It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door...

“It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.”

- J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings

Hello again, readers! My summer has mostly been filled with work (I did finally find a job) and packing -- but I have finally, finally relocated to my new apartment in Tallahassee!

I left Michigan a little less than a week ago. I set off at about 3:30 in the morning last Sunday, my car loaded down with more stuff than I really thought would fit. (My mom looked at the car as I prepared to leave and said, "Well, there really wouldn't have been any room for me after all...") My entire car was filled -- the trunk, the backseat, the passenger seat, the passenger footwell... But I could still see out my rear windshield and could check my blind spots! Bonus!

The passenger seat was pretty filled -- definitely no room for anyone but me

The view out the back of my car

I drove for about 16 hours on Sunday and made it all the way through to Perry, GA -- a smallish town south of Atlanta. I had achieved my goal of getting through Atlanta! Which was just as well -- even on a Sunday afternoon, the traffic in Atlanta was horrible and I spent the entire time with both hands grasped to the wheel, knuckles white whispering to myself "please don't die, please don't die". I do NOT recommend driving through Atlanta. It was harrowing to say the least.

Monday morning, I got a bit of a late start, but still made it to Tallahassee around 10:30 am to get my keys to my apartment. Signed all the papers, collected my keys, drove my car around to the back of the complex, found a parking spot, headed up to my apartment aaaaannndddd.... no dice. My keys didn't work. I could just BARELY get them into the lock, and even then I couldn't get the lock to turn once they were in. I double checked the apartment number, tried a couple more times, and then resigned myself to going back to the leasing office. Finally found a key that opened my door so I could get into the apartment. The manager informed me that I'd be getting new carpet (good, because the carpet was pretty gross), and he put in a work order for a new lock. I had just started unloading my car when the maintenance guy showed up to fix my lock. Then the carpet guys showed up.

The next couple days passed in a blur of unpacking and unloading and shopping and unpacking. The moving company came on Wednesday to drop off all my furniture and boxes (mostly full of books, let's be honest). I finally got my TV, cable, and internet hooked up. Then I found out that my apartment living room was wired in an exceedingly stupid way. Luckily, the maintenance guy came out and got all the wiring straightened out (along with fixing my living room fan which was exceedingly lazy, and my bedroom fan which never shut off).

The first thing I put up -- well, once I ran to the store to get shower curtain rings...

Empty closet

That is an air mattress -- it is HUGE

All the stuff from my car

After the movers came I finally had somewhere to sit!! (And nap... whoops)

Working TV!

Kitchen before the unpacking

Closet only partially unpacked

All my clothes on my bed...

Kitchen all set up!

All the empty boxes waiting to get taken to the garbage

Got myself a nice little area rug!

On Thursday, I pretty much just passed out all day -- exhaustion from the heat, the running, the unpacking, the organizing caught up to me. So I spent the day mostly napping -- though I did manage to get my kitchen all put away.

At this point, I realized that my internet was just not going to cut it. My modem, sitting out in the open on my kitchen counter, now no longer surrounded by pots and pans, was still not broadcasting a signal that reached beyond about a 1ft radius.

On Friday, I did a bunch of running to get some furniture and then came home to call Comcast about the wifi signal. It's a good thing the Comcast technical support is so friendly -- I spent over an hour on the phone with them basically saying "Have you tried turning it off and back on again?" We tried this 3 separate times. Each time with the same results -- yes, my modem is connected; yes, it is broadcasting a signal; no, the signal does not reach beyond the kitchen counter. I've got a technician coming out tomorrow, and he better have a viable solution.

I'll be honest -- even though it took about 3 weeks to set up my internet connection in France (largely owing to a mistake on the part of France Telecom), at least once it was connected it was extremely reliable. I think I had less than a handful of instances where I had trouble connecting, and those instances very quickly resolved themselves so that I was never without internet for more than a few minutes. Plus, during those 3 weeks, since I technically had an SFR account, there was (exceedingly horrible, I admit) free wifi that I could connect to while waiting to get my personal wifi box set up. No such thing exists here in the US. At least not in Tallahassee. I am disappointed, America. I am disappointed.

