Changing Residence (Aug 14th)

Our former hosts are going to Marseilles today, fortunately. Staying with them was a learning opportunity, a way for me to acclimate to French society again.

They clearly had never had a couchsurfer before, and seemed to feel entirely uncomfortable with the idea after awhile. I feel as if they did not know what to do. We weren't really their guests, or welcome, and certainly not their friends as I have been so fortunate to feel in my travels, staying with other people.

They insisted on speaking English, which was likely out of respect for Megan, but I had a feeling that the husband enjoyed practicing. Not a fault, but when he ignored basically everything I said (I am still not sure if he actually knows that I speak French, and that I lived in Paris for ten weeks), and attempted to control most of what we did.

I have heard criticism of the United States across Europe, and accept what is deserved, and reason out what is not. His comments about politics seemed to come from a place of superiority instead of discussion, and I was given little opportunity to respond. Despite our fatigue, they kept us up late, and even though we kindly described our plans, he suggested the most random things for us to do. I am not sure that Megan would have enjoyed the exhibit on Bulgarian icons on display at the castle of Vincennes, instead of going into the center of Paris for the first time.

His wife was much easier to like, but he spoke about a hundred times more than her. I hate to be controlled, and I felt as if I was constantly bowing and dancing around to play his games, so that we could get away. He was not pleased to hear that we would be spending Thursday evening away, since I had to fetch my suitcase from my host mom's. Anyone that has heard "comme vous voulez" understands...

They clearly wanted us to leave at the same time as them in the morning, and we had difficulties accessing the bathroom.

They entirely ignored us last night, after saying hello at the door. Megan and I decided to be as polite as possible, and stay out of the way. At this point, we had passed the point where we could reason it away with cultural differences, and just decided to be as offended as we felt.

Tea, but no breakfast in the morning, and we were off; I believe we thanked them graciously, and wished them well in their travels. They went to work, and we had a picnic in the park.

Our next host lives just south of Paris on the RER B, so we hauled my suitcase onto the metro, and worked our way there.

Not realizing that the stop was in zone 3, our tickets were invalid at that point. I had been afraid of this when I looked at the map on the train, and turned to Megan saying "I am not sure that we're going to be able to get out, but we'll find a way." When we arrived, I found the right exit, and sure enough, our tickets wouldn't open the turnstile.

Without much of a pause, I threw my suitcase and bags underneath it, and crawled. Megan saw me and followed. I am not going to pretend that it was anything graceful, because we had bags falling everywhere, and I am still surprised that we weren't caught.

After getting a little lost, partly due to my tendency to take things literally (we have to get onto the aquaduct, Megan), we found the apartment building. My British phone was dead, my French phone was out of money, and the door had no way to call up to the apartment. You would think that with three phones, I wouldn't keep on getting stuck in this kind of situation. "He has to come out sometime". Luckily, our host called us, and came to let us in.

Like a true CS host, he offered us drinks, food, a computer, our own room with a bed, a shower, and the key to his apartment. Definitely feel welcome at his flat, and since not all of his flatmates speak English, I can practice French.

They also have a small cat who likes avocadoes.