Things are looking up here! I visited an apartment in St-Etienne this weekend that I'm hopefully going to move into after I get back from Italy -- still waiting on the final confirmation from la colocation (French term for a shared housing situation), but my chances are good. It's a huge apartment right in the center of downtown, a few steps from the tram station and just a 15-minute walk to the train station that takes me to Feurs. My room is just a little bigger than a closet -- in fact, I think it once used to be a closet -- but for only 150 € a month, including food (and internet, finally), I'll take it! There would be six other roommates, five of which I'd be sharing a bathroom with *shudder*, but for the price and location I can put up with a little bit of dirt and clutter.
I met a few of the roommates on Friday, and I get the impression that it's very much an ensemble living experience; they like to mingle and eat dinner together instead of each shutting themselves off inside their rooms, and since they're all French, it's an excellent immersion opportunity. I'll admit that the idea of the community monthly food allowance does throw me off a little, but they said it's been working great so far. Basically the idea is that everyone puts in 50 € a month, then each week whoever's got time takes a bit of the money to go buy groceries for the whole apartment. Perhaps my American capitalist heritage balks at the idea of not being in control of what I have to eat, but the idea of fresh vegetables from one of the roommate's grandmother's garden certainly is tantalizing...
The only big drawback is the commute. It's only three days a week, but after looking at the train schedule, I'd have to catch a 6:21am train in order to make it to Feurs in time for my 8:00am classes, which means leaving home at 6:00... yuck. At least I can get a good bit of reading (or more likely napping) done on the train. I'm sure I can get used to waking up at 5:00am (also, the shower would probably be uncontested then!), and if not I can just catch up on sleep on the days I don't work.
I guess one other drawback is that I couldn't go running in the countryside quite so easily anymore, but I'm still planning on training with the Old Lady Running Club after school during the week, since there's a 7:00pm train I could catch back to St-Etienne. From what I've heard, Sainté isn't a very runner-friendly city like DC is; people aren't used to seeing runners, so apparently it's not uncommon to get hollered at. However, my friend Kathleen lives on a private campus that's nice to run on, and it's always possible to take a bus or train to a less populated area for longer runs. The marathon is in almost exactly five months, so I need to kick it into gear soon. Probably going to wait til after Italy though... carbonara, gelato and marathon training do not mix well in my brain. Or stomach.
In other news, I finally got my successfully-unlocked iPhone back, and my French SIM card works in it! I'm learning that just about anything is possible in France, as long as you're willing to wait a few weeks or months for it. Between the phone, internet, and various paperwork mix-ups (still waiting on social security and housing financial aid...), this experience has so far very much been an exercise in patience, though not without its eventual rewards.
Urgh, one other reason I've just been reminded of why moving out of the assistant's cottage will be good: there's a creepy-sounding little (or not so little) creature that likes to move around in the ceiling when it gets dark, and it always sounds like it (or they?) is directly above my bed. Fanny told me she couldn't even sleep last night because it sounds like at any moment the ceiling was going to come crashing down. Ah, Feurs.
And now for a few more pictures of snowy Feurs from last week... more are posted on facebook, but these are my favorites.
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