October 2, 2005
Okay, updates since Thursday. I visited my school on Friday. It's really nice. It's pretty big and forms a giant square and they have a courtyard in the middle of the school. I went in through the student entrance which I later learned isn't the best idea because I should pass through security.
My boss is really nice. Christiane CHPAK is her name. Everyone in France writes their name in that format, so my name should be written Jessica ROWAN but, I don't think I'll be changing formats soon. It just makes it easier to differentiate the last name of the person. I met with Madame CHPAK for about 15 minutes, during which she gave me a tour of the school, introduced me to other English teachers, the secretary and the principal. The secretary will be handling all of my paperwork. She told me to open a bank accont as soon as possible. I asked Madame CHPAK which one was the best to go with and she said get something close to the school that way any problems can be fixed during a work break. So I walked outside of the school and I went with the second bank I found. The first one looked a little iffy. I now have an account at the Credit Agricole (Bank of Agriculture). :)
Anyway, that took about an hour. Afterwards, I found a BNP Paribas (Bank of America affiliate) and took out some money to pay off my security deposit. I came back to my place and I had to pay my landlady and start to fill out more paperwork in order to get a housing subsidy and to get a verification of lodging for my bank account. I went out after I finished the majority of the paperwork and tried to find somewhere nice to eat. I roamed around town for a good amount of time and decided to walk back to my place. On the way back, I found a creperie at which I bought a Chocolate and pear crepe. Even though it wasn't a dinner, it was definately good. I was the only one in the restuarant so the owner and his wife came out of the kitchen and talked to me for a while. The town is kind of odd that way. During the daytime there are tons of people. But after 7 pm everyone disappears into their houses. I came back to my room and watched Moulin Rouge and Mr and Mrs Smith. I stayed up till about 2 am watching movies and relaxing. My legs seem to throb everynight because I've been walking so much. I woke up around lunch time on Saturday which kind put my trip to the Post Office off till monday. I have to mail paperwork to the local immigrations office, that way I'm not deported for being illegal. I had some cereal and took a shower and started my day by walking around taking pictures off a lot of things. I ended up finding a local farmer's market about 30 minutes too late as they were packing up for the day.
During my walk I found a tee-shirt with the French people's impression of Bush. Kinda looks like Mickey Mouse to me.
I bought a sandwich and I sat most of the day in the town square watching people and waiting for the grocery store to open after the owner had closed for lunch for 3 hours. During that time, I saw a man with one leg, and two weddings. I also ate an eclair during my wait and started writing a letter to Phil. After they opened, I bought my food and started walking home as the rain came down. Not having TV or the Internet is difficult. I don't know the weather, or what's going on in the world. I guess I will be living very differently by the time that I've finished in France.
I broke down and went to McDonald's for dinner. I needed to eat meat and I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a steak or pork or anything. I went to the Irish Pub to see how it was. I think if I'm going to go anywhere to hang out after dinner, it will be there. The owner is really nice and the people seem genuine there. The guys aren't jerks and people enjoy eachother's company.
I've been hanging out in my room for the rest of the night. Typing up this entry and writing out postcards and reading through administrative stuff. I appreciate having my laptop in my room. The french keyboard slows me down so much when I try to respond to e-mails that I have and everything else. I've decided I rather read my e-mail, go home, respond to them on my laptop, put that on my jump drive and go to the Cyber cafe and reply to the e-mails. If I can answer questions easily, I will, but long information will take a while to respond. I'm sorry, France is definately not a computer friendly country.
My mom had asked for a picture of the view outside my window. It's an elementary school for boys.
I figured I should put up a picture of my bathroom, because the stupid handheld shower head is getting to me. I'm going to ducttape it to the wall because I no longer what to hold it while I wash my hair.
I guess that's it for now. Today is me and Phil's 11 month anniversary. :) I only wish I could be there with him. :(