I can’t say I wish I was at home…

…but I’m thinking about home way more than about Europe right now. The pictures of hurricane Sandy are crazy (I definitely had some of my awful recurring nightmares involving tsunamis/high tides as a result), and I hope everyone doesn’t lose power. At least if you do lose power, it won’t be 100 degrees like it was after the derecho this summer. But regardless, stay safe, well, everyone, because I know very few people who don’t live on the east coast!

I’m writing this blog post offline to hopefully post from the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. My train leaves (left, at this point) Périgueux at 4:51 tomorrow morning; if I’ve already mentioned this, I’m sorry, but I still haven’t gotten over quite how early that is. It will still be dark when we switch trains in Limoges. We get to Paris around 9, and then have to take the Metro and a commuter train out to the airport to wait for our flight to Prague. Since all I’ve been doing this evening (and today) is reading the Post articles about Sandy, I have this strange paranoia in the back of my mind that flights are going to be canceled/turbulent tomorrow because of weather. I have to keep reminding myself that I’m 3000 miles away. Geography is hard. And apparently, so are weather forecasts.

The point of writing this post, however, is not to summarize my oh-so-interesting travel itinerary for tomorrow, but to recount what I did this past weekend. I spent Saturday in Brantôme:

and Bourdeilles:

Both towns, besides having incredibly French names, were very cool. I went out with Daniela, Catherina, and Beate (Mexican, German, Austrian assistants, respectively) in Catherina’s car. She’s lucky enough to have one here since she drove over from Germany, so we can go out on weekend excursions with her. Brantôme is a very small town about 40 minutes from Périgueux (don’t ask me how many miles because I still don’t have a good grip on miles versus kilometers – or pounds versus kilograms – or Celsius versus Fahrenheit) and home to the oldest clock tower in France, one that was built in the 1100s on a shelf of rock behind the abbey.

Look at that old thing!

We didn’t go up the tower because you have to go up on a guided tour and there was only one tour late in the afternoon, but we did pay to go into the caves behind the abbey. Basically part of the town has been built into these cliffs. The caves have been used as dwellings since the Stone Age (no surprise there, that’s a gimme), but the monks started using them in the 10^th/11^th century as dwellings, chapels, wine cellars, and, apparently, a place to raise pigeons.

Dwellings.

Chapels.

Deluxe pigeon apartments.

It was fascinating to see these ancient-looking cave dwellings carved into the cliff right up against a “modern” abbey (cause “modern” in Europe can mean 1400) and manmade structures. The caves were both interesting and creepy, both pagan and Christian (cause there were crosses periodically carved into the walls of the caves – those monks needed to remind everyone they weren’t cavemen, of course). It was really cool – and unexpected. The town looks like just a pretty medieval French town with a pretty river, garden, church – and then it has these crazy caves behind the abbey and town hall.

Bourdeilles is an itty bitty town in the hills of the Dordogne region not far from Brantôme. We went cause it has a few castles right in the center. Europe just loves castles. And churches.

One castle was built at the end of the 13^th century as some sort of stronghold for a baron. We climbed to the top of the tower and had a great view of the surrounding area!

See? Great view!

The other castle was built during the Renaissance. It was full of elaborate/gaudy furniture. No one who lived in these castles was particularly important (well, they were important enough to get the town named after them, but that’s it), so it was just a self-guided tour around the castles and their grounds.

I also wish that I could talk to my 2011 self who was living in Lyon and complained about her shower situation and tell her she doesn’t know how lucky she had it. My showering situation for the last month has done the impossible and actually made me look forward to using hostel showers. In Lyon I at least had a wall mount for the shower head so I could take an actual shower (even if I had no curtain). Since being in Périgueux, I’ve dealt with the aforementioned school shower (drain in the floor, hit the button to turn the water on for 20 seconds), a little cube of a shower in Bordeaux that had no wall mount and ice-cold water (seriously, it was like a little pod you had to stand in but still had to hold the shower head and there wasn’t a drop of warm water), and now Marina’s shower – a typical French shower in that it’s a bath tub, there’s no shower curtain, and there’s no wall mount for the shower head, so you just sit and spray yourself with the shower head and pretty much freeze. I stayed at Katie’s apartment last night since she lives close to the train station and was so grateful to take a shower since she somehow picked a long straw and has an actual shower. The last two times I went to France, the showers drove me craziest. Looks like it won’t be any different this time… 

Updates!

