Day 3

Well, I have finally achieved my goal.  This post will summarize all that we have experienced TODAY.  If you have been brave enough to read through the depth of this work so far, perhaps you will be willing to stick it out for a little longer.  As in any survival scenario, you have to satisfy some very basic needs quickly if you have any hopes of lasting survival.  For us, today's first task was . . . food.  Perhaps not as dramatic as Bear Grylls sucking the guts out of a Mountain Goat, it was still an obstacle that we had to overcome.  Armed with a handful of Euros and good intentions, we set off for the market.  Now we had tried this before, on our orientation trip, with disasterous results.  The sights and sounds are remarkable, but the SMELL,  Oh boy, let me tell you about the smell.  Somewhere between raw fish and bus exhaust mixed with a little ass and feet you find this unique perfume of life.  Brands you have never heard of, but some you have.  Tony the Tiger is selling "Frosties" not "Frosted Flakes" and Lays Potato Chips are sold as "Max Craquantes".  A lot of the marketing seems to focus on the sound the food makes when one injests it.  I have yet to figure that out.  We decided on a well rounded mix of the familiar and the not so familiar.  Fortunately most of it has been a hit with the kids.  It helps to have open minded youngsters, but the new flavors have generally been very tolerable.  Food . . . CHECK.

The next necessity:  Housing.  After a jaunt out to my wife's new office we headed for our rendezvous with our new landlady.  Against my better judgment I let my wife drive.  Hell I already wrecked this thing, what is a blown engine and juiced transmission?  I must say, I am proud of her.  She showed quite a bit of improvement today and only stalled the car three times.  In a driving rain we made it back in time to see our new house.  This was the first the kids and I had seen of the inside of our new home.  My wife had toured the home while in town for work prior to our big move.  I am going to go ahead and be honest here, there is very little chance you are going to see this baby featured on an episode of "Cribs".  It does have some of the trappings of a rock star's home.  A swimming pool for example.  Not too shabby right?  Almost camoflages the graffiti laiden neighborhood and the noticible grime on almost every wall in the home.  It has potential.  Good bones as they say in the real estate game.  A splash of paint and we should be underway.

The landlady appears to be a stearn lady who knows very little English and we obviously know very little French.  I believe she had the upper hand in this negotiation.  Even with an interpreter, neither my wife nor I had any idea what we were signing.  All I know is we now have a whole lot of keys (several deadbolts . . . bad neighborhood?) to a house with some yellow and orange carpeting.  That's right, brand new yellow and orange carpeting!  The icing on this cupcake is the matching wallpaper!  Oooh La La!  How could we have been so lucky to find this gem?  I am surprised there wasn't a bidding war.

Back at the hotel now, unwinding from another day in the trenches.  The real surprise for the day?  The fact that I actually ever parked our rental car in spot 39 without hitting the wall like a crazed Nascar driver.  I am taking bets that my wife hits the wall tomorrow when she arrives home from her first day at work.  Any takers?  I will keep you posted.