Oh the Pain!

Things continue to go well. The weather is crap though. I’ve been waiting for a sunny day to go and take pictures of the town to post, but that may just never happen. It was sunny and warm everyday we were in Paris and the first day I got here it was gray and cold and rainy and it has stayed that way since. There are definitely enough cheery people to make up for it though.

I’ve been able to explore the town quite a bit in all my free time, and it seems pretty nice. If you talk to anyone here, they’ll tell you how ugly it is since everything was rebuilt after the war, and it’s true that it’s not one of those medieval French villages you see in postcards, but I don’t really mind. Plus, even though it may not look like a postcard French town, it definitely smells like one. You cannot go anywhere in this town without being a matter of feet away from a bakery. There are literally three within a minute walk from where I live. And when the wind blows in the right direction, it smells like croissants. It’s even better than malt-o-meal.

So far, it’s just me and a British guy named Alex at the internat. Despite the fact that I’m a little bitter he’s not Scottish, and my jealousy of his flawless French, he has turned out to be very nice. He has informed me that the two other assistants who will be living with us arrive tomorrow (another American—from New Jersey—and a German) and we’re both very excited to be one big happy family. Hopefully.

We went to the local cinema last night (there are actually two right next to each other) and saw Wallstreet: Money Never Sleeps. Sadly, it was dubbed which I absolutely hate but got used to after a while. It probably wasn’t the best movie to watch to gauge my comprehension though, since I probably couldn’t have followed a lot of the money talk anyhow. I’ll have to go so Eat Pray Love or something and see how that goes. The theatre here is weird. It has five or six screens but ALL of the movies play at the same times. 12:15 or 8:45.

Sad realization of the day: black beans do not exist in Europe. We went to the giant supermarket today and I found the bean aisle and looked and looked and, nada. I asked Alex about them and he didn’t know what they were (“describe them” “They’re beans, and they’re black”). Kind of a bummer. I bought red beans instead. I think things will be ok. We also bought some horse meat which we’re planning on trying tonight (so that the other assistants don’t judge us). When in Rome…