Today has been entirely productive, starting with a good 11-hour-long sleep. Almost a week after leaving the US, I finally feel well rested! I had many questions to ask Françoise about all the papers I need to fill out -- I swear, for all that they're very diligent about recycling and about conserving energy, the French probably kill more trees than the rest of the world combined when it comes to paperwork -- so I walked over to the high school around noon, when she had her break. But no sooner had I said "Bonjour" when another English teacher comes up to me (I don't even know her name yet), says, "Oh, good, you're not busy! Can you spare an hour for my lesson?" Well, no, I had some paperwork -- I mean, yes, I guess I could, although I'm technically not supposed to start until tomorrow -- oh, you're already dragging me to your classroom, ok then... and off we go as she explains to me that she doesn't have a lesson plan for today and that I am the replacement.
What followed was one of the most awkward hours I have yet spent in France, as she kept prompting her students to ask me questions about myself in English and made them take notes to share with their absent classmates (which made me feel highly silly, as I don't know that I've yet done enough of importance yet in my life to make it worthy of having students take notes on it!). When they'd exhausted their repertoire of questions about my age, family, hobbies, etc., the teacher said it was my turn to question them. It seemed like they didn't understand some of my questions at first, but when I tried to elaborate on or rephrase them in French, the teacher insisted I only speak English, even though she was speaking French when they didn't understand her. Oh, it was so uncomfortable. But the hour was mercifully soon up, and I was left to take my French paperwork questions back to Françoise, who thankfully was still on break.
With slightly more clarification, I went to go finish filling out my paperwork with the school's secretary, and she gave me even more papers that would allow me to sign up for European social security and open a French bank account (at last!). I also had to run by the post office to mail my birth certificate to a translator (30 euros for that little service, bleh) and yet more papers to tell the French government that I'm making good use of their visa by being here. I got myself enrolled in -- or at least applied for -- social security, though they initially refused my application since I didn't yet have the coveted RIB (Relevé d'Identité Bancaire) that proves you have a French bank account. But rather than wait until the next day when Françoise had suggested I go to the bank, I thought I'd try and knock it out this afternoon. It was open and I wanted to get the social security paperwork out of my hands, so why not?
It's surprisingly easy to open an account once you have the proper paperwork, though I can't put any money in it (and thus perhaps can't get my own internet quite yet, though I'm still going to try) until the actual check card arrives some time next week. But with a dozen copies of my RIB in hand, I tromped back across the street to the social security office, where I think they were a little surprised to see me again so soon. But now it's all taken care of, and I only have a few more papers that they signed and stamped to drop back off at the school!
On the way back home, I ran into Fanny, who had just moved in and was headed to town to get a French SIM card for her phone. I was about to accompany her back to town when I remembered that Françoise was going to be dropping off the toaster oven after her last class, and I didn't want to go until Monday without it! There are many less foods made specifically for the microwave here than in the US, so the acquisition of the oven has exponentially expanded the list of things I can now cook at home.
One exceedingly sad discovery I made around lunchtime was that even though our little fridge was set on the middle temperature setting, it froze everything solid that was in it... including my fancy cheeses. I've set them out to thaw (and it's cold enough in here that they're probably not in danger of going bad soon anyway : ), so hopefully they will make a decent recovery and I can have dinner tonight.
I'm about to lose internet for the evening, so I'll stop here for now. My first day is technically tomorrow, but since most of the English teachers don't work on Fridays (or Wednesdays, or Tuesday afternoons... Oh, France and its relaxed work weeks), I haven't been requested to sit in on anyone's classes until Monday. But perhaps this means that I can have Fridays off as well in my permanent schedule and take a few long weekends to travel at some point!
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