Installations and My Birthday

This past week was full of getting things installed/ordered. On Monday, Dustin’s boss helped me order new carpet (YES!!) for our apartment. And yes, we are going from Astroturf to boring beige. But hey, it makes me happy. The carpet is being installed next week.

On Wednesday, all of our items that plug in got delivered from a store called Darty. It is similar to Best Buy. I was pretty stressed about accepting the delivery – Dustin was at work and I had to buzz these people up to our apartment. We are on the 7th floor, so when I buzz people in, I have to say “Septieme” (I have no idea if I spelled that right, but it tells people that I am on the 7th floor). I had a window of 5 hours that they could come, and for the first 3 that I waited I kept practicing what I would say when they buzzed.

Well, when they finally buzzed, I told them in French that I was on the 7th floor and buzzed. I thought it was going perfectly, until they buzzed me from below again. Oh no….they wanted to talk to me. “Madame! Madame!” They started asking me a TON of stuff. Of course, I had no idea what they were saying. So, in French, I apologized and explained over the intercom that I do not speak French. To that, I got a huge sigh and then silence. Not knowing what to do, I just buzzed them in again. A few minutes later they arrived on my floor (SUCCESS!) with my things. In came a washer/dryer combo, freezer, TV, crockpot, vacuum, dust buster, stand mixer, grill, and toaster.

Now all that was left to do was install the washer/dryer. No problem, right? Wrong. It didn’t exactly fit. I almost cried. How was I supposed to ask these men if I could send the washer back and get a new one? One of the delivery men noticed that I was getting upset. He signaled to me something like, “One minute.”

He literally ripped off a piece of wood, grabbed some tools and took off a cabinet door that was in the way, and shoved with all his might. He got it to fit! However, the cabinets will never be the same…

On Friday, I had to wait for the guy who was coming to install our phone/cable/Internet. Again, I was a bit nervous about it. Our cable line was currently in the bedroom, and we wanted it in the living room. How was I going to communicate that?

Well, when he arrived, he said in English, “You obviously don’t speak French.” HA! His English was really pretty good, so we communicated with a bit of French, a bit of English, and some made-up sign language. He was a bit perplexed by the way our cable line was going through the apartment. It took him quite awhile, but he finally got the cable re-wired into the living room. Another moment of success!

To celebrate my birthday this weekend, we went on our first European adventure outside of Paris. We drove about 2 hours south to the Loire Valley in France. There we toured several chateaus – they were pretty breathtaking. I have decided that one of them is going to be my next home…