I am now officially on vacation for two weeks. And I've officially been paid by the French government. I feel like I have done precisely nothing to merit being paid - but I'm not going to argue with that. Lots going on, and I'll probably put up a post tomorrow or Monday with pictures (again, internet is too slow to do it from home - I need to go to a bar to use their wifi and do it there), but here are a couple random thoughts/musings/updates.

1. It got really cold here today. I bought a croissant with chocolate in it at the market today and the chocolate had hardened inside the croissant. I am not looking forward to the winter here. It can apparently get down to -18 C. I still have no concept of Celsius - but a converter says that's even in the negatives of Fahrenheit. Great.

2. I'm going to start tutoring the children of one of the teachers at the school. I'll do it once a week once we get back from vacation. They are a boy and a girl, ages 10 and 7, and when I met them they were so polite and so cute. I'm looking forward to hanging out with young kids again. Plus it will give me an opportunity to speak French with real French people.

3. Katie and I walked for more than two hours today along the river. We came across French kids playing organized rugby. Reminded me of being at home and kids playing soccer. Just more violent - and more use of hands.

4. I was almost painfully American at the market this morning. I went in yoga pants, running shoes, and a plain casual black coat (over a Redskins T-shirt). Everyone over the age of two was dressed better than me.

5. Speaking of the Redskins, I am still dying over here without American football, particularly without my RGIII and Peyton Manning fixes. Whew. Rough season to be missing football...

6. Boy do the French eat a whole lot of bread.

Tomorrow I am going out to see another town and possibly a castle in the countryside. Catherina, a German assistant, has a car here, so some of us are going to try to go out and see what's outside of Perigueux. Just need to hope that the sun makes an appearance tomorrow!

Markets!

So one thing that France really does right is markets. Perigueux has a big outdoor market every Wednesday and Saturday morning. There is almost nothing that you can't find there. Mangoes, oysters, hazelnuts, onions, pumpkins, pomegranates, you name it. And everything is so delicious, so fresh, and so cheap. These markets exist all over France (small towns, big cities) - and they're definitely one of my favorite French things. This morning I got up early in the fog to to go to a class and then headed to the market to buy some fruit. The other great thing about the markets is that they're so pretty with all the colors of fruit, vegetables, and awnings. I didn't have my camera on me today, but I want to try and remember it on Saturday morning so I can take some pictures!

I've been eating really well since I moved in with Marina. It's much more comfortable than living at the school, even though I'm sleeping in her living room. Friday we cooked all that food, Saturday we cooked some more when Karen was visiting, and I've twice made a - if I do say so myself - very good minestrone-type soup. It's so great having a kitchen and being able to eat like a normal person. Though it's frustrating not having an oven...for some reason very few apartments here have ovens. Maybe people buy them and install them when they plan on living somewhere for an extended time.

Daniela and her delicious guacomole. The word for avocado in French is avocat. It's the same word for lawyer. Hear that, Mark?

Azahara and Marina cooking in Marina's tiny kitchen (which she has cleaned and cleaned and cleaned - her apartment was pretty gross. I'm hoping mine isn't too bad when I move in!)

Getting ready to gorge ourselves.

