Monday I tried to be relatively more productive than I have been in the past and decided that I would only check my email/facebook once every half hour instead of every 5 minutes. Ok, ok, I'm just kidding I didn't make that kind of resolution, but I did make a to-do list for myself so that I could be actually working towards something instead of lying around all day long.
We got our internet back Monday afternoon, so I did spend a decent amount of time checking my email (can you believe I had 75 emails in 3 days??? Geez Louise I'm not that important people!) and checking facebook (far less updates received but that's okay), but I did try and get other things accomplished before I let myself go online. I successfully went to the supermarket and got ingredients for dinner on Tuesday and to make another carrot cake (for the family this time because I don't think they got to taste the other one I made for the bake sale). I definitely spent wayyyyyy to much time at the supermarket though because I was having a hard time finding breadcrumbs. I must have went up and down each aisle (although there were only 6, and one was all wine and the other was cleaning products) at least 10 times and passed more old French ladies with scarves around their hair than I can count, but could not for the life of me find la chapelure (that's breadcrumbs in French). I decided I was wasting enough time and just left without them and figured I would try a different supermarket the next day (darn you France.... someone needs to start a Wegmans over here! Any takers????)
I was on somewhat of a time limit though- Yadira had a concert Monday night at L'église de la Madelaine in Paris. She's part of the Female Vocal Ensemble at the Conservatiore Municipal Claude Debussy. Silvia was supposed to meet an old friend for dinner and go right over, Gilles had been out all day and was going to another concert with his church instead, and I thought JC had other plans because when Yadira had left in the morning, she gave me directions to the Madelaine and told me I'd be going by myself. I also needed dance pants (as I've mentioned before) so I looked to see if there was any dance stores near the Madelaine that I could stop in before the concert and sure enough, there was a store named Boléro about 2 km away. So I planned to leave early for the concert and try and get some dance pants, so I figured I only had x amount of time. But then it turned out that JC and Silvia both had their plans cancelled, so we all went together and I didn't want to ask them to have to leave early just so I could buy pants, so I decided I would just take a trip to Paris on my own the next day.
Anywayyyyyy I got home and told Silvia I got everything I needed except breadcrumbs, but she said that they had some already. Problem solved. I spent the rest of the afternoon making the carrot cake and finding various dance stores all around Paris for me to go to Tuesday. Turns out we didn't have enough powdered sugar like I thought, nor did we have enough cream cheese wanna-be like I also thought (I had just checked those things the day before I dont know where they went!) which were the two ingredients I needed for the icing, so I improvised and it actually came out pretty good. The family thought my carrot cake was great. Score again for Gina. France 1, Gina 21. Boo yah!!!!! I'm turning out to be quite the little French pâtissière.
We ate dinner and then left to go to Yadira's concert around 7pm. We left a little late so we got there a little late, but all we missed was the director's speech so I didn't really care because I probably wouldn't have understood what he was saying into the microphone anyway. The concert was soooooo nice!!!!! They sang Mozart's Offertoire, Strauss's Valse, "2 Ambrosian Hymns" by the director of the ensemble, Debussy's Sirénes, and 13 Moravian Songs by Dvorak. But just the fact that we were hearing such music being performed in such a church was crazy... it's beautiful and full of so much history and decorated so ornately. It was mindblowing to think of all the work that must have gone into building the place (like all historical monuments)... and the beauty of the church combined with the beauty of the music just provided an awe-inspiring atmosphere.
After the concert, Yadira introduced me to her friend Safietou Coundul, who used to work at Disneyland Paris. Turns out, this girl is the daughter of one of the most famous rap/hip hop stars in Senegal... in fact, apparently she can't even return to Senegal because she'd probably get kidnapped or there's too much paparazzi etc... She's kind of a big deal. It's like she's the equivalent to Usher's or P. Diddy's daughter. Anyway, Yadira introduced her to me and she's sooooo sweet and she told me all about what was going to happen at the Disney audition which really put me at ease. Hope it makes a difference!
Here's a couple of pictures of us all in front of La Madelaine:
Tuesday was my first day navigating around the Paris métro all by myself. I handed a list of about 9 dance stores to Gilles and asked him which were the closest. Turns out, while I was in the shower, he made me a set of directions of how to get to each store and even drew maps himself so I'd know what streets to turn down! How awesome is he!!!! I also needed to print out a headshot to bring with my resume to Disney, so I asked him if there was a CVS/Walgreens type place where I could print out pictures. He looked at me like I had 7 heads. So just asked where I could print out a picture, and he I should just google an Imprimerie and see if it was anywhere near any of the dance stores but he said they'd be everywhere so to just walk into one. And thus I set off, a little nervous but confident that I would return triumphant. How hard could it be to find dance pants????
I walked to the bank first and cancelled the appointment Silvia had made for me because there was no point since I can't open an account until I have a job and I dont have one (yet). Then I walked to the train station instead of taking the bus because the weather was so nice out. The first store on my list was Boléro, the one I had been planning on going to before Yadira's concert, but Gilles had given me different directions than I had been planning on taking. When it got close to me either getting off to switch to the M14 or stay on to the M9... I had to make a quick decision but decided that I'd just follow Gilles's directions instead of going the way I knew. Maybe his would let me off a lot closer to the store.
