Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Chez Moi.

Hello!

So I took pictures a while ago of my apartment to give everyone the grand tour, and it's about time that I finally put them up!  I took a little time to clean up before hand, so you can be relatively certain that it doesn't currently look like these pictures.  But you'll get the general idea.

So let's start with where I am right now!


This is my desk where I do most of my work.  The window right there gives me tons of natural light and opens all the way up, so I can get lots of fresh air too (when it's not too cold or rainy).  I also call this my study.  And the entertainment room.  And maybe the wreck room.  But it's nice, haha.















Next on the tour we have the living room/bedroom/lounge/dining room/entertainment room (yes, I have two rooms for entertaining...I'm very rich).  That's my bed that folds up into a couch.  It's actually very comfortable and is nice and large.  It makes kind of a loud noise when I take it down, so I feel a little bad for the people who live below me when I go to bed late, but I haven't had anyone down there bang their ceiling in protest, so I think I'm ok so far.  And I have two large pillows that I use too, not just those little ones.  Thank goodness.





So here is my library and wardrobe.  The picture is kind of weird because the wardrobe has a mirror on it and you can see my desk through it.  All the clothes that I have fit just perfectly into the space allotted.  It was great.  And it's nice having a full length mirror.  I actually do my hair in this mirror because I have to duck to see my head in the mirror in the bathroom.  Really essential things, obviously.













Here is my grande cuisine.  It's pretty awesome.  You can't really see it, but I have two electric burners (both of which work) on the right hand side, and a nice big sink and fridge.  It's very nice.  The cabinet under the sink is where I keep all the plates, pots, pans and cups and silverware.  It was all supplied for me, and it's mostly pretty nice.  I did just break my sauce pan, however.  Though to be fair the handle rusted off.  So not my fault.  I was lucky and found a brand new replacement for less than 10€.  So that was pretty exciting.  You can also see into my bathroom right there.  It's pretty great.  Small, but great.  Originally my shower didn't drain worth a crap so I had to shower for two minutes, turn off the water, wait for it to drain a bit, and then finish.  So that was awesome.  I called and talked to the landlord though and he came and fixed it.  So now it's great!  It's like a real American shower!  And those of you who have lived in France know what a blessing it is to have one, haha.  No offense, France.  Well....maybe just a little.


And one last thing that you should see is my "pantry."  Whatever doesn't belong in the fridge finds itself in a little spot on the floor next to the wardrobe to wait until it's called upon for dinner.  This picture was taken a little while ago, so the pantry is a little more full right now.  One requirement of things placed there is that they be somewhat stackable.  For example: I bought too much spaghetti to fit into the pasta jar (look bottom left), so I put the extra into the fridge.  This also applies to any sandwich bread I buy.  I currently have two half-loaves in the fridge.  (This happened because I went shopping without looking in the fridge to see what I needed.  Out of sight out of mind I guess, haha.)  One more interesting thing to note: Do you see that little blue and white bottle?  That's milk!  Though I don't have the same bottle there now, the milk I do have in the pantry expires January 1st, 2010.  "How is this possible?" you may ask.  Well, milk is sterilized before it's bottled here (I think).  So as long as it isn't opened, it's good for much longer.  You'll thank me for this useless knowledge some day when you find yourself in France desperate for a bowl of cereal and all you see in the grocery store is milk that's not being refrigerated.  You're welcome.

So that's the grand tour!  I hope you enjoyed yourself.  If you're in the neighborhood you'd be welcome to stop by!  Assuming I actually know you, obviously.

Oh, and here's the view from where I'm sitting right now:


The courtyard I look out on is much larger than you would ordinarily find.  It's quite cool.  There are some conifers.  I like it.












And if I look out to the left, I have this view:



Not amazing, but I can see when it's lit up with different colors, and on the top of the hour it sparkles for five minutes, and I can see that too.  So I'm not complaining.

That's it!

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Back to Life.

Hello all.  The long, harsh winter of my absence has finally come to an end!  I hope you were ok without me.

Brandon left this morning to return to the Motherland and I have spent all day recovering.  This included first and foremost a three hour nap.  I then skyped with the 'rents for a while, bought a plane ticket home (Dec. 17th through Dec. 29th...let me know if you want to get together), ate dinner and cleaned and did dishes.  Everything (well...over 50% of things) is back in order.

So during the course of Brandon's time here, we visited:

the Marais
















the Jardin de Luxembourg



the Louvre





















the Eiffel Tower



the Arc de Triomphe
















the Champs-Elysees


Notre Dame

















Montmartre



Versailles



Reims



And plenty of other things I'm sure I'm forgetting.  It was a busy week, to say the least.

I know that these photos seem like I just google imaged these things and posted those pictures, but all the ones that are on here are ones that either Brandon or myself took.  I know I know: We're amazing photographers.

I'm still on vacation from school for a few more days.  I'm going to have to try and find something to do as all the other assistants are still on vacation. I can't wait until I have the funds to go and take trips like that.  This paperwork has been a nightmare.  I thought that everything was finally getting sorted out, but I was apparently mistaken as I have still received no paycheck, haha.  Whoops.....

I'll update in a little while with a more meaty posting.

Stay tuned!