Quote: “Life begins at the end of
your comfort zone.” -Neale Donald Walsh
For the first time in all of my travels, my arrival at my
final destination went smoothly! Not only was every flight on time or even a
little early, but there were no lines in the one customs section I had to go to
(in Paris), I my bag was the second one on the luggage carousel, and I
immediately found Fred (the man I will be working for this summer) waiting for
me outside with a sheet of paper with my name written in pink highlighter!!
**Huge sigh of relief** He carried my extra-large (right at 50 lbs.) suitcase
to his car and we were on our way to the house in which I will be living. Along
the way, he filled me in on where I will be living, where I will be working,
what I will be working on, who I will be working with, and different events
that will be scheduled for the summer! He was so thorough in filling me in that
I was left with basically no questions. That’s a nice feeling. He took me to
Claire Laget’s house where I will be living. Apparently it is close to where we
work, but I haven’t quite figured that route out yet. Claire’s house in hidden
in her own little makeshift forest right off a main road. There are houses and
apartment building all around her, but you can’t really see most of them thanks
to the wooden fences and tall trees and shrubs everywhere. The best word I can
use to describe Claire’s house is ‘eccentric.’ There really aren’t many other
words that come to mind, except for maybe ‘colorful’ and ‘original.’ Fred said
that it is “a good place for meditating,” and I would have to agree with that.
It is very easy to make yourself feel at home though, which is good because
Fred informed me upon arriving that Claire would be out of town until Saturday
night or Sunday, so I would be on my own in this strange new house until then!
After we dropped off my bags, Fred took me to the
supermarket so I could pick up some food for myself, thank goodness! The cheese
aisle was so gigantic (100+ cheeses) that I knew I would never make a decision,
so I let Fred pick out the cheeses for me. He clearly knew what he was doing
because he picked three different kinds with very little hesitation. He dropped
me back off at the house and had to be on his way because he was leaving at 6
the next morning for San Francisco where he will be on a conference trip for 10
days! Fortunately, he did not plan on leaving me along to find my way to the
lab and start my own work (which is sort of what happened on my first trip so
that really wasn’t a joke). Marion, a young lady from the lab, would be taking
care of me until he got back (she was supposed to meet me at the airport too,
but her cat is really sick and possibly dying, so she had stayed home to take
care of it—understandable). I spent the rest of Friday night unpacking, getting
acquainted with the house, and being extremely homesick. Fortunately Fred was
able to figure out the Wi-Fi password at the house, so I could contact my mom,
which is always good for curing homesickness…until I have to say goodbye L That part is not so
easy on the first night, so I went to bed pretty early. Even with the sleeping
pills, I didn’t get much sleep though. However, I wasn’t really expecting to—I
can never sleep for the first week in a new place. I had a horrible time trying
to get out of bed on Saturday due to jet lag and more homesickness. I swear
being homesick is a true illness. Eventually I got moving and Marion came
around 2 to take me into Montpellier’s town center and show me around. Marion
is super sweet. She kind of reminds of a fairy with glasses. She’s tiny (like
up to my shoulders) and kind of bounces when she walks. I think she looks like
Ginnifer Goodwin pre-pixie-cut days.
While in Montpellier, Marion helped me get a working French
phone, a monthly bus/tram pass to get around more easily, an umbrella (because
it was overcast and rainy and we had both been walking around for over an hour
without any umbrellas), information on events going on this summer, and some
cash out of ATM. She also took me to see the Opera house, to the large library,
and to a relatively new residential area that has been constructed in the style
of ancient Greek architecture—it was really pretty and led up to the river
front. Despite the rain, wind, and cold, it was a really nice day. And to top
it all off, Marion took me to her favorite crêperie!! She said crêpes were good
for the mood—she had also told me earlier that her bf had just broken up with
her earlier in the week L
I think that on top of her cat and along with my ever present longing for home was more than enough reason
for us to partake in some tasty crêpes!
Although I slept better Saturday night—thanks to two
sleeping pills instead of one—I still couldn’t get out of bed on Sunday. When I
finally did I decided to shower. However, the French way of showering is not as
refreshing as the American way. The shower head is handheld, so you can only
use it between shampooing, conditioning, an scrubbing—which leaves you veryyyy
cold at the intervals in between. I guess that is one way to limit water usage
;) When I went to blowdry my hair, the converter/adapter thing sparked and
smoked a bit and then stopped working completely. I tried it in an outlet on
the other wall and it didn’t work there either L
Soo, I couldn’t use my computer all day long because it had died the night
before and there was no way to charge it. I would have probably gone outside
and tried to explore a bit except for the fact that there were horrible thunder
storms and torrential downpours all day long and, even with my new umbrella, I
didn’t want to venture out in that. So, I stayed in all day and read my
nook—until it died too around 5 O’clock. Thank goodness I had charged my iphone
fully the night before so at least that was functioning. However, the French
phone I had bought to communicate with Marion needed some password that I didn’t
have, so that was nonfunctioning as well. I resorted to doing some old
fashioned writing in the journal Aunt Kathy gave me (Thanks Kathy!!) until
Claire and her partner, Peter showed up around 7.
Claire is around 50 and has a veryyy thick French accent but
speaks mostly English because her boyfriend (I’m not really sure what to term
them) is British and speaks only English. They are great! Peter, who I would
say is at least in his 70’s based on all of the stories he’s told me) is
absolutely wonderful. He sings in this deep, deep voice while he’s doing just
about everything, he cooks, he tells lots of hysterical stories—which are even
more comical in his British accent for some reason--, and he has a great sense
of humor. So far I have gathered from his stories that he was a rugby player,
he spend some time being one of the weight lifter guys in the circus, he did
stage plays for a while, he has left two nursing homes with actual permission
because he did not like them, he has four sons—the oldest 37—and a daughter who
is the youngest and about 27, after he retired he left England and just started
travelling around Europe on a bike with a trailer attached and no plans in
mind. Until he had a bad fall in the mountains which landed him in the hospital
in Montpellier where he met up with Claire. She offered to let him stay at her
place, where four other women were living at the time, until he was better and
according to him “he just never left!” (I learned all of this over dinner and
while I was waiting for Marion to pick me up this morning!). Claire is an
“economist” who meets with businesses to explain a “cooperative economy” plan
that her business is marketing. That’s about all I understand about her job
besides she works insane hours all the time (as in 7-midnight a lot of days!).
She has a daughter who she is very close with who is living in Argentina at the
moment and a lot of siblings. In fact, her older brother lives right next door!
They are very, very friendly people and I think I will really enjoy living here
*fingers crossed*.
Quote: “If you feel like a tourist in the
city you were born, it's time to go and define your destination. There's so
many places to call home.” –Death Cab for Cutie
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