Arrival in France

As most people who are a part of my internet life have probably noticed, I've basically disappeared from the internet over the past two months. I was super busy doing the life thing getting things ready for my imminent move from Japan in December, and then in January I was working. And there's just something about sitting in front of a computer from 8 AM to 5 PM for work that takes away all inspiration to do anything personal on a computer.

Now, though, I have arrived in Paris, and it's looking like I'm going to have far more free time on my hands than I could ever possibly want. So I figured it was as good a time as ever to try to return to the life of brizmus on the internet.

I got here on Friday, and I'm already sick. Frankly, I'm not surprised, as the most common odors I have smelled since being here are cigarettes (frankly, I believe it should be illegal to smoke them both outside and inside, and I think you should think so, too) and the carbon monoxide from cars. And I'm convinced that the only thing green I have seen since being here is the trash bags on the street outside (and really, there's not much trash in them, since Parisians seem to think the ground is a much more appropriate place to throw things) - certainly no plants. As such, I've literally done next to nothing since arriving. Other than just, sit around.

This is the closet in which I've been sitting around:

This is the view from the closet in which I've been sitting around:

The apartment I was supposed to be staying in isn't ready yet (one of the things I've discovered when it comes to Parisians is that you HAVE to have patience or you will go crazy and be miserable all of the time. When it comes to getting things done, you should know that you have to add at least a month to the deadline workers give themselves, often more), so this is where I'm staying in the meantime. Theoretically, the apartment will be ready to move into by this Saturday, but we'll see. . .

I've also discovered the awesomeness of Vegan Folie's, the new vegan cupcake place in Paris, so I've been eating lots of this deliciousness:

Anyhow, since I'm going to have some much free time on my hands here, I've been thinking about some things that I could do. I'm going to try to continue working on a couple novels I started writing a while ago that I never finished (and that I will most likely never allow anyone to read), I'm going to try to keep studying Japanese, and I'm going to keep continuing to try to learn to play the guitar.

I've also decided that I might try to start a "Cigarette Butts are Trash" campaign, though I don't really know how much I could accomplish in 2 months.

We all know that cigarette butts are toxic waste , even if they're not yet labled that way (or at least we should know this, but it would appear that many people choose not to believe because they love smoking too much or because it makes their lives just a little bit more difficult. Or because they're just idiots, you choose.), but it would appear that this news hasn't made it to Europe yet. Regardless of whether or not they are toxic waste, though, they are very obviously TRASH, and I can't understand when it became appropriate to throw trash non-chalantly wherever you choose (I am in Paris, though, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised).

I'm an optimist, though (or at least I try to be, but you know, sometimes we all fail), so I like to think that, with a little knowledge and understanding, maybe Parisians could at least take a step in the right direction to get rid of their disgusting habit of littering the streets with cigarette butts and turning what could be beautiful into a trashcan.

And that's that.

Next time, which will definitely be very soon, we'll go back in time a couple months to some trips I took in Japan (a country where they seem to understand that cigarette butts are, indeed, NOT biodegradable), etc. . .