the sun shines on paris

It was a lovely day in Paris today. I awoke and went to my 9 am communication professionnel class, which turned out to be better than I thought. I thought the professor was kind of obnoxious but really he’s quite funny and today’s class was actually semi-fun. I met a very nice Scottish woman who is an elementary school teacher on sabbatical. She is probably 30-40 years old, but not the type of adult student who asks millions of questions (like a woman who is in my French language class, she should be shot). Today we learned (basically) how to be a proper French receptionist, which is useful for me because I am not the greatest at receptioning (receiving?). But then again, I don't forsee a time where I will be a receptionist in France. Anyway, after class was over at noon I had nothing that I had to do so I took the metro back to my arrondissement (neighborhood, for those out of the loop) and decided to explore since I've never seen my area during the day. I was pleased to find many great shops and cafes, and I took my first dejeuner (lunch) alone in a cafe. I chose a ham omelette and a large bottle of water. The omelette was huge and obviously there are no "egg whites only" here, but it was good. The cigarette smoke was a little much (I don't understand the smoking in confined spaces 24/7) but other than that it was quite pleasant and I was able to communicate with the waitress. After lunch, I walked around for a little bit then headed to the Monoprix, which is a nice grocery store that, if I had to buy my own groceries (and I kind of wish I did), I would buy everything. I needed some toiletries and some Earl Grey tea (Louise only has strange Asian ones). There is a little patisserie within the store, and I couldn't resist so I bought a mini pastry, the perfect size since I was still full from mega-omelette. I walked further and found a store where I was able to ask the man behind the counter if he had any US-France adaptors, which they did, for my external hard drive. I feel great about my successes, and to top that, I am on my laptop in my apartment because I was finally able to catch the "Paris Ozone" wifi signal that is very weak in my arrondissement. I'm doing the one hour for 1.50 euro trial, and it works but it's a little slow. I think it's worth it though and am considering purchasing the 18 euro/month package. Oh, and yesterday I bought a ticket from Rome to Athens for only $133 including tax, an exciting leg of our spring break plans. Hurray.