Life in the big cities(s)

After regaining consciousness from our long jetlag repose, we knew we would have to go to the store. Thankfully Brittany’s teacher, Jacky, had already bought us some food to start us out with  (“It’s just what we do,” he told us).  Excited to see some of the city and with beautiful weather conditions, we set off.  The road we needed was very close to our apartment, but as there was no street sign it took us some time to be sure.  We began walking down it admiring the new architecture, and within 10 minutes’ time (Jacky had said it would take about 10 minutes to walk), we arrived at a large building.  It was the back and so we couldn’t tell if this was our destination, so we walked around to the front.  It said “Géant” in large letters and underneath, “Casino”.  “Casino?” we thought to ourselves.  We looked around.  But this had to be it; there were no other buildings around that seemed to be likely candidates.  “Maybe there’s a Casino in the grocery store?” we thought again.  We moved closer.  It seemed as though people were coming out with bags.  We dared to get even closer, entered, and were amazed.  It was a HUGE supermarket!  And approximately 10 minutes by foot from our apartment …how amazing, seeing as we have to walk everywhere around here!  Now you probably know we're not the type to support big corporations like Walmart, and this sort of seemed like a France-style Walmart, but when you don’t have a car, desperate times sometimes call for desperate measures.  By the way, it’s pronounced “Cazeeno” in French and probably does not bring to mind the idea of people gambling inside. We actually ended up making two Casino trips that night, and managed to get the majority of our essentials that were not already in the apartment. 

Tuesday came and we were not yet over jetlag, but on Sunday before leaving Jacky had arranged for Brittany to meet some of the students Tuesday afternoon (we could not communicate with Derek’s teacher due to lack of internet and phone).  So after meeting the students, Brittany and Jacky met up with Derek and we thus began the somewhat stressful task of paperwork/errand-running.  Throughout the week, Jacky took us to: The MGEN, the health insurance/social security office; MAIF, the home insurance company; Orange, the phone company where we bought our 30 euros-a-piece cell phones; another Orange store on the same street where we purchased our internet/telephone service; and he even threw in a little tour of the city (we’ll take some pictures soon)!  As everyone told us, and we found out to be true, the French LOVE their paperwork.  We had copies coming out of our ears and did paperwork for every occasion. 

After week one, we were feeling pretty overwhelmed.  We had to go to Reims, the capital of our “académie” (schools are divided in France by “académies,” of which there are 22), that weekend for our Assistant orientation.  Despite our busy week, we decided to go early to spend some time in the city.  We finally relocated the train station, which was more difficult being on foot and arriving from a different place, and bought two tickets for Friday night.  The ride to Reims was brilliant.  We boarded a TER train, which was about a million times nicer than the train on which we arrived in Chaumont, popped in our headphones, and listened to Harry Potter 7 the whole way there (roughly two and a half hours). 

Overall, Reims was a pretty good experience.  We had pictured it as a “town,” but it was actually a large city with a “Comédie” where they perform plays, etc., a beautiful Opéra, and an even more beautiful Notre Dame Cathedral.  Reims is, surprisingly, a tourist attraction because this cathedral is where all the kings of France used to be crowned, and where Napoleon crowned himself—lots of interesting history there!  We stayed at the hostel our académie had booked for us, which was a very nice one and mostly just ate out and went shopping.  Our first goal in France was to work on restocking our wardrobe so that we could try to be less obviously Americans.  Mission accomplished!  Especially for Derek, who invested in an awesome-looking man bag (VERY common here).  Other than that, we had our orientation that was mostly just boring and repetitive, but did meet a lot of cool people who are assistants in Reims as well.  Jacky had to come for the last day, so he and a Spanish teacher drove us home (though we slept most of the way).  That week we started officially teaching; Derek the next day, and Brittany the day after.  More details later about what teaching has been like! Slowly but surely, we’ll get you all up to date :)

From Searcy to Chaumont

After nearly two months of being on the run, we are finally settled into our new home. This was our journey:

