Time for school!

School 1: The first school I visited was great! I talked to a few of the administrators for a while as I filled out some forms. They were so incredibly friendly! They offered me a cup of coffee and we chatted for a little while until I was brought upstairs to meet some of the English teachers that I'll be working with. When I walked into one of the classes, the coolest thing happened- the students all stood up! For me! Needless to say I am NOT used to that. I've learned today that that isn't standard for schools in France, but was likely just an individual school rule. I couldn't stay for too long since I had to head to the next school, but the teachers are really excited to have me there. 

School 2: The next school was about 5 minutes away from the first, which is really convenient. This school is the one that will be managing my hours and setting up my schedule between the 3 schools. I was hoping I would find that out today, but I guess it isn't quite settled yet. I need to go back and hand in some more paperwork, which seems to be a great way to test if I can find the way there by means of public transportation! After filling out some paperwork, I was given a tour and brought to the teachers lounge. There was a bit of a break between classes, so there were a ton of teachers in there who were all really friendly and happy to talk to me, even though I won't really be working with them. The English teacher I'll be working with at this school is great! She is really kind and funny. She brought me to her classroom and her students asked me questions (so they can practice their English) and although their language isn't very advanced, it will be really fun to work with them. They seem excited to have a new face in the classroom. 

School 3: The third school is much closer to where I'll be living, which is convenient. This school is much smaller than the other two. I met the principal and he showed me around before introducing me to the one English teacher who was there at the moment. She was really friendly and introduced me to a few other teachers. I didn't stay at this school for too long because my appointment was relatively close to lunch time, but I'm still glad I got to see it and introduce myself. It'll be cool to see how a smaller school is compared to the larger two. 

**But, can we talk about how Christophe drove me to all of these schools and waited for me while I was inside? He doesn't have to go into school on Wednesdays and took his entire morning away from lesson planning and grading to help me. I swear he is an angel. We got home and he made lunch, which was very yummy as always. We always seem to have interesting talks when it's just the two of us at lunchtime. I always learn so much from them.** 

After lunch, I checked my email and saw that the bank I had contacted yesterday had an opening at 4:00 this afternoon to meet with me. So, I took the metro to town and found the bank really easily. This is a branch of the bank where everyone speaks English, so I felt really comfortable going there. Even though I'm feeling much more at ease with my French, money is something where I don't want to miss a little detail, so having the option of speaking English was amazing. So I got my bank account set up! Now I can get my phone! Which I will hopefully be able to do tomorrow or Friday. That'll make getting in touch with people much easier while we're trying to meet up in town. I'm slowly gathering the documents and things needed for the apartment, so hopefully by this weekend we'll be able to get the keys!

More things I've noticed since I've been in France:

• teachers are MUCH less formally dressed in France than in the US. I didn't feel that I was overdressed necessarily, but I was fancier than the large majority of teachers I saw today and I tried to be relatively casual. I brought over all of my teacher clothes from the US and I'm worried I'm going to look funny. But, I guess it's better to be overdressed as an assistant than look like a slob. 

• If you intend on standing instead of walking on an escalator, you should stand to the right so that people can walk past you on the right. Unless there are two escalators, then the one on the right is for standing and the one on the left is for walking. 

• I have no idea how people have any idea where they are supposed to be when they're driving. The lanes are separated by a white dotted line, which seems normal enough to me. Until I realize that the lanes are separated by a white dotted line regardless of if it is a one way road or if there is oncoming traffic. I would be going into the wrong lane trying to make a left hand turn constantly! I guess you're just supposed to follow the arrows, but the roads aren't marked very well and motorcycles are passing you everywhere and there are crazy roundabouts every 50 feet that each have different rules for who has right of way. I think I'll leave the driving to other people.

• Even relatively fit women like myself will feel absolutely ginormous when they live in France. Every single woman (pretty much) Is about the size of my left thigh. And there aren't very many natural blondes that I've seen, so I stick out even more! I've also seen a lot less tattoos here than I'm used to in the states, but no one gives me weird looks for mine, so I guess it's fine?

This has become far too long of a post- I hope I didn't bore you too much. I'll update soon! :-)