Nous avons trouvé Daniel...

Evan and I have been "busy" making action plans for what we're going to do if we can't find housing. Actually acting on one, we just walked to the school today to seek out our contact person, Daniel. We found him (and Internet!) and apparently we're going to look at a few apartments in about an hour. On the plus side, the teachers here all seem really nice. It's a small school so it seems as though everyone knows each other, and they were all interested to talk to us and such. We'll see how the apartment hunt goes later today. If we can't find anything here, we're going to try to find something in Caen, a bigger town that's 45 minutes away by train. The commute wouldn't be great, but hey, we need somewhere to live.
Other than the whole housing fiasco, and the fact that our hotel people don't really want us there (they asked us to pay for the nights we've already stayed last night, as though we might run out on the bill) we took a fun little adventure yesterday. We decided that we should get out of here for awhile, and that if this is the only time we have around here, we should see Mt. St. Michel. It's a huge abbey that's built on this big rock island thing out in a bay, and it has the most dramatic tide changes in Europe. I had been there in high school, but didn't remember it terribly well, so I was excited. After a few trains and a bus, we were there.
It was rainy and overcast, and I of course had left my umbrella and my coat with a hood at the hotel, but the abbey was still amazing. If I was an old monk dude, I would love to live there.
It's huge and all stone and the views are amazing, and although monastaries usually kind of freak me out, I feel really at peace at this one. There was this one moment that we were the only ones in this huge room and it was really quiet, and the feeling I got from that was undescribable. Completely alone with your thoughts. And, well, God I suppose. Pretty darn cool.
This is getting long, as usual, so I'm going to stop. Say a prayer, cross your fingers, do whatever for us, we need somewhere to live!

here! right...where is here again?

Bonjour tout le monde. Sorry for the lack of updates. I arrived in my small town, Carentan, on Saturday, but I don’t have frequent Internet access here, so it’s hard to keep up. My town is actually bigger than I expected (though by no means large) so that was a pleasant surprise. Plus, there’s a train station here, which is a huge plus for a town this size, and that will make traveling much easier.
When I got here, Daniel, my teacher contact at the school, and Evan, the other American assistant here, were there to meet me. They were both extremely nice, which was a huge comfort. Unfortunately, Daniel still can’t find anywhere for us to live. In a town this small, there aren’t tons of options, and those that exist are either unfurnished, too expensive, or the landlords are reluctant to rent for only 7 months. Evan and I are currently staying in a hotel, which is a bit expensive and frustrating. Evan has been here 3 days longer than I have, and he’s even further along the "this sucks" path than I am. He’s basically figuring that he’ll leave by Friday or Saturday if it looks like there’s nothing to be had for apartments, and although I’m trying not to think that way, I suppose it might be realistic. I’m not really sure what to think about it all at this point. I’m still hopeful that Daniel will come along anytime to let us know that he found something.
So, the weather here has been beautiful so far, coolish but very comfortable. No rain yet, but it’s coming. We pass most of our day walking around town. We are (kind of) on the water, so that’s nice. Basically, there’s a canal coming into town, but it’s still pretty, and there’s a path that goes all the way around. There’s also this outdoor gymnasium/obstacle course thing that apparently you’re supposed to do while running, so we play around on that when we get bored. The first night I was here, the Spanish assistant, Yasmin, arrived as well. She’s from Chile and has never been here, and she doesn’t speak French well. Since I don’t speak Spanish, and she doesn’t speak English either, it’s kind of hard to communicate with her, but we try. Daniel and his wife, Elisabeth, had us over for dinner that night. It was more of a traditional French dinner-2.5 hours long, 4 courses and an aperitif (before dinner drink). They served several things that were local to Normandy, some of which I liked and some of which I didn’t at all. There was this one meat that is some Norman specialty, so I decided to try it, but it turned out to be extremely disgusting. It quite literally tasted like a barn smells. But, to be polite, I ate it all. Last night, Evan and I split a really tasty pizza, and it was gone in about 5 minutes. It was sooo good, but then we were also pretty hungry. Afterward, we went for a walk (surprise surprise) and decided to walk by the campground to see the trailers. See, Daniel asked the woman who runs the hotel if she had any ideas about where we could live, and she suggested the mobile homes down at the campground. Daniel was pretty much appalled by the idea, but Evan and I think it’s hilarious that we might move to France to live in a trailer. Hey, it is almost waterfront property. So we walked and walked and talked about what we do to our trailer when we moved in. (no, Mom, not seriously) Today is market day, so we visited the market, then got some train information because we’re going to try to get out of here for a bit tomorrow, maybe go see Mt. Saint Michel. Right now, Evan’s getting his bike together to go for a ride (yes, he dragged his bike all the way here from Utah) and I think I’m gonna take a nap and then see about finding some Internet and renting a bike. Yeah, until I find Internet I’m typing these things into Word and saving them, lest I forget any of these captivating moments in my little Norman town. And for all you worriers out there, don’t fret, I’m fine, I’m actually still having a really good time, and things will work out eventually.

