Topless in Paris

Back in Carentan after an eventful weekend. On Thursday, Evan and I left early to get our medical exams in Paris. Since we’re working here for a period of time, we have to become French residents. In order to get our residency cards, though, we have to work our way through a lot of “housekeeping,” as UM professors like to call it, since becoming a resident means paying into the French tax system and getting insurance and all that stuff. It seems as though they scheduled a number of people in our academy on the same day, so we ended up meeting quite a few assistants in Paris. I think it’s stupid that every assistant has to go to Paris for this exam, though. We’re only three hours from Paris, but some people in the South are a good 8-10 hours by train. Not cheap, or practical, especially for what we get paid.
Anyhow, the exam itself was pretty silly. When they call your name, you walk in, a woman gives you a sheet and asks if you wear glasses, and if you’re female, if you’re “waiting for something.” Um, no. Then you get an eye test and weighed and all that good stuff. After that, though, comes what was by far the best part: the chest x-ray. Each person goes into a little stall, which pretty much work like the ones at a race track. You go in, lock the door, strip completely down on your top half, and then stand there all cold and awkward. After a bit, the doctor knocks on the door, you say ok, and he opens it, takes your x-ray, and then sends you back to your stall to put your clothes back on. So it’s a bit less exciting and quite a bit more awkward than a horse race, but it would be an interesting thing to put bets on, eh? From there it’s just a set of questions and answers, although my doctor made us strip down again to get blood pressure and listen to my breathing. Shirt off, shirt on, shirt off, shirt on. Apparently pulling my sleeve up wouldn’t have been good enough. It was also funny because she started the questions in English, then switched halfway through when she found out I spoke French. That seems to be the common thing here. Some man on the street in Paris stopped and offered to help when he saw that we had a map out, then was impressed when we spoke to him in French. I guess it’s better than being annoyed at our accents.
After hanging out in Paris a little while, we headed with my friend Jen back to Caen, where we were staying for the weekend. Caen is a bigger city, a university town actually, and definitely has much more going on than my little Carentan. It was good to be around people again, and we ate really well the whole time we were there. I suppose anything’s better than mashed potatoes and tuna. (Don’t worry, things will be different starting this week. Evan already had to put two extra holes in his belt, and my pants are definitely a bit looser, so we both have to put some weight back on. We plan to bbq tomorrow, so that should help!)
The highlight of the weekend was by far our trip to the beach on Saturday. It was beautiful out, so we decided to head to the coast. We ended up at Ouistreham (or Sword Beach, for you history buffs). It was absolutely gorgeous, and I was so happy to be by the water. The perfection of the day was only slightly tainted by the fact that we missed the last bus back, but luckily we got to take an expensive cab ride back to town with a cabbie who also appreciated our French and refused to believe we were American (because no Americans can speak French, right?) Pictures are up on my photo page, and they pretty much speak for themselves, beginning to end. Which reminds me, I plan to take pictures of my place sometime this week, since I finally got the last of my decorations on the wall. Check for those soon too.
I don’t teach tomorrow, but we’re going to go to both schools to finish some administrative stuff. Tomorrow’s market day too, which means it’s also sausage sandwich lunch day! These are the things I look forward to around here. Really, though, this place means business. The people I buy from have two first place trophies, which translates to “darn good sausage.” Mmmm…..