Cowpies and Paris

Bonjour à tous!  Apologies for the lack of updates, but I hope my poem kept you satisfied.  I’m still sans internet, although I received a text at 4am last night from the internet company saying that it should be activated this Saturday.  Why they chose texts as their mode of communication, I’m not sure.  Although it makes more sense than email, seeing as how I don’t have internet… In any case, because of the lack of internet chez moi, I’ve been at the mercy of the McDonalds wifi, which chose to take an elongated break over the past few days.  Yesterday, I asked one of the employees if the internet was working again, and she said, “Oui, ça marche!”  However, when I turned on my computer, I couldn’t get a signal and another guy said it wasn’t working for him either.  Anonymous McDonalds employee, you are now on my blacklist.

In any case, what a few weeks it’s been.  Claire, my friend from Kalamazoo who studied abroad with me in Strasbourg, arrived last week and we’ve had many (mis)adventures already.  Put the two of us together and something is bound to go awry.  We are an idiot.  Take, for example, our search for furnishings.  It’s a long story that I will regale you with in detail some other time perhaps, but in a nutshell—we took the bus out to a suburb of Nancy, looking for the cheap furniture store Alinéa, which, according to the map, was supposed to be very close to the bus stop at which we arrived.  However, after a few miles’ walk out into the middle of cow country, it was still nowhere to be found.  We were getting ready to turn around and head back, when I spotted the store.  “There it is!”  I shouted.

Yes, it was across a valley. (Click on the picture for a full-sized view, complete with arrow.)

So down we trekked (fortunately there was a walking path), traipsing through fields and pastures, stopping to take pictures with a few of the locals.

When we reached the end of the walking path, however, Alinéa was still tantalizingly out of reach, and I used the word tantalizingly in its full sense.  Alinéa was our fruit and water and we were poor Tantalus, but in this case, all we wanted was a cheap rug and some bedding. 

Back we went to Nancy, the day only half over, and we decided that we’d go up to Metz, a big city north of Nancy.  Because there lay the cheap furniture mecca—Ikea.  You’d think that it would be even more difficult to go to a completely different city that we’d never been to before, rather than simply take a bus out into the suburbs, but the rest of the day came off without a hitch.  We took the train from Nancy to Metz for only 5 euros each way, and once we arrived in Metz, we found the bus that dropped us off right in front of Ikea.  Hallelujah!  Although it bordered on agony to lug back all the stuff that we bought, it was still easier than hauling our luggage across Paris.  It’s all about perspective. 

This past weekend, Claire and I went to Paris for Nuit Blanche (literally, White Night) during which, from 7pm to 7am, chic bourgeoisie Parisians (or drunken teenagers, take your pick) wandered around to different art exhibits, concerts and films, ranging from the simple storefront installation to a full-on Big Band concert in the Pompidou center (my personal favorite).  I won’t bore you with the twelve hours of wandering we did but I will say that at 5am, when we had nearly lost it with fatigue, we stopped by the Artisan Boulangers exhibit where Parisian bakers, who had been baking all night, handed out fresh patisseries for free.  I ate a croissant there that literally melted in my mouth.  That made the whole night worth it.  That, and getting a grande coffee at Starbucks.  Real coffee!  Starbucks!  It’s amazing the little things that make you feel at home.  

 In other news, I started observing classes this past week.  While it’s been a little stressful trying to figure out my exact schedule as it seems that every teacher wants to teach English at the same time and few are willing to move their schedules around, I’m still really looking forward to my job!  The kids are, almost without exception, adorable.  As soon as they see me, whether it’s in class, in a hallway, or waiting for the bus after school, they say, “Hello!” with their thick French accents.  And when I say hello back, they grin and blush and whisper excitedly to the other kids around them.  I think they finally learned the phrase “Turn around” because that’s what I keep having to tell them as I sit in the back of their classrooms and they all turn in their seats to stare at me, open-mouthed.  My favorite cute kid moment so far was yesterday, when a little girl whispered something to me as I stood close to her, observing class.  I leaned down and asked her to repeat it.  “Tu es belle.” (“You’re beautiful”).  I just about lost it!  I grinned and thanked her and told her she was sweet.  I didn’t even want to correct her—the kids are supposed to use the formal vous with me, not tu! 

My orientation is tomorrow, after which I’ll finally start “assisting.”  Hopefully my job description will become a little clearer, because right now I’m not really sure what I’ll be expected to do.  On verra!  For now, I’m enjoying being the celebrity among the kids.  I hope that doesn’t wear off anytime soon. 

A la prochaine! 

(Renard is Fox in French!)