Newest Archives Profile Whispers Rings Host
And I mean flushed in the non-bathroom sort of way Weighing my pockets with stones of longing |
Today and tomorrow will probably be spent alone, in my apartment/hideout for the most part, I imagine. I go to visit my schools on Tuesday, so I want to make sure I've done enough solitary paper shuffling and rehearsing and relaxing to feel prepared. I have been making more social connections, though, which is good for me. The more people I know here the more likely it is I'll get forced outside from time to time. Friday night I went to a dinner with the other Narbonne assistants - we drained six bottles of wine between the seven of us. Needless to say, we felt a good deal of comraderie near the end and I slept very well that night. It looks as though I'm going to become a regular wino down here. Good for my heart and my social life, I suppose. Yesterday I met a British bloke named Will who shuttled me and the Canadian assistant, Jessica, around to stores on the outskirts all morning. He's very anxious but sincere. Jessica recruited me to help her transport and assemble a good deal of furniture since I love handiwork like that, so I had lunch with her, her roommate Otalia and male suitor Florent. We had my favorite Malian dish by coincidence - Otalia is Ivoirienne. In the course of assembling their couch we called upon the elderly landlady, Mme Jougla, for some tools. She was downstairs tinkering and brought up a wooden bucket tied with twine full of World War II era hand tools. She and I quickly recognized our mutual love of "bricolage," and when everyone else realized that Mme Jougla and I knew how to read directions, they more or less left the work to us. She and I chatted about tools, she taught me some key handy-man vocab including some words she claimed were "indelicate." We also comiserated about sexism in the auto-mechanic industry. I think Mme Jougla is a soul mate. We put together a hide-a-bed sofa, a desk, and a book shelf in a couple of hours, she thanked me for the good time, gave me some great almond cookies, and invited me back to tinker another day. Jessica offered me dinner for my trouble, but I opted to come home for left over ravioli and some X-files episodes. All in all, I think I'm establishing my worth as a useful person to have around if not a fun one, so that makes me happy. I'm slowly getting settled into life in my own place; strange that my first time living truly alone would be in a foreign country. It's both lonely and liberating in turns, but so far so good. If my luck keeps up, my real work shouldn't be too bad. I guess that's all the news around here lately. If you can think of any good meal ideas that don't involve an oven, a microwave, or a toaster, I'd love to hear them.
Bricolage at 10:15 p.m.
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