Oskar's last days

Today I have work this afternoon then i'll be hitting trivia and an open mike night at another bar. Oskar leaves Paris on Wednesday this week for Oktoberfest then he goes on to Austria to find a job snowboard instructing or something in a bar. So it is his final days in Paris and I sympathise with him because I can imagine what it will be like for me. He realises he hasn't done everything he wanted to and he sees all this people in the bar and they say hey man howre you going? they chat then the other guys says seeya next week, but he wont.

i went to a little party on saturday night which was pretty fun and my apartment coming together with furniture but i still dont have a couch, and im not really sure what i will do about this. miss you all, stay safe.

Work

I started work, or more accurately training for work, on thursday last week and I did two 12 hours shifts in 2 days. I then had the weekend off and i slept then worked again this morning. Work is going very well. I am learning quickly and meeting lots of fun and friendly people. There is a bit to learn but once i have it down it shouldn't be too hard. Oh yeah, in case you don't know, I got a job at a hostel. It is a very english speaking hostel with a bar and plenty of fun people and staff. The hostel is a mix of hostels that I have stayed at, although i've never stayed at this particular one, because it is friendly and nice but has a bar so at night it becomes a bit more fun and lively. I am greatly looking forward to working there a bit more and getting some money in my pocket.

Not much else has been going on, ive been keeping a pretty boring life over the last few days in order to adjust for the work on my body. The main thing on my mind after work is trying to find a really cheap or free couch, cos i'm sick of my folding chairs that I have to sit on. The place is sorta coming together. It would be a lot better if I had the ability to buy everything i want for the apartment but it will do for now. Tomorrow I will have a good look for a couch around classifieds and stuff. The tomorrow night I do training for the night shift which should be heaps of fun. So what ahve you been up to?

Star Academy

There is this show on French TV called Star Academy. It is similar to Australian Idol but not a clone like most countries. It has a range of amateur individuals who want to make it big and they are selected by a series of judges and are put into a house. The camera films a lot of what goes on in the house as well as all the singing and dancing practices. There is a big show once a week where they perform in front of a live audience and get rated by the judges. The interesting thing about the show is the elimination section. What happens is that three individuals with the lowest average judge score at the end of the live show based on their performance get nominated to be eliminated. Then during the week people call in to vote for their favourite. In Australian Idol you vote for who you want to eliminate and the two with the lowest score stay. In Star Academy you vote for the individual you want to stay then they are guaranteed a place if they have the majority. Then there are two left to be eliminated and to decide on who is going to stay the rest of the contestants verbally vote on the live show for who they want to stay. This seems crazy because once one person has the majority and the contestants feel like it is going a certain way, they all vote for the same person - because why would you vote for the loser and then be stuck in the house with someone who knows you voted against them and may well do the same back to you. It seems crazy and is typically french.

I have three days left of freedom before starting work so I am enjoying it by relaxing and not doing too much. I have trivia night tonight which is always fun and I will probably take it easy during the day. The nice weather has returned so it is beautiful in Paris and very relaxing.

The neverending struggle zith internet cqfes

OK; so I am fed up zith my old internet cafe because i am pretty sure they were watching the computers there. so i have returned to a chain called xs arena. they all suck cos they have french keyboards and they are really hot and everything else i always complain about, but at least they are anonymous. i am gonna keep looking for a better one cos this one is far from good.

i wanna write something about star academy but this keyboard and this place piss me off too much. i will do it next time.

Here is qn exq,ple of the french keyboqrd qnd hoz useful it is zhen I type out qvec,qtildq:co,

Banking in Paris for Foreigners

I went to a local BNP Paribas (French Bank) branch a bit over a month ago and in my broken French and their non-existant English discovered that for foreigners to open a bank account they have to go the BNP at metro Opera. So I hopped on the metro that afternoon and headed out there. I had the same language problem with the receptionist (you would think in a branch which is specifically tailored towards foreigners opening accounts that at the very least the receptionist would speak English), but she managed to work out what I was saying because I had especially leant the word for bank account (compte en banque). I sat and waited to see a guy who could help me and was then instructed to follow him to his little office. He couldn't speak much English, so again I spoke in my broken French. He told me that I needed to bring with me my passport, carte de sejour, proof of address, and some money for a deposit. So we made a date to return, he said the earliest he had was in two weeks from today, so I said okay and jotted it down in my diary and mobile phone calendar.

Two weeks passed and I returned and went through a similar process of talking to the receptionist and waiting. I waited for an hour after my appointment was supposed to be scheduled but the guy didn't come back from lunch so I left. The stupid thing was that during this time the friend I was with rocked up off the street with no appointment, saw a guy and if my friend had had the correct paperwork would have been able to set up a bank account. But my guy didn't show. So I left it for another day.

I finally got around to it all again yesterday and returned to the same BNP in Opera and spoke to the same receptionist, except with a little bit better French (her English hadn't improved) and waited again. This time I went to a different office in a different section and spoke with a guy who could speak English relatively well. He instructed me that it was possible to set up an account but there were various requirements such as a minimum deposit. I thought that's fine and asked what is this minimul deposit? He replied that it is 8,000 euros. I sat back in my seat and laughed and told him I was in Paris for about 6 months and was only working as a holiday job. There was no way that I would see 8,000 euros in the next 5 years let alone in the next few months. What kind of guy did he think I was, rocking in with my t-shirt and shorts on and my old leather bag - A 22 year old Australian in Paris with a casual 8,000 euros as a minimum account balance in my new french bank account. So I told him I was living in Paris and had a residence and he told me I was in the wrong section and I went back to the secretary and sat back down.

