Au revoir, Monsieur Thomson

I went to see Mr. Thomson today and he wasn't there. Actually he locked me out. My work lunches consist of a baguette with Camembert and get this....butter! Yes. A cheese and butter sandwich. And it's bigger than a "footlong". And I eat the whole thing. I seem to have broken the 'I must have something crunchy with my sandwich' rule. Maybe the baguette gives me the crunch I need. Or maybe I've just realized that I don't really need a bag of chips in addition to a cheese and butter sandwich! It comes with a drink (I haven't kicked the Diet Coke) and it's only 4€. One day they only had cans instead of bottles and with a can it's only 3.50€. If the exchange rate is still what it was when I left (you probably shouldn't tell me if it's not), that's cheaper than my bagel at Einstein's and Coke and chips at the Sev. Anyway, I like the lady I buy it from. She knows what I want everyday and she quizzes me on my French. So, I get my goods and head to the canal to eat. It's perfect. The first day I tried my iPod I didn't have to log in to the usual free wifi spot (which works less than half of the time and doesn't seem to let me send messages) because Mr. Thomson opened his door to me immediately with a very strong signal. So, for two weeks this was my routine. I thought about making a little "merci" sign to hold above my head everyday at lunchtime in case he was looking out his window and could see how happy he made me when I got to connect with you! But today, I decided to test a different bike route to school on a non-school day to see if it was better. I stopped at the canal to check email and there was no signal.  Mr. Thomson had locked me out. I'd never thanked him like I'd wanted to. He has no idea how much I appreciated him. My iPod wouldn't send messages from home. I couldn't get wifi at the quirky girl cafe. And it won't work at school. This was one place where I knew I could get what I needed and now it's gone. I can only hope that as things continue to improve I won't have to rely on Mr. Thomson like I used to. I'm going to try to be a bit more independent and when I'm stuck I'll spend my lunch hour figuring out the problem instead of emailing someone in Chicago for help. That will be good for all of us. Encore, merci, Monsieur Thomson! You've given me a little more independence.