The Saga Continues

Day 2 saw the continuation of my foul luck. Monday morning was a disaster. I woke up and headed to the hotel for the set-up, turns out set-up actually IS on Tuesday. I was grateful for the extra time but it was chaos and confusion at the hotel. I decided to use the extra time to iron the logo table cloth. Horrifically the moment the iron touched the fabric it melted the cloth away. This would not have been too bad except the hole is right in front next to the logo. It took everything to keep from falling apart. I was so distraught I actually prayed the table cloth would be restored, or that I could go back in time 1 minute. It was so surreal. Since the table cloth was not going to be miraculously made whole I simply had to find a way to hide the hole. I ironed some cleverly placed folds to hide the hole. It also took quite a bit of time to remove the melted plastic from the iron so that I could iron my suit, thankfully when I removed it from the closet there were no longer any wrinkles.

By the time it was 11:00. I was so emotionally exhausted I just crawled back into bed. L de G, who I lived with when I was here on study abroad chose this opportune moment to call the hotel to set up a time for us to go to dinner that evening. This woke me up a bit and I was able to get some work done after that.

I was feeling slightly better and decided to take advantage of the rest of the day and venture out into the city. I visited a few places and then got on the metro. I was not certain where I was going to go at this point so I simply changed trains a few times. I realized I was hungry and decided to head over to the Louvre for lunch and then visit the museum. However, I got off one stop to late and as I was standing up top trying to get my bearings this person I had seen several metro stops previously walked up and started talking to me in French. Disturbingly he had been following me for several metro and had only just been able to catch me – I should have kept walking. I pretended like I did not understand a word he said, which was not very difficult because he was Moroccan and had a terrible French accent. In about 5 min he explained that he had been in France for 6 years and was still looking for a job. By this time I was incredibly annoyed that he was bothering me and indicated that I needed to go to the Louvre, I started to walk away and he followed me. I spent the next hour trying to get rid of him. Finally I bought my ticket into the museum and when he tried to buy one I told him no. It was all horrific, and now I am terrified of running into him again.

After that experience the solitude of the Louvre was wonderful. It is an amazing place. You can be in an area full of people and turn a corner and suddenly find yourself in an almost empty corridor full of treasures. So much has changed. I was there at least once a week when I was here before and I found tons of new exhibits, along with many old favorites. It was off to the garden after that and then back to the hotel where I rested my feet while waiting for Laurence. We had dinner at this charming little café where I ate what was probably one of the best desserts of my life. She then took me around Paris in her car which was great fun, especially when we were pulled over by a French Policeman. By the time I got back to the hotel at midnight I was more than ready for bed.