Que La Justice Soit!

Pour le francophones, cliquez sur la photo pour lire la band désiné!

Coming to France and encountering no problem whatsoever would be a dream, but not a reality! Today Rachel and I walked to the church to access the internet and check our e-mails. I had some junk mail to read for entertainment while Rachel; however, had some more interesting news to keep her amused. As I’ve already mentioned, Rachel lives pretty far from her English teaching job, which means that she must execute a two hour commute every day before and after work. Although this isn’t the most desirable fact of life for Rachel at the moment, it is certainly the spilled milk over which it isn’t necessary crying! On the contrary, there is already a sad pathetic little woman sitting at her desk in St. Etienne with milk ALL OVER her freshly pressed t-shirt decorated with English phrases like “Healthy Beautiful”, and “Mom will be so happy!”, and “I like to think I’m cool because I wear a shirt with English words on it that make absolutely no sense!” As it turns out, Rachel sent her address to the people in her Académie and a woman by the name of Mme Maléchet responded with:

You cannot live in Lyon and work in St. Etienne. I thought that I was very clear concerning this subject matter. Every year we have numerous problems concerning your long-stay card and of course your tardiness, absences…

I ask you one last time to accept our conditions either you live in St. Etienne or you quit.

Cordially
H. Maléchet

Needless to say, this woman is a loser! I understand her concern for Rachel being late to work, but in all seriousness, she DOES NOT have to right to tell her where she may live! That is an issue that concerns Rachel and Rachel alone! At least this is what Rachel, the Pastor of the church in Lyon, the nice lady at the Embassy of France in the United States, and I think!

After Rachel called her parents, we immediately contacted our new friend Carolyn Collins in Washington D.C. who is in charge of our program. She was just as shocked as we were to hear what had occurred. She assured Rachel that she would contact the necessary authority and send Rachel an e-mail as soon as possible. JUSTICE SHALL BE SERVED! If the académie still doesn’t budge, Rachel’s church will find an address for her in St. Etienne because,

THERE’S NO USE CRYING OVER SPILLED MILK MME MALÉCHET, SO PUT IT ON A T-SHIRT AND CRY TO YO MAMA!

Rachel was SO MAD, so we found as many individuals as possible to share her anger. It was a good moment for the soul.

I just told Rachel last night that I’ve finally decided that this time around, the French no longer scare me. The last time that I lived in France, every time something went down administratively that made me feel stupid, I blamed myself; this time I blame the administration itself. For example, I went to the bank in Paris last Tuesday to talk to someone about opening an account. When Rachel and I entered the breezeway and tried to access the front door, the woman refused to let us in. I rang the door bell as she was staring at me and she responded with, “ONLY ONE PERSON AT A TIME MAY ENTER!” I thought to myself, “HOW RUDE!” and dramatically insisted that Rachel leave the breezeway. As Rachel exited, the woman opened the door for me while scolding me for not reading the door. I literally rolled my eyes at her as she finally let Rachel in the door. Upon her entrance, I loudly and dramatically scolded Rachel for not being able to read the door. The woman just looked at us and then directly said to Rachel, “And normally you’re not supposed to enter with a hat either (Rachel was wearing a stylish bonnet of some sort)” I then ripped the bonnet off of Rachel’s head and exclaimed, “SHAME ON YOU!” The woman knew I was mocking her, and I personally didn’t care! I told Rachel that I was going to moon her as we left, but Rachel talked me out of it. If it weren’t for the other nice lady who works in the back that helped me obtain information about opening an account, I might have ignored Rachel and given to the mean lady at the front desk what was justly hers!

All in all, Rachel and I are learning how to manage the bad administration, but for the time being, we can’t help but feel frustrated. Pray that Rachel’s situation is solved and that all the mean people in France leave their apartment tomorrow morning and become victims of a drive-by baguetting.

Cordially,
C. Casper

Sans Abri, C'est Moi!

