Almost Homeless

I started my new job last Wednesday and it is going well. I have one student with whom I meet for 3 hours at a time, as he is taking an intensive course, but generally the lessons will be 1.5 hours. I have been assigned about 8 individual students and one group of 3 students. After the begnning of March I will be assigned more. Most of the companies are located in La Défense, which is a huge area west of Paris filled with corporate buildings. It reminds me of Logan's Run, the futuristic movie from years past. It has a creepy feeling, even though there are some residential parts. On Thursday I went for a lesson that was scheduled for 9 am. I left the apartment at 8 am to give myself plenty of time. At the Concorde station where I had to change trains, I was unable to get on until the FIFTH train arrived. There were that many people on the platform. Apparently there was a breakdown of some sort on the line and everything was backed up. I still managed to get to la Défense at 10 minutes to 9, with a 10 minute walk ahead of me, so I thought I might still make it on time. I got lost and, after calling back to the office, I finally arrived at the building at 9:45! Once I was headed in the right direction, it was only a 15 minute walk from the station. I am going there again tomorrow, but now I know where I am gong. :) I don't have a lot of work scheduled for this upcoming week, which is just fine because I MUST have an apartment by Saturday!
It is so very difficult to rent an apartment here. To begin with, you must have a bank account, at least 3 months of pay stubs and an employment contract, a copy of the previous year's tax statement, a guarantor who must provide all of the above as well, plus about a million dollars! OK - so I am exaggerating about the million dollars, but not by much. Then, when you arrive to see the apartment, there are at least 5 other people there too. You have to compete and give a copy of your dossier (copies of all the info above)to the landlord. And to top it off, the apartment is generally a hole in the wall 10'x 10' with the "kitchen" being one combined unit with a small sink, an undercounter refrigerator and 2 burners on top. Maybe there will be one cupboard above, but not necessarily. And all this luxury runs about 700€a month, which is just over $1000!
I saw an apartment Friday evening that actually was very pretty. The salon/sejour - which is the "living room" was approximately 3 feet square - and, NO, I am NOT exaggerating this time. There was room for one chair and a lamp. There was a ladder to a mezzanine where there was room for a double mattress (you couldn't stand, though). Behind the ladder, on the ground floor, was a closet. On the other side of the closet was the "kitchen" as described above, but with a little washing machine, and the bathroom, which was pretty nice. All in all, it was in very nice condition, except so very, very tiny, and not one single window! How much? 800€ (about $1200).
My first plan entailed trying to be a roommate with someone. After numerous calls from shady men who were happy to share their one room/one bed studios, I finally gave up on that idea. I am STILL getting calls from some of them!

I went to Kaiserslautern, Germany last weekend to visit my niece, Lauren. On the fast train it is only 2 1/2 hours away. I had such a fun time with her. And you would not believe her apartment! Compared to Parisian apartments for the same price it is a palace! With a real kitchen and an OVEN! (2 burners constitute the cooking facilities of most of these little apartments in Paris.) OK - enough about apartments. We spent Saturday driving through the countryside and visiting a small town on the Mosel river. They have a big wine festival there every summer and I plan to go back for it with Lauren. I met her roommate, Trina, and her boyfriend, Karl. We had a good time together and a big laugh at my expense over the silly things I had shipped to Lauren's house (like hangers). We also went to the base and did a little shopping. I bought important things like some popcorn and pepperoni sticks.
On Monday, it was time for me to come back to Paris. We got to the train station and Lauren came to the track with me. When the train arrived, she helped me on board with my bags. She asked if I wanted help putting it overhead and I said sure. BIG MISTAKE!!! The train only stopped in Kaiserslautern for about 2 minutes, so you can guess what happened! Lauren wasn't able to get off the train - the doors were locked and the train started moving. To make matters worse, she had locked her purse in the car so she had no ID or money or anything but the keys and her phone. Well, we found the conductor and explained what happened and he very nicely gave her a return ticket to go back to Kaiserslautern. Thankfully, there was one stop in Saarbruchen, near the border, about 30 minutes into the train ride. Other than that stop, it was straight through to Paris! When she called Karl to let him know what had happened, their friends teased her and said to be sure to send a postcard. She managed to make it off the train and back to K-town without further mishap. I don't know if she got a parking ticket at the station, though.
Well, that brings us up to date. I have some work tomorrow and then back to apartment searching. I have pretty much decided that I will just have to rent another temporary place - a vacation type rental for a month or two and keep searching for a long term place. Barring that - there are always the métro benches!
à la prochaine!