Tuesday, October 7, 2008

So I've decided to create a blog to document my 7 months teaching English in Toulouse. Who knows how long this thing will last? I detest sitting in front of a computer all the time, but somehow find myself doing it anyway. Anywho, I've been in France almost two weeks now, so here's a brief recap of what's happened thus far:

I spent two days in Paris, staying at the apartment of my friend Thomas Roborel de Climens, whom I met while working at Air Liquide over summer. He was extremely generous in housing me, and we had a good time hanging out with his friends. While there, I also got to see my friend Sofia, une portueguese whom I met while living at the Maison du Portugal in Paris during summer- in spite of how much she makes fun of me, she's one of the nicest people you could meet, and it was great to see her again.

Since I arrived in Toulouse, I've been staying with my friend Livan from Madagascar, un homme I knew from when I studied at INSA here in 2007. He, as well, has been incredibly accommodating (a word that just lost meaning to me after a long deliberation on the correct spelling...) while I search for an apartment...

And now let's gather around the aluminum pole for a brief airing of grievances regarding the happenings thus far:

First of all, you can't do anything without an address, so Liv's made an Attestation for me to say I'm staying with him. This allowed the opening of a bank account at Societe General. For those of you familiar with my running joke from the last stay in Toulouse, it appears that Societe General girl no longer works there :( However, there is a new young lady who could enter the pool of possible future wife prospects if the bank would hurry up and get me my stinking Carte Bleue- a key to open all doors in France, where Visa appears to have a monopoly, and American cards don't work because they don't have that cursed little chip in them. Bref, I can't start a phone contract until I have this magique debit card. Furthermore, I've been making calls about apartments from skype, which can be frustrating because everyone misses the call, but can't return it. Plus, there's all the trudging through the merde of French bureaucracy in order to get my residence card (carte magique numero 2), which I hope will be doled out in a grand ceremony in which I'm lead to the guillotine (to the sound of Axl Rose screaming "You're in the jungle, baby!"), only, instead of a guillotine blade, my Carte de Séjour gently slides down and presents me with legal residence.

On a more positive note, it's quite good to be back in Toulouse again, and it really feels like I wasn't gone for that long. Some things have changed with the city, as there's now a north-south metro line and some renovated areas downtown, but nothing too significant. It is a bit different, I must say, not having the crew of American and Erasmus (international student org.) kids here. There's a new group that I haven't really encountered yet, and although I'm wondering a bit who I'll be hanging out with, I guess this could be another opportunity for new friends.

Language-wise, I've been speaking a bit more French, and I'm a bit more comfortable on the phone now, but I have a rather goofy American accent, and I need alot of vocabulary work. Additionally, my language remains littered with unnecessary swearing that I don't use in English....fun in the short term, but really not helpful in most communication. Also, I've confirmed (after several communication problems both abroad and at home) that I have some sort of speech impediment- people have difficulty understanding when I say words that contain a consonant followed by an L, mistaking it instead for R. Ex: glass vs. grass. Apparently a problem for me in English as well as French, and I don't know whether to try to fix this or just let it slide and work on other issues. Whatever, if the kids I teach get confused, I'll just say I'm Amerkan and that I command respect....or I'll just get them to say "rural purple squirrel"- sure to induce enough laughter on my behalf that they'll forget what they asked me anyway.

Tomorrow is Wednesday the 8th of October. The first day of work. I was actually supposed to work today, but, in typical French fashion, the teachers were 'en grève,' and so thus I was sort of on strike as well. Score.

Finally, I must point out that I've had an unusual number of nightmares since arriving. This happened when I was in Paris, too, and I'm not sure if it's the result of being away from home or too much baguette. However, there have been some pretty funny dreams, too, where I've been singing along to Yelle (my favorite French pop singer) in random environments. It makes me wonder if I dance in my sleep (Tektonik, of course).