Four Hours of Sleep

Ugh. Last night was horrible. I couldn't get to sleep (the boys had their friend Fernando sleeping over, and they kept horsing around), and when I did get to sleep, it was fitful and uneven and interspersed with horrible, scary, and violent dreams in which I was utterly helpless to stop all the bad things that were happening, and when the bad dreams ended I had a series of cramps in my calves that kept waking me up, and when those ended the dawn had started to break and I woke up at about 4:30 as a result and could not ever get back to sleep. So today was mostly a struggle to stay up and alert, which was not helped by another not very exciting language class and the increasingly warm weather.

After class this morning I went to the Alliance Francaise on Boulevard Raspail to sign up for classes next week, having thrown in the towel on my current school, which started off badly and never got much better. This entailed taking a test of about 45 minutes, which I did better on than I had expected, but which ultimately determined that my level of French is what it is (just below the border of "Intermediate," which, in my defense, is not too bad for someone who never took a high school or college class and didn't speak a word of French four years ago). The personnel there were much more professional than at my current school, and the place seemed much more serious and highly organized. You can also get a real, not-out-of-a-machine latte in the cafeteria for 1.10 euro, the best deal I've found in Paris so far.

After returning home, Andrew and I set out to buy baguettes and to look for a bicycle pump (we have access to two bikes that are in the "cave" or basement of our building, but which have tires that need inflating). Andrew thought he remembered a bicycle shop nearby down Rue d'Alesia, and it turned out his memory was good, but the shop was tiny, and the only proprietor present was a 7 or 8 year old Pakistani boy who, after greeting us with "bon jour," explained that his father was out and would return in a few minutes. We looked around for a small pump, but they didn't seem to have any there, so we left. Here are some pictures I took on our way back, all taken within a few blocks of our apartment.







This evening I hooked up the webcam to my computer so that Suzie could have a video Skype call with her father in Berkeley. The result was remarkable -- the technology all worked perfectly, so that we were each treated to a fairly clear, full-screen view of the the other, which made it seem like you were having (almost) a face-to-face conversation with a person 6,000 miles away. If any of my readers wish to attempt the same, hook up your webcams, download Skype, and give me a call.