Rien à faire le dimanche...

Bonjour good people!

Well let's just get right to it. The last time you heard from me was going into the wee hours of Sunday morning. Sunday proved terribly uneventful for the following two reasons:

1. We didn't get out of bed until 2:30 in the afternoon.
2. France, much like the Bible Belt, is completely shut down on Sundays.

So onwards to Monday...

When we went to bed Sunday night, I had every intention of getting up at 7 am, eating breakfast and heading to the flat to take stock of what I still need to get to make the place livable. Well, being the terribly brilliant individual that I am, I set the alarm clock for 7:00 pm and realized it when I checked the time at 8:30 am. So we got dressed and made it to the school just in time to meet with my supervisor Vanessa (more about her in a later post).

Vanessa took me to get a meal card so that I can eat my meals in the cantine, as they call it, and she introduced me to the man who set up my computer access profile so that I can use the computers in the staff work room. He also hooked me up to the school's Wi-Fi network so I can use my laptop on campus. I was hoping this access would extend as far as the flat, but it supposedly doesn't work far beyond the staff room. One teacher suggested I get a chair and blanket and use my laptop in the hallway when the staff room is locked on nights and weekends. I think I might just go without communication, but desperate times call for desperate measures and only time will tell on that...

Mommy and I ate lunch with Vanessa in the cantine and then I sat in on one of Vanessa's freshman English classes. She's using Ellis Island to work with the students on dates and learning clauses and participles. They're not a particularly talkative bunch and one girl who clearly hadn't done any of the work but knew what was going on was helping the girl next to her and then randomly answering all the questions for the class. It was interesting to watch.

After my first view of a French classroom, Mommy and I went to the grocery store in the next town. It's similar to Carrefour, but a little smaller. Apparently, French grocery stores don't like my mother because we could not get a foreign authorization on her credit cards (*These same cards worked fine previously and later in the day, but we had the same issue at Carrefour*). This ate up a sizable chunk of time and we were pressed for time because we had a dinner engagement.

When we got back to flat, we had to get all the groceries put away, which was a bit of a challenge. I don't think I've yet mentioned the serious déjà vu I'm experiencing right now. The flat is located on the 3rd floor of the building with no elevator, à la my room in Manley Hall during my first year at Spelman. I had a lot of water bottles and canned items, which made the bags so heavy. Not to mention that you have to pay for grocery bags so I only have 5 at my disposal and we were refilling them on trips back and forth from the car and the flat.

After I got all of my stuff put away in some type of logical order, we took out my new linen and made the bed. During this, my new roommate came in. Her name is Susie (sp?) and she works both at our school and elsewhere as a social worker. Because she lives so far from campus, she spends 2-3 nights per week in the flat. Here is her picture:


Here are a few shots of the flat:
I know that it's sparse and it needs a few more personal touches (actually it needs several), but I can live with it.

I mentioned a dinner engagement earlier. One of the English teachers from the vocational school invited us to have dinner at her home tonight which was wonderful. They have such a beautiful house and she and her husband are very nice people. They invited to spend next weekend with them so I won't be in that drafty flat all alone. A lot of people have commented on my being alone every weekend and it's starting to make me a little anxious. Thankfully many of these same people are offering a place to stay in the same conversation.

We got lost, yet again, trying to get back to the hotel. I blame it on the way signs are posted out here and the strange position of their traffic signals. I was so frustrated by it that I took some pictures with the intention of sharing them with you.

What do you find odd about this intersection? I'd like to call your attention to the many signs in the street, all pointing in several different directions. You should know that not a single one of those is a street sign. Instead, they indicate directions and the next town that comes up if you go that way. It is also important to note that the angling of these signs is such that one may have difficulty discerning in which direction it actually points. As soon as I locate a street sign that I can snap, I'll be sure to post the picture. Until then, I'll just tell you that they are small and blue and often located on the sides of random buildings.