This morning, I headed off to the Downtown Market which is about a 15 minute walk from my apartment. Unfortunately, it's mostly arts and crafts that are being sold, but I was able to pick up some local honey, and there's a lady to sells goat cheese (which I sampled -- it's delicious), and there's a couple fruit/veggie stands. Nothing like the markets in France that I'm used to, but there's a little bit of food to be had -- like the guy who sells goat and lamb meat. When I get a little bit of extra money, I might order myself a nice roast from him. 

On the way home from the market, I wandered into the Challenger Learning Center -- a planetarium and IMAX theatre that is literally just down the street. A show had just started in the planetarium (which was sold out), but they had a volunteer give a powerpoint presentation which was pretty interesting. So I stuck around for that, and I might head back up there to go see How to Train Your Dragon 2 in IMAX (which is about $3 cheaper than seeing it in a regular movie theatre AND I don't have to waste gas).

The Downtown Market

From the outside, the Challenger doesn't look like much, but it's pretty awesome.

Fountain outside the Challenger Learning Center

Walking past the university on the way to get donuts -- it's graduation day, so everyone's getting pictures in front of the fountain.

There's totally a Dunkin Donuts about 3.5 blocks from my apartment; this may or may not become a problem.

Internet issues aside, I'm absolutely in love with Tallahassee so far. Yes, it is stupidly hot and humid. Yes, I miss my French grocery stores (I just want my good veggie soup!) And, of course, I'm pretty lonely here. I did get to see one of the other grad students last Monday who was on his way down to Orlando (for Leaky!Con -- I'm so jealous!!), and he introduced me to this fantastic burger place in town. But since then most of my human interaction has been at the grocery store or putting in work order requests at the leasing office.  But I think once orientation and classes start, it'll be a lot better.

I'll be going home in a few days for the weekend, then when I get back it'll be pretty much time for orientation.  (And also time to get a cat!)

I miss this little furball.

Until next time, DFTBA!

Sunny Florida -- A Quick Update

So I've been back in the States for about a month now and it's been pretty fantastic, though I do still miss France a bit. Things have gotten a bit complicated re: finding a job since my previous employer (from last summer) mislead me about having a job waiting for me and then basically left me out to dry.

In other news, I just got back from a few days in Tallahassee with my mom. We had gone down primarily to look for apartments. I was also able to meet with a couple of the French professors and a bunch of the French grad students. I'm really quite pleased with my choice of grad school -- all the people seem to be extremely friendly and helpful. Plus, Tallahassee is BEAUTIFUL.

View of the capital building from "the parkway"

That fountain? Totally a certified swimming pool (all the fountains on campus are)

Beautiful Lake Ella

The building I'll be working in

The front of the visitor's center/football stadium

Inside the football stadium

FSU is one of 2 universities that have a collegiate circus.

I'm in love with all these trees and spanish moss

Landis green

Mom and I at Bj's Brewhouse for dinner

Up close on the capital building

Mom and I took 2 days to run around looking at apartments, and then on Friday morning, I was able to sign a lease. I'm really happy with the apartment -- it's small (haha, it's almost 3x the size of my French studio), but it's got a nice open kitchen with tons of counter space and a walk-in closet. AND it's about a 5 minute walk from campus and the campus/bus. I couldn't be happier, really. I'll be moving in at the end of July.

Friday night, we went to see The Fault In Our Stars with one of the MA students. (It was so fantastic. I recommend. I very highly recommend.) On Saturday, we took the advice of one of the recent graduates and went to Wakulla Springs State Park and took a riverboat cruise where we saw some alligators, manatees, and tons of birds. It was so beautiful and so worth it. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my good camera, so all my pictures were taken on my phone. I think I'm going to try to make a ritual out of going on the little tour because I just thought it was incredible to be so close to manatees.

MANATEE

More manatees

There's an alligator face in there somewhere

Play "Spot the alligator tail"

Sunday, mom's spidey sense helped us get home -- she suggested going to the airport early and just waiting there instead of walking around the mall. We did, and found out that our flight was delayed because of storms, but they were able to get us on an earlier flight. It worked out perfectly.

So now I'm home, still job hunting, trying to figure out moving companies, and starting to pack up my life to move once again. Until next time, DFTBA.

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!)