Move-in time

As of two days ago, I have successfully rented an apartment in France. I am living with a friend in a 15th century building about two blocks away from a cathedral. We are so close that in the morning, I can hear the church bells.

Our street appears to be a bit of a tourist attraction. The buildings are a great example of medieval architecture, so we constantly have people taking photos of the street our apartment is on. In fact, since we are classified as a UNESC) world heritage site, we can't hang up brightly colored curtains in the apartment, since it would essentially ruin all the tourist's photos.

We live above an art gallery, owned by a lovely older woman named Nadine. She seems super sweet, and every time we pass by she invited us in or comes out to talk. We haven't really had time to take her up on her offer, but we will! She has this dog name Ulysse that is just the cutest thing ever. He's this super fat old dachshund who sits at the door looking at the people passing by, and when he sees me he gets so excited that he jumps up to lick my hands. Basically, he's going to act as my Pinky replacement this year.

Our first day, we had no furniture, no dishes, no nothing. It was actually a lot of fun, since we didn't have to worry about messing up the furniture or anything, and we just made a sort of pile of cheese and bread in the middle of the floor. We had people over, and everyone just sat on our pillows. Basically, it was a great way to welcome ourselves into the house.

The next day (today) the furniture hunt started in earnest. After sending out what seemed like a million emails, we found a relatively cheap fridge. So we walked halfway across town, and arrive at the seller's house. As soon as we enter their garage, we just see stuff everywhere: furniture stacked on top of furniture, towers of empty boxes of shoes, appliances shoved in wherever there was room. Not only did we get a fridge, but an awesomely minty green couch and a table! They had rented a truck for us, and they drove it over and helped us bring it to our apartment. And all of this without even introducing themselves. Literally. French people never give their names.

Then later, our friend's host mom gave us a TON of stuff, including a coffeemaker, a microwave, and a full set of dishes. So we're ok.

We have decided to accomplish one thing per day. So hopefully tomorrow we will get either a stove or reliable internet. Here's hoping!