pasta

I am currently at my friend Carlos´apartment with a group of friends. Carlos, a Mexican exchange student doing the same program that I am doing (but in English), lives on the 5th floor of a very old building near the cathedral here in Clermont-Ferrand, and in order to get up here you have to climb a rickety old spiral staircase. Quite some exercise! Anyways, this evening, two Italian students cooked us some pasta – quite awesome.

my new apartment is great: It is brand new and a 20 minute walk from school; a long way by downtown standards but well worth the walk. At the moment it is completely unfurnished – I am in the process of buying the things I need before Yvonne & Co. arrive mid-November. It´s a lot of work, especially considering things take a long time to achieve in France. For example, the phone line that I ordered last week and the corresponding high speed Internet connection won´t be available until the middle of next month, and the fridge that I ordered that was supposed to arrive on Saturday (I waited all day in my empty apartment for it!) never showed up. But that is just how things are in France it seems – things definitely happen at a different pace than I am used to.

the food and drink here are awesome. Yesterday I bought a box of cookies for a Euro that are some of the best I have tasted – chocolate with orange. So amazing! The coffee here is fantastic, though I can only drink one small cup of the stuff or I´m up twitching all night long. And the cheese… oh the cheese…

also, we have Monday and Tuesday off (French holidays) so that´s always good!