Here we go...

I'm here (or there depending on where you are).
On Thursday I caught the 10:40 Eurostar to Paris and got to Gare du Nord at 14:17 (on time as usual). I caught the (hot and stuffy) metro to the apartment block at la Défense. I'd sent all the documents (contract, garantor details,...) to them on Saturday and was told it should arrive before I got there. I could have brought it all with me but I figured I'd try and give them a day in case they needed to do anything with it all. It's now Monday and it appears to be stuck somewhere in the french postal system. Anyhow, thankfully I'd photocopied everything so there weren't any problems getting the keys. Just as we were sorting everything out I met an English girl who will be staying here. She's going to uni but was going back to England the next day as term doesn't start for 2 weeks. At least I know there's one more Brit if I get fed up of speaking French.

Midnight on Friday my parents arrived with all my stuff (I went with a rucksack and laptop so I could keep in touch). That's another good thing about living in Paris, it meant I could actually bring (or rather, have shipped to me) quite a lot of stuff I'll never get round to using.
As you walk into my apartment (6th floor, with lift) there's the bathroom (shower, toilet, sink) to the left. You then go through the entrance bit into the kitchennette area. There's a sink, and then 2 hobs to the right of it. Below them is the fridge and above them is the microwave. There are cupboards above and below the sink. The kitchennette leads into the bedroom/living room which has a built in wardrobe, a small fold out leaf table, a box with 2 drawers another, table which opens out and is now my desk, a bookshelf thing with 2 drawers at the bottom, a tiny bedside "table" and finally fold out sofa bed/futon thing. It probably sounds quite a lot bigger than it is but it's big enough. Unfortunately it doesn't have a balcony like some of them do but it's on the north side so I wouldn't really have much sun anyway.
Anyhow, on Saturday we unloaded the car and made a few trips to "Les Quatre Temps", a shopping centre to get food and electricals (kettle, iron, coffee maker (if I'm going to be a Parisian I need to drink more coffee), ...). In the evening we went for a walk into Courbevoie and had dinner in a chinese/asian restaurant. There were quite a few asian restaurants but no Indian Take-Away's :-( .

My parents left on Sunday and I spent most of the day sorting out my laptop (boring I know but it's fairly quiet on Sundays in France as far as I know). I went for another walk in the evening and found a gym that does Judo, Jujitsu and maybe Karate. If I can find someone to go with (who can explain what we're meant to be doing rather than assume I know and try and hit me) then I might join. I used to do Karate and did Ninjitsu for a year so hopefully that will make it a bit easier.

Today I went down to reception to find out about where to keep my bike. My parents brought it and I was given a key card for the underground garage and told I could put it in the bike spaces there but had to come back today to confirm it would be ok. When I went down I explained why I was there (and reminded that them that they need to fix the leak under my sink and the extractor fan in the kitchen). They told me that I couldn't kepp my bike there after all. Ok, so where should I put it? In the corridor, in my room were suggested. I haven't moved it yet but will go down tomorrow and find out why I can keep it in the spaces which are meant for bikes.

When I took over the apartment the lady from reception was very helpful, she made a note of every little mark for the inventory and replaced anything which wasn't in good condition. She even replaced the bedside lamp just because the shade was a bit childish. I know my last landlord wasn't particularly meticulous when we left.

Today I planned on opening a bank account but it turns out that the bank is closed on Mondays so I'll have to go again tomorrow. I also went to the shopping centre to try and find a new inner tube and a new lock for my bike but didn't have much luck.

One good thing to come out of today though was that I introduced myself to a guy on my corridor. He's studying at Nanterre and seemed friendly. I don't think there are many people living here at the moment, I think it's a little while until the uni term starts. If I meet someone else though I'll see if they want to go out for a drink.

Sorry this has been a long post, I'll try and post more often otherwise I'll end up writing it all at the end of the year.