In this picture you see a traffic signal. However, this signal is on the same side of the intersection as you are and very short. The result is that you arrive at the limit line and the signal is no longer even in your peripheral vision. I just don't understand how people drive out here...


I forgot to tell you about my latest disappointment in life. Those of you who know my regular routine know that I love certain TV shows, specifically those that come on ABC Primetime and Lifetime's Army Wives. I thought that I would come over here and still have such comforts thanks to the posting of full episodes online but those episodes are only available to people physically in the United States of America. Fortunately, there's a thing called iTunes and it allowed me to purchase everything I want. I'm not really feeling the price, but it sure beats waiting until December to get caught up on everything.

Well, that's all I have for now. Tomorrow is Mommy's last day before she has to go back to Sunny San Diego and that thing she calls a job, and that boy she calls a son...lol. Anyway, we're going sightseeing tomorrow in Caen because it is the closest city to where I'm living for the next few months and I'd like to know what there is to do and see. Maybe I'll try to figure out how to use the transit system.


Bises,

Mlle. Alicia

Mommy's Arrival Notes

Hey Everyone!

So Mommy read my first post and now has some things that she would like to share with all of you...


Bonjour mes amis! The final days before our departure were chaos, but from the moment we checked in at the airline counter in San Diego things went smoothly for the journey. On the flight to Dallas, I had the aisle seat in the exit row in front of Alicia's window seat. The nice man with the exit window seat surprised me by offering to trade seats with Alicia. I've never seen anyone give up the coveted exit row so I guess I owe this forward now.

Before take-off, I sent a few emails from my blackberry including one to my cousin Rory who works near the Dallas airport. She wasn't able to giet away from a meeting to visit us during our 3-hour layover. Although I usually complain about a layover more than 45 minutes, I did not regret choosing this long lay-over. No worry, no stress about making the connection and the lugguage arrived in Paris with us. We strolled around the newest terminal at DFW, which is like a small city when it comes to shopping and dining, so that Alicia could decide on her last meal. Popeye's Chicken almost won! Before eating, we enjoyed the $5,000 massage chairs at Brookstone to prepare our legs for the 8-hour Paris flight and made some random small purchases. After the BBQ, I grabbed a Texas margarita and then it was boarding time.

While I was still trying to make room for me, my travel bag and the pillow and blanket, Michelle introduced herself to Alicia and we learned that they were in the same program. Michelle and Alicia are both nervous about their adventure and I think that it was almost therapeutic that they could talk about their excitement and their uncertainty on the way to France. Other than Gus doing a terrific job as our flight attendant, traveling on American was pretty ho-hum. American's entertainment program is far behind the times and the food and beverage service is too limited for a flight of this length.

Lots of walking upon our arrival. The train station was at the opposite end of the terminal from our arrival gate. I could have found my way without Alicia because symbols are used for important information at the Paris airport. Purchasing the train tickets was amusing. Alicia forgot that I do not understand French well enough to follow at normal conversational speed. After the counter agent explained the travel options, Alicia asked me what I wanted to do. I had to remind her to translate the choices for me. It took several encounters for Alicia to remember that she needed to translate for me. Alicia would converse in French and turn to me wordlessly waiting for my input. Some of these times, I had to laugh because we found out the other person spoke a fair amount of English when they started helping Alicia translate for me.

I may not be able to explain how difficult it is to drive here. I had experienced roundabouts on a prior trip to the Marseilles region in the south and managed them ok. It turns out that was child's play. In Caen if there is a street sign, its small, set back from the road and not visible until after you're crossed the street. Traffic signals are miniature, placed low and off to the side. Lanes disappear or become a turn-only lane without warning. The highways are numbered mysteriously and the sign for an exit is often only at the exit. In the villages around Caen (which are a mixture of old and new), the signs in roundabouts are just after the exit. Did we mention that we were not trying to visit those villages? We were hopelessly lost using the directions from the hotel clerk who did seem a little tentative. A gas station attendant advised Alicia that it was easy to get to the shopping mall from there. We were hopelessly lost again but drove through a village wedding (pretty much literally) and came upon two gendarme (cops). One did not seem to know the way out of the village and the other was helpful, giving us a scenic route that felt wrong but voila the shopping center suddenly appeared before us. Interestingly, my haphazard driving did not seem to upset other drivers. The limited honking mostly happened if I did not zoom off when a light turned green. Otherwise, drivers veered madly around me as if this is the expected way to drive. There's a really big concrete thing that has become our landmark for getting back to central Caen.

