Brittany kind of likes me

Hello everyone!

First off, I have uploaded pictures here.

Wednesday, C and I returned to the bank for my official appointment. The very sweet teller explained everything to me and I signed a lot of papers without reading them thoroughly (I went ahead and trusted the teller in what she told me they meant). I learned how to do a French deposit and about all the many coverages I get from the bank. If I lose my passport or keys (or something bank related, of course), they will cover the costs for me to get them replaced. Pretty nice, right? Sometime in the next eight days I will have to return to pick up my card and checkbook. The particular card I have (which is geared toward people my age in partnership with the television channel M6) allows me discounts at various stores (including the fast food restaurant Quick, as they were quick to point out to me.... everyone, absolutely everyone, is under the impression that I as an American adore fast food. Not so.). I actually do have to go back to the bank tomorrow (Thursday) as I was given back a paper that I was supposed to have left there. Whoops. No matter, I’ll either go on my way to the primary school or earlier in the day and pick up another baguette from across the street. The teller was incredibly helpful and stressed that if I ever had any questions I should either email her or call. Pas mal. (Even C was exclaiming over how nice she was, so she must have been particularly helpful even for typical French service.)

Then we went to the CTRL office so I could pick up a young person bus pass. CTRL is the local transport system. Once again, he took the time to explain everything. As I was getting a monthly pass, both he and C told me many times not to forget to buy a new pass at the starts of the month. I think I can handle that. He even gave me a clear little pouch to put it in. Youpi! The man even got me a giant map from the back (“to put on my wall”). It is, in fact, a very good map and tells the stops of all the different schools and pools and post offices, etc. and it marks where the Gare SNCF in Lorient is. Very useful.

As we were getting back into the car, C asked me if I’d like to see the sea. Mais bien sûr! So we drove to Guidel-plage where we stopped and walked around a bit. It is very beautiful. We stopped where a river flows out into the sea. On the other side of the river is the department Finistère (fin de terre, end of the world, we are in Morbihan which probablyyy means little sea in Breton. Bihan means little and mor I believe means sea -- armor means coast). It was very beautiful, apparently the sky is rarely this blue. “The weather must be this nice to welcome you.” So you see, even Brittany is giving me an amazing welcome. We stopped by the restaurant “Les Fauves” (the big cats -- like tigers and panthers and lions) and had ciders. Mine was apparently more sugary. Anyway, I liked it and it was very nice to look out on the sea sipping on a cider. Then we drove along the coast to the Fort Bloqué where we stopped so I could take non-blurry pictures. There were people out swimming and sunning on the beach. Like I said, the weather has been very beautiful and warm since my arrival. Pas mal for the end of September. She dropped me off around seven and I made some drunk pasta (only not so drunk as I haven’t bought any wine yet... I knowww don’t judge me). It turned out pleasingly well. Yay for bouillon cubes. The little pit of pasta I put in was practically bursting with flavor. Yumyum. It was less fun to clean out the pot this morning.

Already today, I ate lunch at the school. Let me put it this way, the French have no idea how lucky they are. For serious. Then there was a loooong series of meetings trying to figure out my schedule. It has not yet been figured. Instead I'll get a new one every week. That's okay though because it means I'll be working with more classes which hopefully means I can reuse more lessons. On va voir. In any case, I will have my Monday mornings and Friday afternoons free!

Still on the schedule for today:

- Another visit to the bank

- Meeting the elementary school people

- Sending papers to OFII by registered mail and buying stamps while I’m at it

- Going to Lorient (if there’s time) to get a 12-25 card

Also, I got up at 4am today and somehow managed to be busy the whole time until lunch. Comme c'est bizarre.

Bisous

MCJ