From Mtl to Paris

This day lasted about 40 hours, and was largely miserable: I was sick (damn colds, always get them at the worst time), often nauseaus, couldn't sleep, etc. It was nice to hang out with J however cuz for a week prior to departure we were both busy and didn't see each other much.

Having finally arrived to rue de Chateau, we found that the studio we rented leaves much to be desired: the ground floor w/ a window that doesn't lock sounded pretty scary (even though it was nice to get a discount), the sofa bed was dirty as can be and I was told by Mme V that "just for two months, they won't clean it", the toilet was down the hall shared w/ several neighbours, the shower is adjacent to the kitchen area and has see-through walls, there's no phone (not even a jack) ... her tour of the apartment was mainly an enumeration of what doesn't work. J was cooler about it than me, so I figured we'll manage. About ten minutes after she left, I tried opening the wooden 'volet exterieur' ("stavni" in Russian) and after that, nobody could open it again. Very safe, very stuffy and dark! Luckily J managed to open it up a bit the next day. Speaking of which, for the first several days, J was all about two things: opening this volet and getting internet.

In the evening, I got worried about dad being nervous having not heard from us yet (I could't've imagined an apartment w/out a phone, silly me, so i assured him i'd call as soon as we arrive). We walked all around, me feeling sick as can be (poor J listening to much whining), and eventually called a payphone (my VISA call turned out to cost $30, and we surely didn't talk for more than two minutes, yikes!).

At least the studio had lots of hot water, and sleep after a hot shower was grrrreat.