I am going to a few classes tomorrow and then going to present on Wasington, D.C. on Friday in a couple classes (even though I'm supposed to have the day off - I figured I have nothing else to do, so it's not a big deal this time and it's not a hard thing to present on; plus I already did the presentation in a few other classes). I actually do finally have a schedule. I'm working six hours in the high school and six hours in the middle school. Shockingly, I think I might end up preferring the middle schoolers. They seem to have better attitude toward school - and they tend to be much more excited about learning English, even though they can't speak very well. I went to a class today and they about fell out of their chairs when they heard I was from the States - and then they couldn't believe I came from DC. It was just too cool. They spent the class asking me questions and were generally very sweet. I've had a few classes like that (both in middle and high school) and then other classes that simply aren't interested in learning. No one has been overly rude to me, so either way, I think it will be okay. But like I said before, if just half of my classes are excited, I think I'll be okay. I start actually teaching and working in groups after the vacation - so we'll see how that goes! Vacation starts this weekend. The teachers and students are really ready to get a break. We start again November 12 - though I'll actually be in Bordeaux that day because I have to go for a doctor's appointment. If you had to get a visa to come to France (i.e. if you're from outside the European Union) you need to get it validated by going to a doctor's appointment scheduled by the immigration office. I have one November, but so does Daniela, so we an take the train over together. After that I should be all clear to qualify for money for my apartment rent and be completely legal being here - so that's definitely a good thing.

Katie and I leave for Prague on Tuesday - should be great! I haven't heard anything bad about Prague. And people seem to speak highly of Vienna, too. One of the assistants is from Vienna, so today she gave me a bunch of suggestions of where to go, so I'm glad I talked to her about it.

Christmas decorations are already going up all over Perigueux. They aren't lit up, but strings of lights and stars and trees that will light up are going up all over the town and across streets. They must have so many to put up that they need to start in October. And I thought America was premature in its decorating habits! (I even saw Christmas candy in one of the grocery stores today.) But they'll probably start lighting everything up the first day of December. I think that the town will be really gorgeous for Christmas. The town is already very pretty - when it's sunny. But with Christmas markets and decorations, I think it will be really nice!

It might look like this - but more festive! This is the town hall.

And here's the cathedral at night - very pretty! It's a pretty enormous cathedral and very imposing. But it looks pretty from all angles, particularly from the river. When I went for a long walk yesterday evening the sun was setting behind the cathedral when I walked back. I was kicking myself for not having my camera on me.

I've actually taken really long walks/run on the river the last couple days - and it's been great. I have missed exercising, and the endorphin kick was definitely needed. I think I'm going to get back into the habit of exercising most days, even if it's just walking on the river. There's a great path to walk for miles on the river, so it's a really nice place to go. Particularly if I want to run...because it's completely flat.

And this is just the super cool chocolate store in town (one of many - but this one has the best window displays). They're all geared up for Halloween, even though Halloween isn't a big deal in France or in Europe.

This evening I'm headed over to Katie's to watch some Daily Shows/Colbert Reports that she has downloaded. I feel out of touch with the world! I read the Post, but I miss the constant stream of information about what's going on in America - particularly about the election. I'm counting on Jon Stewart to give me a dose of that tonight.

Still kickin'

Oops. It's been awhile since I've posted. I guess I was busy last week...though now that I'm pressed to remember what I did, it doesn't seem like I did that much.

I'm writing this blog post from the living room in Marina's apartment. I moved all of my stuff over here this weekend, and I'm going to crash here until I can move into my apartment (still no word on when exactly that will be). I'm sleeping on an extra bed in the living room and my stuff is all over the place - which stresses me out because I like having everything in order and I'm so tired of living out of suitcases - but it's far more comfortable than living at the school. I can now use a stove and eat food that doesn't have to go into a microwave to be edible.

The weather here finally cleared up today after being horrible and rainy for days. Karen, my friend who is an assistant in Villefranche-de-Rouergues, north of Toulouse, end up coming for the weekend to visit. It was so much fun to see a familiar face and to catch up with her. She got to meet my assistant friends here and we ate some delicious galettes (crepes, but with actual food, like vegetables and meat, in them). She's doing okay in her village and with her job, though Villefranche is tiny, and she's the only assistant in the town. I can barely deal with how small Perigueux is, so I realized I should definitely appreciate that I'm in a town with other assistants!

Friday afternoon Marina, Daniela, Azahara, and I christened Marina's apartment by cooking a big lunch. Marina and Azahara made traditional Spanish omelets with potatoes and onions (they're not omelets as Americans would think of them, they're more like fritattas) and Daniela made quesadillas and guacomole. I couldn't think of anything American to make that didn't require an oven, so I bought wine and desserts. I think that one of these weekends I will cook brunch on a Saturday or a Sunday; that's very American and I don't think I need an oven for it...

