The French toilet is back in my life

The cool thing about having a blog is that you can write about whatever you want. Now, the subject of today’s post will be the toilet. But not any toilet, oh no… the French toilet!

This is one of those things where there’s only black or white, you can’t be in the middle. I’ve visited many countries in three different continents so far, and France is the only place where I’ve seen the toilet separated from the bathroom/shower room. I’ve had this discussion with French people many many times, and it’s amazing how we cannot convince each other.

Here’s the situation. At home, in France, usually the toilet (like the one in the picture) is separated from the rest of the bathroom (bathtub, shower, mirror, towels, etc.). This means there’s a very small room with just the toilet and toilet paper, and the rest of the “items” are in a separate room. Why? The explanation that I always get is the following: it’s better like this because if someone is getting a shower and you need to go to the toilet, you can.

My dear reader: just because you are reading this I will give you the credit of being an intelligent person. Therefore, as an intelligent person that you are, please think for five seconds how many times in your life you have been in this situation (that you wanted to go to the toilet but it was busy because somebody was taking shower). Not that many times, right? But let’s assume it happens now and then. What do you do? That’s right: you wait. Is it a tragedy? Let’s be honest: no. Even if there is no other bathroom in the house. You wait.

Now we have clarified that the supposed fantastic benefit of having two separate rooms is not that fantastic. We can continue with my second point here. Me, and I’m getting private here, I always, but I really mean always, wash my hands after going to the toilet. It’s one of those things you do in life: you brush your teeth, you get dressed before leaving home, you take a shower now and then… and you wash your hands after going to the toilet. Period. Can you do it in these small toilet rooms that they have? No. Why? Oh, because there’s no place to wash your hands. You have to go to the bathroom, unless, of course, somebody is taking a shower… And then you have to wait. You wait (again). Sooooooo my dear reader: you need the bathroom anyway! You have to wait anyway!

Conclusion: the supposed benefit of having two separate “bathrooms” is not that good, because the positive effect is not really there, and in addition to that, you have a great negative effect: you still need the bathroom.

I’m clearly against these separate rooms, but I can tell you that I have never managed to convince a single French person of this. It doesn’t matter if you give them the logical reasons that I’ve just written, or if you tell them that it’s the only country in the continent that does it, they just think it’s the best system. And of course, the rest we think our system is better.

There are two solutions for this toilet issue. First, if you have a small apartment (not that difficult in Paris…). Since there’s not a lot of room, toilet and shower are together: problem solved. And second, if you are very rich. Then you can call an architect and tell them to change the house and put it altogether: toilet, toilet paper, shower, mirror… Everything.

And thus that’s the conclusion of my Ode Against The Separate Toilet.

Aside from this, Paris offered me yesterday my first real Parisian storm. I was in a 22^nd floor and the view was fantastic. Thank God I didn’t have to go out! And secondly, after three tries (yes, three: one, two, three), I finally have my cell phone. I promise you that it’s easier to win the Tour de France than to sign a cell phone contract… My new cell phone is in Catalan, because my phone gives the option of choosing my language! (There’s also Basque and Galician, I love it!).

To end up with, and being the soccer fan that I am, I’m very happy that Uruguay won yesterday their match against Costa Rica in order to qualify for the 2010 World Championship (for those of you not aware of this, I have Uruguayan roots). We still have the second game pending in Montevideo next Wednesday; let’s hope everything goes well… Spain is already qualified (of course, with most of the team coming from the best club in the world: Barça), and France won over Ireland yesterday too. They have to win next Wednesday as well here in Paris. I think they will qualify too, and I will very happy for them. In any case: ¡arriba Uruguay!

Paris sera toujours Paris

Here I am, writing from Paris. Amazing, eh? My first hours in Paris have been very special. Back in 2002 I arrived to this city to study for one year. So my first day I came here with all my baggage, I put them on my bed and I thought: “What should I do now?”. It occurred to me then to take the metro and go to Étoile, better known as the place where you will find the Arc de Triomphe.

My first day in Paris in 2009 I decided that, since it worked the first time, I should do the same. So, once again, I went to Étoile, and I stared at the Arc de Triomphe. It was a funny feeling, more than 6 years later! I took a picture of the thing (that is, the arc) and I decided to go down the Champs Elysées, and capture a bit of the Parisian atmosphere. That makes a 3 km walk, maybe a little bit more. In 2 hours this is all I saw (didn’t properly visit anything):

La Défense

Champs Elysées

Palais Royal

Assemblée Nationale

Pont Alexandre III (my favorite bridge in Paris!)

Les Invalides

Musée d’Orsay

Musée du Louvre

Notre Dame de Paris

Pont des Arts

And yes, of course, I saw the Eiffel tower!