Kristin does Paris (Vol. 4)

After some waiting, the two other assistants arrived at the hotel as well, and about the same time that the last assistant got here, we were able to check in. We got all set up, rested a bit, and then took off in search of food and Sacre Coeur. We found both, and the view from Sacre Coeur was amazing! It was definitely worth the uphill hike. After that, we pretty much crashed and then got up to head to the assistant meet up today. We left a little early, so we had time to go see Sainte Chapelle, another cathedral that I had never seen. The façade inside wasn’t really my taste (too much gold) but the stained glass windows were fantastic. Before long, it was time to head to Notre Dame to find the other assistants. It was pretty funny because one guy found us right when we got there, but we didn’t see anyone else, even though lots of people had said they were coming. I went up to one guy and asked if he was waiting for someone, and he said no. Then he conceded, very nicely, "Well, actually, I am waiting for someone, but not you." As I started to walk away, he added "If you’re for a group, there’s a bunch of Anglophones over there. They’re language assistants." I told him that’s exactly who I was looking for, thank you (this whole conversation was taking place in French, by the way) and then saw this massive group of people a few feet away. There must have been at least 20 of us. I met tons of people who were going to be all over France, and we ate and then walked through the Jardins de Luxembourg (Luxembourg Gardens). It was really nice, and once again someplace I had never been. Afterward, we went back to Notre Dame and rested awhile at a café, then went back to our hotel, rested a bit, and met up with some assistants that night. Although very disorganized, we managed to make it to a pub on the Left Bank, and I had some rosé (I think it's blush in English?) that actually wasn’t so bad, considering that I normally don’t like wine. Then we went back to our hotel, where we talked to our roommate a bit, a guy who is from New York but now lives in Atlanta and is traveling Europe for three months in between engineering jobs. Tomorrow morning I'm taking a taxi to the train station to meet Jen, an assistant originally from Michigan who now lives is Chicago and is in the same region as me, in the bigger town of Caen about 45 minutes from me. We were taking the train to Normandie together. She’s very sweet, and we get along really well. She said I can stay with her anytime, so I expect that I’ll be visiting Caen quite a bit, since there’s more to do there and I have a place to stay. Anyhow; that’s enough typing for now, more later!

the best laid plans....

however the rest of that saying goes. We got to the Detroit airport yesterday in plenty of time for my flight. My mom decided that they would come in with me, just because. As soon as I go to check in, though, there's a problem. The plane that's supposed to take me from Detroit to Chicago is delayed wherever the heck it's coming from. The woman tells me that instead, I'll have to fly to Washington D.C. and then from there to Paris. I'm not cool with this idea. I'm supposed to be meeting people in Chicago. One of them is supposed to go with me to the hotel in Paris. I insist that there must be some other flight going from Detroit to Chicago, on another airline at the very least. Honestly, how many planes must fly that route each day? The lady feigns confusion, says if I stay on the same flight to Chicago I might miss my connection to Paris, blah blah blah. She obviously doesn't get it. So I just ask what time the flight from Washington gets in to Paris, and it's earlier, so I figure I can maybe meet up with them at the airport there.

