Déjeuner du jour:

Grilled chicken breast in parisonastudentsbudget marinade,
served over pasta with extra marinade sauce,
cucumber salad with balsamic on the side.

Total damages:
1 baguette: 80 centimes
2 bottles of faux champagne: 2,66 EUR

Le vieil accordéoniste

On the metro this morning, an elderly man and his accordion got on the ligne 4 at Cité. His frail fingers lifted up in anticipation of the first note and then hopped magically along the pegs and keyboard like young dancers. His choice of songs was perhaps cliché, though I prefer to call it classic. Something inside me longed to burst into tears as his wrinkled eyelids closed for Edith Piaf.

He didn't stop playing or ask for money until St. Placide when a woman pressed a 1 EUR coin into his hand before two policemen escorted him off the train. When I walked up the stairs at Vavin, I could still see their hands coaxing the frail elbows of the still-smiling man off the car, waiting for him to put away the accordion that made him come alive. As I made my way to the top of the stairs, the skies were gray.

I thought of the accordionist's lingering smile and hopeful melodies but I felt that a world where an old man got punished for a 1 EUR coin was not "la vie en rose."

Paris is still a mystery to me. Part romance, part tradgedy, she's like the girlfriend you could never figure out, the Emma Bovary of cities. I may never understand her.

______________

Budget tips for the day:

I packed a lunch to-go today. Just picked up a fresh baguette and filled up tupperware with some goodies: brie, salami, jam, cucumbers, grapes.


A good way to save money on tupperware containers is to reuse the containers from ice cream. The tupperware here is really expensive -- like 4 - 9 EUR per box. Why not just buy the ice cream for 2 EUR (or 4 EUR if you want the expensive kind) and get the tupperware for free at the end?


Total Damages today:
Salami package: 1,10 EUR
Fresh baguette from the wednesday boulangerie (Biatrix is closed on wednesdays): 80 centimes
hefty bag of red grapes (at 1,29 the kilo): 74 centimes
month of october on the navigo: 56 EUR

L'orientation: 3eme jour

I didn't have to be at school until 10:30 today, so I decided to clear things up with the bank. It didn't quite work out that way -- they told me I still needed a mailbox at mon domicile (my residence) -- but I figured out a plan that will keep my money safe and sound until my landlord and the building manager have a coffee and decide to hand me a mailbox key. We decided that I would withdraw my money and close the account until I receive a mailbox, at which point I will re-open the account (complicated, I know).

Then I went to Reid Hall where we learned about our carte de sejour (yay! another fee!), how to use French computers (it's difficult), and various tips on "good maners" in France.

For lunch I went to Pomme du Pain for their 4,95 lunch special with 1 girl and 1 boy from my program. The special includes 1 sandwich (today was "le lyonnais"), 1 drink, and 1 dessert (today was chocolate cake). 5 EUR was not bad for a complete, delicious meal and a place to sit down on blvd. du montparnasse, but I think I'll start going to the Resto U (C.R.O.U.S.) since we'll have more time for lunch in the future.

The Resto U system is very handy -- I haven't been yet, but it's basically a cafeteria system for students in Paris. It costs about 2,90 EUR for a meal (about as much as a sandwich from a cart) but you get entrée, plat et dessert (and probably some beverages, too, I imagine). The one by our school is open for dinner, too, so if I like it, I may go there a lot.

After our class on "French manners" let out, I went with 3 other students to a librairie (bookstore) on the other side of les jardins de luxembourg: Gibert Joseph. Much cheaper than the neighboring Monoprix and other tourist traps, this librairie is close enough to la Sorbonne that it knows it needs to keep it's prices down for us students. I snagged an "agenda," or pocket calendar, for 2,89 EUR.

Before heading back home, I walked through les jardins and around St. Suplice for a while, just to take in the sights. I'm really so impressed by all the architecture here.

A couple metro stops later and I was back at the local ED to pick up an apple at ,48 EUR.

Perhaps I will go out again tonight? I still have my chocolate cake from lunch to devour...




Total Damages today:

1 lunch at pomme du pain: 5 EUR
1 agenda: 2,89 EUR
1 pomme (apple): 0,48 EUR