After another little while another guy with basic English came to help me and we walked towards his office, but for some reason before we made it there we stopped walking and had the rest of the discussion in the hall. I told him my situation again and he told me I had everything I need for an account but I need proof of my residence in the form of a gas and electricity bill or telephone bill. I had my gas bill from my previous apartment in the Marais but it was almost 4 months old and they wanted one that was less than 3 months old. I told him that I didn't pay the gas and had no telephone so how would I prove my address. He had no idea and suggested that I think about it then go to a BNP near my apartment. I told him that I was a foreigner and asked him if it was true that I had to go to this bank to open an account. He told me this branch deals with non-resident foreiners but if you have an apartment you can go to any branch in France.

So there it was, any branch, I just need to find some way of proving my residence. It is tricky because the only way they accept is name and address on gas bill or telephone bill. Surely there are a heap of people in France who don't have a phone and have someone else paying their gas bill? I dunno. Anyway I'm going to visit my local branch today and try my luck with English speakers and the whole process again.

Food Glorious Food

I'm not sure how much you care about my eating habits but here is some more information about my ever interesting fridge and food situation. Yesterday afternoon I did two trips to the supermarket and stocked up for the next fortnight. It is the best way for me to do it because it is too much to do in one trip and I prefer to buy a little bit more than just for one person because it is cheaper and it will last long enough. So I do two trips as I cannot carry everything in one trip. The supermarkets are tailored to one person buying for only four or five days of food. Everything comes in smaller packages than Australia, such as only one litre milk (oh it is so good to have fresh milk again instead of that strange UHT milk everyone seems to drink here), or 2 slices of ham in a pack. Weird. And they don't have trolleys cos no one needs that much. And bread comes in half loaves with the two ends already cut off and thrown away. Anyway, so now I have a fridge I bought some cheese:

And check out how packed my little fridge is with food!

So today I continue to try and open a french bank account and work around all the hibertyjiberty that they have in place here for one reason or another. I was supposed to meet Oskar for a movie but when he left the pub after trivia last night with some friends I knew that there was no way he'd be up by 11am (the time we said we'd meet), and of course he didn't show. But its okay because although I wanna see The Sentinel with Keifer Sutherland, I am poor and prefer to save the money. I am also nervous about wrecking my image of Jack Bauer that I have in my head so I am in no particular rush to see the movie. Today I am also going to post some things and do some photo copying so I can start the process of getting my money back from the insurance company after my hospitalisation after my broken nose and face, and my doctors visit after my salmonella poisoning.

The weather is picking up again here, but I know that it won't last long. I'm reading an excellent JFK biography at the moment, so I think I will enjoy the weather while I can and go and read in the Jardin du Luxembourg for an hour or so. Let me know what you are up to?

Here are some random photos which I realised I hadn't uploaded. There are from left to right: A huge dog on the train to Budapest, the attic of the hostel where we slept in Budapest, and five beers I tried in Krakow.

Musee Rodin and Pasta

As you may have noticed in my previous post I now have a fridge. Thank god. It is smaller than a normal Aussie fridge, but it is perfect for Paris and if it was any bigger would have been impossible to move. I went to the address in the 15e to pick it up but my friend, Oskar, who was supposed to help me never called or showed up so I thought I would check it out to see if I could handle it on my own. I realised it was too awkward even though I could lift it, so I called a friend then another friend and he came with a friend of his and I paid and we carried it downstairs. The boyfriend of the person we bought it off helped us by calling a cab, but he said the cab company would not pick up a fridge and that I should rent a car. I thought screw that and toyed with the idea of carrying it in the metro. But the gates to get into the metro would have been a big problem so the boyfriend called another company. We told him to ask for a large car but not to tell them we were transporting a fridge. He did so and we waited on the street with the fridge hidden behind a car (we were worried that if the cab driver saw us with the fridge he might just drive off and not stop). So he pulled over, we coaxed him into giving us a lift, then transported it for 10 euros to the apartment. The hardest part was getting up the 4 flights of stairs to my apartment with no lift. But we managed to do it somehow and now I have a fridge where I can keep milk and cheese. Yay.

Yesterday i went to the Musee Rodin. I haven't been to this Museum in 2 years and I am always impressed with its tranquility and beauty. It is in walking distance from my apartment so I think I will return sometime on a nice day to sit and read. The gardens are quite large and dotted all around them are sculptures by Rodin. He sculpts large and powerfully emotional works in which you feel like the scupture is going to move at any minute. Here is a few photos:


Well I have started cooking in a semi-proper way. Since I left Australia I have never really cooked. I have heated stuff up, made scrambled eggs, made sandwichs, bought kebabs, but never properly cooked. So, even though it is very basic and any smuck could do it, I cooked pasta the other night. It was pretty good, and I enjoyed eating it, but as I have no experience I had no idea how much to cook for just myself. I have since had about 4 pasta meals and worked out the perfect amount, but for this first trial I was way off. I made a bit more than double of what I could eat. Here is a photo. Yum!

Today I am going to the supermarket to buy some better quality pasta sauce and some garlic and onions to try and improve the flavour a little. Then I am going to cook some for dinner tonight. After which I am meeting some friends at a Scottish pub for a few hours of trivia. What are you people doing?

Finally...