Our second week

 Highlights

• After suggesting we switch to a cheaper Adagio hotel with wifi, our hotel mgmt promptly moved us to a 1 bdrm for the same rate. This new suite faces a quiet side street rather than busy boulevard Haussmann, and also features not just a *couch* but also a *second* closet. It’s amazing what a difference that makes. 
   
• At the same time, a login for in-room wifi magically materialized. However, I notice that other guests are still queuing up for the lobby PC to get their access.
   
• After two visits & four hours of standing in line at the Prefecture, I got my 3-month carte de sejour (work permit), the first big step towards getting a ‘permanent’ carte de sejour.
   
• Karsten now has a telephone at his desk, and is really getting to know Levallois’ IT dept while they sort through his variety-funpack of moving issues.
   
• I discovered an expat social networking site that organizes face-to-face gatherings, and so actually *went out* last night!
   
• And of course, the food, wine, chocolate, pastry, yadda yadda yadda…

Lowlights

• The apartment hunt, cont’d: 11 places seen, 2 we considered, but ultimately size and/or neighbourhood ruled them out. (The last place’s metro stop was Stalingrad, a wholly appropriate name for the neighbourhood.)
   
• To get my 1-year work permit, we had to cancel non-refundable tickets to Germany for an Xmas visit & buy new, more expensive ones with an earlier return. Who’d have thunk that French immigration officials actually work the week between Xmas & New Year’s? And there was no negotiating the date for this appointment, which is where officials verify that Karsten really is my husband and that he really is German etc and we really are solvent, etc…. Apparently if the stars are aligned I might even get a 5-year permit, yet another potential perk of having a EuroSpouse. On verra.