Like I said, I didn't do anything too exciting all week. I observed classes, I hung out with other assistants, oh! and I bought tickets for my trip. I leave on October 30 for Prague with Katie. We're in Prague for a few days and then we go to Vienna! We'll be gone for about a week and then head back to Perigueux, and hopefully afterward I'll go and visit Karen so I can see her again. I'm looking forward to going on a fun trip again!

I have a lot to say about the job itself - but it involves me ranting, and I'm feeling pretty calm right now and don't feel like getting myself worked up. The spark notes version is that the school is utterly disorganized and has made little to no effort to help me get started. While most of the other assistants in Perigueux (and, I would assume, in France) have started working and teaching their own classes, Marina, Daniela, and I are just kind of drifting and continuing to observe and pretty much being useless. It's not our fault...but it's still frustrating. But more on that next time, cause I just don't have the energy to get all worked up about it now! But, needless to say, the school has made this transition much harder than it needs to be.

I'll try to be better at blogging this week - then I won't post really lame summary blog posts like this as often!

Dunes, Arches, and Weird Weather

I learned this weekend that Périgueux is not alone in its penchant for strange weather patterns. I’ve found over the last week that a typical day of weather in Périgueux is as follows: it is sunny and then raining and then cloudy and then pouring and then bright sunny and then drizzly and then partly cloudy. You can go through about four or five different types of weather in 30 minutes. It’s definitely a good idea to take your umbrella wherever you go but to also take your sunglasses.

Bordeaux’s weather was very similar to Périgueux’s. Which makes sense, as they’re only an hour and twenty minutes apart by train, but remains annoying all the same.

Katie, another American assistant living in Périgueux, and I took the train to Bordeaux early Saturday morning. (It is really cold and really dark in the mornings in France in October. I’ll be glad when daylight savings starts.) We grabbed a train with a few other assistants from Bordeaux to head to the Dune du Pilat, a massive sand dune on the Atlantic coast of France about an hour west of Bordeaux. The dune was pretty incredible. It seems out of place: before you reach the dune you’re in the middle of a forest and then *bam* you’re on a dune that looks like it’s been transported to France from the Sahara. The side facing the forest is incredibly steep, requiring steps to climb to the top. The views from the top of the dune are incredible. The view of the resort town of Arcahon and the Pilat bay dominates to the north while most of the rest of what you see is the Atlantic and more coastline. It was exhausting to climb up and down the dune – particularly up. After we climbed/stumbled/slid down to the bottom and stuck our feet in the water, we had to climb all the way back up. It’s Monday and my legs are still achey from it. But it was well worth the exercise! I haven’t been getting enough of that lately anyway. It was also worth the eight forms of public transportation Katie and I took that day (train to Bordeaux, tram to hotel to drop off bags, tram back to train station, train to Arcachon, bus to dune, bus back to Arcachon, train back to Bordeaux, tram back to hotel).

Stairs up the steep side of the dune

Forest. Then dune. Then ocean.

Standing at the top - I have so few pictures with people in them! I made Katie take a picture of me at the top.

After checking out the dune we walked around Arcachon, the closest town to the dune, for a bit. It’s clearly a beautiful little resort town in the summer, so it was a little quiet at this time of year, but it was nevertheless interesting to see a new place. There was a cute main street and a pretty walk along the beach and the bay. But, since it’s more of a summer place, there’s not too much more to say about Arcachon.

Pretty summer apartments in Arcachon.

Main shopping area in Arcachon - very cute and most shops were open, but it felt like any beach town, meaning it felt quiet because it's not beach season!

Walking along the beach in Arcachon.

