people, places, things, adventure

I got up in the middle of night, not quite Monday, not quite Tuesday, and, in a dreamy stupor, dragged my bags and bones to the airport. 6:30am is a little early for a flight. After 2 buses, which came right when myPhone said they would, and a train, I got to Ohare with plenty of time to spare.

I got to Boston in an uneventful flight that I hardly remember and spent the day wandering. Took the T to Cambridge and walked all the way back. Made me realize how unwalkable most of Chicago is--(so spread out). Really liked Boston.

Met a surprisingly interesting woman on the plane (who turned out to be just a little afraid of flying) and got to Paris at 7h30 dazed and fuzzy. RER B to Les Halles, line 4 to Montparnasse, and I started to wander (in search of an adapter to charge my phone and internet).

(Dear iPhone, I don't want to capitalize Internet; it's not a place.)

While I could have the Net on my phone, it costs something like $20/mb. That's like 24€. I can't even conceive how many mbs I use, so I turned off roaming. Maybe I've been so badly burned by phone roaming I don't want to risk it.

But none of the stores were open; I was confused. While *you* may remember that it's still sometime after 7h30, my brain thinks it should be later. When I saw people opening the stores, I really thought they were coming back from lunch. I noticed the FNac, in fact, because of the 20 people gathered out front, which I found bizarre for midday but perfectly strange for 9am.

Got the charger, sat on a bench and drifted into a mental fog for 15 minutes, bemused myself catching people looking out the corner of their eye at my "shoes". (Pics of shoes on facebook; yes, they are shoes, but are intended for barefoot enthusiasts. If we're not friends on FB, find me. I may not be able to post too many pics here.). Had already had coffee but for some reason didn't feel the need. Might've helped. Finally got online at pomme de pain.

I had told Laura, the girl whose family I would be staying with, that I'd come for dinner. But, feeling as I did, I thought it would be nice to depose my bags chez eux. And then take a 2h nap.

And then go back out and meet people for drinks, taking the last train (0h58h) to the burbs where they live. Not really the 'burbs and not really la "banlieu" (which has a pretty negative connotation, like "inner-city") Meudon is pretty nice, upper middleclass and feels almost more like a small town than a suburb.

I'll try to give specifics on the people I've been meeting. So far I'm batting 1.000, finding only wonderful, interesting people. Pics maybe too.

Now, though, it's 1h de matin, time to coucher. Last night i dreamed like a fool, remembering only one in which I was hanging out, speaking French, and was doing a horrible mock Americain accent make fun of it. I'm a jerk even in my dreams. ;)