Adventure Two - Living in Paris

I have been living in Paris for nearly two months now and it is starting to feel like home. I am finding I need to consulate maps less and less and I am starting to get a feel for where things are in relation to each other. I now know to never ever try to dash onto the metro as the doors are closing (it will slam shut on you and those doors are heavy!) and where to find the cheap paninis near school. I know the more you say s'il vous plaît (please) and look the pathetic the more people speak slower and sometimes if you are lucky switch to English. I have also mastered basic things that are just slightly different, like buying stamps and paying rent.

Sometimes this familiarity in Paris becomes a problem because I get so complacent and feel like I have the whole living in Paris thing down and something will happen that forcefully reminds me I am not in Kansas anymore. Last Thursday for example I left my apartment a little after 8:30 to go to my 9:00 French class. On a normal day this would be plenty of time to get to class. However, for some reason the metro line I take was delayed and it took me almost an hour to get to class. This being France and not as organized and efficient as the US they didn't seem to be overly concerned about this massive delay at rush hour (bare in mind I have used mass transit many times in Boston, NYC, Philadelphia and Washington DC and rarely would I use the words "organized" and "efficient" to describe those systems but in comparison to Paris they apply). On these days it hits me that I am a fish out of water and still have a lot to learn about living in France...however given the copious amounts of cheap wine, fresh bread and delicious cheese here in Paris I am more than willing to keep on learning and living in this beautiful city.