Last night, today got nominated as my first (and hopefully not last) "Do Nothing Day"! Have beeen trying to run around and do something every day since I've ben here and then it dawned on me that that's not why I'm here -- like I told people before I left, I'm here to have fun but also to try and blend-in and get "bored" just like I would be living in Colorado!
That meant getting out of bed, getting cleaned-up a bit, walking down to the boulangerie that I like on the corner, buying a couple of croissants and a baguette, casually strolling back to the apartment, making myself a cup of coffee, heating up the croissants, then sitting out on the apartment balcony drinking coffee, eating croissants and watching the white, puffy clouds float by above me in the deep blue sky and the prople scurry about below. With the warmth of the sun beating down on my back and a gentle breeze in my face, that was pretty this morning. No rushing around, no hurrying for the Metro train, no dealing with crowds at tourist attractions, no dodging cars, no hiking for miles, no nothing but pure relaxation with a mix tape of jazz and country music playing in the background -- it was great!
Then, around 1:00, it clouded-up and started to rain so decided to move inside and take a swipe at solving my photo posting problem. Called AppleCare for help and got on the phone with Alan, a really nice customer service rep based in Cork, Ireland. Thought -- "oh good -- finally get to speak English with someone for a change" -- that was until he started talking with a heavy Irish accent and it came back to me that there are reasons why Ireland is not part of England -- they speak differnt versions of English! I give him credit, he was very patient with me as I asked him to repeat himself for the twentieth time. We got him connected so he could see my screen as I went through the process I had been using to resize and download photos -- and, as I made the edits to a photo which promptly disappeared, all he could say over and over was -- "It's not supposed to do that, it's not supposed to do that. I have no idea why it's doing that" -- not the reassuring words I had hoped to hear! He eventually showed me an alternative method for resizing and downloading my photos which seemed to work and I spent the rest of the afternoon using his approach with modest success -- so there are now three times the number of photos up on the journal as there were yesterday at this time. I'll continue to work on posting them until they're all showing, hopefuly by tomorrow.
Then, seeing as I was getting stir-crazy being cooped-up all afternoon, it was off to the nearby grocery store to pick-up a few things. I am also proud to report that, as of this evening, I am an official member of the Carrefour member rewards program getting 5% off my purchases on Wednesdays (I think, and some other stuff that I couldn't understand -- it was in French!)
One thing that happened yesterday while walking around looking for the American Embassy that I forgot to mention in yesterday's journal entry -- I got be part of a honest-to-God "Gypsy scam" attempt!
Here I was strolling down a major street minding my own business when a gold-colored ring pops up between my feet and a Mediterranean-looking woman, probably in her fifties grabs my arm, picks-up the ring and excitedly says -- "Monsieur, you dropped your ring!" -- to which I replied "It's not mine." -- to which she replied -- "It must be monsieur or I am the luckiest person in the world" -- while circling me with excitement, touching my back, my arm, grabbing onto my shoulder -- fortunately, when I saw the ring and heard her voice, it clicked what might be going on and my hand instantly went to cover my wallet and position the wrist I had my watch on where she couldn't easily get to it -- I could feel when she touched my back that she was looking for a moneybelt and when she grabbed my one wrist with both hands she was looking for a watch and when she hugged my shoulder she was looking for a wallet in my coat pocket -- I couldn't believe what was happening! We did a dance for next two blocks with her trying to get both of my hands in the open by trying to force the watch on me -- "it was good luck to give away something precious that you find, and oh, it just happened to be her birthday and you're supposed to give things away on your birthday" -- no way in hell was my hand coming out of my front pocket off my wallet -- she was good! Finally managed to get untangled from her and walk away as she flipped the ring in the air and stared at me. What an experience! It was like something out of a movie or tv show -- no way I could make this crap up -- I know I came for an adventure, but I never could've imagined all that has happened to me in just the first week -- I literally pinch myself at times to make sure I'm not dreaming! And there's so much yet ahead -- I'm appreciating every day I'm here, even the "do nothing" ones!
