J'aime BHV

Sorry to leave you with such a cliffhanger. I know you have been biting your nails for a week...did Lyndsey have internet the next day?! And now the exciting conclusion to our story:
So Wednesday morning I woke up and, miracles of miracles, the green line had stopped going around and, after some messing around with passwords and connections...I had internet access. Woohoo! You really don’t realize how dependent you are on the internet until you have to go without it for a few days. I had been able to use it at school, but it is much nicer to have it at home so I can compute in comfort. Especially since all of you are just getting online and ready to talk and such when I am getting ready for bed. So having internet put me in a good mood for the next two days at least.

After class on Wednesday, I had lunch in the little cafe place on campus with some of the other students from my class. They have pretty cheap stuff that’s fairly good. Most of the sandwiches on baguettes are still a little too hard for my current chewing and biting level, but fortunately they also make some really good tuna on pita sandwiches that are nice and soft, so I’ve been enjoying those. The cafe isn’t very big and is already crowded and it’s just the international students on campus. I can’t imagine what it’s like when the rest of the student body is there!

I needed to look for some odds and ends for my apartment, like a power strip, storage boxes, coat hangers, etc. so I figured it was time to venture to one of my favorite stores in Paris. That’s right ladies and gentlemen...BHV. Bazar de l’Hotel de Ville, is a department store but it’s like a department store with every possible department. It’s like Dillards + Home Depot+Toys R Us+ Office Max + Barnes and Nobles + Bed Bath and Beyond. It has clothes, accessories, cosmetics, home decor, office supplies, crafts, home improvement, tools, garden supplies, lighting fixtures, dishes, kitchen gadgets, appliances, toys, electronics, books and movies, custom upholstery, paint, and furniture. Of course it can be pretty pricey, it carries some high-end brands, but you can find fairly reasonably priced items as well. I took my time and wandered through all the departments because they have so many interesting things to see. It's like when I go to Target and go through every department just because they have neat things, but this is 7 floors of cool stuff. I could probably spend a week there.

In the process, I found several things I needed, plus a really cute pencil bag with my favorite part of Le Petit Prince on it. If you don’t know, Le Petit Prince is one of the most well-known french “children's” books (although it’s not really written for kids). It’s been around for a long time and it is very beloved by the French so you see the Little Prince everywhere. My favorite part is at the beginning when the narrator meets the Little Prince and the Little Prince tells him to “draw me a sheep.” And the author does, but the first one has horns and the Little Prince says it’s a ram not a sheep, try again. And so he draws another one, and that one, says the Little Prince, looks old, so he draws another one and that one looks too sick. So he finally gets fed up and draws a box with air holes and tell the Little Prince that the sheep he wanted is inside, and that finally satisfies the Little Prince. Anyway, all that to say that they had a pencil bag with that part of the story on it. And I loved it and had to have it even though I don’t use a pencil bag. But I can learn, since it seems everyone uses them to hold their writing utensils here, even adults.

So that was Wednesday, and I returned home exhausted but happy from the BHV, and spent the rest of the evening reveling in my internet access.