Fast forward about 11 hours. I'm tired. I'm hungry. I'm crabby and my luggage weighs a ton. I've waited for about an hour and I'm done. Then I realize that I wouldn't be at the right terminal to meet them anyway, so pooh on that idea. I hop (ok, not so literally) on a shuttle that takes me to the metro. From there I take the RER (suburban metro) to Paris, then change lines, then change lines again. Stairs after stairs after stairs. My luggage is getting heavier by the second, and I feel like crying the entire time. It took me two hours to get here from the airport. That's frickin' ridiculous. CDG is 1/2 hour from Paris. Anyhow, as time goes on my mood only worsens, and I can't imagine how pitiful I must have looked throughout the whole thing. I will say one thing though-don't let anyone tell you that the French, especially the Parisians, are rude. I've never met so many nice people. A woman helped me get one of my bags off the train, two men carried them up stairs and down stairs for me. I don't know if I would have made it without them. It seriously would have taken me another hour at least. Anyhow, when I finally left the metro line, there it was: Paris, in all it's glory. I've never been so relieved to see it. Then I pull out the directions to my hotel, which say "turn around and take the stairs behind you." What?!?! Sure enough, two more flights of stairs. I had to stop several times in the short way down the street. I didn't even carry my bags in at the same time, but dashed in with a load, said "un moment" and came back with the rest. The hotel guys laughed at me, but I don't care. So there you have it: my arms might still be shaky, but here I am!!! I do think a taxi might be in order for Saturday though...

p.s. I just checked online for that Chicago flight because I wondered when the other girl was going to get here, since I expected her by now. Turns out the flight was 3 hours delayed in leaving, so it was 3 hours late getting here. I would have made it! Oh well, I'm glad I'm here!

T-4

My plane leaves Detroit in 4 hours. My bags are packed, although I finally had to break down and expand one, and they haven't passed a test run around the house to see if I can manage them all. It's pretty darn hard to fit your life for the next 7 months into as much as you can carry, but there you are. I suppose this is a good exercise in "minimalism" for someone who has spent most of her life in the U.S. Really, I have quite a bit of stuff, and I can't feel bad-there could be worse things than moving to France. :)

I fly first from Detroit to Chicago, then from Chicago to Paris. Three other teaching assistants randomly ended up being on the same flight with me (though we didn't plan it. weird, huh?) so I'll meet up with them in Chicago. Then when we get to Paris, one of them is staying in the same hostel as I am, so we'll help each other get from the airport there. There's also another assistant staying there, who will meet us since she flies in a little later. On Friday, there's a big assistant meetup in Paris-somehow all of us are meeting for lunch. We'll see how that lunch part goes, since I think there will be quite a few of us, but it'll be nice to meet other people who will be throughout France. On Saturday, I am meeting another assistant from my region at the train station, and off we go to Normandy. She'll be with me as far as Caen, and then I'll continue on to Carentan where my teacher contact, Daniel, and possibly the other American assistant in my town, Evan, will meet me. Then I start to get settled in!

This whole experience is pretty crazy. I went into it knowing no one, and now it seems as though I have contacts all over France, plus a few good friends in the U.K. :) Obviously, I pretty much have someone with me every step of the way from St. Clair, Michigan, USA to Carentan, Normandy, France. I know this will be a huge relief, since my mom will leave me crying at the airport, and I won't be alone to think about leaving home. :(

Alright, off to eat, finish packing, and give the old suitcases a test run. I'll end with some lyrics that I think pretty much sum all of this up, courtesy of Dan's a cappella group, 58 Greene (with a little help from Enya).

Find a new world across a wide ocean
This way became my journey
This day brings together
Far and away