I'm seated at a table in the youth hostel drinking my third cup of coffee after having eaten breakfast. I had to spend two nights in an inexpensive (by French standards) hotel before a bed became free in the youth hostel. There is a large group of teenage girls in the hostel, who are taking up most of the rooms. However, I believe they are leaving today.
I no sooner arrived in the room yesterday than a retired Frenchman named Jean-Claude apologized to me in advance for the fact that he was going to snore loudly during the night. His statement proved to be true, and I did not get a very good night's sleep. I have seldom heard such load snoring. Fortunately, he also left this morning after having given me his E-mail address so that we can stay in touch. I just spoke with one of my other roommates, and he told me he slept in the lobby, because the snoring was so loud that he couldn't stand it in the room. He broke into a big smile when I told him that Jean-Claude had just departed.
Perpignan is a small city in the French part of Cataluña in Southeast France. In the Spanish part of Cataluña, everyone speaks Catalan in addition to Spanish. However, I have heard no Catalan here in Perpignan, and I have only seen one sign in Catalan. Almost everything is in French.
No one in the hostel seems to speak any more than rudimentary high school English, which has the benefit of forcing me to speak French. I badly need the practice. When two French people speak to each other rapidly in their language, I understand almost nothing, although I can communicate OK if they slow down and speak directly to me. Perhaps the fact that I am here in France instead of marching across Northern Spain as planned has its advantage. I already speak Spanish well and speak it almost every day in Phoenix, so the practice in French is welcome.
There is one WiFi connection here at or near the hostel. I have no idea to whom it belongs, but I am now going to take advantage of it to upload this post so that I can lock my computer in my locker at the hostel and don't have to lug it into town with me today. -- Jack Quinn
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