Le Mot Pour Enamel Est Émail

Bonjour ya'll!

I am indeed alive! The internet here has been hit or miss (as is the French tradition); therefore, I’ve not been able to update like I’ve wanted. I have; however, the internet for the moment, so I will let you know what’s been going on.

I met Rachel in Charlotte, NC after leaving my family in the High Plains of Texas. We had one last American meal at Chili’s Too and a glass of wine before taking the plunge over the pond. As is normal, we didn’t sleep that well, so when arriving in Paris, we were a little tired.

We went through customs with no problem and received all of our bags, which we soon drug through the Parisian Metro system (OH LA LA!) to our friend Magali’s house in Nanterre (just north of Paris). After asking three different people for directions, we finally found the tower in which she lives. Of course when we got there she wasn’t home, so we followed someone in the front door and put all of our bags in the lobby. We then decided that I needed to go back to the train station to see if Magali had gone to look for us. While I was gone, Magali found Rachel in the lobby and when I returned, Rachel found me and told me that Magali had come by. Rachel was also standing in the lobby with the man who had come to fix Magali’s gas line. We let him in the apartment and he began to ask us several questions. We didn’t quite understand what he was saying, not because he was speaking French, but because we don’t know anything about fixing a gas line. So we laughed as the man insisted that we know what has been going on. When he left, we feel asleep on the couch for 5 hours (bad idea because we didn’t quite sleep that night!). When Magali came home, I realized that I needed to go to Paris to meet with the girl from whom I am renting an apartment for the month. I was supposed to call her earlier on in the day, but because of my nap, I put her in a bit of a panic. Oh well! She’s fine! I met her that evening and she gave me the tour of the apartment and the keys. It’s a NICE place! I wish I could stay here, but I’m afraid that it’s a bit above my budget and quite unavailable. I am; therefore, still on the prowl.

Later on that evening Rachel and I met up with her friend Lauriana that she met from Lyon who now lives in Paris and took her to meet up with our friends Charles, Able, and Stephane who were foreign exchange students at Baylor this past semester. It was a GREAT night! We met them at a bar and then Charles took us to a techno night club. It was quite funny, but we surely enjoyed watching the French try to dance (not that we Americans were any better!). We had to return to the metro before 1am so that we could take the train back to Magali’s house, so we walked with Abel and Laurianne to the metro station and said goodbye for the evening. Tomorrow we will be having dinner with Laurianne at her house!

On Friday Rachel went with me to see the school at which I will be teaching at talk with someone. When we got there, the director was a bit confused. She told me that I should have gone to some other place to receive instruction, so I informed her that my assignment said to come to her. She saw my sheet of paper and said, “This is the first time that I’ve ever seen anything like this!” She then took Rachel and I into her office and called someone. When the person answered the phone, the director said, “Well, I have an assistant sitting in front of me. What do I do with him?” I felt a bit insulted, but not surprised at the disarray of the French administration. The director then said, “It says that he starts on the 1^st of October, so he can’t start today!” WHAT?!?! TODAY?!?! Needless to say, this woman was clueless. She told me to come back Monday and go to some other place where I can meet with the pedagogy instructor. I’ll be going back in the morning!

Yesterday we tried to get a cell phone for me, but in order to do that you have to have a bank account first; therefore, we just walked through Paris, went back to my apartment to take a nap, and did some grocery shopping before meeting Magali and her friends for dinner. We were 30 minutes late to meeting Magali at a metro stop, but for the French we were on time. We then walked with her and her other friends to the restaurant where we waited for an hour for more of their friends to arrive. We finally ordered drinks and yet another hour passed before the others arrived and we had the chance to order our food. By the time we ate and chatted for a while, we had been in this restaurant for over four hours! I’m not kidding you, this is normal for the French! They don’t eat out very often, so when they do, it’s a BIG deal! Needless to say, I was ready to leave!

Today we went to find a church and stumbled upon a protestant reformed church. It was boring, so I won’t go back. After that we joined our friend Andrew who is studying at the Cordon Bleu and had lunch with him. We then went back to my place, took another nap, and had Andrew over for dinner. We had pasta and enjoyed throwing things out of the window just for fun. There is a skylight under the window in the kitchen, so of course we had to have a contest to see who could hit it with something. I won because not only did I hit it, my piece of bread stuck to it. It’s still there! Now I sit in one room of this apartment and write this blog to you! YAY! I hope you are all doing well! I miss you!