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 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!

One day at a time.

When I first realized that this was unlike the other times that I've crashed, I started writing down what my days were like. In the beginning, it mostly consisted of, "Tried to do x; instead, wound up crawling back into bed, unable to move for two hours."

I managed to streamline my entries as time went by. Now, each day has a section for Sleep, Crashes, and Things I Did. It's gotten so that my "Crashes" section has started to have things like "NONE AT ALL Check me out!" and my "Things I Did" section has big things like "long-ish walk to campus to see a choir concert". I've also learned that I love to put the things that aren't big accomplishments but make me feel good that I was able to do them, like talking to Miriam in Brazil on the phone or making my bed (or showering!). Mainly, I like to make sure I put more focus on "Things I Did" than how often I crashed or how much sleep I got.

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My main worry about all of this was finding someone to fill the lease on my apartment while I move back in with my parents in Jersey. Luckily, within 24 hours of posting my ad on craigslist, I got 17 responses. We met with three candidates, and funnily enough, the one we chose didn't find the ad on craigslist at all, and is one of Shanna's and my mutual friends! He seems like a perfect fit for the house, and I'm so grateful that he's able to fill the room.

Two things to do today:

1. Start packing (slowly, but surely)

2. Go see Ceilidh's thesis presentation! (if you'd like to come, it's in Seelye 207 at 4:30!)

Thank you to everyone who's posted comments and reads these posts. I'm thankful to have people in my life who care about me.