Journal 10/18: [Insert Title Here]

Thursday 10/13
My Thursday morning class is just so, so good. They're all so polite and well-behaved, and their English is exceptional for their age. I don't even remember what we discussed other than the students summarizing what they learned about me last week, but I know I left the class in a great mood.

The same teacher from my Wednesday morning class also teaches my 11:00 Thursday class, so I was a little nervous that these kids would be just as terrible as her other class. Fortunately, although these kids are just as rowdy and talkative as the other class, they're enthusiastic about English and participate a lot. The only reason they're so loud is because they're so excited to be practicing English, which is adorable. Two of them are fluent English speakers, which I was both surprised and confused about, because why would they put them in such a low-level English class? At Northern Burlington (my alma mater) they had special Spanish classes for native speakers, so I thought they would have something similar here. I guess not. I guess America had to do one thing better than France. Anyway, one of the two native speakers wants to move to the United States with her best friend when she turns 18, so she asked me if that would be difficult and how she would convert her money into US dollars. I told her she can definitely find a way to move to America without much difficulty, and that I would look up where in the US French people tend to move (for example, there's a big population of immigrants from Belarus in Atlantic City). Another girl (not one of the fluent ones, but her English was still excellent) asked if I listen to Måneskin, and what my favorite song of theirs is. I told her I really like their new song "The Loneliest," but if I had more time to think about it I probably would have said something else. She couldn't remember the name of her favorite song, but we narrowed it down to their English songs and eventually figured out it's "Supermodel." I think that's a very good choice. She also asked me if I have any movie recommendations, and said she's seen all the Harry Potter, Marvel, and Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and also that she likes Tim Burton films. In that moment I completely blanked on every movie I've ever seen, so I just gave her the names of a couple Halloween movies to watch. I'll have to make a proper list for her next week. I really like this class; they're a lot of fun.

The third middle school teacher is still out sick, so I had off for her two classes. At 4:00 PM, I met with one of the smaller high school classes and did my introductory PowerPoint. These kids were very quiet and didn't have questions, so I started a presentation I'd made on the pros and cons of living in the United States. I got through all the pros, but we got hung up on my slide that says "Unlikely to lose a war" because the teacher disagreed with that statement. I admitted that I didn't put that under "pros" with confidence, and that I'm personally not proud that our military is so insanely huge. I decided that it would be better to change that slide to "Prepared to go to war." We barely got to any of the cons before the bell rang. I wasn't going to be scheduled for this class next week, but the teacher and students both want to finish the pros and cons PowerPoint, so the teacher said to come back next Thursday. Even though this class is quiet, I wouldn't at all mind working with them every week. 

Sarah invited me to a play she was taking her advanced English students to see. It's called Femmes sur le Fils, and it's about survivors of domestic abuse. That sounds interesting, and I love theatre, so I readily agreed. I asked the other Saint-Quentin English assistants if they wanted to come, and one of them, "E," met us there. I forgot my wallet and the theater didn't take card, so Sarah spotted me 3 euros and said I can buy her a coffee instead of paying her back. She also drove me to and from the theater, which I was extremely grateful for, especially because it was raining. Now, as for the play itself... It turned out it wasn't actually a play, it was a screening of a... film? documentary? projected on a screen on stage. There was supposed to be some sort of aerial acrobatics performance to accompany the film, but there wasn't. I understood just about NOTHING that was said in the film, which I'm very ashamed of, because I thought my French comprehension skills were better than that. There was a Q&A with the creators at the end, but I didn't understand any of that, either. Sarah reassured me that the women in the film had extremely heavy northern-French accents and were hard to understand, but I'm still disappointed in myself. I guess I can say it was a valuable experience, at least. There are worse ways I could have wasted 3 euros.

Oh, also: I forgot to mention that at the end of my 5:00-6:00 PM class on Tuesday (at least I think it was this class; they all kind of blend together), a student stayed behind to ask if I listen to the band Deftones. I told her that yes I do, and in fact my tattoo artist was playing one of their albums the whole time when I got my most recent tattoo. I told her nu metal is my absolute favorite genre, and she seemed super pleased with this news. She was so sweet.

Friday 10/14
I started this rainy day off right by turning off the lights and watching the 1978 Halloween film. As much of a Halloween fanatic as I am, this was actually my first time seeing any of the movies in this franchise; I haven't seen a lot of slasher films. L the Irish assistant had asked if anyone would be interested in watching Halloween Ends with him, so I figured I could at least try to catch up on the movies in that timeline before vacation.

I worked on a couple Fandom Spotlite articles, and had my first class at 2:00 PM. The students are learning about "PGD," which is a type of genetic testing that can detect problems in an embryo and also be used to create "medicine babies" (babies that are born for the purpose of donating an organ to a sick older sibling, which sounds like a sci-fi horror movie plot if you ask me) and even choose a baby's hair and eye color. Hitler would have loved that. I was taken aback by this and insisted that no, this was genuinely my first time learning about this. Apparently the book/movie My Sister's Keeper is about a PGD-produced "medicine baby," but while that book is on my Goodreads want-to-read shelf, I actually haven't read the book yet or seen the movie. I had never heard of PGD in my life, and when I said that, one girl asked if I was joking/pretending to not know or if I was just saying that to make them explain it to me. The teacher was also very surprised that I had never heard of it because it started in America and actually isn't even legal in most countries outside of the United States, which made me feel like an idiot. But I asked my mom about it later and she hadn't heard of it, either. I feel like I should have learned about such terrifying science fiction-esque technology at some point, especially if it's existed since before I was even born, so really, I'm just as surprised as the teacher and student were. The teacher said it's extremely expensive and very few people can afford it and maybe that's why I'd never heard of it, but there are a whole lot of extremely expensive procedures that are public knowledge, so I don't think that's it. It's perplexing.

