Days 6, 7, 8, 9

I'm finally able to update this thing, I wrote it two weeks ago now, will hopefully have internet this week:

So, I’ve been MIA because Prades is a small little town in the middle of nowhere and it’s taking forever to set things up. I don’t have internet yet but I’m writing this before I forget everything and will post it as soon as I can, hopefully this weekend (I guess we’ll find out. :)) Alright, so, what’s been happening the past few days you may ask? Well, my last day in Nice was beautiful & I retraced some of the places we’d already been, & some we hadn’t gotten to, to experience them in the beautiful weather. I’ve never seen water so blue (even in Cannes, when it was raining), now I understand why they call it the Cote d’Azur. Not long after beginning to wander however, I started to get really tired - I guess so many days of travel in a row, and finally all the sick people around me catching up with me (3 on the plane, 3 in the hostel - eiy yei.) So I started dragging myself around. I forced myself up to the top of the old fort where the classic views/pics of Nice are all taken, & it was beautiful. By the time I’d walked around it though, I was exhausted & didn’t want to see much else... but I took a bench break & was on my way again. I wandered down the old streets, tracing the 5 recommended walks, until some would bore me and I’d wander in a different direction. The old city is bustling with sidewalk cafes, the weekend flower market, and street buskers’ shows. It’s pretty interesting. When I’d just about finished the walks, I took a lunch break at a cute café with an awning that read ‘Heaven’, :) and the chicken was to die for (but the pasta & sauce were bland :/) and I’m glad I stopped there. When I went upstairs to use the washroom, there was a whole other part to the restaurant I had to take pictures of. I have to say, food here’s been great... a few days before, the Brazilian girl & I bought both some French macaroons (very different than how they’re made in America - they’re more like chewy sandwich cookies, and come in different flavours & colours) and a ginourmous meringue that was heavenly. Anyway... did the last street of my walk & realized I hadn’t really missed much the first day - Nice, old Nice, is pretty small - but was glad I went back to take another look anyway. I actually finished early and even though I wanted to visit the little town of Villefranche, the buses don’t run as often on Sundays & I wouldn’t have had time, so I headed back to the hostel & took my time getting ready for my 10 hour train ride instead. :/ I showered, etc. which was great cuz I didn’t think I’d have time for, and hitched a ride (from the hostel staff) to the train station. Oh, I was also refunded about 30 Euro as apparantly they’d charged me more than they’d charged everyone else & I wanted to know why - humph. :p The nice guy from Vancouver had my back though & it was all good. :) Aiights, so, on the trip to the train station I met very nice twins from... well, one lived in London and the other in Singapore, but I think originally they’re American... who then helped me with my stuff - SO sweet. The hostel dude had to stop the van about a block from the station as they’re building a new tram line here & it’s disrupted traffic like mad. Needless to say, I wasn’t thrilled, but the twin angels saved my life. :) We ended up being on the same train, as they were headed to Barcelona, but they’d gotten a sleeper car so after they helped me on, we said goodbye. Then one came back to visit once she’d got set up, & introduced me to these two gay dudes from San Francisco they’d run into, and they made for some mighty good entertainment for the first 3 hours, before passing out themselves. :) They’d been travelling all over for 3 months and had lots of stories to share. One was managing a tour for a band, and the other was just... drifting I guess. One of them reminded me of someone I know, mixed with a little Giovanni Ribisi (from Saving Private Ryan, Gone in 60 Seconds... & Phoebe’s brother on Friends ;)) he was really sweet & we all had a good time (they told me to move to San Fran as I’d fit in - not sure what that means... ;/) & it got me thinking about a lot of stuff... but that’s for another time. So... after they went to bed, I nodded in and out of sleep & it got really cold so I started layering my clothes, from just a t-shirt & jacket, to two jackets & draping myself in my (damp) towel. The scary thing was, the train left late, and one of the dudes said that daylight savings was ending that night (uh... not sure what happend with that... :/) and they weren’t calling the stations, and it was pitch black, so I was paranoid I was going to miss my stop, but I started getting ready about a half hour before we were supposed to get there, and everything worked out fine. I was a little sad I didn’t get to say good-bye to my new friends, but I would’ve had to wipe their drool first so I let them be. :) Once I got off the train, the fun started. A South-African yacht sailor & his Spanish girlfriend got off with me, and we chatted for a bit once we got inside. They were there to visit a friend before heading to Barcelona, and they said they’d come by and see if I was still there in a bit, just to check up, as I was waiting for the cooridinator, but I’d never heard back from her - if you remember. So, I sat, and I waited, starting at 5:11 in the morning. So I waited... and I waited... and I waited some