Day 7: August 21, 2013

I was dead asleep when I heard the latch to my door slowly turn and bolted upright in my bed. Who had a key to my room, and why were they coming in unannounced!!! Two African American women in aprons swiftly entered without saying a word and made their way to the mirror. One began to spray and wipe while the other proceeded to take out my trash. I was completely motionless until the older woman turned to me and ordered me to get out of bed. Out of shock, I obeyed. In a matter of seconds they had stripped my bed, re-dressed it with precision, and quietly locked my door behind them. The warm, crinkled sheets I crawled out of had been replaced with clean, crisp new ones; I slid under the covers and fell back asleep without caring.

The second time I woke up it was nearly 1:00 and I was starving. I ate the second half of a sandwich I had made, brewed two cups of coffee, and started getting ready for the day. When I had finished the coffee and cleaned up my room, I skipped downstairs to check my mailbox.  Just as I was opening the front door of my building, a boy from the other side was about to enter. We had barely made eye contact when his "Hi" interrupted my "Bonjour." Both of us looked somewhat confused, but I awkwardly turned and continued on my way. There was my first real chance to make a friend, one that spoke English and appeared to be sane, and I blew it. Damn.

What I found when I reached my mailbox was a checklist, to note the condition of all the items in my room. Unfortunately for me, it was more like a vocabulary pop-quiz. Where is my French-English dictionary.....

After returning the completed document, I grabbed my laptop and wandered my way over to the recently-discovered courtyard. Like yesterday, there were people casually drinking wine and leisurely playing frisbee. But today there were a few new surprises... I'm not sure how vividly I want to describe what stood (or laid) before me, but you should be aware that the couples here know no shame. I used to think that scene in Top Gun, where Maverick makes a romantic visit to his teacher, was the definition of "inappropriate"... Not anymore.

I wasn't far along in my afternoon playlist when a silhouette figure approached me. When it broke through the shadows, I recognized the person to be the same boy from my awkward morning encounter. I looked back to my computer screen, thinking maybe he was headed for something behind me. But nope, he was definitely focused on me.

"You speak English," he said.

I chuckled, "Yeah I do," while removing my headphones.

"Then why did you say Bonjour?"

"Maybe because we're in France?" Is this a serious question...

After a couple of seconds of thought, he must have decided my answer was valid because he invited me to come sit with his group of friends. I glanced where he was pointing to find a semi-circle of about eight students watching our entire interaction. Luckily I had my Ray Bans to hide the dumb expression on my face, which would have revealed just how uncomfortable I was with the situation. But, eager to make friends, I closed my laptop and followed meekly behind their pack leader.

I tell the story as if they were a bunch of blood-thirsty vampires about to suck me dry, because that's how I somewhat felt at the time. But in all reality, I ended up spending a good three hours of my afternoon visiting with a variety of Mexican, Peruvian, and Dutch students - all enrolled at the same school as I am. It turns out we will all attend the same orientation and have most of the same classes this semester. The only disadvantage that came with our meeting, is their desire to practice English with a native speaker. It looks like my French won't be improving so long as I'm hanging out with this group!

It was almost 7:00 when we walked back to our building, which happens to be the same one for all of us. Coincidentally we each had a pizza in our freezers, and we decided to eat all together in the kitchen. I tried their spicy Mexican sauce and learned a couple of Spanish phrases, before promising to cook them a Thanksgiving feast. I can already tell that our relationships here are going to revolve heavily around food.

So now that dinner is over and people are settling down for the night, I'm back in my room blogging my daily adventures. I forgot to mention earlier that I FaceTimed both my favorite mom and my favorite puppy today, but I'll slip it in here at the end with a picture. My mom would fly to Europe and beat me with a stick if I posted her candid screenshot, so instead I'll just introduce you to my baby Vizsla named Timber. Isn't he precious??

À bientôt.