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Inspired by some expat blogs I started reading tonight, I've decided that I should probably write more frequently about my experiences here in France. A lot of strange/funny things happen to you when you are an American who lives in France but who speaks very little French beyond "Merci" "Bonjour" and "Je ne parle pas Francais" (I don't speak French).

My roommates and I have done quite a few stupid things since we arrived. For one thing we took the train from Rambuteau to Chatelet for a solid two weeks. If you're not familiar with the Paris metros this may not sound stupid to you, but just wait, I'll explain.

Being from California we're entirely unaccustomed to walking and tend to automatically assume that everything must be far apart. And, walk? Are you crazy?! So for the first two weeks of class we would walk the two blocks to the Rambuteau station, hop on the line 11, get off two stops later at Chatelet and then walk through a maze of underground tunnels, like rats, until we reached the platform for the RER A.

We did this despite the fact that our French friends kept insisting we lived "really close" to Chatelet. Try walking one time! they told us. We kept saying we would but then when it came down to it we all figured it would be some kind of long, arduous journey and one of us would say screw it lets just take the 11 and the rest of us would happily agree.

Finally one day we decided to check out the "soldes" (sales, which happens to be a word the French are only allowed to use twice a year, a story for another time) at the Chatelet mall. As per usual we hopped on the train at Rambuteau. Instead of walking through the underground labyrinth, though, we emerged from the Chatelet station unsure of exactly where the mall was. We wandered for a bit and then things started to look familiar and we realized that Chatelet was all of about 6 blocks from our apartment.

Yes, for two entire weeks we'd been riding the line 11 to a point that was actually beyond the RER A platform and then walking back through tunnels (which reeked of month-old urine) to the RER A. Basically, the same distance to walk directly from our apartment to Chatelet.

We're not in a Master's program for nothin' you know.

Labels: Heehee, Paris