Bordeaux was a big change from Périgueux – it felt so nice to have so many people around, walking, shopping, eating, etc. Not that I ever doubted it, but I’m definitely a city girl – there’s no way I’m moving out to the country. Quiet Périgueux and its 30,000 inhabitants (who apparently must all move underground on Sundays and enforce a strict “no talking” rule) are pretty hard to get used to. Bordeaux also seems to have an absurd amount of arches. They’re all over the place. The city used to be surrounded by a wall, so many of the arches have an excuse since they used to be gates into the city, but I think some of them just got built for the heck of it. I’m going to make an extremely educated guess and say that whenever someone in Bordeaux thought they needed some new form of public art over the past 900 years but they couldn’t think of anything new, they just put another arch up. We mostly just explored and took pictures of buildings on Saturday evening and then ate and drank well for dinner. Sunday the weather was icky and following the aforementioned pattern, so we alternately explored some more and sat in a café/walked around a museum. The buildings in Bordeaux look a lot like the ones in Paris (though not quite as nice), so it has a very “bourgeois” feel to it.

One of the many arches I saw in Bordeaux.

The grosse cloche. That means "big bell," but I prefer the literal translation of "fat bell."

There was a carnival going on close to our hotel. They had a stand called "Mickey Boy" with a picture of Mickey Mouse on it. I don't know if they mis-translated or couldn't get the rights to "Mickey Mouse," but it was funny either way.

Cool old gate tower from 1400s (when the city was walled-in).

Part of the very pretty public gardens!

It was fun to get out and travel a bit. The proprietor at our hotel was friendly and told us that he would only watch our bags during the day because we were American and not English. Old rivalries die hard, I guess. We chatted with him a bit both days, which was good practice since the only other time we were speaking French was in restaurants/cafes.

Now I’m back in Périgueux and starting another week of observing. I still don’t know when exactly I’m going to start teaching small groups because it seems like the teachers are all on different schedules. I think I’ll muddle through this week and talk to all the teachers I’ve been seeing, and then I’ll go and visit the administration at the end of the week and see what they think next week should look like. I’m going to plan some lessons anyway, just to have them ready for when I do actually start teaching. I wrote one about stereotypes to start; it seemed like an easy and entertaining topic to start with. There are only two more weeks of school and then we have a two week break. Apparently this is the first year that this break has been two weeks. As of now, Katie and I are talking about Prague and Milan (cheap flights!) but I’ll have to see where my research takes me - meaning if I see cheaper flights, I may be going somewhere else.

Catching up

I know I’ve been shirking the blog posts, but I finally have a form of wifi that I can use, so I'll try to be better now!

The most important thing to share is that I’m pretty sure I’ve found an apartment. I say “pretty sure” because I’m afraid to declare that I have and that have something go wrong. Again. The apartment that Marina and I desperately wanted is a no-go. The agency where we went did exactly nothing for a full week, finally called the owner of the apartment after we hassled them, only to tell us that the owner wants to sell the place so he doesn’t need renters. We searched like crazy for another furnished apartment with two bedrooms – but couldn’t find anything. We ended up looking at one bedrooms and studios and, lo and behold, we managed to find a few. We snatched up the first two we visited because they’re in the center of town and are decently-sized and -priced. This afternoon I’m meeting the owner to sign papers.

The only reason I don’t sound overly-excited is because I’m trying to be cautious – just in case something goes wrong. There should be no reason that it does, but I don’t want to get excited until I’ve signed me name and paid a security deposit. The owner is very nice, however, and didn’t get frustrated when he called my cell number and I asked if I could pass him over to Marina because she’s better at French than me (I still have a hard time with people over the phone) and then when he told us we could definitely take it she handed the phone back to me so I could confirm that I wanted the place and set up a time to go meet him and. There is a tenant in the apartment now, but he is supposed to be out by the end of the month, and there’s a chance he’ll move before then. It would definitely be preferable if I could get out of my room at the school before the end of the month! Marina confirmed her place as well, a few blocks from mine, and she will probably be able to move this weekend.

This is all good news – which I will celebrate more after I sign papers!

Oh – except one of the best things about the apartment is that it has a washing machine. Huge relief there. Did some laundry at a laundromat the other day and it stunk. The washing machine wouldn’t let me select cold water and the door locked on the machine so I couldn’t pull stuff out – and some kind of dye ran in the steaming hot water and ruined a bunch of my light-colored tops. May not sound too horrible, but it made me angry and wasn’t great on top of not feeling very happy. Plus it’s 4.50€ to use a washer, and 1€ for the dryer to work for seven minutes. (Note to France: seven minutes will not dry your jeans.) It will be nice to not pay that much for laundry, and to be able to hang my clothes in an apartment to dry.

