And it went a little something like this.
Finally, an internet connection! It’s not like I can’t live without it, but it IS pretty impossible to live without both a phone and the internet. I just need one or the other. The universe seems to have chosen internet. For now (it looks like there is literally no way to buy a phone in this town. I’m going to need to wait until I go to Amiens, which is a major city. Sigh).
Anyway, it’s been brilliant. Recap I guess?
LAX/IAH was alright. It felt way longer than it had any right to (2:45). I played with the new chapters of Pottermore for most of the three-hour layover once I figured out how to cheat the wifi system. Hint: it wan’t difficult enough to even really be called cheating. Then the ten-ish hours to CDG were way better than you’d expect – it was about half empty. Nobody sat next to me. It was awesome. I watched Beauty and the Beast and Men in Black 3. I cried a little bit at both, not gonna lie. That plane ride still feels like it takes weeks while you’re on it, though. Veggie curry for dinner and a nice croissant-y breakfast helped.
Nathalie, the teacher responsible for me at Collège Jacques Monod, picked me up at the airport because she is an absolute sweetheart (early middle age, blonde, tiny). The airport is sort of outside the city so I saw nothing of it, but the ride to Compiègne was pretty and pastoral. We passed Parc Asterix which was pretty cool to see even if it’s closed for the winter. About half an hour later, we were here in this quite frankly adorable town. We stopped at her apartment so she could grab a quick breakfast before she had to go to work and even that was awesome. Her building is what used to be the home of a Count and Countess who hit hard times and had to sell it to some people who then split it into 6 apartments. Cool, right? Also her interior decoration was really nice and the architecture is so what you’d expect of a cool French apartment. Speaking of nobility, I think there might actually be a Marquis living in this town? Does that even still exist? The giant complex that looked far too private to be a museum said “Residence of the Marquis of Whateveritwas” so I’m confused. I passed it today. ANYWAY back to day one, Nathalie then brought me to the Lycée Pierre d’Ailly so I could settle into my apartment. She had to leave at this point so I was left with intimidating rental agreements and such in French. But the women were very nice, and also took me to meet the concierge at the front gate so she’d know who I am (she’s also really nice and has been helpful…well I mean, all three of them have). Then I settled in here a tiny bit but mostly sat here and stared into space until Isabelle picked me up for lunch at her college, Ferdinand Bac. She is also blonde and tiny, but seems a bit younger even though she has three children. She talks very fast and has big blue eyes, and is just as helpful as Nathalie. We ate lunch in the teachers’ cantine, which is the same food as the kids’ but eaten in a different room. Oh, and they have wine (At first I was like, no thanks. But then I was like, wait, what? Wine in the teachers’ lounge? France!!!! *fist shake*). Also, yes, a gigantic tray of cheeses was in there. She introduced me to a zillion teachers including the very pleasant principal and the very sweet and soft-spoken Fabrice, who’s one of the English teachers I’ll be working with. Also the sort of mumble-y and gruff music teacher, who I hope I can collaborate with at some point, he seems fun.
Isabelle dropped me off at the high school again and I unpacked. I sat around. I took a shower and then accidentally slept for like two hours and was almost late to dinner at Nathalie’s place. She’d invited me earlier that day, and I had no food and no way to get any, so it was perfect. She and her husband were incredibly welcoming and made me feel so comfortable I could cry. They offered me du vin apéritif and I said yes, and I actually LIKED it. It must have been magic wine. No, it was just French. I don’t know. She said it was the specialty of some region their friends live in, so they always bring some back after a visit. Anyway it was really yummy. We talked a bit, and she showed me their photo album from their anniversary in Hawaii last year, which was really beautiful. Then canteloupe with bread and butter because that’s how they do it here (huh?), and yummy zucchini and goat cheese…things. I don’t know, did she call them tarts? They didn’t have a shell or anything and they were bread-y. They were kind of shaped like pumpkins. I don’t know! They were cute and delicious. Not that I found it easy to eat anything pretty much all day because I was exhausted and my stomach was confused, of course. She offered dessert but I couldn’t. She let me use her internet which was how I let people know I was alive and stuff, and then we talked a little about what I’m going to be doing at school but I’ll talk about that in a minute. Then I went to bed and was dead to the world. I don’t know if this bed is comfortable yet because I’m pretty sure I could sleep on anything right now.
I woke up at around 7AM (JETLAG!! *fist shake*) and lay in bed wishing I was asleep and that I had food and blah blah. Then I got up and got dressed and went to see about my internet since it hadn’t started working the night before like they’d said, but nobody was to be found in the office. Then I walked to the supermarket. I don’t know the exact distance, maybe I’ll map it and tell you but I’ll probably forget, but it was far. It was a nice day and I had nowhere to be for a while so it was alright, but I’m glad I have a bus schedule now because never again. Anyway I got some food and some of the other things I needed like soap, and walked back, which was the more difficult part. Not more difficult than I was expecting but still. The supermarket was a bit odd. It was big…but small. Similar…yet different. Everything seems really cheap here. I’m probably going to be able to save up quite a bit of my salary once it starts coming in. For instance, my shampoo would cost about 6 dollars, but the same exact kind was about 3 euros. That makes sense if we we’re just converting, but I’ll be paid in euros. So that makes it cheaper, even relative to me. Then I had a sandwich, waited a bit, then found the only bus stop I actually knew of and took it to the chateau because, yes, it really is as close as it looks on the map to Ferdinand Bac. Nathalie then lent me a cell phone and quested all over the city center with me for a prepaid SIM card to put in it…no such luck. After that we went to the town hall which is INCREDIBLLLEEEE to get maps from the tourism office. She seemed to know the guy there, and he was really nice and I have a big stack of info to read through, so that worked out. I used the internet in the teachers’ lounge and took the bus to our only remaining lead: the train station. Where I struck out. Again. Sigh. Then, the bus back here where I took some initiative and asked around, and was promised that my internet would work tonight. And it had better. Because Nathalie was going to email me about taking me to Pierrefonds (the gigantic ridiculous fairytale castle on the other side of the forest) tomorrow.
It really is like the “Bonjour!” sequence from Beauty and the Beast. Practically everyone I pass, man. I have to hold in my giggles because it is so comparable. Provincial town and everything.
It looks like I’ll be leading two conversation groups at each school all on my own. One is a group with adults, which I find interesting. The rest of the hours will be split up among the English teachers. Isabelle gave me a schedule of hers, and Nathalie is going to have a sign-up sheet so each week will be a little different. On the whole, I’ll be working Tuesdays and Thursdays at Jacques Monod, and Mondays and Fridays at Ferdinand Bac. However, I’ll have every other Monday as well as every Wednesday free. I know how to take the bus to both of my schools. I’m set.
It’s weird to be walking around in a sea of high schoolers. French ones at that. Really weird.
Other assistants won’t be arriving until next week, so I supposedly have the space to myself…But the bathroom is right next to my room and I keep hearing someone use it. So either I have an incontinent ghost or there’s some teacher living here that nobody told me about.
I need to ask what the French equivalent of Ibuprofen is and where I can get it, because I still ache from the plane ride. :/
I live on the third floor so I’ll have super buff legs after this.
It’s a tiny town but there are a ton of big schools. I do not understand this.
The cars are tiny and their names are hilarious.
I feel like a giant. The French are hobbits.
This has been a very long post. And I am very sleepy. But I must not go to sleep until at least 9 or I will be very sorry.
Right. That’s it. I love you, go be good, and I’ll post again soon because I can.