C'est tous for now. Au revoir!
Regina

At long last, the first post...

Sorry to all of you who have been anxiously awaiting this first post. I just got my first opportunity to use the internet since my arrival. I chose to name this blog in honor of my favorite television series Sex and the City. The last 2 episodes of the final season were titled American Girl in Paris: Part Un and American Girl in Paris: Part Deux. I'm not in Paris, but it works for me. So, let's get to it...

After packing everything at the last minute and stressing myself out completely, my mother and I boarded a plane that departed San Diego at 9:25 Thursday morning. Getting through security and all of that surprisingly only took about 10 minutes, so the day of was off to a wonderful stop. We had a 3-hour layover in Dallas/Fort Worth where I ate my last meal on American soil.



I went to the Cousins BBQ in the DFW airport and ate some mighty fine American cuisine. I must tell you all how much I really love Texas toast, which was I was so excited to see on the menu. Unfortunately, the meat was underwhelming but the cole slaw was great.

The flight from Dallas to Paris went by pretty quickly. As it turns out, the young lady who sat next to me is actually in the same program, but in another, much more rural, town near Dijon. Her name is Michelle and she is originally from Arizona but she just graduated from Baylor University in Waco, TX. She says that she's living with a family that has a lot of animals, basically a farm. As we talked, I thanked God for my living situation....Aaaaah, I suppose that's what everyone really wants to know, now isn't it? Get this, I have an apartment but you have to wait until I get to that part of the story.

I am admittedly spoiled, you don't have to tell me this because I know it and I've embraced it. Given this fact, packing proved to be a challenge for me thanks to airplane regulations and obscene charges for excess baggage. So, I packed the 2 largest suitcases I could get my hands on, plus I was pulling a little rolling one and carrying my laptop. It was heavy. My mom has a pretty large suitcase also and her own small rolling thing. Neither of us are little by anyone's standards, but we were certainly dwarfed by all of the luggage.

By the way, its was about 9:30 am on Friday when we arrived in Paris, which means we technically traveled for 24 hours. With the 9-hour time difference, it wasn't really that bad...

Anyway, we got to Paris with all of this luggage and walk ourselves to the train station. We knew the city we wanted to get to, Caen, and thought surely we could go straight from Paris. WRONG! First, we had to get on the Metro and we took up a whole lot of space with all that baggage. People looked at us like we were crazy. Then we had to change trains, with all that baggage. Fortunately, a very nice gentleman helped us get everything off. Well, we got to the second Metro station and had some difficulty figuring out where to go but we got it and not a moment too soon. So we finally get to St. Lazare, which is where we could get on the TGV's
"grands lignes" (TGV = French Amtrak, grands lignes = major lines), as in the train to Caen. Well, the only way to get to the platform that we could see involved some serious stairs. With all that baggage. Are you starting to notice the refrain? Thank God for kind people. Two more young men saw us struggling and helped out.

The train ride was about 2 hours long and provided me with a much-welcomed nap. I'm not sure what Mommy was doing the whole time, but I'm pretty sure it involved her Blackberry...Anyway, we arrived in Caen, exited the train station and immediately crossed the street to the Hertz Rental Car location. I don't know if Hertz, with its German name, is an American company, but we use it at home and we're using it here. We rented a little Fiat that the two of us easily figured out how to effectively place all of that baggage in, a task that proved difficult for 3 grown men.

