no longer homeless...

I officially have an address in France! After seeing 5 different apartments and lots of deliberation, I ended up taking the first studio we looked at, and Evan took the last one. Mine is small, but clean and cute. It’s pretty much a hallway, with a little kitchenette, a nice size bathroom, and another room at the end where I sleep and do pretty much everything else. I’ll post pictures of it soon. I’m so relieved to have somewhere of my own to go, but what a pain to figure out. Our contact teacher was so great though. He made all the appointments, came with us to all the viewings and signings, made sure we understood everything that was going on. I know he’s just as relieved that we have places to live. So now I have to do some more paperwork stuff to get the rent subsidized, since my salary is so small, and to get a phone set up and all that.
We spent most of this weekend getting settled and enjoying the fact that we finally live here. This morning Evan and I went to church, which was really cool. We went and found it yesterday, and the pastor was there with his wife and one of his daughters. They invited us in and we talked to them for a bit. It’s a really small church-I think there was about 20 people there this morning. France, and really most of Europe, is by tradition Catholic, but very few people are actually practicing Catholics, even though nearly everyone would call themselves Catholic if asked. Protestant churches are tough to come by, and people who actually go to church are even fewer. The church here is so small that it has a really family-orientated atmosphere; everyone knows each other and they hang out together most of Sunday. In fact, we were there for over 5 hours today. The service lasted awhile, and as it was starting Pastor Vogel, or Uwe (pronounced o-va: they’re German) asked us to introduce ourselves and tell everyone where we were from and what we’re doing here, etc. It was also interesting because they must of prayed for us about 5 times during the service, giving thanks for us being here and asking that we have good experiences in France. After the service, everyone eats lunch together. Four courses, and everything was amazing!! Evan and I haven’t eaten like that in quite awhile. There are actually four British couples who go there, some of whom have moved to France and some who vacation here. I talked with them quite a bit during the meal. There was also a really nice younger German couple that we talked to, who speak German, English, and French. I wish I was that good! The woman, Daniela, has lived here for 8 years and was nice enough to speak to me in French so I could practice. Afterward, she gave us their address so we could call and come visit them when we want to get away for awhile. It was so wonderful to be in a place where people were so welcoming and happy to see us there. It’s nice to have a church to go to here, and to have such a cool way to improve my French, both during the service and talking to people there. It was a really good day.
It’s still amazing to me how nice everyone is here. On Friday, when Evan signed on his apartment, his landlord took us back to his house to give Evan sheets and stuff, and also sent us away with tons of apples-a huge bag apiece. What landlords do that at home? Yesterday, our contact teacher and his wife came to visit me, and then took me to their house to give me everything I needed for my apartment-sheets, plates, etc. He has the flu and they were on their way home from the doctor, plus their daughter was visiting with her family, yet they wanted to make sure I was taken care of. Today, we went to do laundry, and these two really nice ladies came in to dry their clothes (most people have washers here, but few have dryers-too expensive) and took their clothes out early, giving us their dryer with 10 minutes left. These might all seem like small things, but they seem incredibly generous to me, being so far from home. I would say that I’ve experienced just the opposite of anti-American sentiment. When people learn that I’m from the U.S., they want to take me under their wing and help me out. It probably has something to with the fact that I’m in Normandy, and they have a tendency to support the U.S. more because of WWII, but still. In fact, the other thing I think is funny is that no one has yet guessed that we’re American here. We get British all the time, and Canadian and German once, but never American. Not sure why.
Another long entry. If you made it this far, thanks-when I don’t write all the time, I write a lot. More to come later. Today is the first day of "work" for us and I’m sure I’ll have lots to say.