My Very First Apartment (Ever)

So I ended up moving into the Foyer, which is not as bad as I expected. I think I just freaked out a little because of creepy guy following me home, but I've not seen him since (but have met a lot of nice old ladies who live in the area and go shopping at the same time that I do). I was also kind of caught up in the dream of a perfect little French flat right in centre ville (perhaps above a boulangerie or a pâtisserie.... hey, this is a dream....) with an eccentric door and tons of charm, etc, etc.... But I've got a studio that is all white (freshly painted, which I suppose is good) with green linoleum flooring, in a modern complex that's a 10 minute bus-ride from centre ville. So much for charm.

Half of my closet (oohh, look I brought too many clothes...)

The other half of my closet (still way too many clothes...)

Je me sens comme une vrai française maintenant. (I feel like a true Frenchwoman now.)

Messy desk

The window is nice, though all I can see is a pine tree.

Bed! (White walls, green linoleum floor...wasn't kidding)

Desk/kitchen table

Accidental selfie in the bathroom mirror

pretty bare kitchen cupboards

My kitchen for the year

View from the front door

So, it's not very charming, BUT the people here are really nice. Every Monday they have an atelier cuisine (cooking class) in the common room kitchen, and last night was Mexican food (fajitas, woohoo). My tummy was very grateful for something other than pasta (which is all I'd been eating since Friday night). Also, did anyone else know that you can put potato in fajitas (like bits of baked potato_ and IT IS DELICIOUS. Try it. Do it. And I also put some guacamole on the other half of my baked potato and THAT was also delicious.

Friday I ended up going to Morcenx to visit the schools I'll be teaching at. So far, it looks like a really charming town (but definitely too small for me to live in), but I spent most of the day in the schools, so I didn't get to look around much.

Mostly I kind of felt like a lost puppy following various teachers around. There wasn't really a plan other than "Meet the principals and maybe the English teachers" which: CHECK. Sort of. I met the vice principal of the high school since the principal wasn't there. But I didn't really have much of a clue as to what was going on other than that, so I ended up spending a couple hours after lunch sitting in on a French lesson (which was alright--brushed up on some of the basics).

I got a ride home with a couple of the other professors (one a painting teacher, one a science teacher, and the other one, I don't know) since most of the professors there carpool. So that was really nice of them to let me tag along and get me home. I also had lunch at the high school, and let me just say that it was DELICIOUS. And so much better than anything we serve in high schools in the US (at least that I've ever seen). (Not that i don't appreciate the junk food, but wow!) I ended up having carrot salad, duck (yeah, seriously, duck), pasta with some sort of mashed veggies (squash, I think?), bread (of course), yogurt, and some sort of.... orange-y fluffy....thing....mousse maybe? It was all pretty delicious, and all this for less than 3 euro (maybe $4).

Then I did nothing all weekend. I did some shopping Friday afternoon, and some more shopping Saturday morning. Then I went to go into the common room so I could get online and it....well, it was locked. So, no internet all weekend. I really should have gotten up and done something outside, but I ended up just watching TV shows (Catherine Tate Show and Being Human, yeah BBC).

I am still trying to figure out all the paperwork and administrative stuff, plus how to get wifi in my room so that I don't look like a creep sitting on my computer in the common room all the time. School starts in a week and I got my train ticket so that I can get there in plenty of time before my first official meeting with the high school principal.

Since we're so close to Spain, bullriding/fighting is apparently a pretty big thing here (there's an arena for it and everything)

Bathhouse (or spa, I think; still not sure)

I like taking pictures of people's houses because they are gorgeous

More pretty houses

My first meal in the apartment: pasta with pesto

Probably heading into town today; might visit the cathedral tomorrow. Not really sure what's going on. At some point I need to go to Bordeaux to get my birth certificate translated, so that will hopefully be happening this week.

À bientôt, mes amis! (See you later, friends!)