An RTT well spent

Today I decided to take an RTT.

RTTs are days off that most companies are required by law to give employees in order to compensate for them working 39hrs per week (7 and something hr/day) instead of 35 hrs p/week which is the legal limit in France. Most companies give their employees 1 RTT per month... but at the bank I work for somehow I get 2 !!! :D

Now usually I like to save up my RTTs and add them to my vacations so André and I can travel a bit, but since André is in Toronto on business this week and there's still this public transportation strike going on, I figured what tha heck......

Funny thing is, I got up, got ready and left the appartment around the same time I usually do to go to work and ended up having a pretty busy day anyway !

1st stop: Carte de Séjour

I decided to start the day by going to pick up my carte de séjour (residency card) which I'd been putting off for a few weeks now. Since taking the subway at peak hours and during the strike isn't such a good idea, I decided to walk down to the Prefecture de Police. I left the apartment at 8:30am and it took me around 40 mins to get there and even though it was pretty cold this morning, the sun was up and shining and it just felt so good to be out walking in the fresh crispy morning.

Don't you just love it when tramites are hassle-free?? Before coming to France I thought this was simply not possible but it turns out here, it is! Here, when the government gives you a rendez vous at a certain time and on a certain date, you can be sure that you'll only wait at the very max 20 mins. Of course, the rendez vous must usually be set three months in advance, but if that's what it takes..... anyway, I got there, paid my timbre postal (tax) waited 5 mins and by 9:30am I was walking out the building with my new carte de séjour safely tucked in my purse. Cool huh?

2nd stop : Official photos

I was feeling so cheery at how that went that I decided to go get my mexican passport renewed next (wont expire until April 2008 but I've learned that it's better to play it safe). Since the mexican consulate requires specific official pics I had to make a quick pit stop at on of the few photographers in Paris that are Mexican Consulate Approved (rolling eyes). Luckly this place was neither too far from the Prefecture de Police nor the Mexican Consulate so I shunned the Velib' and decided to make a walk for it. I got there a few mins before opening time and since I had 10 mins to kill I found a nice little café and got myself some java.

I had decided to try and make myself a little presentable since after all I was applying for a 10 year passport and who wants to be stuck with a passport picture looking like a slob? So I used the time in the café to try to apply some make-up in hopes that my face would look somehow .... human (not easy when you have a red nose and bloberry white skin from walking in the cold). Needless to say.... I still look like a slob in the pics. Merde!

3rd stop: Passport

By 10:30am I was entering the honorable Consulado de México. It didn't take long to remind me that when you walk into this little building you are no longer in France. You are standing in Mexico land. I had my consulate approved pics, I had my old passport (still not expired), I had the 100 euros it costs to get it (gulp!) and I had my acta de reconocimiento.... so in a French Consulate I would have been A-OK... but, again, this is Mexico.

The nice lady explained that the Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores requires that I present an acta de nacimiento and that my acta de reconocimiento is not likely to be accepted. I explained to the nice lady that I had always done my tramites with my acta de reconocimiento (which is basically the same thing), had never had a problem about this (showed her my two previous canceled passports) and that I didn't even own an acta de nacimiento. The nice lady replied that all mexicans have an acta de nacimiento and that I should probably go to the juzgado in Mexico City and ask for one (!!!!)... I told the nice lady (who by now was not acting so nice anymore) "no way José" because in my acta de nacimiento my name is stated as Paola Francine Shapiro and this is not correct so this is why I have an acta de reconocimiento.

At this point, she shook her head, shrugged, and told me she'd accept my papers and begin the passport renewal process but that she could not garantee that the SRE would send back the papers and ask for the (*%£$@&!!!!) acta de nacimiento, to which I replied "no problem, just do me a favor and put down in writing that if this does happen I am not going to have to pay the 100 euros all over again" -- you never can be too sure.

Now you undertand why I'm renewing my passport 6 months in advance???....

4th stop: Eyebrows

I may not have mentioned this before but I used to work in this very same building 4 years ago when I was an intern at the Consulate, so when I left the building I was right in the middle of my old quartier. I decided to make an appointment at the same beauty parlor I used to go during my lunch brake back then and get my eyebrows done (pathetic, I know) and since I still have their number on my cell phone (even more pathetic, I know!) I made a quick call... sure enough they could take me in 10 mins.