They did, and I actually found the store no problem. The problem was, however, that they did not have pants in that store, only skirts, leotards, and shoes. Well, they had warm-up jumpers with pants that the lady said I could just fold down the top part, but they were fleece and I knew I'd be dying in them. Hmph. Well I decided I'd walk around and try and find a place to print out my headshots while I was there. I had found a place on Google close to the Madelaine, so I decided I'd try and backtrack my way from the directions. I was doing a really good job, but then I found an Impremerie on the way there so I decided to just stop in. The only problem was that the man at the desk said he could only print out black and white photos, not color, and it ended up not being very good quality at all but it only cost me 65 centimes so I didn't really lose anything. I decided to continue on to the Imprimerie by the Madelaine to see if I could get a better print. Turns out, there was another one right down the block from the first one I went to. I went in, and got 4 really really nice pictures printed (I had to get 4 because they were 3 euros each and I didn't have any cash left and you needed to buy at least 10 euros to use a debit card). Success. And I navigated my way back to the métro station without any problem. This was going to be a cinch.
On to store #2, Flash Dance. Again, I found it, no problem. But although the lights were on, the door was locked and no one was in the store. I looked for either a doorbell or maybe another door but there was nothing. Then I noticed on my clock that it was about 1:40ish in the afternoon so I thought maybe they were closed for Siesta. If that was the case, they should re-open again at 2. I saw a Monoprix (a small scale Wal-Mart type store) across the street so I decided to go in and see if I could amuse myself for 20 minutes. I ended up amusing myself for almost an hour, just looking at all the French things in all the different departments and comparing what was the same and what was different from the US. It honestly did bring me a sense of comfort, though, to see familiar things like rulers, journals, tape, etc.... call me corny, but I was enjoying myself so much just being around these small, familiar things. They had a small rack of cards (which surprisingly, were mostly in english!) and also a book section. In the book section, there was a table with recipe books, and one was actually about cream cheese and how every french person dreams of being able to eat NY Style Cheesecake and it gave like, 40 different recipes of things you can make with french cream cheese imposters. I had to laugh at this. Sorry France, you will never understand REAL NY Style Cheesecake until you start importing Philadelphia Cream Cheese.
Anyway, so I headed back to the dance store and they still weren't open! So I decided to give up. I went back on the métro and went to the third store, StanLowa. Same thing! They looked open, but the door was locked and no one was there. Sigh. Onto store number 4. Now mind you, I had to get back on the métro for each one of these stores. It was getting tiresome. And as I looked at the plan Gilles made for me, he kind of had me backtracking because stores 4, 5, and 6 were at the same métro stop as Store 1 so why couldn't he have had me hit all of them in one trip rather than having me go and come back? Then again I could have looked over his directions and realized it myself before I actually travelled, but still. Anyway, stores 4, 5, and 6 were all on the same street. Well I get off the métro and find myself in the middle of Galaries Lafayette, the biggest store in all of France. It's actually like the size of one of our (small) shopping malls, except it's all one big department store (can you imagine? France actually has one thing that's bigger than the United States's!). I found my way out of the store and onto the street, but the street it let me out on was not on the map Gilles drew for me. I wandered around for a while, eventually found the right street, but because I was all turned around from walking so much, went down the wrong direction on that street. Grrrrr. I was getting frustrated, tired, it was hot, my feet hurt and my head was starting to hurt. And I still hadn't found any pants. Ooooo I started getting cranky. I got to a park and sat down for about 10 minutes to rest. I tried to connect to the internet from my Ipod Touch to get to Google Maps and see where I was but I couldn't connect because even though it said there was wireless in the park, my ipod couldn't find it. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I had no idea where I was.
Long story short (because I'd rather not relive how crabby of a mood I was in) I finally found the street. Store 4 didn't have pants either. I finally get to store 5, Repetto Paris. They have ONE pair of pants, and they fit really nicely actually. But of course this can't be a perfect story. They cost 62 euros!!!!!!!!! Are you kidding me?!?!?!?!?!?! Pants like that would cost $15 in the US, $20 tops. 62 euros is the equivalent to $80!!!!!!!!!! I thought about trying store number 6, and I still had stores 7 8 and 9 that I'd need to get back on the métro for but I was so tired and my head hurt and I didn't want to be in Paris anymore I just wanted to go home. So I bought the pants (and they had to swipe my debit card 4 times because it kept getting declined for some reason.... I had enough money in my account, though, we never figured out what the problem was) and went home. Les voleurs, I'm telling you. I'm still bitter France. I dont care if they are from Paris, I dont care if they came down from another planet, $80 is a ridiculous ridiculous amount for a pair of spandex/nylon dance pants. Then it took me another 45 minutes to find the métro station (even though the store was a 5 minute walk away) because I kept getting lost in the Galaries Lafayette. What the heck kind of store has a subway station in it anyway??? You owe me, France, big time.
And then, oooooo the icing on the cake. I get home, and JC and Yadira are watching Criminal Minds. I show them what I bought and told them my whole story about the stores and getting lost and all the money. They just looked at each other and JC said, "Gina, I wish I'd known that you were looking for dance pants. There's a sports store that sells pants just like that for way cheaper about 5 minutes away from our house." My jaw hit the floor. Yadira said to JC, "Run, I think she's going to kill you." Well, no, I wouldn't kill JC because he didn't know. I found out from Gilles later on that he didn't know about the sports store, so I couldn't blame him either. And Yadira was just the innocent bystander. Sigh. At least I've conquered the Parisian métro system and am confident that I can navigate my way anywhere I want anytime I want now. 3 more points for me because of that. France still 1, Gina 24 (my favorite number).
The battle's not over yet, France. You will not get the best of me. Watch out.
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