Bienvenue à Domfront!

Blogging again. I guess I’d better get back in the swing of it. The video updates are almost embarrassingly easy, as I don’t actually have to think about what I’m saying, I just get to open my mouth and spout things out. Ah well. “Real” blogging here I come again.

I’m in Domfront France. This town is tiny. Honest and truly teensy. But it is also the most flipping adorable place. I’m seriously in a movie. Probably something from the early nineties where our heroine goes off in search of love, or to get away from love, or what have you. She has some sort of slapstick/tragic/embarrassing/awkward/hilariously unfortunate event in Paris before heading out for the countryside. This would be one of the villages where she would stop. She’d see some sites, be charmed by the picturesque countryside, sit and eat in a café, and either a) meet the actual love interest or b) be convinced by the (previously encountered, possibly acting as guide) love interest that France really is the best place on earth. Picture a young Meg Ryan perhaps?

Anyhow, Domfront is that place. Little streets, a ruined castle in a Park, on a hill, old ramparts. I think you can also walk from one side to the other in about half an hour. Less if you walk fast and don’t need to stop at catch your breath at the top of a hill. It’s pretty darn brilliant even if I don’t have a dishy guide, and haven’t fallen in love (though I did have my Paris experience). Proving once again that my life is a RomCom without the Rom.

I’m staying in an apartment at the high school where I’ll be working. In the past the assistants stayed in an apartment at the middle school, but they moved us up the hill this year. It’s a lovely large flat with a kitchen and a living room downstairs, a big wooden staircase, and three bedrooms and the bath upstairs. My room is quite large. Which would be lovely, except the place came with very little in the way of furniture, all linoleum floors (even in the bedrooms yes), and stained or peeling wallpaper all over. It’s rather drafty, and the living room actually echoes. Hm…

Thankfully I have some amazing colleagues. The English teachers that I will be working with have banded together, and gotten me quite well sorted. Janice, a lovely Brit who teaches at the high school and her French husband Guillaume have lent me sheets, blankets, a rug, and a sort of rickety armoire type thing to hang clothes in (it’s called a pendrie in French, and I’m not sure if there is a real word for it in English). Another teacher from the collège (middle school, much faster to type the French) has said she might have a bedside table and a lamp I can use. So my room, while still a bit bare is actually functional. They are all so kind and helpful. Janice and her family have been nothing but wonderful to me!

I have two roommates. Jean-Philippe is a French maths teacher. He works in town here, and in another little town nearby. He is very precise, and has been amazingly helpful in getting us internet, and explaining about insurance, and all the little things that are harder to do when you are in a foreign country and haven’t the foggiest idea how things are supposed to work. My other roommate is also with TAPIF, only she’s a Spanish assistant. Veronica is from El Salvador and only got here last night. She is my age, and seems like she’ll be fun, though we haven’t really gotten a chance to chat much.

I start work “for real” on Monday, but I went into a few classes this week just to sort of suss out how things work over here. The lycée system is very different from the high schools of the States. The students seem reasonable, I’m the first American assistante they’ve had here, so I’m a bit of a novelty I think. I’m excited to start working, though I only have 12 hours a week. I think I’m going to have lots more spare time than I’m used to. But that means time enough to walk around while the weather is still nice, and maybe see about taking some classes at the local gymnase (sort of like a sports club association/gym I think. Maybe a bit like a YMCA back home.

So yes, thus far: I am a fan of Domfront. It’s weird having to remember how to cook for myself (and the grocery store is… of course… down the hill. Why is it that no matter where you live you always have to walk uphill when you are carrying the groceries, and not when you are going to buy them? The universe works in strange, strange ways.). Being in a tiny town in nice, but will mean I have to plan travel well in advance. Everyone seems to think it’s a pity I don’t have a car. I think I’ll be all right, at least as far as getting to the nearest train station is concerned (there is a, very irregular hours, bus), but visiting other small towns will be tricky. Perhaps a bike…? Uncertain. Adventures will certainly ensue no matter what!

Okay. Well that’s a first installment anyway. I’ll get this up soon as may be (still no internet in the flat, so we use the teachers’ lounge in the school. Though it should be set up in our flat within the week). And you know the drill: I love comments so I know I’m not just ranting to the universe. Ask me questions and I’ll get up a post eventually that answers them!

Bisous from Normandy!

Back again in Paris...

Whee jet-lag...
But, for you all, until I can be bothered to write more about all the planes, trains, and automobiles that got me here... I give you a brief synopsis of what I'm doing over here (and for those of you very out of the loop, where "here" is).