I used to love going to this beauty parlor. The place is in a beautiful old Haussmanian building and the interior decoration is sooo parisian chic (the typical cliché): heavy rugs, high walls draped in pink wall paper, molures.... and all the estheticiènnes are so nice and helpful (plus the prices are very affordable). There's just such a soothing atmosphere to the place.

20 mins later I walked out, eyebrows nice and plucked and feeling my shopping urge start to rumble..... now I know that this being tax month and all it's probably not a good idea to take a little shopping trip but for a while now I have been trying to find a dress for my best friend's wedding next month and so I figured it wouldn't hurt to just look.....

5th stop: Wedding dress

I mean it's not like your best friend gets married everyday right? And I had often passed this little shop that sells nothing but gorgeous long, drapery, evening dresses and wondered if ever I would have an ocasion to wear one... well... Alba's wedding is definetly the ocasion. So I decided to take a look and walked into the shop.

Of course I did more than take a look (and André, if you are reading this stop now before you get sick!) .... I tried on several different dresses and found the perfect one. The great thing about shopping during an RTT is that you avoid the lunch brake and after-work rush hour and can try on stuff calmly and thouroughly.

As I was the only customer in the shop, the boutique owner (a full bread parisian lady) helped me pick the perfect dress, showed me how to drape my shawl in a chic and elegant way, suggested ideas for complementary fantasy jewelry (and where to buy it) and even showed me how to do the needed strap alterations myself! How cool is that!

And by the way, if you're wondering what the dress is made of.... well... on my budget polyester is all I can afford right now... but you could never tell! ;)

6th stop: Eye glasses

By now I was running pretty late for my afternoon appointment with my ophtalmologist. Now don't think that new eyebrows require new eye glasses... I lost my glasses this summer (threw them away by accident actually) and hadn't gotten around to getting a new prescription yet.

So after a quick salad at McDonalds (yuck! I know but they're the only ones to give you the dressing on the side) I grabbed a Velib' and peddled my way to see the Eye Doctor.

I love going to see my ophtalmologist. His office is on the second floor of an old building probably bult in the 70's and when you walk in it looks like it hasn't been redecorated since the 60's! And I'm not talking about new furniture in a retro 70s style either... it's the original stuff, you can tell. It's like time stoped in there. Even his secretary looks like she belongs to that era.

No state-of-the-art heavy machinary for my doctor either... uh-uh. He still uses the old heavy iron glasses they used back in the day where he switches the different graded lensses while you read out the diminishing letters from a chart until he finds the perfect fit.

And though you might doubt it... he's very good at what he does too. In less than 20mins he'd found the exact graduation I need, checked that my near sight hasn't gotten worse, written out my new prescription and filled in my feuille des soins (remember those?). Talk about efficient!

7th stop : Chignon

As I was walking back home from the doctor's office I passed the place where I get my hair cut. The girl who usually does my hair was sitting inside and I could tell she wasn't busy so I decided to walk in and ask her something that I've been trying to find out for the past 6 years.

Ever since I came to France I constantly see girls with their hair made up in a simple chignon... nothing complex, no hairspray even, simply their hair up in a small and loose bun and no rubberband or hair clip in sight! For the past 6 years I've asked myself how in heaven's name they do that and can someone please show me!

So I gathered up my nerve and asked the coiffeuse to show me. I think she felt pretty awkward at first, as if she didn't get that us mexican girls did not grow up seing our mothers do their hair up in a chingon each morning.... but she gave a small shrug and agreed to show me. So now I know how to do it... I'm just not so sure I can do it.... I can see it takes a lot of practice until you can get it where it looks nice and loose and still will stay in place!

But at least now I wont die of envy whenever I see a girl on the street with her hair in a nice chignon looking so chic. I now know French girls don't have magic powers.

Last stop: Home

So now I'm back home and I've just realized it's around the same time I get back from the office so I'm glad to see that this RTT was well spent and not wasted watching TV in my pijamas all day (which could have easily been the case!). :D

I also just realized I've been writing for over an hour! Yikes! Better let ya go.

xoxoxo,

Fned.