Today was relatively uneventful, except for the part where I thoroughly embarrassed myself. I had class this morning, and then ran into some girls from my program at a bookstore, so ended up spending some time with them. It was a lot of fun, but rainy. I bought some books that I'm very excited to sit down and try to decipher! After getting completely soaked in the Marais, I headed back to my little neighborhood and stopped by the grocer, to buy funny French butter. It tastes different here. I'm not sure how to describe it. I should note that by different, I mean very good. I've been going to that one particular grocer and I think he may recognize me. I got a rather large smile out of him.

When I got home, my landlady stopped by and I solved my cold water problem. As it turns out, I'm an absolute idiot. And what I thought I had done to turn ON the water heater, had actually turned it OFF. So, the cold water was in no part a mechanical problem, so much as a complete misunderstanding of very basic technology. I had to talk to...I think her husband?...anyway, he was very nice and spoke to me slowly so that I would understand. He tried adjusting the temperature and fixing nobs, until I asked about the switch and he remarked (very nicely I might add...but I, in my embarrassed state heard), "OH silly! Green is bad! You flip the switch so that the red shows. Obviously that means hot water." Who knew? Looking at it now, that's completely logical. But when I was taking freezing cold showers, I couldn't understand, for the life of me, how green couldn't mean good.

I'm now very excited to take a warm shower and no longer take part in the 'stinky French' lifestyle. Tomorrow I'm off to the flea market, and hopefully there I can find some close-toed shoes to protect my feet from all this rain. À bientôt!