Anyway, we got the car and then decided to check out our hotel, just in case we didn't like it. It seemed nice enough but we decided not to check in because I am actually living in Condé-sur-Noireau in the Calvados area of Lower Normandy, which is approximately an hour drive from Caen. We thought perhaps we could find a hotel in Condé or maybe even stay in my new home, so we got in the car and pulled out the driving directions. Too bad France has terrible signage and we spent about a half-hour driving in circles before we went back to Hertz and asked for better directions. We did finally make it though.

We arrived at Lycée (lycée = high school) Charles Tellier shortly before 5:00 pm. We waited in the teachers' lounge for Madame Vanessa Lemesle, who is to be my supervisor for my 7-month contract here in France. She's very nice and introduced me to several teachers and the principal. They took me to see my new apartment.

Alright, this is what you've been waiting to hear about, yes? Drum roll please..........................

Ok, so the apartment is pretty big. Officially, it's a flat, which is nothing but the British word for apartment, but from here on out, we will refer to it as the flat. The flat has 3 bedrooms, a shower room, and a toilet room. Europeans aren't big on putting the two together so that's what you get. There's a living room, a kitchen, and a nicely-sized entryway. Currently, the place is exactly livable as they've been doing some work on it. There's no carpet and it's a little drafty, but that will be fixed once the school purchases a rug for my room and gets the rest of my furniture. I am the first foreign language assistant to live in one of the on-campus flats and they hadn't really thought through all that was needed. Also, the remainder of the work in my room involves finishing the walls.

It was entirely too cold in the flat to stay there for my first night. All of you who spend any considerable amount of time with me know that I will wear a sweatshirt in the middle of summer in Atlanta (flashback to Trip of A Lifetime c. 1999), so this just would not do. One of the German teachers, Claire, offered to cook dinner for us at her home. We happily accepted this offer and opted to drive back to Caen after dinner.

Driving back to Caen proved to be an adventure. Of course, we got lost and the jet lag started to kick in so we were really tired. I drove while Mommy dozed in the passenger seat. Guess forcing me to own and stick and learn how to drive it payed off for her because it is impossible to find an automatic transmission out here. Anyway, we finally made our way back to the hotel and got a room that we weren't entirely pleased with, so we switched to a different one and then finally got settled in. It was around 11:00 pm by the time this was all said and done and we both passed out.

At some point I heard Mommy get in the shower. Imagine my surprise when I found out it was 3:30 on Saturday afternoon! We had to get up and get going. France, similar to the South, closes everything down on Sundays and we had errands to run. We got dressed and went downstairs to find out where would be the best place to purchase things for the apartment. I needed bedding, towels, toiletry items, etc. Wouldn't you know, they sent us to Wal-Mart.

I'm just kidding. We did not actually go to Wal-Mart, though we were directed to its French equivalent: Carrefour. And once again, we got lost and took an interesting scenic drive through provincial France. Carrefour is a daunting place. I think it's bigger than Wal-Mart, and it's in a shopping center that has everything else that you can't find in the store.

While I keep mentioning Wal-Mart, I have to comment on the American presence and influence here. 90% of what you here on the radio is English-language music, signs are randomly printed in English and McDonald's is too easy to find. I also saw a Toys R Us and it was pretty crowded. But back to the lecture at hand...

We made our purchases, which was a lot of stuff, and made our way back to the hotel without much of a problem. Then we walked to a nice little restaurant where we dined on champagne, foie gras, duck, salmon and some amazing dessert, before returning here to get some rest. We found out that the hotel has Wi-Fi, which is how I'm able to write this for you now, and I've been online ever since.

Unfortunately, I won't be in this hotel forever and my communication situation is still up in the air. There are computers in the staff room at the school which I will have access to most days of the week. By the end of the week, I'll find out about having a phone line and whether or not I can get Wi-Fi access (fingers crossed).

I suppose I should get some sleep now. It's 2:20 am Sunday and I need to make myself adjust to my new time zone. Please leave your comments and send your prayers. I'll be writing more again soon.

Toute à l'heure,

Mlle. Alicia