This is a photo taken at that long dinner that Rachel and I sat through the other night.

Currently, I am in Lyon, France where I came with Rachel to help her with her bags and to help her find things around town. She is living in a house provided by a church for which she will be working during her séjour in France. It’s a very nice home, but quite far from where she will be working in St. Étienne. She says that she will have a two hour commute both ways every day that she has to go to work. On the flip side, she doesn’t have to pay for rent, and the church is providing her with the finances necessary to use the public transport system. In the house there is another gentleman by the name of Alain-Georges. He is from Cameroun and also a VERY nice individual! He made dinner for us last night when we arrived! He also sat and talked with us for over two hours. All in all, Rachel’s situation is ideal (minus the long commute!).

I went back to Évry and finally spoke with someone who knows what is going on (well, sort of). I met a lady by the name of Catherine Hernandez who is in charge of my schedule and the minor details of the job. I had some questions for her about opening a bank account, but she didn’t know the answers. She went to make a phone call to someone who might know, but there were already two people in the office using the phone. That’s right, in a professional office like the National Inspector of the Department of Essonne for the Académie of Versailles, there are only two lines! Welcome to France. We waited a few minutes, but once one of the lines was free and Mme Hernandez had the opportunity to call someone, nobody answered. She then took my e-mail address and said that when she hears something, she will send me a message. I’ve still received nothing! No surprise!

Before leaving Paris yesterday, Rachel and I were in the hall of my current apartment building when an elderly lady by the name of Anique Pirrat who lives on the 6th floor asked us to carry a couple of small grocery sacks up the stairs for her. She told us that we could leave them at my door on the 5th floor and that when she made it up the stairs that far she would take them from there. Of course we insisted on taking them all the way up to her door. We also waited for her to pass my door so that we could get a chance to talk with her. It was perfect! As soon as she saw that we had left the door open, she was ready to chat! We asked her how she was doing and she asked us about our current situations in France. I informed her that I was looking for an apartment to stay for the next nine months and the wheels began to turn. She began to think of people that might be looking for roommates and of apartments that would suit me. After thinking for a bit, she remembered that there would be an apartment available on the 6th floor of the building just in front of the one in which I currently live. The building has an elevator, so I wouldn’t have to climb all of those stairs everyday if I didn’t feel like it. She informed me that the apartment was smaller than the one I am currently occupying, but that there are two rooms, a kitchenette, and a bathroom. The rent is €750 per month, but with a roommate, it would only be €375. That’s €25 below my budget! She told me that she would call the owner to ask about the place and that we could call her later on that evening once we’ve arrived in Lyon.

Once arriving in Lyon, we were picked up at the train station by the pastor of the church at which Rachel will be living and working. Once we arrived on site, we found an internet connection so that I could call Mme Pirrat. The call was successful as Mme Pirrat informed me that she had spoken with Mme Londner (the wife of owner of the apartment) and that I could call her for more information. She gave me Mme Londner’s number and I called right away. When she answered, I asked a few simple questions about the apartment and then asked if it would be possible for me to have a roommate. She wasn’t sure, so she told me that she would ask her husband and that I could call back at 13h the next day. I did! It was her husband that answered this time who informed me that having a roommate would be no problem. The only problem is that the apartment isn’t available until the middle of October; therefore, I’d have to stay with someone in the mean time. This won’t be a problem because as I have already mentioned, I’ve been blessed in Paris to have friends already who told me to let them know if I’m ever an SDF (Sans (Without) Domicile (Home) Fixe (Permanent)) and that they would help me!

I’ve not yet seen the apartment; therefore, I might be excited about nothing; however, it is in the same place as my current apartment which means that the door of the building opens to a metro station; there is a bakery and two cafés on the first floor, a Monoprix (A place like Target) across the street, and WONDERFUL views! Please pray that this works!

I’m still trying to open a bank account and get a cell phone, but other than that, Things are coming along just well!

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!