lundi 1 octobre 2007

la defense & mo' money, mo' problems

Lucia and I helped Keisha move out of her place at La Defense yesterday, which is west of Paris. Her roommates's pretty cool. He works for Apple. It was weird though when we were leaving because Keisha was going to bisou him, but he didn't make a move until after Keisha had tried to make a move and then backed away when he didn't do anything. It was pretty awkward.

She moved into the Latin Quartier, and she is pres de moi! We hung out as she unpacked her clothes. Keisha is really one of my style icons. She knows how to put great clothes together, and she dresses like a real Parisienne. While she was putting clothes away, she came across these black gloves that she no longer wanted. They didn't fit Lucia, so she gave them to me. Yay! They'll be great for winter. And then she had this American Apparel black windbreaker that she didn't want, and guess who got it. Moi! It's an extra-small and kind of tight when zipped in the chest region, but it's still wearable. I planned on dropping a few pounds here anyway. We all talked about how our style of clothing has changed ever since we got here. Keisha's getting rid of certain things in her wardrobe while Lucia and I are dressing more mature and put together.

Malheureusement, Keisha's wallet was pickpocketed or fell somewhere during our transit to the 5eme (5th arrondissement). She was very cool though, didn't freak out too much, and we were there to help. Through Skype, she canceled her cards and called the Metro station to see if anyone had turned it in. No luck at the Metro. These things happen. It's just a reminder to all of us to be careful with our things and always prepare for the worst.

More than a month has past since I arrived. It went by so fast. There are times when it feels really slow, and when it's really fast and crazy. Right now, it's slow. I have a week before classes start, and I'm getting organized. I'm reviewing my expenses, and I spent 177E on food alone, 300E on school stuffs, toiletries, things I needed for the studio (I called that "Personal stuffs" in my excel spreadsheet). I expected to spend more the first few months (I just bought my yearly pass for the Metro and that was 284E. Yikes!), but I'm really going to try and save up. I'm going to try to cut that "personal" spending by at least half if I can. I find it really empowering to live simply and not be such a consumerist. Comparing the amount of clothes I brought to everyone else, I think I brought a quarter of what people brought. I had one suitcase and backpack and others had at least 2 suitcases to check in. I just didn't want to bring too much, you know?

Plans for the week:
1. crash cinema class at St. Denis
2. the Catacombs (?)

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