Bringing you up to speed (part 2)

So, to quickly sum up some of the random things I jotted down which aren't worth a whole story, but to those who know me and the subject will appreciate these notes or understand their meaning:
(a) I am here for two years to finish my JD and obtain a Masters 1 and a Masters 2 in business law. In France, lawyers are called "avocats" and work in "cabinets". Now, to those of you who speak French, the irony might be dawning on you. Or maybe I'm just the dork who thinks these kinds of things are funny. Both these words have two meanings. "Avocat" could just as well mean "avocado" and "cabinet" also means, well, "cabinet". I don't think I have to draw out the explanation here.

(b) my town, Puteaux, is on a hill. Consequently I have an AMAZING view of Paris from my apartment with the Eiffel Tower smack in the middle. Now, contrary to all movies where there's an American living in Paris who has the view of the Eiffel Tower from his living room, this is NOT the norm, and any apartment with that view is insanely expensive...unless you live outside of Paris...and on a hill...and up five flights of stairs. So, because of this incline, the town has installed escalators. Yes, you read correctly, my town has outdoor escalators in green glass tubes going up the hill. None go down, there are stairs for that, but there are these weird space aged looking tubes that pop up out of a hill. Other than the space aged escalators, there is an adorable carousel in town next to the town hall which also has an amazing fountain out front, and is lit up all purple at night (the town hall, not the fountain of course). Finally, the last thing that was interesting/strange about this town was that while waiting to cross the street, because the cars had the right of way, a police car -- who, I repeat, had the right of way -- stopped and waved me to cross the street. Maybe it was just that policeman but it still seemed strange that he had the right of way and chose to stop in the intersection and plug up traffic just to let me cross.
(c) for anyone who is interested in the names of the different daylight savings zones, France is in the "Romance daylight time."
(d) People. So, this is just random thoughts and sightings that I wanted to share because I am special like that. I saw a girl at school who, for lack of a better description, had Beatrix Potter hair. The actor who plays LeChiffre in the newest James Bond does clothing ads here, and I heard a guy on the train one day who for all the world sounded like he could have been the French Darth Vader. For Phil, whose red shoes are SO red, I want you to know that as weird as I thought it was, it wasn't as strange as seeing 3 complete strangers sitting near each other on the train all wearing 3 different kinds of totally red shoes. Alison, there's a guy who looks like Max Medina who lives in my town. Kind of strange. And for all of you who watch "Sex and the City" and know about the "scrunchy" episode...there are Parisian women, and even some very well dressed Parisian women, who still sport the scrunchy. Then again there are French women who are wearing those white boots that people wore in the 80s...Some styles I will never understand.
(e) Blood drive in France. I had to include this because in all the years that I've given blood I have never ever heard a presentation like this one. Plus, I had the pleasure of hearing this presentation twice! Two guys came into the room to get people to go out and give blood and quickly laid out all the rules about how long you have to wait to give blood after being sick, out of the country, etc. The speech was the normal speech you always hear until...they started talking about users of illicit substances. "Now, if you are an occasional toker...you need to wait 48 hours before giving blood. But, for those of you who toke up on a regular basis...please wait 15 days." The speech was fast enough that I had to think twice about what I had heard, but I was pretty sure that's what the man had said, and sure enough...he repeated it later that day in another class!