Window-shopping & Normal Life

I’ve officially been in Paris for a month and it’s been quite a whirlwind. Going from my hectic, crazy life in New York City to Paris felt as if I went from 100 mph to 10 in just a moment. I had all this energy and residual anxiety from a jam-packed month prior to leaving with; saying “see you later” to my friends, putting on a going away show & packing up my entire life in NYC. But, I’m starting to finally feel like I can chill out and settle in to this more relaxed, normal lifestyle. Though I sometimes find myself curiously thinking, “Is this how normal people live?”, as if I’m apart of some social experiment in the domestication of a wild creature into normal society.

Along with settling in to my new life, I find the simplest things entertaining. I get excited over discovering Amazon.com has a UK & French site. I suddenly feel exhilarated, like “Oo! I’m getting it!”, when I pick up on French words & phrases in conversations. (I’m still too shy to try and converse.) And, I’m slowly learning how to maneuver the metro system alone with my handy dandy pocket map, which I analyze before every outing. Though I still have my “moments”, like walking around in circles underground trying to find the exit all the while cursing the matrix of a system they call a subway! Some days I just walk and explore. Window-shopping is so much more interesting in Paris. There are sexy lingerie stores on every block. Even grocery stores carry an assortment of thigh high stockings. Oh, AND you can buy a bottle of Veuve Clicquot or Laurent Champagne in a regular grocer as if it’s a can of coke! Observing the differences between French & American everyday life, can be enthralling. That is until I’m in need of something from the pharmacy.

Pharmacy’s here are quite different than our typical Rite Aid or CVS in the States. Here, you can’t even buy eye drops, bandages or aspirin without asking the actual Pharmacist. Mind you, some things are just too embarrassing to ask! AND it seems the American pharmaceutical companies haven’t made there mark yet on France. If you’re looking for a product associated with a name brand, Advil for example, you’re out of luck! So one day, Joe took me to a pharmacy because I had a bit of a sore throat. He politely asks the pharmacist for zinc lozenges, as I requested. It seemed perfectly natural for me to want Colde-Eez or at least zinc lozenges, right? (Ok, I’m a bit of a homeopath nut!) Anyway, the pharmacists responds with the French version of , “What the hell is that?” So I said, rather excitably, “Zinc, like a vitamin, Zinc lozenges that you suck on.” I use my hand to gesture. The man looked me like I had two heads and responds with “Zinc is a metal NOT a supplement”, then proceeds to hand Joe a multi-vitamin that says “A to Zinc” on the bottle! (Ok, where is the camera?)

Despite the frustrations of it all and the apparent differences in “everyday life”, I’m getting quite cozy & enjoying the pleasantries associated with this “normal” rather domestic lifestyle, BUT I still have MANY awkward, fish out of water moments…