RHYTHM

So we just finished our first full schoolweek at the Sorbonne. It's pretty much work - due to a serious lack of time we make our homework in the metro to school, which works out great - but we manage to do everything we have to.

I have two jobs at the moment, in two cafés. The first weeks were pretty tough since I don't have a lot of waitress experience AND I'm not francophone. "Une sucrette? C'est quoi ça?" imagine that you had to have this conversation about ten times a day - of course you'd have to fill in a random different article each try. Now that I'm finally starting to develop my rhythm I'm slowly coming at ease.

The first job is in a café from the late 50s: Café de l'Industrie. It has an interiour that could either be stolen from an elderly colonial rainforest explorer or scraped together from some of the multitudinous Paris flea markets; either way it's awesome. The employees are wonderful, most of them part time artists and the clients are very various. They do have a standard opening line for me: "Vous avez un petit accent; vous venez d'où?" which gives me the perfect opportunity to bring up one of my many sentimental memories about cheese and bikes. Wahoo! (you can click on the name of the café to get your own impression)

The other café is called La Fée Verte , which is a euphemism for absinthe. That's pretty logical since it's Paris' only absinthbar. Absinthe has been illegal for a long time - I had no idea - because it appears to mess with your brain. Just a few years ago, absinthe was reallowed again in France. The consumption of absinthe is a whole ritual including a - very heavy - absinthe watermachine and special absinthe spoons and special sugar cubes.

As I promised to put in some photos of the apartment: here is one. I am a bit afraid to even make pictures since it's always a mess around here. But it ís cosy! And on top of that we have a beautiful view from our private rooftop.( jeu de mots. hehe) We can't see no Eiffel Tower from our window but the roofs of Paris are pretty enough already.

A postcard with a saying that basically defines our apartment: "The best things in life are for free". Next to the stolen - borrowed - Christmas lights, a clock from Tati (for the Dutch that read this: it's like a French Zeeman) our birdsound antiburglar-system and an organiser that I picked up from the streets in Neuilly. Oh, and we got the postcard for free too.

This week I also went to Shakespeare & Company, where we played piano and read some books. I also learned how to play chess and I'm pretty damn good in it. For a beginner. I got filmed by journalist Brad Spurgeon, whose passion is music. He keeps up a music blog: http://www.bradspurgeon.com/ . His blog has a detailed list of open mic nights in Paris and he has been a journalist for the International Herald Tribune and New York Times. That is the great thing about Paris: there are so many people with interesting lives and stories; if you're open to meet them, you get to hear and see great things.

Tonight Tinka and I are going to a blues jam session at Canal Saint-Martin. How very sweet life can be.