time of your life

i appreciate people telling me "wow! you must be having the time of your life!" but there are a few things i think would be funny for you all to know about certain things here that . . . i dont know . . annoy me? sometimes, there are simple things from home that i really miss and cant do here. like: sitting on the back porch with the cat, or lying down on any form of furniture other than wooden chairs and watching TV in english . . isn't that something? or eating a cheap burrito, or talking in person to an old friend. so here is a list . . in which . . i wish . . . that i . . . .

1. didn't have to use an old rag to grip my one pot that has no handle in order to pour hot water into one of my few drinnking cups that isnt made of plastic;
2. didn't have to pay 10 euros to do a load of laundry so that i didn't have to wash my socks and underwear in my bathtub;
3. which, by the way, isn't even a bathtub. it's a baignoire, which is really a cross-pollinated ceramic box-shaped tub/basin with a long cord and shower head that detaches from the holder on the wall. you get naked, climb into it (when standing, it comes up to almost waist-height, so you really do have to climb in), and sit down. then you rinse, while sitting in it. sometimes, there is LOTS of water that splashes onto the floor and wall, and sometimes, there is just a little water on the floor and wall, but always, there is water on the floor and wall. no, there is no way to install a shower curtain.
4. didn't always have to listen to the portugese family's baby that always cries really early in the morning;
5. didn't always have to sit in wooden chairs. i have 4 chairs at my apartment, and a metal table. there is no furniture made of some cloth/textile derivative. you're either sitting, or you're lying down on my loft bed. you have to climb a ladder to get into bed. that's a hot pick-up line isn't it? "hey baby, you ready to climb the ladder?"

i smoke rolled cigarettes now since i'm broke. i eat lots of baguettes, lots of cheese, and lots of pasta. i eat more carbs and vegetables than i ever have in my life. lots of eggplant, lots of zucchini, lots of onions and peppers. with pasta. then some more pasta. on top of that, we drink lots of wine. fortunately, amanda and eric live with thomas, the french boy from provence with a gold ring and who loves to hit your shoulder if you're the last person to say "gonfio!" after someone has belched. he is a student at the lycee, and so he knows how to cook. sometimes, he cooks up some excellent repas.

on sundays, amanda wishes she could lie down on a couch in her pajamas and watch a movie. the other day i really wanted to watch a baseball game. or eat a hamburger at Clocked, in Athens. or simply go into a bar, see some live music, and drink cheap beer. the beer here is served in small bottles. i'm talking small. i have a picture i'll post later of a beer bottle next to a green pepper. the pepper has more volume than the beer. on top of that, it's 4.2% in its trouble-making potential.

i was waiting to order a pre-made ham and butter sandwich today at a bakery, and the guy in front of me ordered a little pan pizza. the woman asked him if he wanted it heated up, and he did, so while she put the pizza in the microwave, she didn't take my order. customer service to that degree is non-existent here. she stood next to the microwave for 2 minutes and stared out the window. then she took it out, he paid, then she politely asked me what i would like to order.

when you cross at cross walks, cars never stop completely for you. here, they continue drifting in your direction, and you better hurry. they look at you, never stopping, so you hurredly get the hell out of the road as the car continues rolling at you. once, i waited until the car completely stopped before i crossed. the guy got really pissed. once he stopped, i was half-way across when he rolled down his window and yelled "VAS-Y!"" (GO!!) and sped off.

josh, the buddy from georgia (originally), assistant in Cluses and who accompanied us in annecy for new year's, was here this weekend. he said he was reading camus' "la peste" - the plague - and said that the old people walking around with their heads down here in town reminded him of the book, in which everyone in the quarantined city goes outside briefly to ponder about life in the outside world.

ok, enough for now. i'm happy! don't worry!