I’m still adjusting to being here, and I’m definitely still in culture shock. I miss, well, pretty much everything about home. (Sundays are so horribly quiet and boring in this town; it’s quieter than most towns, according to French people we’ve talked to, because people all leave and go into the country. I’m also struggling without football. And I’m bummed I’m not getting to watch the Nats in the playoffs.) Moving to France is a totally different beast than taking a vacation to France. However I’m hoping once I get into an apartment and feel more settled in classes I’ll be able to appreciate it more.

Speaking of classes: I’m still observing classes and haven’t been required to come up with lessons yet. I don’t think I’ll ever feel prepared to do that, so one day I’ll just have to plan a lesson and go with it. But for now I still have time. There’s a wide variety of English levels amongst the students, so it won’t be a piece of cake trying to figure out what to do with them. I’m also not impressed with the way they behave in class; some classes (not all, but most) have kids in them that talk to one another throughout the entire class. The teachers have said that this is a huge problem, but that it’s a problem in French high schools, not just this one. It drives me insane! But I already know that I’m not here to change anyone’s life or force people to love learning English, so I’m just going to plan the most interesting lessons that I can and focus on the people who actually pay attention.

That’s hypothetical though. We’ll see how I actually do/how I actually feel the first week that I have to work with small groups and plan lessons.

I’ve been meaning to put up pictures of the school, so here are a few that I took the other day while everyone was in class. (I don’t want to be known as the weird language assistant who walks around with a camera.)

This is the outside of the main building.

This is the courtyard of the main building - pretty snazzy, eh?

There are several other buildings (I think five in total) so it's more like a campus than just a high school as you would think of it in America.

And here's my room - which I will hopefully be getting out of soon!

Next post will probably include pictures from this weekend's trip!! I'm so excited to do some traveling - and these dunes look really cool.

I just realized that I didn't mention this trip earlier. (I wrote most of this blog in a word document and then copied and pasted, so I don't really remember what I wrote. Plus I write lots of e-mails to people, so I can never remember who hears what.) I'm going to Bordeaux for the weekend (leaving tomorrow) with Katie, an American assistant in Perigueux. We're going to go out to these dunes on the coast of France during the day on Saturday, and then explore Bordeaux some Saturday night and Sunday. We are both itching to do something, so this will be a fun adventure for the weekend!

I'm too exhausted to come up with titles

I thought maybe I'd start this post with evidence of the friends I've been talking about. Last night Marina, Daniela, and I went out to get a drink with Azahara, another assistant from Spain. We've hung out with her several times and get along well. I will hopefully see some other people this weekend as well.

Marina is on the left, Azahara is in the green scarf, and Daniela is in the beret. We went in search of a bar that had been recommended to us but it wasn't open so we ended up at a different one. And then we were too tired to go anywhere after this one.

Marina and me with an oh-so-cute sign behind us for a band called the "Hard-Ons." I explained what that meant to the other girls - which led to a conversation about French slang. Marina knows a lot because she dated a French guy for a long time, so she did most the enlightening.

Every day seems really long here because we don't have much to do yet. The weekend in particular looks long. I found out about getting wifi but can't buy it until I get my French bank card in the mail, and that won't happen until next week. So frustrating, because I could've used wifi all weekend. I'll just have to keep coming back to this bar.

And no word on the apartment still. If we don't get a call on Monday we'll maybe go back to the agency or we'll just start looking elsewhere. I would really prefer that we don't have to do that, of course. This place we found was really great, and I don't want to waste more time looking for another one. I just want to get out of the school and start getting settled in a real apartment.

I meant to take pictures of the school today because it's a gorgeous day and I want to show everyone what it looks like. I also want to take pictures when there aren't 1500 students running around and looking at me funny. I am going to try to take some this afternoon/evening; I definitely need to do so before the weekend because some of the doors get locked, so I won't be able to get to the nice courtyard and some of the other buildings.