On 30 August 2011 we left our apartment keys in Kevin’s new kitchen and climbed, sweating, into the car. It was 5pm and we had a 3 and a half hour drive to Fayetteville, AR where we would visit all the Lacys, Philips, Tennants and Samples we could find. The weather conditions were pleasant, for once, on our drive. The only problem was we had two bikes perched precariously onto the trunk of the car; although they were being held aloft by the bike rack, the rack was threatening to fall the entire trip. After watching the bikes more than the road, we finally arrived at the Tennant’s lodge. A few wonderful days passed (one in Grove, Oklahoma where we were blessed to attend the Samples Family Reunion) and then we were obliged to continue on our way.

Leaving our bikes and fears in AR, we set our headlights towards Flower Mound, TX. We passed the next week + 2 days sleeping in, going to appointments, and spending waaaaaaaaaaay too much money at REI. Our plane was scheduled out of Dallas for Pittsburgh on Tuesday 13 September, so we packed our bags Sunday night and repacked them Monday night, ditching kilograms of unnecessary clothing. The second week + 2 days (in Pittsburgh) passed as quickly as the first. Less sleeping in, more appointments, and not enough babysitting time filled our days. Thoroughly exhausted and emotionally drained, we left for DC where we would have the chance to visit some long lost friends and say even more good-byes.

The greyhound was an experience in itself. Our bus left at 9:00 sharp. Depositing two large 23kg bags a piece, we watched as others carried on to the bus their only possessions. We had forgotten that it is, generally, those who cannot afford plane tickets who take the bus. Feeling guilty and guiltily uncomfortable the entire trip, we finally arrived in DC at 16:00. We spent all the next day walking through the city, preparing for life without a car. On Saturday 24 September 2011, we said goodbye and took our shuttle to Dulles. Arriving obnoxiously early, we were through security by 17:30, our plane to depart at 20:30. We said our last goodbyes on the phone, went to the gate and boarded the plane.

Our plane landed safely in Iceland just as the sun was about to rise. We went through security again and learned that our next flight was delayed an hour. With the extra time, we decided to search the airport for the food court. We found a place that served a “hot” breakfast. Starving, we filled our plates with cold scrambled eggs, microwaved bacon and one juice box a piece. Five minutes and $44 later (Brittany's mouth literally dropped open when we heard the price), we were wishing we had chosen the bag of chips at the other end of the airport. So we boarded the plane with our pocket book bleeding and our ears delighted to hear the indiscernible French that was being spoken on every side of us. We both napped on and off through this flight and welcomed the late landing in Paris.

 

We found the toilets, then our bags (much more quickly and easily than we had expected). The first thing we did was take out our hiking packs, and stuff our plane backpacks into our other suitcases. This way, we only had three rolling bags and two packs to carry the remaining 343km to our destination. We met another assistant who was going a similar direction as us. So after stumbling through getting directions from an airport worker, and fighting with the ticket machine, we finally began our way to the RER.

We took the RER (the train system that connects the outskirts of Paris to either the center or other outskirts) to Gare du Nord (one of the major hubs of many metro lines, RER lines, and trains). From Gare du Nord we took the metro to Gare de l’Est. After buying our train tickets, we had 10 minutes to board. Unfortunately, there were not two seats together, so we and our five bags camped out in an area “between two cars” for the first hour and a half of our journey. This was quite an uncomfortable ride. Surprisingly, while sitting on the floor, Derek was able remain in that place somewhere between being asleep and being awake for the majority of this part of the ride. Two seats opened up eventually, so we abandoned our rollers and snatched them. An hour later, at 19:11, the brakes squeaked and we glided into Gare de Chaumont.

We were met by Brit’s supervisor who helped us with our bags, and drove us to our new apartment (pictures forthcoming). He took a few minutes to give us a tour of the apartment, show us the food he had bought for our first few days, and sketch out a map of Chaumont. On 25 September 2011, we climbed into bed at 20:30, delirious. On 26 September 2011, we woke up at 03:00. After about an hour or so, we fell back asleep. We finally woke up at 13:15 to a beautiful-sunshiny day in Chaumont, France.

