Avocado has Arrived!!!

Bonjour mes amis, My husband and I have arrived in Paris! He's staying with me for a week before heading back to the States to do his summer internship. So, unfortunately that means I'm going to be all by my lonesome for 10 weeks after he leaves. :(

We took a direct flight (!) and arrived this past Monday. Remember all of my concerns about visas, uncomfortable border questions about interning and stuff? Yeah, that turned out to be a non-issue: we went through what is easily the least-questioning entry process I've ever seen. I handed the border police my passport and didn't say anything. He scratched his quite sunburned arm, looked at his watch, flipped through my passport and didn't say a single word. No "how long are you going to be here?" or anything, so I (likewise) didn't volunteer anything. He stamped my passport and I moved on. We did see the border police shuffling an African fellow into a back room, so they must be interrogating someone...just perhaps not US nationals as attractive as yours truly.

We journeyed our way to the RER (local train) station part of the terminal, which was a HIKE. But, we made it, up and down several escalators, some stairs, etc. We had a wee fight with the automated ticket purchasing machine -- either we couldn't get it to read our credit card or the machine was having a bad day. We changed machines, I tried a different card, and presto! tickets popped out. We hopped onto the waiting train and set off through the graffitied suburbs. The train was pretty empty, filled up a little bit with some school children and then some working types as we got closer to the city. Husband studied the graffiti as we went by and was telling me the most popular choices along the walls -- some repeating themes (or gang signs?), I suppose. 

We got off at our station and set forth on the 15ish minute walk to my apartment. The morning was really fresh, and there were lots of people jogging and speed walking in the the Luxembourg Gardens as we walked by. Looked like fun, and made me glad I brought some running shoes and clothes just in case. 

Finding the apartment wasn't too bad -- I had taken a couple of screen shots of some maps on my phone, so I checked those and they have maps posted at the bus stops so we checked our progress as we went along. The apartment door and lobby are pretty cool, but then to get to the actual apartment unit we have to go up the service staircase up 6/7 flights.

I've decided not to count. And looking up or down is really unpleasant. So you just have to keep trudging up indefinitely. You can kind of tell when you're halfway up because the lights are out for one flight, so that's nice. Not.

The staircase is a pretty narrow spiral one, so I was really glad I had Husband to lift the big suitcase up the stairs. I handled the little one and my purse, and I was still wheezing when I got to the top.

When we finally reached the top, well...it's not pretty. It's fine, I mean, but this is not a glamorous part of the building. It's a choppy, turning hallway that has been carved up along the way into little units, so there are doors up and down the hall, but only some have doorknobs and numbers. I think some have been combined into bigger units. Anyhow, our landlords there to greet us and show us around the apartment. They gave us some towels and there were sheets on the bed. It's pretty much as described in the pictures that I received a while back -- loft bed, funny shower in the corner, etc. There's all kinds of pots and pans, a little electric toaster oven thing, and a toaster. No microwave or actual oven. We settled everything in, I asked the landlords a couple of questions about where to get a phone and stuff, and Husband helped them get a storage unit door unstuck. And he fixed the window shade. He's a very handy person to have around.

Once the LLs left, I got unpacked and put my clothes on hangers and all that kind of stuff. The LLs had said we were welcome to use anything in the pantry (i.e. 3 shelves by the sink) so Husband cooked us some pasta on the stove while I did my unpacking.

Then we went out to investigate getting me a little go phone prepaid deal. We headed down the street to a little Orange store and were kind of surprised at the prepay prices. The phone is like €24 and it comes with a €5 credit of minutes on it, but that's only 10 minutes, said the store girl!! So, we didn't end up getting one there. We did, however, ask (and by we, I mean I) about getting a sim card for my iPad so that I would have 3G Internet access. And those plans were surprisingly cheap! But...we had left the iPad upstairs...so we went to get it and went back to the Orange store. SO MANY STAIRS.

But, as I said prices were not bad: SIM was €8 and the monthly plan (2GB, I think) was like €25. They were out of the 25 Euro credits so we bought the SIM, and headed down the the street another few blocks to the next Orange store where we got the credit, or the "recharge" as they say in French, and had the sales lady set it up for us because you have to call to activate it. Once I start work I can just call the activation number from there, but since I don't have a phone currently it was nice of them to do it for me. The sales person had just finished setting up another American's blackberry to pretty much do the same thing, so she was happy to do mine too, haha. We spoke in French though, and she kept throwing in some English (I think because she had just been speaking it with the Blackberry lady) and then she told me, "I don't know why I'm speaking English to you." So that was nice -- my French was good enough that she didn't feel like she needed to speak English to me! 

After that, we walked ourselves to Notre Dame, which was fun. Went inside and sat down for a little bit because it was a longer trek than I had thought (although we may not have taken the most direct route). We walked all around it, the Hubster thought it was really neat, and then we walked back and got lost a bit, but found our way by recognizing stores we had past before, haha. It was actually pretty warm by this point and we had both shed our coats. We went to the grocery store that's essentially next door to me and got some bread to toast, jam, goat cheese, cookie crackers, and 2 baguette sandwich things. By this point, it's 4pm and I am really really fading fast, so we get to the apartment and I head to bed. Husband emailed his mama, and I fell asleep immediately even though it was pretty bright in the room (there's a skylight in the room over the bed that you can open for air, and block off to keep out the light if you want).

Overall it's been good. I've had a few freak out moments where I want to go back home because: a) I'm petrified that I am going to absolutely BLOW at this job, and b) I don't know what I'm going to do by myself for 3 months, but I'm working on it. Husband is being very supportive. He reminded me that my butt is going to be quite awesome (he actually said, even more awesome than it already is, hahahahahah) at the end of the summer from all these ridiculous stairs...so that helped.

