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Tuesday, Jul. 18, 2006 - 9:29 a.m.

Bonjour!

I'm waiting for Em to email me ftp info I need and then I can post images.

My laptop puts out a LOT of heat, what with the not having a fan and all.

I very greatly wish Ben Bernanke would just shut the hell UP. Every time that jerk opens his mouth, I pay for it.

Wow, it's hot. I stayed inside today, in an effort not to melt. I ventured out around 4 to buy baguette and stuff for dinner, and in the time it took me to walk 8 blocks (round trip), I was drenched. The air is so thick, you can actually feel it on your skin, and it's still on top of that, so there's just no cooling off. Even at night, when absolutely no breeze of any kind gets in here. It's really freaking oppressive. I never thought I would ever say this, but I live for cold weather, at this point. Hopefully, I'll be able to figure out the heater at that time...

It's supposed to rain tomorrow, which on the one hand amped up the humidity and will probably make tomorrow fairly miserable as well, if it doesn't cool off...or if it doesn't actually rain. On the other hand, the rain actually cool it off, which would be stellar.

There's something I keep meaning to say, but every time I boot up the computer to post it, I get sidetracked and forget what the heck it is.

I had lost 6 pounds, but somehow managed to put it back on. That sucks. Hopefully I'll lose it and another 24 pounds before I leave for home. My stomach's been upset since I got here, so it's a bummer to have put it back on. How are those 2 things connected? I don't know. Fat is uncomfortable, I guess, and if you're going to have a bloated, upset stomach, it's nicer if it doesn't also have 7" of fat layered over it as well.

So, shopping for stuff you need is interesting and a challenge here. They don't really have like one single store where you can go and pick up everything you need. If you want food, obviously the Supermarche' (supermarket) is your store. But if you also want stuff like alcohol for first aid, contact lens cleaner, Listerine, razor blades, deodorant, lotion, otc meds, and stuff like that, you have to go to the pharmacie, which stocks a limited supply of those things, at incredibly high prices. Stationery like a journal or greeting card? The stationery store. AA batteries? The electronics store FNAC. Laundry basket? The incredibly expensive houseware store. Towels and sheets? The incredibly expensive linens store. So you have to figure out what the store is called here and then where it might be located in the insane labrynth of streets that is Paris. There's no such thing as a central location like a mall where you can find all these stores gathered together. It's really hard, if you don't know your way around a city where even the citizens carry around Plans de la Cite'. As for said map, I haven't begun to figure out where I get one of those. It's a little overwhelming. On Monday, when I had to get a picture taken for my Carte d'Orange (subway card), I had to change trains to get to the one Metro station where I knew there was a photobooth, and I was more than a little dismayed to find it out of order. Luckily there was a place that took photos d'identite' that I stumbled across while looking for a place to buy a phone card. Which you can't buy just anywhere, oh no. No, you have to buy a phone card (which is necessary to operate the payphones, which do not take actual money) at a tabac - a tabacco counter in a brasserie (cafe). See what I'm up against?

But I got my photos and the guy was nice and cut them down to size to put in my Carte d'Orange. Then the next day, I rode halfway across Paris to get to the one newsstand and souvenir store I knew of in the city so that I could buy an english language newspaper and keychain for my key. I hope I get a little more intrepid at this finding of stores thing, because wow. That's a long way to go for a freaking keychain. Which is why I ended up taking photos in the courtyard of the Palais-Royal, because I figured since I was right next to it, I may as well make myself useful. Plus, the Opera had been closed.

So now it's hot, and I have to turn the laptop off. I posted some political stuff about Israel below, which I wrote earlier in this post and then decided was better left at the end. So um, you probably should just stop reading here, if you object to my political rants, because frankly, that one is really going to piss some of you off. And I hope it doesn't upset anyone Jewish, because I don't have anything against Jewish people. They're people, no different from anyone else. But I'm having some issues with Israel, so it could get ugly down there, depending on your own leanings or capacity for taking things personally. But there's no escaping the crisis in Lebanon here, if you turn on the television or walk past a newspaper or ride the Metro near anyone with one. The evacuations are really huge news. And again, I have nothing against the Jewish people, but I find the Israeli government bullying, abusive, and hateful. Over the years, I have lost a little more sympathy for Israel with every over the top action it's taken. I do not in any way embrace collective punishment, which Israel practices on a massive scale. I do not find it fair to punish poor and struggling Palestinians en masse for the sins of militant radicals. Nor do I find what's going on in Lebanon to be fair or appropriate. That does not make me anti-Semite, it makes me anti-bully. And before you assume I don't know the history of the region, etc. etc. etc., I do, and I find Israel's behavior bullying and boorish, to put it as politely as possible, and not to mince words, I truly find the practices of the Israeli government to be state-sanctioned terrorism in the truest sense of the phrase. The world's governments need to take an active part in this current bullshit and put a stop to it NOW. I'm sick of the bullshit and sick of the inequity. The only people being hurt are those in the middle who are just trying to live their lives and can't get out. And an overwhelmingly disproportionate number are Lebanese. This has to stop, and it has to stop now. I'm tired of hearing Israel spew its arrogant rhetoric, proudly vowing that this will go on for weeks at least, and possibly years. I do not believe Israel wants peace. I do not believe it recognizes the humanity of the Palestinian or the Lebanese peoples, nor does it acknowledge those people have every right to live as Israeli citizens do. I think it will not stop until all its neighbors are dead, and then it will pick fights with Syria, Jordan, Iran, and Egypt. It will not stop, and I can not condone that any longer.

::sigh:: :(

Peace out,
Katie

copyright 2002 - 2005 Katie Doyle; all rights reserved
Don't even think it, punk.






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Yesterday's News - Next Stop

In which Katie shares sad news - Wednesday, Apr. 01, 2015
In which Katie returns after a very long absence - Monday, Jun. 25, 2012
In which Katie pokes her head in and brushes some of the cobwebs away - Thursday, May. 06, 2010
In which Katie asks you to write your congressman again. - Monday, Jun. 02, 2008
In which Katie asks you to please click the link and send the message to protect the rights of artists - Wednesday, May. 21, 2008

 

 

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