France!

So, I left off my last post 20 minutes outside of Paris. Upon my arrival I retreived my bags and started off towards the Mexican Embassy where my aunt works to pick up the key to her apartment. This meant I had a huge traveling backpack strapped to my back, my french horn case and a medium sized duffel bag to carry. Step one was taking the airport shuttle to the terminal where the metro connection was. Then I stood in like for the automatic kiosk that sells tickets to the RER and of course it rejected my card for no reason at all. This mean I had to then stand in line for the human being and this line took 30 minutes. When I got to the lady I started to ask for an RER ticket and a carnet of metro tickets in French - but I only got as far as "Bonjour, j'ai besoin d'un ticket RER à Paris.....one way" but of course the jet lag and general fatigue took "aller simple" out of my lexis and the lady continued the rest of the transaction in English - though she complimented me for trying.

I got onto the RER and took that to Châtlet Les-Halles where I transferred to the 1 train (ripping my duffel bag on the jagged edge of a broken turnstile as I tried to jam myself and all my luggage through it). I rode this about 6 or 7 stops before transferring to the 9 train (lots of stairs, both up and down) and eventually making it to Iéna station.

I got out having a general idea where the Mexican Embassy was (I'd been there a few times before), but of course I went down the wrong street (to my credit, there are about 9 streets at this intersection), luckily I was only off my one, and after going around the block and asking a nice lady for directions (after getting bad directions from some guy who turned out to be a beggar and wouldn't leave me alone after I engaged him) I finally found the embassy. By the way, it was raining this whole time.

My aunt, as it turns out, had arranged her schedule to be done early - so she left with me for her place about 10 minutes after I got to the embassy. We rode back across town together (she was nice enough to carry my duffel most of the way), then after unloading my stuff we decided to take a tour around a grocery store so she could give me some pointers on what to buy, and what to avoid buying. After a tour around an enormous grocery store (my aunt and I both agree that grocery stores are fun to wander when you're not looking to buy anything in particular) we headed back towards her place - stopping for dinner at a pizzeria in her neighborhood that I really like.

Both of us were pretty exhausted, so after some organizing of my stuff and showing of my Iceland pictures, we went to our respective beds around 9pm.

The next morning I had a light breakfast with my aunt before heading off to Gare de Lyon to catch my train to Besançon. I uneventfully picked up my ticket and bought my youth card (gets me 25-50% off all my train ticket purchases), then caught my train. The train was also pretty uneventful, my neighbor was an older man headed to Belfort, trip took about 2 and a half hours. I got the Besançon around 1pm, and waited about 2 minutes outside before I saw a young woman holding a cardboard sign with my name on it. This was Anne. She is awesome.

Anne is my résponsable, which basically means my supervisor and person I go to with questions, issues, etc. She has been an English teacher at my lycée for 3 years now and speaks AMAZINg English. She is half-Ghanaian and half-French - her mother is from this region in France. She was born in Ghana, and grew up in London until she was 15, then moved to France to finish her studies. She studied in Besançon then worked in Lille for a bit before moving back to take this job. She has a 2 year old son and is expecting her second baby (who is due 4 days before my birthday).

Anyway, Anne picked me up and drove me to the lycée to drop my stuff off at my new apartment. The whole time we chatted, mostly in English, about Besançon and she pointed things out to me along the way. We got to my apartment and she handed me the keys - she also gave me a welcoming present of chocolate, apples, grapes, and a guidebook. After we dropped everything she took me around the school campus to show me around a bit - then she offered to drive me to Châteaufarine (a big-box shopping district - essentially where best buy, circuit city, target, etc type stores are). She was orignially going to drop me off here, but then changed her mind and decided to take me downtown with her (where she lives). When we got downtown she came with me to inquire about a bus membership (she has a yearly pass that is subsidized by the department of education, and she wasn't sure if I could get the same thing) then showed me around all the main streets where I could find cell phone stores, banks, etc. Downtown Besançon is very well organized - most shops are on two main streets and there are a few very pretty plazas and parks scattered throughout. There are a lot of streets and it seems each one goes a different direction (lots of oddly shaped city blocks), but it's small enough that it's not hard to navigate.

As for my apartment, I live on the school campus in a building that is designated as faculty housing. It is essentially a nice-ish, new-ish apartment building. I think most of the apartments are real apartments (i.e. - nicer than mine) and my apartment was always intended as a dorm of sorts. However, I still really love it, especially my bedroom. The apartment is set up with a main hallway that you enter from the front door, then there are 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a kitchen/den (Which I'm pretty sure used to be the 4th bedroom in the original plans). My bedroom is the one at the end of the L-shaped hall pretty far from the main bathroom and kitchen (great for noise, assuming anyone ever moves in with me). My room is about 9' by 19' (going off the floor tiles), and is furnished with a twin sized bed, nightstand, TV (with 2 channels), bookshelf, sink, closet and armoire. There are also a few framed art prints/paintings in a lot of the rooms and since I'm the first one here I went around and picked the ones I liked for my room (a Monet snow scene titled "La Pie", a Rodko print (sort of Norman Rockwell's style, but less realistic) of a bunch of people ice skaing on a lake in a snow covered small town, and a small painting of a rooster). Here are some pictures:

View from my room

The door to my room

My room's sink

My bedroom area


My bedroom again


My kitchen

As far as roommates go, I will probably be sharing this apartment with the other English assistant who arrives tomorrow - though they currently have her down for the apartment across the hall which is identical except there is a bedroom where we have the kitchen. If she wants to move in to this side instead they'll do that - but I guess they didn't want to assume she'd be comfortable living with a guy right off the bat. There is also a Spanish language assistant coming (from Spain), but Anne didn't know much about her since it's not a part of the English department. The German assistant lives in Besançon already so she won't be living here with us.

