Warming Up

4:43 P.M.

Yaawn... the other assistants and I had our first meeting this morning with our contact person. There are only 3 of us Americans (myself included) teaching ecole primaire this year. All three of my schools are outside of Metz, so i'll have to take the bus every day. Our contact person told us we should make a rendezvous at the prefecture for our carte de sejour, so all 3 of us waited for almost 2 hours only to be told that we didn't need a rendezvous! Argh. At least I also found out that we do not need our birth certificates translated into French.

Afterwards, I went to the bank to deposit money in my bank account and it turns out that my credit card was there waiting for me! Hurrah, no more ATM fees for my American debit card! My banker walked by and came over to say hello to me and see how I was doing. I was glad he recognized me, but then again I bet there aren't too many Americans coming to him to open a bank account. I did some shopping on my way home, but found nothing that really interested me. I need some more sweaters or long sleeve shirts. It's cold and rainy already! I don't understand why stores sell clothes in such bright colors since French people only stick to black and gray. All the teenage girls seem to wear the exact same trendy clothes, wear/cut their hair the same way, smoke, and travel in packs with girls that look just like them. Thus when I'm walking down a busy street, there are mobs of giggly girls dressed in black with a cloud of smoke hanging over their head. Glad I'm not a teenager anymore!

For the past few days, I've been messaging a few people from Metz on couchsurfing.com to see if they were free to have a drink or something. I'm trying to get to know some local people and practice my French with them. Yesterday I met up with a guy named Cyril, who walked me through the entire city. My legs were so tired afterwards, but I was really happy to have some company, practice French, and see the city (it's bigger than I thought!). We stopped for a drink at a pub and he took me to Auchan, a huge store outside of the city, because we both had grocery shopping to do. He even invited me to come see his band play on Friday night before la Nuit Blanche.

Tonight I'm having dinner with the assistants and meeting up with another couch surfer. Tomorrow I have another meeting and I'll have to find my schools to start creating a schedule. Blaaahhhh.... I will surely get lost on the bus and be thrown into major French red tape, but I just gotta take a deep breath and tell myself that it will all work itself out. In the meantime, I'm overdue for a nice power nap.