water. In theory. I haven't tested this theory yet. I'm optimistic. Though I suspect I won't actually stalk naked and wet downstairs to demand that they fix it for me, much as the mental image amuses me.
So now I get to venture out again... This time to find my work. And time how long it takes me to get there. Wish me luck. Perhaps I'll make it back by dinner time (in 3 hours). Google maps says it should take me 23 minutes each way.
My flight landed on Saturday at about 8pm local time. I caught a taxi to the hotel, unpacked, attempted to shower (couldn't figure out how to make it a shower instead of a bath), called T, and fell asleep. With the help of the lovely melatonin, I slept for a glorious ELEVEN HOURS. It has been a long long... four weeks? Yeah, four weeks. I think I got to perhaps sleep in one morning in late May... but beyond that it has been nose to the grindstone. Yay, sleep! Yay restful sleep! I love sleep!
So my aspirations of "Seeing Paris" today may be in vain.
This morning at about 11am I set off to find a grocery store. Google maps said the closest is an 8 minute walk away. I optimistically set out with my Google Fi gps turned on... and promptly got lost. When you walk at my speed, the GPS isn't exactly sure which direction you are headed in. Combine that with many tall buildings.... and the best I could do is vaguely move in the direction toward the grocery store... Nope. I'm moving away again. Go the other direction. Nope... wrong again. Argh! A stranger who spoke zero English stopped to help. I showed him my destination on the phone. He pointed and said a lot of things in French. I set off in the direction he pointed. Two turns later, I was thinking I was doing pretty well... And a car was honking. There are only 3 cars on the street! ...."Madame! Madame!" Oh, no, what have I done now?! It is the same guy, but now driving. Evidently I was headed briskly in the wrong direction. He pointed some more and made more hand gestures to go with his long speech in French. I thanked him as best I could and headed out in the recommended direction. Which turned out well, because the red dot seemed to be getting closer and closer.... Yep, I found it. Respectably sized grocery store (about the size of four 7-lls). Yay, food! I bought a crazy lunch of sushi, a chocolate croisant, and an apricot pie. Yay, food! And breakfast for the rest of the week. Plus possibly lunch for at least one day. The entire experience took me over an hour (yes for an 8 minute one-way walk). Nothing is simple here.
I also stopped in at the front desk. Seriously, last night I fondled that damn shower like I was the friendliest lover. I twisted, pulled and pushed EVERYTHING. And I mean EVERYTHING. No water from the shower head. And it turns out that my body is no longer happy about attempting to wash my hair under the faucet of a bathtub. *sigh* When I was 12 it wasn't a problem. But now? Ouch. So today I stopped at the hotel front desk and asked the nice person there how to turn on the shower head. It turns out that it is a 2-fer. I have to push and turn 2 things TOGETHER to get water. In theory. I haven't tested this theory yet. I'm optimistic. Though I suspect I won't actually stalk naked and wet downstairs to demand that they fix it for me, much as the mental image amuses me.
So now I get to venture out again... This time to find my work. And time how long it takes me to get there. Wish me luck. Perhaps I'll make it back by dinner time (in 3 hours). Google maps says it should take me 23 minutes each way.
