Finally made it!

Well, after 24 hours of travel, I finally made it to Laval last night. It was: car to Chicago, flight to Dublin, 3 hour layover in Dublin, flight to Paris, 5 hours waiting for the train in Paris, finally a 2 and a half hour train to Laval. Then my teacher picked me up at the train station at about 9 pm and I spent the night at his house. Monsieur Goubin and his wife were very hospitable and even made me a dinner of crepes when I arrived!

In the morning, I went along with M. Goubin to his 9 o'clock class. I introduced myself and the students were invited to ask me questions about a number of topics: sports, school, music, television, etc. I may or may not have sung a few lines of "Achy Breaky Heart". I could tell at least some of them were really interested in English and wanted to talk more with me. Perhaps there will be more opportunity for that in the coming weeks.

I also got to meet the rest of the "équipe anglaise", and all the rest of the teachers seem very nice. I was really suprised by the casual atmosphere at the lycée; most teachers were in jeans and there was a lot of teasing and banter, even when the headmaster came over. I'm definitely the youngest instructor there, but I think they were at least somewhat impressed by my french and so I think we'll all get along well. I don't start teaching for a while...they want us to have plenty of time to settle in and be prepared.

Then we went and moved into my apartment. Everything is newly renovated, I have my own bathroom with a gloriously hot shower, and I have a nice view of the town (pictures to come soon). It was a pretty good day except that a couple of times, I fell into a strange melancholy/homesickness. I know it was probably exhaustion and it'll get better, but it was pretty depressing for today. It really helped to meet a few of the other assistants living here. So far I've met girls from Canada, Argentina, England, Scotland, and the US, and two guys from England. Everyone seems really nice and since we're all in the same boat, everyone is really making an effort to be friendly. Some of us had dinner together tonight in the residence's cafeteria. I had rabbit in a sauce with pasta and cheese. Some cafeteria food, right?

Tomorrow is a day of errands to run. I'll be happy to have something to do...keep myself busy so I'm not quite so homesick.