Great promenade, but my body was in pain. I forgot the wind in Paris, and how difficult it is to keep your hair in place with a decent look! I’ll have to find a solution for that, maybe I’ll start wearing a hat, like many others do in this city, because it’s quite frustrating to leave home with nice and clean hair and after 5 minutes on the street you look like Cameron Diaz in the movie “Being John Malkovich”.

I have to tell you also about my 3 new best friends: my umbrella, my winter coat and my street guide. Paris is cold compared to Barcelona, and the risk of rain is high almost every day, so I’ll have to get used to carry my umbrella again (not nice, it makes the purse heavier). But the street guide… Oh yes, we are becoming best friends! It’s ok to have a tourist’s guide if you don’t plan to stay long in Paris, but when you live here you really do need a serious map of the city. Now I have mine, and I’m sure it’s going to be very very useful. This little book is my best friend now!

My first impressions on the city haven’t changed. Paris is still Paris, which is good. I do need to improve my French accent urgently, as I hate to hear my too strong Spanish accent when I speak, and if I can hear it, just imagine the French… And I don’t want to be one of those people that never truly get integrated in a new country. So I have a lot of work to do.

It’s not only the accent; I have also to memorize once again the metros, directions, neighborhoods, streets, etc… My new little book (my best friend!) will help me in the following weeks with that. So far I have no TV, therefore there’s no excuse. I know how to get to every tourist place in the city, but this is not what I need on my day to day.

Finally, I’ll mention two points that we are going to call “Actualité française”. First of all, former Président de la République Jacques Chirac has recently published his autobiography. That’s ok, everybody does that, however some corruption cases involving him have been brought to the public light at the same time. Is it done on purpose? Who knows, but I’m interested, so I’ll keep you posted.

And number two for the “Actualité française”: l’identité française ( = French identity). It seems there’s a huge debate on the streets concerning what’s the French identity, and from what I hear the debate is being nourished by the Président de la République himself, monsieur Nicolas Sarkozy. I have to investigate this one as well, and it’ll take time until I have access to different opinions from French people. Mmm, I guess I’ll have to have my own opinion on this subject one of these days…

And that will be all! À la prochaine!

PS1: It’s been only a few days in here, and I’m starting to have trouble to write in English. I need English speakers around me! Will find someone…

PS2: For those that read my previous post, when I saw the Eiffel tower for the first time, of course… I smiled :).

Last days in Barcelona

Here I am, once again, writing from Barcelona for the last time. These last days have been really hectic. Moving has never been easy, but when you have to go from one country to another it becomes a titanic effort, because you can't be taking care of everything at the same time... First you have to close one country (in this case, Spain), then open up the second one (France).

Thank God I speak French...

With that said, I have 18 boxes waiting to be moved. I found a great company, www.sinmaletas.com, who will do it for me, from door to door. The price is amazing, and once the service is done I will let you know how it went. I hope they meet my expectations, because I’m putting my whole life in their hands...

A few days ago I organized a goodbye party. It’s great to be surrounded by people that you like, enjoying some time together, remembering good old times… At the same time, it’s inevitable to think about what and who are you leaving behind. In the picture there are some of the gifts that I received during that evening, some of them before my party. I didn’t expect any gift, so I was incredibly happy. And I know that all the gifts I got from different people that evening were offered from the bottom of their hearts. And I have accepted them from the bottom of my heart as well!

It’s a great feeling to know, one way or another, that some people will remember you once you are gone. I will remember many people too, that’s for sure.

People ask me how I feel… When I started this project I felt very happy, then it changed to stress, huge stress, and now I’m super tired. Before the end of the week though I will see the Eiffel tower again… And I’ll smile.

Dolça Catalunya,

pàtria del meu cor,

quan de tu s'allunya

d'enyorança es mor.

Hermosa vall, bressol de ma infantesa,

blanc Pirineu,

marges i rius, ermita al cel suspesa,

per sempre adéu!

Arpes del bosc, pinsans i caderneres,

cantau, cantau,

jo dic plorant a boscos i riberes:

adéu-siau!

¿On trobaré tos sanitosos climes,

ton cel daurat?

Mes ai, mes ai! ¿on trobaré tes cimes,

bell Montserrat?

Enlloc veuré, ciutat de Barcelona,

ta hermosa Seu,

ni eixos turons, joiells de la corona

que et posà Déu.

Adéu, germans: adéu-siau, mon pare,

no us veuré més!

Oh! si al fossar on jau ma dolça mare,

jo el llit tingués!

Oh mariners, lo vent que me'n desterra

que em fa sofrir!

Estic malalt, mes ai! tornau-me a terra,

que hi vull morir!

(Mossèn Cinto Verdaguer)