Staying busy

Every day I try to think of new things I can do to make my time not working more enjoyable. If I'm not doing something fun, I'm brainstorming fun things I could do (usually). And that usually means more time thinking than doing simply because there honestly aren't a whole lot of things to do around here, as you all know by now.

This weekend I somehow managed to find enough to do to keep myself occupied for the most part. I spent all day Friday running random errands. At this point, I really don't mind walking 30 minutes to the store because at least it gives me something to do! I walked from one far-away store to another, which definitely took up a good chunk of my evening. Unfortunately, I didn't find what I was looking for and ended up coming out with nothing but toilet paper and some eclairs. But maybe that's a good thing. That night, I'll tell ya, I was bored bored bored. But I managed to get a large portion of my Full House trivia quiz typed up. Let me know if you're up for the challenge, and I can email it to you when it's ready. ;) (I did have a specific person in mind when making it, so there actually was a purpose.)

Saturday I did stuff "around the house." Cleaned, took down my Christmas decorations (finally), organized, you know. As much "around the house" stuff I can do in a tiny space like mine. Then last night Mario and I went to the house of one of the teachers he works with at the collège (middle school). She lives alone with her cat in a ginormous-looking apartment. There's a huge front gate you must open to get to the front door, and once you walk in the front door there are wooden stairs winding in every direction. It was cool. Felt like a castle or something, although really it wasn't anything special for France. It would be awesome to live in a place like that though as an assistant! Anyway, the three of us (and her cat) chatted for a little over an hour over drinks and snacks. And by snacks I mean cheese, sausage, etc. We mostly talked about our jobs as assistants, traveling, school, and teaching. It was so nice to finally be invited to someone's house in Lure, even though she wasn't one of the teachers I work with. She was really delightful.

Afterwards, the three of us went to a concert, which took place right across from her apartment. The performer was Xavier Merlet, who's apparently not very well known yet. She explained to Mario and me that if someone comes to Lure, you know they're not very well known because once they are, they'll never come to Lure again. It's true, I suppose. Lure is so small, I can't imagine a large crowd for anyone. Anyway, I really enjoyed the concert. I don't even know how to explain the type of music this guy does, so have a look for yourself: http://www.xaviermerlet.com/ He was mysterious and bizarre. I'd say a mix between 70's pop, classic French, and today's popular music. On the site, click the button on top of the television that says "Vidéos," and you'll see what I mean.

Today I did laundry. I hate doing laundry. I've always hated doing laundry, but now that I live in Lure, I REALLY hate doing laundry. I'll never complain again about doing it at home, with the comfort of a washing and drying machine just feet away. I loaded my bag full of dirty clothes and hauled it to the laundromat. It was so heavy I thought I might not make it, but I did. The whole way there I was, as usual, dreading what might be ahead of me. Doing laundry is always an interesting feat. The laundromat in town has only two working washing machines (one which costs twice as much, so I always use the smaller one), one washing machine that's been out of order since before I arrived in Lure, and two dryers. There's hardly anywhere to sit. The two plastic benches are falling apart, and it's awkward to sit that close to another person. The room is small. I'd say about the size of my apartment, which is quite small. Waiting for laundry to finish, there's really not anything to do, so you're almost forced to talk to whoever else is in there. It's always an awkward and interesting thing at first. Usually I don't say anything unless I need to or if someone says something to me first. Again, I repeat, it's really awkward! When another person says something to me first, it's usually something regarding laundry- the machines, how well they work, how long they take, the condition of the clothes, how to pay, etc. I'm always ready for it, but once they start talking I just smile and laugh inside. They have no idea that I don't understand most of what they're saying. After they finish, I kindly ask them what they just said, and they repeat with the same speed as the first time. I think it catches them off guard to discover someone from out of town. It's not like in a shop or a restaurant where you sort of know the general idea of what will come next in the conversation. This is completely spontaneous. So, I answer their questions and say what I need, but rarely do I continue into a longer just-for-fun conversation. They probably think I'm a grump, but then again, so are are lot of the people I see there. Only occasionally do they get enough out of me to realize something's different, that I'm clearly not French, and then of course those friendly enough to ask will find out I'm American. That's when the interesting conversations begin, but I'll tell you, it's not too often. I've been in there with so many different types of people... A single woman with five grown kids once told me about her grandaughter's first trip to Disneyland (and secretly inside I was really loving it because I was about to go there in a few weeks!) and went off about something about Michael Jackson. Once there was an extremely talkative young couple with an adorable baby who were asking me all sorts of things about Obama, health care in the US, and flying to and from Europe. (It was also awkward before they realized I'm not French... The mom was talking about me to the baby. I didn't know how to respond because, well, I don't normally talk to babies in French!) They were my favorite! And there was the family of kids obnoxiously bouncing coins off the floors and windows. That's just to name a few.

