First Visitor!

Ok working on catching you all up and all..... I have 2 weeks to catch you up on so here goes the first week!

So remember how I was saying how I went to HSBC to try and deposit my checks and I couldn't do it? Ok, well obviously the checks need to be deposited, so I had to send them back to the United States. And it needed to be ASAP since I was running low on cash, so I ended up sending them via ChronoPost for 56 euros which guaranteed that they would reach the United States within two days. Gilles came with me and we walked to the Post Office together bright and early in the morning so we wouldn't have to waste the whole day. Ha. Haha. Famous last motives in France. We walk about 15 minutes to the post office and it's closed, with a group of people standing outside also wondering why it's closed. The hours of operation sign says it should be open from 9 am to 7pm. There's no sign explaining why it isn't open. It's just locked and all the lights are off and no one's inside. It's just closed for no clear reason. Welcome to France.

So we had to go to the one in Joinville Le Pont, about 40 minute walk in the other direction, but Gilles paid the 1,80 euros so we could both take the bus. We get there and wait in line... and wait in line.... and wait in line... until we finally get called up to the window. The post office here is also a bank, so whether you want to send a package or deposit a check, it's the same line. It's set up like a bank with all the tellers behind bullet proof glass and you have to talk to them through a small window. We finally get to our "guichet" and explain to the woman that we'd like to send my checks via Chronopost. Remember that insurance I was supposed to get on it? Well the woman explained to us that it's actually illegal for me to get that insurance since I'm sending checks (with a monetary value) and not another kind of document. There were a whole bunch of reasons why but I don't remember them anymore. All I remember is that I started to really stress. I was already stressed out for several other reasons and I just wanted to lose it. I had very very little money left in my bank account and was going to need the money very soon. But in the event that it got lost in the mail (like the two extremely important pieces my mother tried to send over via the US Postal Service which apparently BOTH got lost in the mail and the fact that I don't have them is continually screwing me over) I was REALLY going to be in trouble. And I was going to need the money to be used soon. I don't always stress about a lot of things but money... that stresses me. And I don't care about having a lot of money, that's not it, it's just having enough for the bare necessities. I started having flashbacks to all of my financial problems from junior year in college and started to panic. Gilles kindly asked the woman if we could have a few moments to think about what we were going to do and pulled me aside to calm me down. Thank God for that boy because I don't know what I would have done if he hadn't been there to calm me down and talk to me and assure me that all I could do was make the decision I thought was best and pray about it. Maybe I should start taking him to the super market with me when I'm shopping for ingredients too.....

Anyway, we got back in line and said we'd like to send the checks via ChronoPost like we had originally planned anyway. The woman got up to go get the envelope.... and returned empty handed. They were out of the specific type of envelope needed to send the package. Seriously if Gilles hadn't been with me I would have screamed. But to prevent that, Gilles quickly took me out of the Post Office and walked me to another bus stop so we could go to the Post Office in St. Maur, the town where they go to church (remember from my adventure my first day here... it's a whole hour's walk away). On the way to the bus stop, Gilles prayed for me which also calmed me down more, thankfully.

Ok, so third time's a charm right? Normally, I know you're all waiting for that haha yeah right and my explanation of how that didn't work and the country of France kept me running around for the next three days on a wild goose hunt just to send a few pieces of paper back to the United States. But in reality, I was quite surprised. The third time actually was quite charming. We went inside and there was only one lady ahead of us in line. There were no bank tellers behind bullet proof glass- the man who worked there was out on the floor with a nice smile on his face. When we told him what we wanted to do and the problems we'd had during the day, he said that he would double check for us and see if there wasn't some way we could find a way to give me the insurance. In the meantime, I filled out the address form and Gilles made copies of everything I was sending. Unfortunately, I still wasn't able to get the insurance but the fact that the man made the effort and that he was so happy and smiling and pleasant in nature; I felt so much better when we left. And it actually did only take 2 days to get to the United States. Why don't you take some pointers, USPS? Like seriously, before I make a special trip back to the states just to flip out in your office for losing my important mail.

And in case you're all wondering why I needed the money so urgently... I had my first visitor from the United States come and visit me! Paul, who I know from Calvary Chapel Quakertown, arrived Wednesday morning. His plane landed at 7:55 am, which meant that I had to wake up at 5:30am to go and get him, but it's okay. I was gently reminded that my flight to Paris came in at 6:30am and my ever so wonderful self-sacrificing loyal true blue friend Gilles had to wake up even earlier to come and get me (and then had to work all day after he brought me home!!!) so I didn't complain. Paul arrived safely and I brought him back to my house so we could get his housing straightened out. Apparently we thought he had made reservations at a hostel but it didn't end up working out, so he got to spend the week camping at the Parc Tremblay that's right near my house. We went together and the woman at the desk was so incredibly nice. It was only 16 euros a night and they had bathrooms and showers and free internet and everything! We spent the rest of the day just walking around Tremblay and exploring and such but it was quite nice. As far as tourism is concerned, we got to see Notre Dame, the Catacombs, La Conciergerie (my favorite site in Paris!), Gilles's restaurant (where we had beef tartare... raw beef! Yes I am that hardcore =P) and then headed over the Centre Pompidou and saw some really cool street performers. We also went to see Inception with Yadira, Fanny, and our other friend Samuel. Inception was..... whoa. I mean, not like the best movie ever and it blew me away, but whoa in the sense that when we left the movie theater, I kept touching the wall, the door, Yadira, etc... to make sure it was all real. Actually my head kinda hurt when i left but the whole concept is cool. Then headed over to the Bois de Vincennes (which I actually found this time!) until it was 8pm and then we met Gilles, Fanny, and another girl named Gabby and went to a bar for some wine. Gabby is super super nice. She met my friend Duane when he came to Paris in April, and since I knew he was in Paris I put he and Gilles in contact, and then Gilles met Gabby through Duane and voila. Now we're all friends haha. Anyway, she's super super nice and energetic and spunky and the night was really great. Then Friday we met up with Samuel and his two friend Salvatore (who is Italian) and Lucie (who is Chinese) and we visited le Louvre (which we barely got to scratch the surface of since it's so huge! but I did get to see some parts that I've never seen before), le Jardin des Tuileries, Sacre Coeur and a bit of Montmartre. Pas mal, pas mal.

Originally, the plan was that Paul and I were going to go to CreationFest UK together too. For those of you who don't know, CreationFest is a weeklong concert with awesome bands and speakers all day, all week long. They have one in Pennsylvania every year and there's a UK version in Cornwall England too. Some of our friends from Calvary Chapel Quakertown are in a band called Universal Royalty and were going to be playing there all week (if you've never heard of them, you should check them out! http://www.universal-royalty.com ) and I was super super excited about getting to travel to England and to see my friends again. But, after another réunion familial (and a night of crying harder than I've cried in a long time and embarrassing myself in front of Gilles) I decided I really need to stay here in Paris. You see, this job thing isn't working out like I hoped it would. And seeing how I only have about a month left, I either need to get serious and work harder than I have been or give up now and buy a ticket back to the States. It was also a hard decision for me to make because after talking with Gilles, I realized that in reality, I cared more and put more importance on going to England than I did about making a living here work out. I didn't want to admit it to myself but that was it. Going to England was more important to me than finding a job in Paris. But.... I still chose to sacrifice that anyway because I really do want to make this Paris thing work. I really really really hope I didn't sacrifice that for nothing. Keep your fingers crossed for me!