Vive la France!
So I've been in France for a week now... and since I have regular internet access here in Brest, I guess it's about time for an update! My time here has already been very eventful... with lots of good stories to tell :)
I guess I'll start with Paris...
So I arrived in Paris Tuesday morning with 2 big rolling suitcases, my large carry on bag and my laptop... and hopped on the RER train into the city... well, I didn't know that the RER line B was on strike and the terminus was Gare du Nord... so I stayed on the train to go to Chatelet Les Halles which I thought was going to be the next stop, but then the train started going back toward the airport! So I had to get off at the first stop in the reverse direction, leave the station and re-enter to go back to Gare du Nord... then I had to switch trains to get to Chatelet Les Halles... then switch trains again to get to the stop on the line 14 where I was meeting Laurent... Mind you I was doing all of these train transfers with an obscene amount of luggage!
So then, I'm meeting my couch surfing friend Laurent for the first time at the Metro stop - which is quite difficult when the stop has multiple exits and only one of you has a cell phone... but it all worked out and he helped me with my luggage as we walked to his place... If you aren't already a member, I highly recommend that you join couchsurfing!! It's a great resource not only for finding a place to stay but for meeting great people and having a good cultural exchange :)
So Paris was great... Laurent showed me around a bit - even though I knew the city fairly well, it ws still good hanging out with him... We had a meet-up for the other assistants who were in Paris at the time... that was a lot of fun... we had dinner at a fondue place where you drink wine out of baby bottles - which is pretty great, actually... much harder to spill that way! It was good to meet the other assistants and to see Aimee and my cousin Adrienne :)
Adrienne and I took a train together from Paris to our designated cities... some old French bitch didn't like where we were putting our luggage, so we moved hers so she could still keep an eye on it... other than that the train ride went on without a hitch! They never came by to check tickets though, so I could have ridden for free... but alas...
Once in Brest I called the school and got someone to come pick me up at the station... I was shown around the school and shown my TINY apartment... the whole thing is smaller than my bedroom at home... including the bathroom and the 'kitchen' - which is really just a hotplate on a cabinet... but it's free, so I can't complain...
On Saturday morning I went into the school to use the internet... My school is open on Saturdays, but luckily there aren't any English classes that day! Anyway, so I went in to use the internet and the school usually closes at 1pm... so at around 12:00 my Scottish friend Claire calls and asks where I am, so I told her and she said she'd be there in a little bit... about 10 minutes later she called again and asked how I got in... so I said it was open... so she said - 'do you know you're locked in the school?' so I was like... but it's not 1 yet... so I shut down the computer and started to leave... once I started moving in the hallway, the alarms started BLARING... so I was like 'fuck, I'm going to get arrested on my first day in Brest!' So I went into the courtyard cause it was quieter there... a nice calm place to wait for the police to come rough me up and take me away... luckily the maintenance man or superintendant or whoever came by with keys and opened the doors and turned off the alrm and I explained what happened... they were very cool about it and I wasn't in any sort of trouble at all :)
Then this weekend was the Foire de St-Michel... which was basically a big crap-sale... there were a bunch of people selling their old junk on little blankets throughout town... there were also some tables selling new stuff... and some food stands, with some excellent kebab! Then after la foire, Aimee called me and said she was at a Scottish bar downtown and wantred to know if I wanted to join her... so I was like 'hellz yeah' but I had already missed the night bus that left my stop and would have had to wait an hour and a half for the next one, so I decided to walk... on foot I'm about an hour and a half outside of the city... So I was bookin' it through some shady neighborhoods, the whole time thinking ' I'm going to get raped and murdered in Brest...' Luckily neither of those things happened... but I did get shot at with a pellet gun!! Some kid was sniping me from his window! At least it was just a pellet gun though! So after I got into the city centre, I was walking along the street that the pub was on and ran into Juliana, Matt and Julia - other assistants in Brest... I told them where I was headed and they were glad to follow :) So it has been lots of fun hanging out with the other assistasnts :)
So then the next night we decided to have a nice dinner at a restaurant in town... so as I'm riding the bus, I see my friends running to try and flag the driver down to get on the bus... so I very politely ask the driver if he can stop for them (especially since he was running ahead of schedule!) but he refused... so then my bus gets to its terminus which happened to be my stop... I didn't request the stop since it was the terminus I thought it wasn't necessary... and when I wanted to get off I asked if he'd open the door... right away he got frustrated and started yelling at me with his thick Bretagne accent, and I couldn't understand a word that came out of his mouth... so I told him I'm not from there and that I'd appreciate it if he slowed down a bit... Well then he just started yelling more and I finally understood that I had to push the butto to request the stop in order for the doors to open (I thought he controlled it from his station but apparently not)... as I realized this I hear him, in his slur of French, yell 'putain'... I was sooooo pissed at him I wanted to punch him in his face, but instead I just said 'monsieur, c'est pas necessaire!' as I exited the bus... he was seriously freaking out over nothing...
So we've all been joking around about how bad my luck has been so far, but it's definitely providing amusing stories :) I wish I could write more, but this is already obnoxiously long and probably uninteresting to everyone else...
Hopefully my next 7 months provide me with as many great memories as this past week!!