A New Cast of Characters

Meet Rachel: Super-Texan, super-liberal progressive, and thus defying all (particularly French) stereotypical conceptions of Bush-toting Texans. Passionate about scuba diving, skateboarding (specifically longboards), smoking pot, and geography (did you know Venezuela means something like “little Venice”?).

Meet Saul: Raised in Oregon, but French enough to carry a French passport (thus avoiding all the administrative bullshit the rest of us are going through) and French enough to speak and understand French far better than I. Has a whole posse of honest-to-god French friends thanks to the French half of his family. Kindly invites me and Rach along to hang with said French posse, so we get a readymade Parisian social life. Word.

Saul is currently crashing with a French friend, Fabien, who lives a few blocks away from me, and Rachel is currently crashing with me until she finds an apartment, so the three of us have found it convenient to consume loads of wine, cheese, and weed, with the occasional dinner party, park outing, or bar thrown into the mix.

Incidentally, Fabien cheats at jenga.