more... the yachting couple came back a few times to check on me, as they couldn’t get a hold of their friend either, and we were all in a bit of a situation. I was so exhausted, I was ready to use toothpicks to hold my eyelids open, and was scared I’d fall asleep & someone would steal my luggage, so I hooked my arms through everything & just hunched over them like that. It was fun. :/ At around 8:30, I decided to buy a phone card (French pay phones don’t take coins) and call my coordinator’s boss (the only number I had) who then gave me the school’s number, and said, what I thought was... that she was going to call them to find me. An hour later, I called her back, after realizing the number she’d given me wasn’t complete, and she asked me if I’d called them. When I told her it didn’t work, she gave me the number again, and wrong, again, after I read it back to her, and we went back and forth like that about 4 times until I finally got it, called the school, and they sent someone to get me... an hour later. :p SO, all in all, I waited at the Perpignan train station for 5 hours! I was ready to blow my brains out. When the coordinator finally got there, she came to me in such a hurried flurry, I was in shock. She then proceeded to tell me how she’d waited for me at the train station for three hours the day before, and how she’d made me dinner, and how the proprietor of my flat also checked every hour... but that everything was okay now that I was here. Except that she also reminded me that she’d given me all her info (which, apparantly she did - my bad - but so long ago, which is why I forgot!) and wondered at why I’d emailed her only a day in advance, only with my Canadian number, and why I didn’t take the train from Perpignan to Prades as she’d asked me to (in an email she sent me - after I left Nice :p) as 5 in the morning was too early for her. BAH. The thing is, she never got my initial email - which is not my fault! - and the second email was only in case of emergency, which obviously didn’t work. Anyway... here I am, finally, with my stuff in the car, being driven to Prades, exhausted after 24 hours without sleep - again - and where am I being taken? "So, we’re going to the school first so you can meet everyone, okay?" Uh... sure. What am I supposed to say? :/ And, meet everyone I did. Secretaries, teachers, headmasters (2, both of whom are very nice & such characters I could write a book. :) One speaks Catalan and is very proud, when he heard I was from Canada, he literally guffawed (look it up ;)) and asked if I’d flown over the Arctic Circle :) and then welcomed me in Catalan.) And, of course, Annie, the coordinator, had to tell everyone the story of how she’d waited three hours, and made me dinner, and the whole fiasco, with me just sitting there and nodding helplessly. Finally, one of the headmasters interrupted her mid-way through, saying it was all fine & it’s just great I’m here. Ha. I felt better, despite everyone still looking at me like I was a lost puppy - small towns eh? ;) Then they took me to the ‘Cantine’, which is the school cafeteria, for lunch, with one of the younger teachers, and remember how I said all the food here tastes good? Well, all the food but this stuff called ‘Cantine’. Blech! I don’t think I’ve ever eaten less of a meal in my life. I felt bad throwing out all that food, but it was pretty horrific. And in France? Quite shocking. Alright... what else... when I got back, Annie asked me how it was with the teacher, and I didn’t fully understand, & she snickered, but not in an evil way, (she’s actually a pretty nice person) just in a... I think she was trying to hint at something (as in, this guy’s nice... & cute... isn’t he?? ;)) kind of way, and my not understanding threw her off. Well, I don’t need a matchmaker my first day here, and a teacher no less, *awkward*, but my response to her was underwhelming. Oh well. Moving on... so... then we waited for this other teacher to come take me to my flat as Annie had class, and he took forever, but finally came & we were on our way. He was another English teacher, a big chunky bloke who’d spent some time in England and so spoke with a kind of Manchester accent - very weird! :) But cool. The poor guy showed me around town & then had to park two blocks from my flat as there was construction, and then haul all my crap over here. At the end of it he said he put his knee out from jujitsu the day before, but I have a feeling it was really my stuff :/ - I feel bad. But there’s nothing I can do about construction & I’m actually glad I brought what I did, as there’s nothing else to make it feel like home. So, my flat is this adorable little green two-story establishment that I have all to myself, but it has its quirks as it’s really old, but I feel like I’m in some Parisian movie... if only for the Paris part. *sigh* I’ll take pics & put ‘em up. I met my landlady & she’s really nice. And then I went straight to bed as I was beat! I woke up around 4 hours later, about 7, and realized I should figure out a way to get some food, so I ventured into the town centre to see what there was. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Well, almost. There was a bar, and a restaurant, and everything else was closed. Alright, well, I went to the restaurant & ate in a sad way by myself, while other locals seemed to be enjoying family dinners, and one guy seemed to have his solo ritual down pat. I had some peppered chicken, which I couldn’t finish as I’d lost my appetite, (probably from being sick :p) and the waitors felt sorry for me and kept asking if I was alright. I was just still tired, dommage. But I’d already ordered desert, & so it came, & was called ‘Creme Catalan’ (Catalan, by the way, is a language they speak here & in Barcelona (this whole region) & its corresponding people) but was really Creme Brulee, & it was amazing & hit just the right spot & so I went home satisfied, and suprisingly, slept through the whole night. When I woke up in the morning, I was still tired! And so lazy I skipped my shower & still arrived late to meet Annie for our appointment (but it doesn’t take the estimated 10 min. to walk to school like they said, it’s more like 15 or 20. :p) But it turns out, as I’m finding out happens a lot here, that all the paperwork we were supposed to get done, we couldn’t, and so, the day was a bust. When I asked what to do now, she said I could wait to meet the Spanish assistant, who’d be there in an hour. So I spent the hour on the internet, and finally met my collegue, who is very nice, named Yenifer, from Venezuala, and has been a great companion thus far in our ‘struggles.’ :p She still had to go back and forth as the Spanish teachers were introducing her to classes and showing her stuff, so after a while, I just went home & we said we’d meet later. Well later turned into even later than that as she wasn’t finished at school until an hour after she thought she’d be. But we did meet up & went shopping for groceries & had dinner at McDonalds - that’s right, there’s only one of everything in this town, but there’s a McDonalds. American capitalism disgusts me. :p Anyway, she had a craving, I was too lazy to get or spend anything else, and so McNuggets it was. :) Today, we got up at 8 to meet Maddie, an incredibly nice (but they all are, but her especially :)) Spanish teacher from Martinique to see about the CAF (like French social assistance for rent) but she’d forgotten it was closed Wednesdays, so we only went so she could show us where it was, and we’re going again tomorrow, when it’s open. Again, you see, the ‘hurry up and wait’, everything taking forever fiasco. Then we went to the super market again, this time with Maddie, though yesterday Yen & I had joked that we can’t carry much (it’s a 10 min. walk to the Super-U) but since we don’t have anything else to do, we could go every day - well, I guess it wasn’t so much of a joke after all. And after that we had lunch together - a frozen pizza, just like at home (you know, I thought I’d be having different food when I got here, but McDonalds & pizza - uh oh :/) and then each took a nap before we went to the bank to open accounts (though I have to do mine tomorrow.) After doing a few more errands, Yen came over & we made dinner - a ham & cheese omlette that though burnt (gas stove) was actually very good - rice pudding, 12 fruit + 10 vitamin juice (I’m so sick, & tired, & drained, I’m hoping it’s my superfood & will cure me :)) & some pink wine we got at the grocery store for less than 3 Euro. Not a bad dinner, but we’re still not settled in. Things are taking forever... which I expected... and they’ll actually take less than some other assistant have experienced I think, as we’re being helped, but for the program being here for 10 years now, it’s not exactly a well-oiled machine. I’m still dying for internet, which I absolutely need & which we haven’t figured out how to do without getting a landline, or going bankrupt, and I still need a French phone number, and on, and on, and on. I guess it’s because we have nothing else to do, our orientation’s on the 10th & I can’t wait to meet everyone else, and we’re supposed to be getting settled, and it’s unsettling when the settling’s not getting done - capiche? :) Aiight, so that’s it for now, it’s actually a very cute small town, but it’s been drizzling & there’s dog crap everywhere (the French don’t pick it up - don’t ask me why - from shi-shi Marie Antoinette to crap filled streets - the mind reels. :p) & we’re restless from the un-settling, so I hope things settle soon, and I can start writing wonderful stories of fulfillment. :) Otherwise, methinks me’ll be bored out of me mind. :p My landlord was just here & he’s a papa-bear/santy clause kinda guy, & I feel well taken care of. So at least there’s that. :) I just wish my French was better, as I’m realizing... it’s not half as good as I thought it was. :) But it’s alright, I’ll get better. :) On another note... I am feeling incredibly lacking in community... which is, and will probably continue to be, pretty hard. There’s only a cathedral here, & it’s the creepiest catholic cathedral I’ve seen (I’ll post pictures :) & of the town too) so that’s scary. There are town street markets every Tuesday & Sunday & I feel like I’m in a scene from Beauty & the Beast or Gilmore Girls sometimes - but if only. :) I have to say, it’s only been a few days, and not to be a downer or write it off as I’m sure it’ll turn out great, but I’m looking forward to Greece already. :/ Things are just too hard in a small town, & it’s making me actually appreciate Vancouver *gasp* I know. :) Though, another thing about small towns - everyone either has a horrific mole in a horrible spot, or gnarly teeth, or something Roald Dhal writes books over. ;) No misty-eyed Legends of the Fall Brad Pitts here. ;-) I am far from the Riviera indeed. :) Aiights peeps, g’night! I miss you all - well, some of you ;-D - so write me well!! :)