Actually Paris is not burning, that was a title stolen from an awesome St.

Vincent song.  What actually burned was the battery charger to my Macbook, which explains my absense.  Allow me to rant now.  I finally moved to Paris last Thursday to a new host family in Neuilly-sur-Seine, where I will be living until the end of December.  My battery charger actually began to melt last week but then finished itself off by the weekend, so I checked out what looked like the equivalent of the Apple Genius Bars, right across the street from the Centre Pompidou.  First, I went in and the guy tells me I need to bring my laptop along with the charger to verify that my warranty actually covers that specific appliance.  A few days later, I go back with a very heavy bagload, and I’m told (all in French of course) that I actually have to call some French AppleCare number and get a “numero de dossier.”  I had my serial number and my warranty number, so I was confused at that point as to why I would need another number.  I called the French line and it was busy, so I called the American help line via international phonecard, and it appears that Apple doesn’t do 24-hour care.  SO, finally I end up calling the American help line yesterday at a convenient time for them, and some really nice woman explains to me that these kind of accidents need to be doccumented, so I get the document number, I go back to the Centre Pompidou, and God bless, the guy working there finally tells me that it’s all good, he’s shipping my fried battery off, and I’ll have my new battery charger by the end of the week.

Hallelujah.