Never ending list --Wed. Sept 15th

Wednesday will be my afternoons off. I don’t have the lil ones. I opened my bank account today. The banker asked a lot of questions about what I was doing here and my job. He was a just a tad too nice towards the end…As long as I have a bank account I’m happy. It will be at least a week before I can make any deposits or have a debit card.

I mailed off my Visa paper work today! I’m very proud of myself because I mailed it in myself without MICEFA’s help (well I asked a few questions but that’s all). My first time in France MICEFA took care of everything. The fact that I opened my own bank account too really impressed me. MICEFA set up everything the first time too…=)

I went on a wild Zaatar chase this evening. I was craving Zaatar and hobz because everytime I walk by this Lebanese café they’re always making it. I took out my Yellow Pages and wrote down every Arab named mom & pop grocer listed in my neighborhood. There were 3 total. One didn’t exist. One didn’t carry any. The last one located on the same street as the Lebanese café didn’t have any either, but a very nice Maghrebeeya (Moroccan lady) worked there. She was surprised that I asked for zaatar. She said “how do you know about zaatar? you’re not maghrebee and have no maghrebee origins.” HAHAHHAA. She said African zaatar and Lebanese zaatar are different. She had some in the back and gave me a lil bag with African zaatar. She then told me to go chez les Arabes in Barbès, but glanced at my Longchamp bag and told me to be careful. ^^ She was so cute.
Setting up a life here takes so much time and there are so many things to do! It makes me very happy that I decided to get here 3 weeks before my job started. Here is my list of things to do to build a life here:

1.Mail visa paperwork
2.Get a French cell phone
3.Find/rent a studio
4.Sign rent contract
5.Open bank account
6.Sign up for renter’s insurance/civil responsibility insurance
7.Get a social security number
8.Sign internet/tv/phone contract (no way out of the bundle…)
9.Give bank account info to EDF (=PG&E) (so I keep my electricity)
10.Sign up for Housing Aid (should get 200euro/mo…hopefully!)
11.Sign up for transportation reimbursement (work pays ½…yay!)
12.Sign up for direct deposit
13.Ask for pay advance (1st paycheck is end of Nov….adv if granted comes at the end of Oct…lame, I know!)

Not that easy to make it here…