in which you are all able to take a virtual tour of my host mom's house.

I know you've all been dying of suspense, wanting to see what my host mom's apartment looks like. Wonder no more. Here is my first foray into photographs on blogger, and let me tell you, it's not going easily.

The living room: The entrance hall:
You have to pass through here to get between the entrance hall and the rest of the apartment. You can't tell, but the doorway I'm standing in to take this picture is maybe four foot six. With two steps down.
Kitchen:
From kitchen looking toward my room, which is the first door on the left. After that is another room (empty bedroom) and on the right is, closest, a door to the back stairs -- I should post a picture of those sometime, they're an experience -- and farthest, the toilettes. As Americans in France so often forget, the toilet is in a completely separate room from the bathtub and the sink. This gets me every time.

My room:

Theview from my window.

And my street. The house is the white one on the right; I live on the top floor with my host mom, and her mom lives on the second floor. There are renters on the ground floor.

And the bathroom. Tell you what, I am going to be so bloody happy to have a normal shower again. I have a litany of complaints about the European bath setup, namely: it's handheld, which means you can only have one square foot of your skin warm at one time. This is magnified by the fact that heating in Franch is incredibly expensive, so apartments are incredibly cold. And there's no water pressure. All of which adds up to: I pretty much don't shower anymore.

Well, I do, but it's becoming rarer. I shall smell like the rest of the French. I'll fit right in.

My first purchase other than my ugly cell phone: a scarf. Made of viscose, six euros, salmon pink. I love it. God I look angry in that picture. I am really much happier, but was having issues with focusing the camera sans flash.

The woman on TV giving the weather forecast is dressed in what appears to be a floor-length evening gown, sequins and all, in addition to the most expensive diamond bracelet I've ever seen on a meterologist. Welcome to France.