Sorry I haven't been writing much, it's just hard for me to be motivated to post when I can't show pictures. Soon!
This morning at 9:30 I went to a local Irish pub (O'Sullivan's) to watch the France v. England rugby match. In case you didn't know, this is the rugby world cup. It's being held in New Zealand, which is why we had to watch it early in the morning. Not that I really know anything about rugby. But I probably should start learning. Anyway this match was a pretty big deal, and France kicked England's butt, and the entire pub sang the French national anthem at the end of the game. Our friend Neill, who is English, was not too pleased and spent most of the match with his mouth shut. Haha.
Yesterday Brent moved into his house finally, so I got to meet his roommates. He lives with two French girls who are also new to Albi because they just started a masters program here. They are both super nice...one of them is from Rennes (well actually she's from Morocco, but she grew up in Rennes), so we spent some time talking about that. Then she told me that she studied abroad in Oklahoma (random) but that she had wanted to do an exchange at UNCG. Too weird! Thennn she freaked out when I told her I'm from Charleston because she went there during her study abroad to do some volunteer work and she fell in love with it. Anyway, it was really nice to meet some French folks my age. And his other roommate, Dominique, came with us to the rugby game and then we all went to the market together afterward.
There is too much paperwork in France. I can't keep track of it all. I have paperwork coming out of my ears. You have to fill out a thousand forms to do anything here. I just went through the process of opening a French bank account and....let me just say, it wasn't fun. I have visa paperwork, paperwork for each of my schools, paperwork for everything. Oh lordy.
I'm starting to get nervous about work this week. The teachers have not been the best about communicating with me (well, some have and some haven't). I just got my schedule from Rascol yesterday, and now the head of the English department is telling me that I'm basically subbing for him on Tuesday because he won't be there. This is absurd for several reasons. One: it's my first day. Two: I'm technically not supposed to have to deal with a class that big...normally we would at least split the class in half (there are about 30 of them). Three: they are all teenage boys who couldn't care less about English. I'm kind of pissed about it, but I guess the worst thing that could happen is that I don't succeed at teaching them anything, which wouldn't be my fault. Also, originally I was told that I wouldn't have any classes on Wednesdays or Thursdays, which is sweet, but now I have one class on Wednesday in the middle of the day, which makes it impossible to do anything. You probably think it's absurd that I'm complaining about this considering I still have Thursdays off, but a lot of people don't work on Wednesdays because elementary school kids don't have school on Wednesdays and high school kids don't have classes on Wednesday afternoon. But it's fine. I will have plenty of weekend adventures.
For now I am very much enjoying myself. The first week of work will be stressful, but once I get into the routine I think things will be just great. I'm starting to love Albi, and I have so many opportunities to travel that I don't think I will ever get too bored. And speaking French every day is always an adventure, of course. Let the adventures begin!
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