Looking for a SIM card

My roommates for the night arrived around midnight as I was asleep. I tried to be polite so I greeted them by raising my palm and I tried to say "bonjour" but what left my mouth was the typical annoyed grumble of a sleeping person. I chatted with them in the morning and it turned out they were from Morocco.

This was my breakfast,

which contained a short baguette like bread, some butter, some apricot jam, a box of orange juice, a madeleine (a small cake) and an unlimited amount of tea.

I walked around randomly in Paris for hours, while more or less actively looking for a place to buy a SIM card. I walked around north-northeast to Paris Gare de Lyon. I came across a long viaduct like construction alongside the Avenue Daumnesil, which turned out to be the viaduct of arts. I saw something like this in Berlin at Häckescher Markt. Here's the viaduct of arts.

And here's the viaduct at Häckescher Markt.

Afterwards I changed my area of intended wandering to the area of Place de l’Italie. At Place de l’italie there is a biiiiig traffic circle and a little fountain in the middle.

I accidently ran into a neat little market under a railway bridge (I forgot to take a photo) but being on Erasmus and having to be mobile I didn't buy any of the 2377 second hand books, any of the 322 wood, plastic and ceramic figurines, any soap of the 21 kilograms on stock, any of the 79 cups  and whatnot. These are of course only estimated numbers. I only had a quick look at the market.

I had lunch at an Indian restaurant since I wanted to try Indian food. First I got some dry and flat pasta containing funnel (as an appetiser I guess). I hate the taste of funnel but I tried to enjoy it to the most that is possible as a funnel hating person. Here's the funnel pasta and what I ordered.

I ordered curry made with peanuts and rice cooked with dried fruits. The waiter served it in two metal pots. It was an excellent choice of tastes, which cost me €14. The waiter served a carafe of water and a glass that resembled a wine glass. I was surprised since I didn't ask for it. In the end I didn't have to pay for the water, which was a tad bit strange for me, but since I didn't order water I thought of it being normal.

After the lunch break at the Indian restaurant and after getting help from the waiter where to buy SIM cards I started more actively looking for a SIM card. I was looking around in small shops and I asked some cashiers about how I can get cellular internet only since I didn't want to call anyone. No one understood what my concern was. Maybe because none of them were native French speakers or maybe because I had asked something so trivial they didn't understand me.

In the end I bought the SIM card at a small shop where I called the call centre of the telecommunication company using the cell phone of the nice shop keeper. I was calling for a time interval of about 30 minutes while getting help, all of this in French. I felt so sorry for the guy that helped me since I couldn’t understand every techy word and so he had to repeat much of it but the shop keeper and some customers helped me out big time back then. I felt soooo embarrassed. Despite all of this I’m still proud of the first more complicated native stuff I did in French even though I received some help. The problem was that I had to buy a SIM card having a balance of €0 and separately a refill for the card.

On my way home I spotted Notre Dame from afar while the bus was crossing the Saine. I already was at the Notre Dame 10 years ago but I wanted to visit it again. Maybe some other time.

In the evening there was an event called “a bar a day” (keeps the doctor away?) organised by the students of Sciences Po. Before I went there I ate my dinner in the company of Francois who is drastically losing weight.
 

At "a bar a day" I met many new people. Some have already been in Budapest, too. Some were German. Pitiably we mostly talked German to each other despite my efforts. But I left early since I wanted to get some sleep before they stop serving breakfast at the student hostel at 9:30.