Chapter 107: Hello Gel-O

nerd blog post #115

So, I've been back in Paris for a week now, and things are going well. I am still very happy with my apartment, roomie and work.

I still love my job, and I wish I was working more. But upon return from Portugal, I saw that I had fewer and fewer shifts! Turns out, there's a chick who was working there and then quit, which is when I got hired. Now, she wants to work again. Unfair? Yes. BUT she is dating and lives with the owner, so she does whatever she wants. Drama. Anyways, I'ma talk to my boss and make sure that in August I'll be working full time (as was promised) and if not, I'ma get another wee job as well. I want to be busy and right now I'm not working enough to feel very busy at all.

Raffi's last visitor left on Wednesday, and he is feeling relieved to have his space and life back. We have been enjoying time together. Most notable was going to a fair near the Louvre. We rode a ferris wheel and it was the best view of the city I have ever seen! The difference between that and other high places, is that when you're standing on a high thing, you don't see that high thing. But the ferris wheel isn't a Parisian special, it's just a temporary high thing, so it was great. Then we had a treat and I chose barbe a papa! Delish.

Tuesday was Bastille Day and in the evening, I went to see the fireworks with Raffi, Viktor, and some of Raffi's Armenian friends. I can't describe what this was like. I saw the Y2K fireworks in Toronto, and these made that look like sparklers at a child's birthday party. They told a story, using lights, music and thousands of fireworks. They made the Eiffel Tower look as though it was spinning, dancing, and every different colour. It was one of the coolest spectacles I have ever seen. It was also with a million or so other people, and when the f-works were over, it was madness getting home. Due to the overwhelming amount of people, the metro stops closest to the Eiffel Tower were closed, and police had blocked off all but one entrance to the stops further away. We ended up walking for quite awhile before piling onto an incredibly overcrowded metro for the ride home.

I have a new friend named Gel. She is from Australia and we work together. Yesterday, we met to hang out. We discovered we live about a ten minute walk apart, and we went to a bar near her place that has 2Euro glasses of wine and 9Euro bottles! It's a cool, hipster place and I'm bound to return. I really like Gel. She makes me miss Cynthia in the way that she is fun and nice, but kind of quiet. She has only been in France for 3 weeks and doesn't speak French, which I think is brave. We have plans to go to the fake beach on the Seine this week (it opens today) and for wings at the Canadian pub tonight. Meeting for a drink yesterday turned into a 6 hour evening, and we have made some preliminary plans to travel together in the South of France and to Prague.

After a couple of weeks in Portugal, Jess has decided to return to Paris and arrives today until Friday. We have no set plans, but it will be nice to have her back. I'm not working until Sunday, so we'll have lot's of time to do all we missed her last time here.

Hope all is well in Canada! Sending my love..

Signing off,
Hincks.