Anyway, back to the point...

I finally made it to the laundromat, crossing my fingers the one machine I use would be open. Well, there were clothes sitting in there, completely finished and waiting to be taken out. I waited five minutes before I had enough of it, and I took the clothes out, put them in the basket that I assumed belonged to the owner of the clothes, and loaded my things. I wasn't going to waste my time. Thirty minutes later, a woman comes in wearing a bathrobe (and I'm assuming something under it) to get the clean clothes. I was all ready with what I was going to say if she got mad I'd taken her stuff out. But she didnt'even mention it, so I was glad. There's another older woman sitting in there waiting for her rugs to finish being washed. Actually it was more like carpet. Proper carpet pieces... huge pieces. I don't know what made her think to put them in a washing machine. I never would have, but whatever. When I'm ready to put my things in the dryer, she asks me if I could use the one on the right because the one on the left is bigger (I really don't think it is) and will be able to fit her rugs once they're ready. She even assured me the smaller one works better because of its smaller size. Okay, no problem. So I used the one of the right. One euro, 18 minutes. Usually I do either two or three cycles, but I only did two this time. As I stood waiting for my stuff to finish, I listed to her mumble some things to me about her rugs (which I definitely did NOT understand... but it's easier to just let her talk) and watched her struggle putting them into the dryer. I wasn't about to help. Sorry, but it was weird and I knew those rugs weren't going to dry like that. After my 18 minutes were up, I anxiously opened the machine. Completely wet. Didn't even feel like they'd gone through the machine. I told the woman that the machine she's using definitely works better than this one because my clothes weren't at all dry. I was secretly annoyed because I'd only used that machine at her request even though in the past I'd heard people mention the one on the right doesn't work as well. I figured it couldn't be that defective! So instead of waiting for her to finish with her rugs and instead of spending probably 10 more euros to dry my clothes, I loaded them all back into my bag and headed home.

Wet clothes are a LOT heavier than dry clothes. I swear, I haven't worked out that much in years. I had to stop like 8 times (no joke) along the way back to my apartment just to set the bag down, rest my arms, and catch my breath. When I got back to my room, I had no clue where I was going ot put everything to dry. I have two drying racks, but they're not enough. I somehow managed to get everything hanging as best as I could. Some things are hanging on chairs, by the window, on my shelf, etc. But I'm telling you, I'll probably have to go back there to dry some stuff before Wednesday. That's when I'll be on my last pair of underwear if these newly-cleaned ones don't dry soon. So, tonight I have no pajamas to wear because they're all wet. Actually I do have shorts to wear, I just normally don't wear them in the winter. And my lounge pants are all wet, too, so I'm sitting here wearing my thermal whatever outdoor running pants. Hey, they're warm!

I finished hanging everything just in time to head to the movies. For the second time in my life, I went to the movies by myself. Last time was when I had a free pass that was about to expire and couldn't find anyone to go with me. This time... pure enjoyment. And it was a really cute movie. My new goal is going to be to see a film a week. The cinema's super close to where I live, and they change out the movies really often, so it's a plan.