Rumpelstiltskin Does It Better

I've never really been a fan of Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist, but I can at least say that, after today and the Great Pillow Quest of 2009, I have a deeper understanding of what it's like to be Santiago. I don't mean all of that touchy-feely stuff about following your dreams, just that I know what it's like to waste a ton of time and energy searching for something that was at the starting point all along. I spent all afternoon and a large part of the evening today pursuing my very own Personal Legend through the streets and metro tunnels of Paris in search of pillows. I braved crowds and disappointment, sore feet and fatigue, visiting every Monoprix and Tati that Google knew about (and Google knows all), only to return home in the evening sans pillow. Defeated, I asked my roomate for advice.

To make a long story short...there were pillows in the futon all long. The same futon I'd been sitting on doing pillow research for two days. Relief and bemusement.

But some good things did come out of the Great, but Ultimately Unecessary, Pillow Quest of 2009. For one, I had a reason to make myself learn to navigate the metro, which, it turns out, is much cleaner, spacious, and organized than the one in New York. I also got better at orienting myself in my neighborhood and at finding places to buy cheap groceries. So, even though I didn't actually need to leave the apartment to find my treasure, doing so was necessary to discovering these useful things, which, I guess, is what living out your Personal Legend is all about...

When I wasn't obsessively hunting for pillows today, I was registering for classes. Here is a list of what I'm taking, in case anyone is interested:

* Espace mondiale- lecture & seminar on international relations
* Social Policies of Europe
* Health Care and Public Health in Western Democracies
* Equality and Diversity in the United States
* French
* Questions d’éthique, questions de littérature

Tomorrow, orientation classes. Tonight, a good night's sleep.