Okay, so things you have to know:
(1) The reception building/area of my residence, which has a lounge-y place and also the washing room, is locked in the evenings and over the weekends. However I’d talked to the manager or whatever on Friday just before he left, and he told me who to ask to get a key for the lounge-y place in the meantime.
(2) There is a main door to the reception building, and a back door. The back door is closer to both my building, and to the laundry room.
(3) The back door, outside reception hours, is covered by a shutter. I didn’t know what to call it in English until I was told the French word and had to look it up.
Anyway, so after getting the key from a guy in another building (I had to return in the afternoon after some bike adventures, because when I went in the morning he was busy exercising his bedsprings), I went to do my laundry. I went in through the main entrance, and after starting a load I remembered the back door.
Another thing you should know is that the shutter that covers the outside of the back door is raised and lowered by buttons on the inside.
Also the back door opens out.
Pretty much my great plan to do an Indiana Jones failed. I started lowering the shutter just before rushing out through the door, BUT the shutter just hit the top of the door before I was able to get fully out, and then I was unable to get it to properly close for ages.
After some coaxing I managed to get it up all the way (hah), but couldn’t get it down anymore. Texted the manager, and the lady showed up an hour later (now I’m not sure whose phone number it is, or maybe they ARE a couple).
There was much fluffing about by the man with a ladder, but eventually they got it to close. No idea if it’ll go up again, the lady just said we’d have to see on Monday, but at least it was closed now. I hope I haven’t fucked it up for everyone… (FYI now it is Monday and still seems broken, or at least it was closed, fuuuck)
Anyway so she now thinks I am a complete, foreign-newbie, bimbo. Especially because I asked her (twice) to explain the sign above the washing machine, which I only understood as: “From now on, the[word I don’t know] like [brand name I don’t know] is FORBIDDEN.” I didn’t have the guts to ask her to confirm whether I was putting the washing machine liquid in the right place - they have the non-top-loading type that I’ve never used or properly seen. I swear the guy-manager had showed me two places, one for liquid and one for powder, but I could only find one SOOO yeah.
Also two girls in another building also think I’m an idiot because I asked them about the sign twice too, because I didn’t really understand what the lady said in the first (or second) place. I’ve concluded that there is a certain type of washing liquid you can’t use, the one that specifically tries to prevent your whites going coloured etc – which seems weird, but it’s either that or don’t use those washing powder square things, but I didn’t get that anyway so it’s fine. Mine was the cheapest liquid at the Monoprix (bigger grocery in town, kinda with a Farmers department thing), and had everything written unhelpfully in German, but I think it’s okay.
Oh also after sorting out my bike subscription, I got lost and found the market that Vegetarian mentioned, but then I got really lost and despite back-tracking I have now completely forgotten where it is.
ANYWAY my stupidity aside, here are some things I have seen recently:
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| View of the big clock tower and town area from the student side where uni is etc. |
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| Closeup. LIGHTS. |
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| Went out to dinner with Pirate and Vegetarian. SALT AND PEPPER SHAKERS. I want to buy them. |
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| DESSERT. |
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| I MUST GO HERE SOMETIME. (And no this was not where salt and pepper shakers were) |
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| Near this place called Esplanade de Jean d'Acre. |
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| Random menu of a cafe near Technoforum. Moules = mussels; so, what? |
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| I bought a lighter for the candle Mum bought me. CAT. |
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| Caramel tea is a thing. |
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| GIANT BABYBEL. My fingers for size reference. |
Also things that I have seen, but have not photographed:
- A middle-aged drag queen in a lavender tutu-like skirt (this was in the hosiery department of Galeries Lafayette in Paris – everything else is in La Rochelle).
- Two girls pashing on the dock.
- A slightly-younger French Joseph Gordon-Levitt sucking a lollipop (I SWEAR. I would’ve stayed to gawp discreetly from the other side of the road if I hadn’t been running late for a damned appointment).
- A really fluffy cat that jumped into the window of another building of my residence.
And also today (/yesterday) I saw ‘Time Out’ with Vegetarian (was originally going alone ‘cause Pirate hadn’t replied to my text, and Vegetarian only just got a French number, but lucky timing) – which is the French name for that time movie Justin Timberlake. I thought it would be English with French subtitles but it was completely dubbed, which I managed to follow and maybe even preferred (though I now want to hear what Leonard sounds like outside of Big Bang Theory, since I swear they made him gruffer in French) – because the movie turned out to be less about immortality and more about Marxism than I’d expected. Also Sherlock Holmes comes out in just over a fortnight; the ad was subtitled so hopefully I can watch that somewhere in English (British accents, come on!).
The movie theatre offers like 5-trip, 10-trip and 15-trip passes for movies, and ALSO the same for operas/ballets! So I might do that, if there is enough on that I want to see. I saw a poster for an opera for Cinderella, actually (which I have just hilariously realised is the name of the crazy-badarse brief that I am dying to buy from Agent Provocateur when I go to Paris without my mother).
Anyway so this was at the big movie theatre near the Technoforum (near me), which has two smaller branches in town, all with overlapping but slightly different movies showing (I originally wanted to watch ‘A Dangerous Method’, showing at a different branch, but thought I would seem dodgy watching it by myself on a Sunday afternoon).
Other useful things near Technoforum:
- Yélo bike stand
- My bank
- McDonalds
- Three eating places of varying café/restaurant level
- Foursquare (FYI there is normal, non-UHT milk here, to my great relief! Also SO MUCH CHEAP DRINKING YOGHURT; I got 850ml for 1 euro the other day ‘cause it was 2 days till expiration, hah. Sandwich bread is unsurprisingly average, but mandarin-things that may be clementines are DELICIOUS.)
And slightly further off there’s also a Subway, pizza place, miscellaneous café-type thing, and a university restaurant. I haven’t yet worked out the latter (only open during the week), but you load money onto your student card and get a cheap meal (like 3 euros; though tiffy has warned me that it’s 3 euros for a reason, so will see how it goes on Monday).
Pretty much I’m set now that I know where all that stuff is. It’s taken me surprisingly long, considering that FLLASH, the Technoforum and my residence are all just a few blocks away from each other…
MONDAY. I hope to find out times for my bloody Arts classes at last; law doesn’t start till the week of the 23rd but even THEY managed to give me info.
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