So Jah Seh

I'm not too familiar with the doctrines of Rastafari, but I'm pretty sure he didn't say "Smoke I sensi with tobacco."

We'll come to that, in due time. I just moved into a new apartment. Best thing about it is that I have unpacked my bags for the first time in about 5 months. The place is about 420 bucks for the month- shut it stoners, I hate that "holiday". Why do you need an excuse to celebrate weed, especially when it isn't even the police code for marijuana or whatever it's claimed to be? Go put that Bob Marley poster with the cover of Kaya on your wall and leave me alone...

Oh, sorry. Yeah so the place is worth 320 Euros, utilities included. Spacious, clean, quiet roommates, except for the English bird whose friends, who are way cuter than her (sorry, love) are staying with her this week- and she hasn't even invited the new guy out drinking with them- wonder how I creeped this one out. The other guy is Chinese and we "communicate" in French. My French ain't up to speed yet, but he obviously speaks the French version of a NY corner store owner's English accent. Makes me sound like Chirac or something. Oh, but it has it's charming aspects, too. Like the standing style shower with no door whcih has one of those hose-style heads that can be taken down, except that when it's in place the holder thingy doesn't stay, so it rotates all the way down to simply spray the shower wall. But I picked up a 20 dollar pair of computer speakers to hook up to me iPod so my own music is out in the open air for the first time in months.

Sorry, I digress. To get to know my neighbors, I head to the African restaurant/bar across the street. I order a draught beer but the tap is permanently empty and it seems like the only beers they actually have are large bottles of Heinie or bottles of Guiness. The barman, from Guinea, tells me in his cheerful African accent "Guiness. It's good for you." You know those "Guiness Gives You Strength" posters? I heard they were ad campaigns for the African market because they believe that it does give you strength, and I ain't talking about in the same ways as roids. And this bottle of Guiness says "foreign extra" or something on it. I look and it's been imported for Cameroon. France must get the colonizer discount on that.

So the barman tells me there's a reggae party in the basement so I check it out later. I look around and most everyone looks like they would be perfectly at place at a Common concert or something. A few Rasta-ish kids in the house. And tons of people are doing the same thing: getting out their pouch of tobacco, papes, and a small sack of weed or nugget of hash. Then they roll their Euro spliff, sticking two papers together in an L shape and mixing it with tobacco...

At a reggae party in the states, it smells like a skunk farm, but here it just smelled like a baby skunk walked through the Phillip Morris factory and tried out his tail for the first time...like "poof". I don't know, something about tobacco in a joint is wrong. If you're in a country where this is standard practice, it should be legal to smoke weed if you smoke it straight.

I do have to admit that it was pretty cool seeing the French cheek kiss greeting thing at a reggae party.