Picture Post!

Nearly all of the streets look like this. It is so hard for me not to walk down the street and sing Belle's song from Beauty and the Beast.


^ Not an American.

View from my hostel


Driving in the car with Sylvie on the way to Les Andelys to see the school for the first time

View from the hostel

Rue du Gros Horloge

Abbaye de Saint-Ouen

Place du Vieux Marche and the Joan of Arc Church

My cafe!

Classy.

From the walk from the train station at Gaillon-Aubevoye to the bus stop in Courcelles-sur-Seine

At the school outside of the auto body repair building (it's a vocational school, too)

View from the school

Lost in translation!

Teachers striking in Rouen

I took a lot of pictures of my apartment before I left two weeks later. I also put a lot of work into making it feel like home. =P

This is how my water was heated. Crazy.

And the guitar that Sylvie is letting me borrow!

Chloe and I took a random trip out to Evreux! We passed this dog training set-up that's right next to the Mairie of Bouafles (- pronounced "Bwaffles). I crack up every time I pass the sign for the chateau de Bouafles (loosely translated by me as "Bwaffles House")

Another one lost in translation: "Never stop to dream". Pretty sure "Never stop dreaming" would be the more inspiring English phrase for a handbag.

And then we bought delicious truffles.

I found the juxtaposition of the old town and the pop music from the radio that they were literally feeding into the streets pretty hilarious.

Bye! Thanks, Evreux!

Hello from Les Andelys!

So, after a crazy time moving into my apartment in Rouen and the 4-hour round-trip commute to school every day, I decided to move out to Les Andelys where my school is. Daniel, a new teacher at the school from Martinique (he teaches "carrosserie", or auto body repair, with the vocational school students) was offered an apartment on campus, and as it had three bedrooms, he decided to share the apartment with me and David, the school's Spanish teaching assistant from Spain. I couldn't be having a better time! I am platonically in love with both of them, and they have both expressed that they would do absolutely anything for me. David left last night (we've got a two week vacation, so he's back in Sevilla until we start school up again), but right up until he left, he'd been making us dinner every single night. He said that he used to be a chef in Spain but didn't like cooking for work, but now he loves making meals for the people he cares about. And oh my gosh, it is so wonderful. He made his own pate the other day, and I'm still dreaming about the zucchini and roquefort potage that he made (his grandmother's recipe). It has been an interesting adjustment from basically eating vegetarian to now living with some serious meat-eaters. As we were driving David to the airport last night and passed lots of cows in fields, I would coo over them and David would say, "Non 'awww', 'mmmmmm! yum yum!'" They are goofy guys, and I love them.

I really don't know what I would've done without them- after I informed my landlord that I decided to move out to Les Andelys, he let me know the next day that he had found someone to live in my apartment and that I'd have to vacate ASAP! I had about 45 minutes' warning before I literally packed up all of my things, handed over my keys, and headed out. Luckily for me, David, Daniel, and our friend Rafa were all in Rouen with Daniel's car, so they all helped me move everything into my car, drop off Rafa at his house in Rouen, and headed back to Les Andelys (and only momentarily stalled out a couple of times! I can't believe all of the things I have now, thanks to all of the things that Sylvie's graciously given me). It is a lot of stuff, but I'm happy for all of it, especially all of the kitchen stuff, which both David and I are so enjoying! It's hard getting used to only having a hot plate and a microwave to work with, but we're getting used to it. I'm excited to make Ceilidh's avocado and orange salad and some stir fry with peanut sauce tonight!

It's just me and Daniel for today, though Daniel is heading out tonight, so I'll probably invite Chloe over. She lives "in town", which is about a half hour walk from our high school, and she works at the middle school out there. I'm definitely spoiled with the nicest company, and I just don't know how I got so lucky as to be surrounded by such lovely people.

School is also going very well. I only just started working in the classroom yesterday, and it's taking some getting used to. I think I just need to strike a good balance between friend and teacher, since I'm not officially a teacher and I'm really just there to get them comfortable speaking in English. Just need to hearken back to my days in Anouk's classroom and authentic communicative experiences going!

For the vacation, I'm excited to do lots of laundry, probably head into Rouen tomorrow to pick up my bank card from the bank out there, going to Disneyland on Tuesday, and headed to Paris for a couple days to see my friends out there at some point. Am I really living this? Is this really happening? I am just so happy!

Hello from Rouen!

I am officially writing to you from my very own studio apartment in Rouen, right across from a very nice private school and near rue Cauchoise, a pedestrian street. It's pretty near to everything, which is very nice for me, especially given my limited supply of energy of late.

I really lucked into my apartment. I was staying at the Auberge de Jeunesse in Rouen (youth hostel) from when I arrived on Wednesday, September 28th until Sunday, October 2nd. I was planning on arriving, rushing like mad to find housing, and settling into said apartment. Magically, it went just about like that. After taking the wrong train from Paris to Courbevoie, taking the train back to Paris again and jumping on an express train to Rouen that was luckily running late (all this while lugging over 100 lbs of luggage with all stairs, mind you!), I made it safe and sound into the Gare de Rouen, where Sylvie and her son were waiting to take me out to dinner and to deliver me to the youth hostel.

Instead of spending my first days furiously scrounging up all of my energy to find a place to live, I spent it making friends with other assistants and the people in my hostel, going on walking adventures in the city, and compiling lots of lists of places I would love to live, if only I could muster the courage to call people in French. Finally, I spent all day Sunday (the day before I was to be leaving the hostel) calling up the owners of potential apartments, only to discover that I needed a guarantor who is French to guarantee my rent payments.

Sylvie just happened to be calling in the midst of my mad-calling marathon, and when I told her that most people needed a French guarantor before they would even let me see the apartment, she told me that I seemed like a responsible person and that she'd have my back and sign anything that she could in order for me to get a set place. SAVED my life is an understatement.

So, with that knowledge in hand, I was off that night to take a look at two apartments. The first was cheaper and had a lofted bed and looked like exactly what I wanted, but the guy texted me 10 minutes before we were supposed to meet and said that the apartment was taken. And with that, I headed off to my Last Chance Apartment, which was itty bitty but completely furnished and everything was completely re-done two years ago and all of the charges were included (though I'd have to fend for myself for internet). The guy who rented it to me said that there were about 20 other people waiting in line for the apartment but that he said he trusted me and liked how I sounded from my phone call, not to mention that his father was an immigrant from Turkey and he always had a soft spot for immigrants trying to find their way in France, where he and I both know that the paperwork doesn't always make for an easy transition.

Though I'm loving the apartment (apart from the part where I now have a chestnut-sized bump on my head from banging my head on one of my hanging shelves in my tiny studio), I do think I'll be moving to Les Andelys soon, since my commute consists of, at best, begging a fellow teacher to let me ride the hour-long commute with them in their car, or at worst, walking 20 minutes to the train station, taking the 45-minute train to Gaillon, waiting for the bus, taking the half-hour bus to Les Andelys, and walking the half hour to school. It is very tempting right now to take up David and Daniel on their offer of a room in an apartment on campus, not only because I wouldn't have to worry about my commute every morning but it is also less than half what I'm paying right now to live in Rouen. Definitely worth it to be in the boonies with some lovely people.

Now, I'm off to get ready for a coffee date in Rouen and working on getting pictures online! Once I get everything sorted, I'll definitely be doing a picture post. For now though, I've also been trying to get up both old and new videos, so those should tide you over. Lots of love!