Chaque chose a sa place et chaque place a sa chose.

Every thing has its place and every place has its thing.

I was thinking about this phrase today when thinking about where to
get rechargements for my mobicarte (a SIM card that is pay as you go
from the carrier Orange). There are many differences between France
and US and one of the places this is clearest is in the day-to-day
shopping experience. In the US, I would go to a place like Kroger or
occasionally one of the giant-has-everything Targets. At both of these
places, I could buy, in addition to food and drink and bath stuff,
newspapers, magazines, make-up, drugs (haha), gift cards, trashy
novels, sometimes things like phones and if we really consider the
Target then... well... everything short of a car. Even in the giant
Leclerc near me, it's pretty exclusively food and "parfumerie"
(shampoo, soap) with a small section of pens and paper with four
random books. If you want your newspaper, magazine or tobacco, you
have to go to your local Tabac/Presse/Tabac-Presse. If you want drugs,
you first need to go to the doctor (or have him come to you), get a
prescription then mosey on over to the pharmacy, which does not sell
makeup or snacks. If you want a phone, better find a FNAC or a carrier
store. I hear that more and more the PAYG phones can be found in
Carrefours (a Target-esque store). Supposedly there is a Carrefour
near me but I'm not totally sure where it is.

As such, I went into Lorient to get my phone. I wasn't sure if I had
actually managed to unlock my iPhone and didn't fancy buying a SIM
card only to cut it up and find otherwise. I went into a FNAC to
browse what they had. All of their options were with "avec engagement"
(with a contract, usually 12 or 24 months). Non merci. I went to the
Orange store next door since I knew a bit about the mobicarte and
figured I might as well go with what I know. I went in and no helpful
but persistent Orange employee descended on me, only some guy trying
to choose a picture to put as his background. He kept taking really
crappy pictures of the picture in his keychain that were completely
blurry and asking if they were okay. Ummmm non. After a while of
staring at phones, I decided to go up and find an orange employee. My
name was taken down and I waited some more. After a while, "Madame ou
Mademoiseille Goam-sõn?" "Je pense que c'est moi?" I always mess up G
(pronounced in a way that rhymes with jay) and J (pronounced in a way
that rhymes with gee). Luckily, it was me. I am going to call this guy
Miguel because I'm not sure what his name was and he was tan. Ça vous
va? Bon, d'accord. I explained to Miguel that I wanted to get a
Mobicarte microSIM for my iPhone but I wasn't sure if it was unlocked.
Miguel went and got such a Mobicarte. Malheureusement, after a long
wait for the iPhone to start back up it was clear that I had not
succeeded in unlocking the phone. Tant pis. I said, it's okay, I'll
just buy another phone. You get a decent discount on phones with a
mobicarte. I ended up selecting an HTC Wildfire. Apparently there were
two different versions of this, one slightly more expensive. Miguel
accidentally brought me the wrong (more expensive) one. Since I said
it was okay, he said the store would give me a case for the phone. Pas
mal du tout. Not bad at all. So, he rang me up as I prayed that my
card would work (it did). Then I skipped off to a park with my pretty
new HTC to try it out. I desperately need to get rechargements for the
Mobicarte so I can add plans for internet, etc. Also so I can call
people... right now I only have 3 minutes or 15 texts. Whoopses. When
I do get internet though, I can use my phone to create a wifi hotspot
for my computer. Success. Other awesome things about my phone: it came
with tetris, it's pretty and light, it has an FM radio (finally I can
listen to the news!). I like it mucho.

When I was in the park, a train of cars from a wedding also came by
honking their horns and I had another DNC-style conversation with an
old lady. I said "c'est bizarre quoi." but secretly I wanted to say
"comme c'est bizarre, comme c'est curieux et quelle coincidence!" but
I didn't. Lorient seems very nice. I found a Tex-Mex place. I will
have to go check it out and see if it's actually Tex-Mex.... I have my
doubts. I also found the (tiiiny) ethnic section of LeClerc. I have
access to Asian-style noodles and pre-made tortillas! Though,
admittedly, I have to imagine I would make them better.... Sigh. So
much effort.

Today, I'll be checking out Quéven's market and hoping the Tabac (1)
is open on a Sunday and (2) sells Mobicarte rechargements. Otherwise I
am SOL until Friday afternoon.

Bisous,

MCJ

Monday morning

The Tabac is very open on Sundays and the cashier remembered me from
last week when C and I came in to ask about bus passes. I asked to buy
thirty euros of Mobicarte and she asked if I wanted 25 or 35, because
they come with 5 euros free. I like France. She showed me the numbers
to call and told me to come back in if I had any trouble. So nice. I
also bought a Tatiana de Rosnay book, "Le Voisin" (she wrote Elle
s'appelait Sarah/Sarah's Key). It was a good, relaxed Sunday and I
went on my first run since having mono this summer. I probably
should've gone earlier than sunset or at least wearing brighter
clothing than dark green. Oh well, I survived and the countryside was
beautiful.

Last week, I had the pleasure of having dinner at a French family's
home. Thursday afternoon I had a meeting at the elementary school to
meet the people I'll be working with there. I was definitely left
feeling a lot more intimidated about that than the work with the
collège. Luckily, one of the people at the meeting is an education
Inspector in charge of helping me (and new teachers and old ones...
basically any teacher in need of help) throughout the year. She will
be at the elementary school this afternoon while I begin to prepare
for being in the elementary school classroom. After the meeting, we
chatted a bit and she invited me to her house for dinner. Because
there was lots of time beforehand, we went over to her grandmother's
house. I really enjoyed all of her family and my time there. Many
bisous were exchanged. Ten points to me.

Also on the menu today: getting a phoneline installed chez moi for
reasons not immediately clear to myself.

Anyway, France is great.

Bisous,

MCJ