November 20, 2005
On Wednesday, I met up with the Belgium girl and we went over to the tourism office to look for a place to live. The list of places from the tourism office really didn’t provide anything that anyone would want. Isabel went off to work and I went back to my room to check out different things. I went through the want-ads and I found some agencies that looked pretty good. I went food shopping and then went back to my room in order to figure out a plan of action. I decided to see how much the good reliable agencies were. That was a disappointing move. I would have to pay 300 Euros to the agency, then 2 months rent for a security deposit, another months rent for the first month of rental and I’d have to find a guarantor that would put their credit on the line for me. It would be impossible. I’d have to pay about 1340 Euro in order to just live somewhere for 1 month. I crossed that idea off the list and went to the next agency on my list. I wasn’t happy with the area of town I was getting into going to that office. It ended up being a hole in the wall agency that you needed to front 160 Euros before you found out anything about what kind of housing options they have, oh and sign a contract. The woman wasn’t really telling me anything so I decided that I needed to go somewhere else. I had two agencies left on my list and they were in opposite directions. I chose the one near the train station. I figured that I could also check my e-mail at the internet café. The other agency charged 170 Euro, but the woman was a lot nicer and provided me with a lot more information. I decided that I really just needed to go home and think about it before paying anything.
I went home, then to sleep. Unfortunately, all of the walking outside in the cold has gotten me pretty sick. I went to work the next day. My first two classes were really good. Everyone was a little slow, but I expected that from my first two classes. At ten, I went on break and talked with Brigitte, the woman I baby-sit for, and asked her opinion on everything. She told me not to go to any agencies they would rip me off. My mom had called me during my 8 am class because she was worried about me. This upset me, knowing that I was making my family worry about me. I told Brigitte all of the things that had happened over the past few days and she said that she definitely thought it was time to move. She caught the attention of the Headmaster of the school and he immediately came over to me and said not to worry anymore, there is a place over at a boarding school. He told me to go call my mom and tell her that I will be moving and that I am fine. I had to wait until after lunch to go talk to the Headmaster of the school where I will be moving. He was a nice guy. He told me about the different rooms and the other assistants that live there. He told me to come back the next day, Friday, with a letter asking the administration for a room and to tour around the campus and to see the room that he’s going to try to get for me. Oh yeah, and the best thing is my rent. I will pay 68 Euro each month. After school on Thursday, there was a big party with the teachers to celebrate a retirement and the release of the Beaujolais Nouveau, aka drink wine and celebrate. I went and I had a really good time. All of the teachers chipped in to buy the woman a new bike and they sang her a song about her career and the headmaster talked about all of her accomplishments. Afterwards the wine was brought out and everyone had a few glasses and we also ate sausage, bread and cheese. One of my English teachers drove me home because it was a little late for walking by myself (it was 7 pm).
On the way home, he was telling me about his son and how the country isn’t really safe for people traveling alone. His son was robbed at knifepoint. His son was on his was to the airport for an international fencing championship. I just think it’s a shame that stuff like this happens.
On Friday, I went over to the school during my lunch break and he showed me around. This boarding school campus is bigger than Rowan University. I’m going to have my own room, it’s supposed to be a studio. When we got to the building, the keys to the room weren’t working. He told me that he’s going to have to call a locksmith to change the locks and that I should come back next Wednesday to meet all of the assistants and to see the room. I went back to school. I met up with Krista the Austrian girl who is the German assistant in my school. She lives at the boarding school that I will be moving to. When I told her that I was moving, she was really excited. I also wanted to know if she was going to join the local ski club and she said that she was definitely going to. The majority of the language assistants know how to ski. I was really happy. She walked with me on our way to go to the ski club to sign up. We ran into Katrin, the other Austrian – German language assistant. She had already signed Krista up. Katrin invited me to come with them on Saturday to a guided tour of the town. I was pretty excited that all the people like to ski.
On Saturday, I woke up to leave my room a little early to make sure that I would get to the place on time. I got there early and I was pretty close to the farmer’s market so I walked over and took some pictures.
The guided tour ended up being pretty boring but I got to meet a lot of the assistants. It was nice. I learned that Valence was around in Roman times and went through the religious wars. Not much evidence is left from that time.
After the tour, we were all freezing so we went to a teahouse. The owner opened her doors to us even though we were there about two hours before she would normally open. I had a red fruit crumble. It was pretty good. The tea was also really good.
The assistants: from left to right: Sam (Great Britain), Cecilia (Spain), Susan (USA), Lauren (USA), Katrin (Austria), and Francesca (Italy).
The only change is that I’m in this picture.
When we are all in one group we have to talk in French because it’s really rude to talk in your native language around people who don’t understand. Although most people know English, I still try not to talk it because there might be some words that I say that don’t translate or that people don’t understand.
I ran some errands in the afternoon and went back to my room. I have some crafts in my room, so after dark, I usually put a movie on and do some crafts. Franck, one of the people who live in the residence hall, made dinner for about 8 people. It was 8 euro for a traditional French dinner from this region. Franck doesn’t have the best people as friends, but Isabel, the Belgium girl was going, and I really like food. So I went for a little bit.
Unfortunately, the combination of being sick and all of the smoke from being in a room with smokers ended up killing my lungs for the night. I had problems breathing the entire day and when I sat down for dinner, I just started wheezing. I couldn’t really help it. It was a really good and filling dinner. I just had to walk out of the room every once and a while.
Geraldine laughed at everything. After a while, I started to wonder if she was always like that. Barbara seemed a bit under the weather, but then again, she always does. Isabel found a studio apartment in town but she’s going to end up paying about 600 euro each month. I was happy to hear that she was moving. She was really unhappy about living in the residence hall. Everything here in France is fine. I do have problems with the guys here. I don’t know what it is that when I walk down the street by myself that guys have to bother me. I have gotten into the habit of wearing my headphones with out the MP3 player on that way I can ignore the people who talk to me as if I don’t hear them, but be able to hear people walking behind me and be aware of my surroundings.
I don’t have much planned for the next week. I haven’t been able to do my laundry because the machine is broken, but I will probably do it this week. I also want to take a trip down to Montelimar to visit my friend Danielle. There is a big ski sale on Saturday and I need to buy ski pants, a helmet and goggles for skiing. Everything else I will either rent or I already have. During the first week in December, there is the festival of lights to celebrate the start of the Christmas season. There are concerts, decorations everywhere, fireworks, sales, and a ton of stuff.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!! I hope everyone has a good time with family.
Mikey – welcome home, enjoy your time home.
Karen – Happy Thanksgiving – don’t be to down on yourself – remember you’re family to me
Enjoy all the good food!!! I’m going to try to find something like it here.