Anyway, I left off my narrative with being dropped off downtown. I grabbed a kebab sandwich then headed off to navigate the complicated world of French cell phone companies. I looked at a couple of different places at pay-as-you go (no contract) plans, and figured I would wind up paying close to $20-25 euro/month between monthly costs/texting/phone service. Then I found a plan that requires a 12-month contract which is $27 euro a month, gives you a major discount on phones, and comes with internet as part of the deal (plus 90 minutes talktime and unlimited texting). I decided that since my apartment has no internet access - this was a good way for me to stay connected without needing to go to campus or to a café to use internet. Long story short, I decided on this option (which comes with a smart-phone for only $30 euro or so), and then found out that to sign the contract I need a French bank account (which I'm opening on Tuesday), and I also need a blank voided check and a bank card from this account - which the guy thinks will take about a week to get after I open my account. So long story short I probably won't have a phone for another week and a half or so. (As for the 12 month contract...I'm working under the assumption that I'm going to fight tooth and nail to find a job in France after this assistantship is over next summer).

I made my way back home, went grocery shopping for the essentials and made myself a pretty simple dinner (I'd had a late lunch and was going to bed soon anyway). I spent some time organizing the apartment, but eventually just called it quits and went to bed.

My dinner on night 1

On Sunday I woke up around 9, had breakfast and headed off to explore the neighborhood some more. After some meandering through the streets I found the swimming pool in my neighborhood (about a 5-10 minute walk from my place) and checked out their schedule. I'm planning on going there regularly, but it's pricey enough that I'm definitely going to wait until I have swim goggles before I check it out (I can't really swim laps for too long without goggles, my eyes start to hurt). The upside of it being pricey is that I'm going to feel much more motivated to get a full workout everytime I go to avoid spending the money for nothing.

I made a shopping list of things I needed to buy and headed off to the bus station to catch the 1 bus to Châteaufarine to hit up the Géant store (sort of like a superwalmart), but quickly realized that the buses here run on different (reduced) routes on Sundays and after 8pm. This means no buses go out that way, so I have to wait until tomorrow to get the stuff I need. I caught a bus headed into town instead with the intention of finding some internet. I got into downtown and stumbled across "Le Musée de Temps" - or the Time Museum. Besançon is famous for its history as the center of the French clock and watch-making industry and this museum is sort of a history/science museum that focuses on clocks in general, and Besançon history. It's also free on Sundays. I spent a couple of hours checking out the various exhibits. Near the end of my time there I stumbled across a guided tour and stuck with them for the final portion of the museum. At the very top there is a 17 meter long pendulum showing that the earth does, in fact, rotate. There are also amazing views of the city form up here - I was kicking myself for not bringing my camera, I will bring it next Sunday when I come back to see the museum again with the full tour.

Leaving the museum I decided to finally find internet to let people know I'd arrived safely in Besançon before my family started to wonder what had happened to me. I asked the lady at the museum for directions to an internet café and she circled something on a map for me to check out. There was a cybercafe there, but it was closed (as were the other 12 that I passed along the way). I wandered around thinking there must be a coffeeshop or bar that offered wi-fi, but asking people on the street I just got a lot of shrugs. Finally I spotted a student-looking-guy at a café reading what turned out to be a physics book, and I asked him. He gave me directions to Brasserie 1802 and Le Café de L'Université, both of which have free wi-fi. I tried following his directions but got completely lost (it wasn't a language issue this time, he actually just gave me the wrong directions by accident). Eventually I found my way back and asked him to circle the cafés on my map - he was really nice about it and did so (realizing as he did this that he had messed up his directions before (said right when he meant left)). I found my way to the Brasserie and got internet long enough to email family, move money in my bank accounts, get directions to my band rehearsal on Tuesday, and try posting to blogger (but realized there wasn't enough time to leisurely write a post). This accomplished I wandered the city some more to walk to my band-rehearsal building and find a few bars/clubs that I had looked up while I was at the internet. Once I sucessfully found where I need to go on Tuesday night, I caught a bus back home - made dinner and organized my apartment some more.

I'll get a chance to check out a class tomorrow, I'm meeting Anne before her 10am literature class that she wants me to help out on. Apparently I don't actually start work until the first (Friday), and even then I'll only observe classes for 2 weeks - but I don't want to wait that long before I meet some of the students and start thinking about what I'm going to do. So yeah, I'll check out her class tomorrow and hopefully talk to her and/or some of the other teachers about getting a pen-pal thing organized with a French class from a school in Boston (a friend of my Peace Corps friend Emily teaches it). But yeah, for now, just taking it easy.

Sorry for the long post - I think they'll start getting shorter and less frequent as I settle into a routine here though, so enjoy it while you can :).