Speaking of the school, I guess I haven't said much about it. The teachers continue to be nice and today I worked on a schedule for next week so I'm working mainly with high school teachers - and with teachers who actually expressed interest in having an assistant in the classroom. I'm still allowed to do at least another week, if not two, of observation, so I don't have to worry too much yet about preparing lessons. I'm planning on meeting up next week with a girl who was an assistant at the school in the past, so she should be able to give me some tips.

In terms of the students themselves...I don't know what I'd say. Some of them are very good at English and are very interested in what I have to say (I've just introduced myself and talked a little with the classes about America). Others, honestly, can barely speak. In French high schools you choose topics to study, so the students who are studying marketing/accounting are required to take English - but aren't that interested in it, so they don't care. Those are the ones who aren't very good at it and aren't that interested in me. The other kids, those who are studying topics like literature, are much better. I'll be working with both types of kids, so we'll see how the year goes. I'm glad I have a little more time. And once I'm done observing, it will be almost time for the first vacation, so if the first week of teaching is bad - it's only a week! And then I have two weeks off!

Oh, and here's a picture of the giant meringue I was talking about:

I definitely want to buy another one. You can also kind of see my room in this picture. I supposed I could take a few pictures of that, too. I haven't since I don't like it. Maybe once I'm moving out!

One week down

I'm still without reliable internet (just loving the wifi in this Irish bar), but I felt like I should try to write an update.

I'm one week into this experience. I can't say that it's been a good week, but I've survived. As of today, I have most of the paperwork done that needs to be done. Bank account: check. Health care: check. And I'm in the process of (hopefully) getting approved for an apartment. Marina and I found one right across from the cathedral (fabulous location, fabulous view) with two great big rooms and a washer (!!) so we turned in all our paperwork and we're waiting for the rental agency to make sure the owner of the apartment approves of us. I don't think this should take more than an hour to do...but I'm in France, so it takes several days.

The rental agency also told us to go to the Caisse d'Allocations Familiales, or the agency that subsidizes rent for young workers who don't make much money (me) or single mothers with multiple children (not me) or other people in situations like that (also not me). We found out that we're both eligible to receive about 140 euro per month for rent. Which would take our monthly rent down to about 86 euro each. Which is absurd. But also awesome. We took this information back to the rental agency today to further prove to the apartment owner that we will definitely be able to pay our rent.

So, there shouldn't be a problem with getting approved - it's just a waiting game right now. But such is life in France.

Random picture: here's a band playing in the street. And a crazy homeless guy trying to join them on his harmonica while he took breaks from drinking his giant bottle of wine.

On Wednesday we had our orientation day. I'm not sure it was all that helpful. They gave us lots of information about health care and other paperwork stuff, which was good, but then we talked about how to prepare for classes. And I'm not so sure that helped me. They gave us suggestions of lesson plans but also warned us that we need to have a lot planned otherwise the students won't pay attention. So I ended up feeling more freaked out than helped.

Which brings me to something else: apparently I'll be doing a lot more individual teaching than I realized. I don't know if I misunderstood the information on the application or if my school is just more focused on individual teaching than others - but it looks like once I have a set schedule I'll be responsible for taking half of a class at a time and teaching cultural stuff. I don't know if I feel so prepared for that! Luckily I have other assistants to talk to and get help from!

Speaking French all day is still pretty hard. I definitely get by, I just don't speak all that naturally/quickly. But, again, it's only been a week. I have to keep reminding myself of that.

Also, whenever I'm feeling down, I remind myself that we have a break at the end of October - which lasts for two weeks. It's France. Go figure.

Random picture number two: The inside of the really big cathedral. It's pretty plain, but it's monstrous.

This evening we're going out for a drink with some other assistants. Should be good to take a break. I have no idea what I'm going to do all weekend (besides hopefully move into an apartment - but we'll see). I may brainstorm some ideas for classes and maybe hit a few of the museums in town. There's a big huge one about the Romans which is supposed to be great. I also found a big old tower today that I didn't know existed (I think it's another Roman ruin cause it's right by the Roman ruin museum), so I'd like to go back to that and figure out what it is. I'm also going to buy another meringue from our favorite boulangerie. It was enormous, and I munched on it for two or three days.