france, check yo-self. i am back.

the day has come. i have made my way through customs and security, sweet-talked crabby airline employees, flown across the atlantic, and arrived safely and with all of my luggage into...une minute, s'il vous plait...attends...PARIS! my bon ami, jamie, met me at the airport and we, along with my new friend from the airplane, LA craig, made our way via the RER with far too many suitcases for even a small army to contend with (and i must add that said luggage was greatly reduced in weight so as to avoid paying crazy international fees for overweight luggage). we parted ways with my new friend, and jamie et moi went to his place to drop off my goodies. now, i must remind you that it is only about 11 am, paris time, at this point, and also, that i hardly got any sleep on the plane or the night before while i was in the states. i figured i needed to stay up until at least 8 pm on this first night in order to get on paris time asap. merci à dieu pour jamie, because he kept my tired cul awake. as for the afternoon's events...

*minou gets hit on by 50+ year old metro worker while trying to buy a monthly metro pass. she gets said pass, and also gets asked for number on back of needed passport photo for pass.

*jamie and kendra decide that it is ok to get fat in paris and mange pain au chocolat et orange and tarte aux myrtilles on a parisian bench covered with bird shit. bird shit was covered with chestnut leaves.

*minou gets a new phone number (email for number) and realizes how jet-lagged she really is.

*kendra and citrouille (jamie) pass the afternoon by stopping at monoprix (j'adore monoprix!), eating crepes while walking to the marais, and watching small french boys and girls play rugby. french children are cuter than american children for two reasons: they are born with style and they speak french. american children are too fat to pull off skinny jeans. i do believe that i said that a ten-year old was sexy - they're just that stylin.

my darling french buddy, marie, called and we agreed to meet near belleville around 6 to go to my new apartment. as jamie and i had been sauntering around the 3rd, innocently checking out children (and not so innocently checking out their rather attractive parents), we had a difficult time meeting marie in a timely fashion. i could not help it, but i did not feel bad for being late. i had been in france for less than ten hours and already i had adopted their lateness policy. alas, we arrived chez moi (email for address) and met my french landlord. (haha, not really a landlord, just a girl wanting to rent her place so she can try living with her bf for three months) mon appartement is darling. i live on the first level (mom, relax, it is really the second level - the ground floor here is level zero) and have three little balconies that overlook boulevard de la villette. there is a big market right outside my place on saturdays and wednesdays. i have a little kitchen that has a little balcony - i so look forward to sipping a glass of wine there while cooking for friends and looking out at the streets of paris. i have no microwave - this is not a problem, but one does realize how much one uses a microwave when it is removed. my living area has a two-person size clic-clac bed and my room has a double bed. the bathroom is très petit. you have to pee while sitting on the toilet side-ways. this is not a joke, friends. please enjoy sitting correctly and facing forward on your toilet, as it is more or less not possible for me. i do have a washer, no dryer, but i do have a whole bunch of clotheslines hung up above the shower!

i love my place. i will post photos soon, but only when i have friends over. i do not enjoy seeing just rooms or statues of things - i like people in the rooms or near the statues.

i will stop my ramblings of yesterday and my home and tell you how i did not find the monoprix that i had planned on visiting today in order to buy a shower curtain, since i have a shower but nothing covering it up. i opted to look chic and wore heels. after walking around the entire outside of le parc de buttes charmontes and did not find the monoprix that is supposedly on the periphery of the park, i came home and put on sensible shoes (and bandaids to cover up the holes that had formed in my heels from those mf-ing chic shoes). i may not know where a monoprix is by me (as of now, anyway), but damn it, i do know where one is on rue temple, which is only two metro stops away. i boogied that way and had my fun. and bought food. oh, up until this point i was surviving on a grapefruit that was left here by my landlady (she will be called that even though landlady is complete bs), lion bars that i bought yesterday (a candy orgasm pour la bouche), and nutella that was in the cupboard. oh, and a spoonful of the peanut butter that came over the atlantic. as i was eating some today, i actually became furieux that i was eating it out of starvation and not out of a need for a comfort from the states!

fun buys at monoprix:

*mâche - this cute lettuce that is wicked expensive in the US, not to mention impossible to find (one of those things you'd pay a fortune for if you actually did find it, just out of nostalgia for france)

*bougies - candles. in the same deliciously fresh scents i used to buy...if only i had a lighter to light them.

*rhubarb yoghurt - i added the h in yogurt because you see that a lot over here. and because rhubarb has a silent h.

*my favorite juice on the planet - a mix of pamplemouse (grapefruit), orange, and fraise (strawberry). it is pulpy and thick and it is like drinking sunshine. j'adore ca.

some sad news...my favorite boulangerie on rue oberkampf is closed until october 8. well, actually thats not too sad, because they've been closed for the last couple months and it will be wonderful when they open again. i had to settle and go to dan's favorite bread place (which has better bread, but the people at the other place are just wonderful).

the mecano bar is still closed. no idea as to when it will open. i walked by with jamie and i do believe that the majority of the place was wrecked by a fire. hardly anything looked familiar. sad. sad. triste. sad.

and now that this post is nearly over, i would like to say that 'citrouille' means 'pumpkin,' and 'minou' means 'pussycat.' i am pussycat. jamie is citrouille. more of these strange pet names (haha, great pun, huh?) will continue.

it is 9 pm here and i am beat. it is saturday night, and nuit blanche, too. sista is staying, in, yo.

as for tomorrow? who knows. im in paris... :)