La première semaine

My first week (la première semaine) for all you non frenchies, was lovely. I have met all of my fellow colleagues who are from all over the globe, there are only 2 americans. Our orientation has been the past two days where I've received instruction on just about everything one could imagine, classroom management, the type of students to expect, how to handle things, WHAT I will be teaching finally, and lots and lots of paperwork. After the end of orientation we had a lovely dinner with all of our fellow lecteurs and my roommate Solène, we spent the night eating and drinking wine (which by the way is fabulous here) and chatting all in french all evening. I am so happy here. Today started with a jolt as I accidentally overslept and had ten minutes to make it from here to my bank (about a 20 minute walk) because in France before you can do ANYTHING you MUST have a bank account and access to RIB (basically direct deposit tickets). Everything here is done by that, down to your cell phone, you give each company a RIB and the money goes direct out of your account and so on. I am paid directly by RIB as well so I give one to the uni and my rent is also deducted by RIB. It's a great process, just a bit of a pain to actually obtain an account. One thing I have learned is how much the french LOVE paperwork and obsessive amounts of copies of everything. Having already been informed of this I hauled ass (literally running down the street to make it to my appointment on time) with my dossier full of copies of every document under the sun and opened an account. This was my first big girl thing to do in France and slightly intimidating because the entire process is done in French, now I must say, I was very pleased with myself. They tell you how important it is gain favour with as many people as you can here, especially the secretaries, since they can literally make your life a living hell here. THere is no such thing as a person in a low place, you piss of the custodial staff, the bathrooms will be locked all day one day. You piss off the secretaries, no dry erase markers for you, and your'e up shit creek when you have a paycheck problem. It is most important to be POLITE at all times here, and really kiss as much ass as is possible. That being said, I'm getting pretty good at it:) I managed to successfully open my bank account, side stepping some of the problems my fellow compatriots have had, I had quite a lengthy conversation with my accountant about american health care reform, very interesting, and again, all in french:)

Having satisfied that need, I headed off for the hours of endless paperwork I am to fill out and for enrollment in social security here as well as my medical insurance. I arrived at the building to find, uh-ho, it's 1pm, right in the middle of the two hour lunch day that is implemented in ALL business and educational offices. So I mulled around, and sure enough most of the streets had cleared out and everyone who was anyone was munching somewhere. I found a local phone shop and secured myself a pay as you go phone, since minutes are SO expensive here and I need a carte-bleu (or credit card) here to open an real phone plan, pay as you go an text messages are the new means of communication for me....which I must say I rather LOATHE (those of you who know me know how much i hate text messages). So I mulled back to the office and filled out paperwork and I am now legal and ready to be paid for the two days of orientation and three days of classes I'm going to teach in september....I love france:) Next week I have the week off and am considering a trip to Italy, we'll see how everything plays out the rest of this week.

Life is good for right now, and any of you are more than welcome to CALL me anytime you like:) 865-630-4466 calls my computer directly and if I'm not around you can just leave me a voice message:) I'll be back on later after I finish my baguette and saucisson with fromage for dinner, I love france:)

I miss you, I love you,

Sarah:)

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