Good Times and Good Byes

Salut everyone!  Sorry for our extremely long hiatus, but we have been without internet.  Finally, we are once again connected to the world!

It certainly is weird starting up with a routine again and having to work (okay, it's only 12 hours a week but between traveling to and from school and lesson planning--YUCK!--the hours start to add up), when we spent our last month in the States just spending time with all of you, our friends and family.  But, despite all the good times, it is tempting to never leave any of you again for the simple fact that saying goodbye is MISERABLE! The next post will describe more transportation-related details of our crazy travels across the country and world, but this post is mostly a tribute to you, to let you know how much we love you :)

In Searcy, we had a brief time to spend with those who returned for school before we had to leave, and this was just the beginning of our long list of goodbyes.  Brittany was sent off with wonderful gifts from the Kernodles, and there experienced one of the first official goodbyes.  Particularly after spending most weekdays there this summer, it was like saying goodbye to family (not to mention having to leave her favorite kids ever!)  We were both also lucky enough to spend an evening at the Latture's.  Of course, we were treated to the best food around (we are now cursed to always compare other meats to Freckle Face Farm's, and it never measures up [not to mention the milk, which we still refuse to consume here, except for in Cereal where the lack of flavor is drowned out by the ungodly amount of sugar]), but more importantly we got to spend some great quality time with our favorite farming family.  We had a day-long extravaganza with our "France friends" (your card is in our room on the window sill by the way), and thought how strange it was to be going to France without them.  We were treated to a gathering at the Elrod's, our home away from home, where we had to face the fact that we were all finally going our separate ways and really couldn't all live together for the rest of our lives. And then there's Kevin.  As we said goodbye to him on our last night in Searcy, the tears started to truly sneak out for the first time.

But alas, time was ticking away and so we hurried to Fayetteville where we had one of the best visits with Derek's relatives.  We saw his Dad/Aunt/Uncle's old high school, the farm where Derek's Dad and Aunt grew up, listened to hours of guitar at a family reunion, and got to play games with the cousins.  Once we arrived in Dallas, the reality that we were not just a few hours away and returning for Thanksgiving anymore truly began to set in.  Here we started to get down to business (as indicated in our earlier posts), but luckily we had much time together, especially at mealtimes! 

We were so busy in Pittsburgh that we hardly had time to notice we would be in France in merely a week.  We did probably have the longest visit with Sarah and Katie we've had for a while, and as a bonus we got to spend the night at the Jackson's!  Between the smores, the campfire songs, and The Pokey Dot, you could say our time there was magical. 

We definitely didn't get to see family as much as much as we would have liked to, but we are thankful for what we had, especially the addition of Aunt Bev to the mix!  We couldn't get enough of the babies of course, even after the few long days we got to spend with them. 

In what seemed like the blink of an eye, we said a teary goodbye to mom and dad and headed to D.C. We did get a wonderful visit of the city thanks to tour guide Courtney, got to see some famous people, and best of all, went to a chocolate bar (as in, a bar where there are chocolate drinks and desserts)!  But after two nights and with a rather anti-climatic departure (due to our characteristic tardiness), we hurried in the cab to leave for good (Rachael--you're adorable card is also on our windowsill!)

Though we had a fantastic time being with you all, it was so bittersweet.  We just want you to know that we LOVE you and we are not complete without you!  Luckily we have met some new people thus far, but it really is rather lonely when you are not surrounded by an awesome community of family and friends.  If you feel like traveling (hint hint), just let us know because we have a spare room in our apartment just waiting to be filled! Until next time, gros bisous <3 (kisses!)

P.S.-Sorry for the lack of pictures for the first half, that was the pre- new camera time, but we are ashamed we didn't take any pictures!