A Gaijin in Paris

I must confess... I'm having one of those crazy roller coaster days where my emotions are all over the place.  Is this my first real dose of culture shock?  I think it usually starts around 3 weeks in, so I'm guess I'm close enough.

I woke up this morning to a rainy day, so I couldn't go for a run.  I wanted to cry.  Instead I went to the market, bought some fruit and a croissant, and had a lovely breakfast.  Happy again.  Then I tried to call the cable company because my TV isn't working and my landlord is on vacation in Miami. (Guess renting apartments to tourists in Paris is a good living.)  I couldn't understand the voice automated prompts, gave up, and wanted to cry again.  Mind you, I maybe watch TV for 10 minutes before I go to sleep - either CNN in English or Law and Order in French.  But for some reason, my cable not working today was cause for a meltdown.

Then I got dressed and went to the 2pm matinee of the Martha Graham Dance Company at the Chatelet Theater, which I had really been looking forward to.  I had an aisle seat in the first balcony - prime real estate.  I get there to discover my "aisle" seat was a folding collapsable chair attached to the end of the row, and I paid the same price as all the other people in the balcony who have real seats.  I almost left I felt so angry, annoyed, frustrated, sad, and stupid all the same time.  Then the program began, which was incredible, and I could actually see quite well.  I got over it and got happy again.

For dinner, I walked to the 2nd arrondissement to a street called St. Anne's where you'll find a lot of Japanese restaurants and Japanese tourists.  I had gyoza and ramen for the first time in months... very happy!  But I kept mixing up French and Japanese when I tried to speak.  (I tried to tell the waitress in French that I wanted just vegetables in my ramen, and I said "Je voudrais yasai dake.")  I felt like I couldn't speak English, French, or Japanese and didn't really belong anywhere, which had me close to tears again.  After dinner, I was excited to discover a Japanese market nearby, until I realized a bag of wasabi peas was 7 euros!  I didn't cry, but I wanted to.

Anyway, I've lived in enough foreign countries (Japan, Ghana, Berkeley) to realize that this is all very normal.  (Either that or I have PMS.)  Just thought you might find it amusing to know that living the Paris dream isn't all bon bons and fois gras.

Thanks for reading!

ps. This wonderful American couple I met in a cafe and talked to for hours over several glasses of wine one night just invited me to join them for some sight seeing.  Happy again.