Questions not to ask. Apparently.

I leave for Paris three weeks from today! Obviously, this means that instead of focusing on my finals, I find time to think of things I still need to buy for my trip. Today, for example, I wandered around on amazon (on my iPad, another pre-trip purchase...hehe) looking for power adapters for my Apple gagdets. $5 plus shipping and handling later, I have two USB charge plugs with circular Euro prongs.

Thinking about technology and working in France, I started to wonder about what the office situation in Paris is going to be like. I know it's a relatively small office, so while I am wondering about whether I will have a broom closet office to call my own, I start to consider whether I will need to bring a laptop to work everyday.

This is, to me, a reasonable question because for my last two internships here in the States, I have had to bring my own laptop to work. For one I had my own office, for the other it was bring-your-own-laptop-and-fight-off-the-other-interns-for-the-best-table-in-the-joint.

The laptop dilemma causes me great mental pain because I have 2 laptops: a small netbook thing on loan from my mom that's so slow and so bad at multitasking that I have black and white flashbacks to Windows95, or my regular size laptop that I got for law school that likes to turn itself off in the middle of taking notes for class, irrespective of whether I have recently saved my work.

Neither choice is appealing. But the thing is, I don't know what I need!! << great mental strife.

I've never seen this office, and in my interview I didn't want to seem too presumptuous, like, "what kind of office space will you provide for me? Will I have a desktop? A staff of four? Lunch vouchers?" I suppose I could have asked those questions more generally, like "will your intern have an office computer" but I was really not thinking that far ahead back in October. I cannot understate my complete lack of knowing what to expect. It's a small office of an international law firm that does not appear accustomed to taking interns. P.S. I do get lunch vouchers, that information was volunteered. (because I totally would have thought to ask about that).

So, I decide that this is a reasonable question and that I will email my contact person at the law firm. I write a little greeting followed by something like this, "I'm wondering about technology: will I need to bring my own laptop or will there begone available for me to use at the office? Thanks. I'm excited to start soon, etc."

To which I receive the following response:
"Dear Cate

We are an international law firm and have all the necessary technology
to operate internationally.  You could bring your laptop for use at the
place that you are staying but you will not need it in the office...."

I feel dumb.

Really dumb.

My husband says I should not have used the word "technology" to preface my question about the computer issue. Makes it sound like I'm next going to ask whether they have electricity, or perhaps an outhouse. But that's not what I meant! I had a reasonable question, damn it!

I replied. Said thanks,that was my hunch but for my last two internships I've had to bring my own. We'll just have to laugh about this later...I didn't say that.

I still don't know for a fact that I'll have an office. They could have me squatting in the hallway waiting for assignments, but with a company-supplied laptop, of course.

Visa? Yes, No, Maybe.

This weekend I took what turned out to be a completely unnecessary field trip to the French Compound Embassy in Washington, D.C. Even though the French Embassy's website seems to indicate that US nationals do not need a visa for an internship in France, there were questions about whether my stipend would put me into a visa-needing category, whether I would get *bothered* at the border, etc. So, I was told by my hosting law firm, and several other people that I would either need a visa to do an internship in France, or that I should just get one anyways to eliminate potential border hassle.

Also, the French Embassy's website is intimidating/snobby/huffy? in a stereotypically French way. Somewhere it says something like: "Do not call us. If you have a question, read the website. If you call and have a question that is answered on the website we will hang up on you, idiot." It's much more authentic if you imagine someone saying that in English with a hardy French accent. "Eef you have a kesteeon, read zee website," if you will.

I did not call.

So, I made an appointment to get my visa - in person, no applications by mail for the French - this past Friday. I spent the better part of a few weeks (vague estimate, I know) gathering my documents, making photocopies of everything on the visa-getting website and arranging a little yellow file for myself with all this stuff. I even had a little lodging contract...in French and English. Holla.

I arrive a bit early at the Compound Embassy, enter through the rather imposing gate surrounding the several buildings that make up the Embassy, hand over my license and get an attractive little badge to wear. I go to the visa building and start skimming a promo magazine put out by the Embassy. Minutes later, my name is called over the loudspeaker and I head up to glass window #2. A visa officer asks for my passport, visa application, and little passport photo. I pass them through the glass and start arranging my handy yellow file on the shelf in front of the glass partition.

Then, the officer starts muttering in French. I think he's talking to me and so I look up expectantly, and eloquently say, "Huh?" He ignores me. I realize he has a headset thing on and is talking to someone else entirely. Noticing my presence, he asks me what I'm going to be doing in France. I say that I have an internship.

Magically, a lady appears over his shoulder and proclaims, "You do not need a visa for internship. Paid, unpaid, you do not need a visa."

I reply, "Oh, my employer seems to think that I do. Should I get one just in case?"

Visa Woman says, "No. The rules changed recently. You do not need a visa." She doesn't seem to get why I might want one anyways, and it appears that my appointment is over. I receive my documents back and apologize for the confusion and shuffle out of the building, head hanging, dismissed by the Visa Officers.

Also, she didn't have that strong of an accent, but for some reason whenever I tell this story now she does, in my head. Much like the website.

SO, went to the Supreme Court and bought souvenirs instead. Aaaand got my FIRST EVER SPEEDING TICKET on the way to Baltimore (where my dad and step-mom are, and where I stayed for the weekend), so in terms of $$$, I probably came out even.