In that same class, one student looked at me and then whispered something to the teacher. The teacher conveyed to me that she (the student) was concerned because I had been standing while their teacher was talking, and encouraged me to sit down. I was surprised by her compassion, and even more surprised that I was allowed to sit. The teacher was baffled by this, and I told her that in the United States, it's considered unprofessional to sit down while you're working. She assured me that no such thing exists in France, and while I definitely could have continued standing for the remainder of the period, I admit it was nice to sit down for the next 5 or so minutes.

I always start my About Me presentation by asking what animal I'm holding in the first slide. I did hear one student quietly ask a peer if it was a puppy at some point, but every class I've been in so far has ultimately correctly identified it as a goat. I knew it was only a matter of time, however, before someone said it was a sheep, and lo and behold, a boy in this class said it was a lamb. I made it VERY CLEAR that NO, she is NOT a lamb, she is a GOAT. Goats are WAY better than sheep. I think I startled the boy when I yelled at him about it, but I'm pretty sure he could tell I wasn't actually upset, and he seemed to take it in good humor. In fact, at the end of class he said I made his day. This is why I do what I do: for comments like that.

Immediately after this, at 3:00 PM, I had another new high school class, this time with a teacher I hadn't worked with yet. This class was SO fun. One boy in the front row was especially funny: he had class clown energy, except he was actually very smart and his jokes were on-topic and not disruptive. I think his name is Gio, or GG, or something like that. Another kid, also in the front row, asked me what my type of man is. I had tried to prevent questions about my love life (since so many other students had asked things like if I had a boyfriend, if I was married, etc) by saying during my presentation that my boyfriend is the Norwegian singer TIX, but clearly this did not work. It may have been an inappropriate question, but I still humored him and said men that look like Jason Momoa. Nobody knew who that is, so I said he's tall, muscular, and has long hair and tattoos, which is my type. The boy seemed satisfied with this answer, and I hope this means he hadn't asked that question in a flirtatious manner, because he certainly has none of those traits I listed. Also, this class was probably the most excited about me liking anime out of all of the classes I'd worked with so far. We won't have class again next Friday because they only meet on A-weeks, so I won't get to teach them about Halloween, but the teacher asked me to plan a Thanksgiving-themed speaking activity for them for after the break. I've already started brainstorming a little.

After class, I worked on my Halloween presentations for next week, and then went to the laundromat. I had originally picked out the things that needed to be washed the soonest (mostly pajamas), but I realized that even full, the hamper isn't as heavy as I had thought, and I figured I could carry it all the way to the laundromat, since it's only a 7-minute walk. I drastically overestimated my strength and stamina. That 7-minute walk was the longest walk of my LIFE. There was no comfortable position to consistently carry the hamper in, and it seemed to get heavier at every street corner. Not to mention my hands were hurting and sweating. It was absolutely MISERABLE. So miserable, in fact, that after I loaded all my dirty laundry into the washing machines, I tried to schedule an Uber to take me and my laundry back when it was done. Unfortunately, there are no Ubers in Saint-Quentin. So, reluctant to abuse her kindness but also desperate to avoid doing that godforsaken walk AGAIN, I texted Sarah to see if she was around and able to pick me up. She was not. In a last-ditch effort, I asked if any of the Saint-Quentin assistants happened to somehow have access to a car. None of them did, but E offered to help me carry my laundry home. I very gratefully accepted this offer and promised to either pay her or take her out to lunch in exchange. Even with two people sharing the weight of the hamper, the walk back was almost as terrible as the walk there, especially because it was now dark outside. I learned my lesson: I will either put my laundry in a suitcase and risk looking like a confused tourist, or do my laundry in small batches, but I WILL NOT bring the whole hamper with me to the laundromat ever again.

Saturday 10/15
My flatmates and I took a day trip to the city of Amiens. Since there are so many pictures to share from this day, I'm going to make a separate post about it. I'll post the link to it here once I've written it.

Sunday 10/16
After clocking in 30,000 steps yesterday, I had NO intention of leaving the apartment. Unfortunately, this was my weekend to clean (my flatmates and I agreed to clean the whole apartment on a rotating schedule), so I couldn't stay in bed all day. I stretched it out as long as possible, taking a break after every small task (wipe the counters, take a break; put away the clean dishes, take a break; wash the dirty dishes, take a break; wipe down the bathtub, take a break; etc.). I procrastinated mopping for the longest time, since I'm not entirely sure how to use a non-Swiffer mop. I ended up waiting until, like, 10:00 PM to mop the floors, and I'm not at all confident that I did an even remotely good job. The water in the bucket was FILTHY when I was done, though, so I must have gotten some dirt off the floors, at least.

I spent the time between tasks working on a couple Fandom Spotlite articles, finalizing some plans for the upcoming vacations, and reviewing my budget for the month. I have some... not-so-good news about the last part. So, here's the thing: the budget I set for myself in order to not go completely bankrupt while in Europe is a maximum of $1200 a month. Well, it's only halfway through this month, and I have already spent $45 over that monthly maximum. Now, I did not account for the paycheck from my last week subbing in the US, which was deposited on the 7th; still, even if I subtract that income from my October expenses so far, while that takes me out of the negatives, it only leaves me with about $430 to spend for the rest of the month. Normally, I could probably swing that, especially since all my big payments (car payment, dog food autoship for home, Spotify, US health insurance) already went through, but keep in mind I'm going on vacation next week. Fortunately all my hotel/hostel rooms are already booked, so I'll only need to pay for food, transportation, and souvenirs... But I have a feeling that's going to add up reeeeally quickly. If I end up going over budget this month, I guess I'll just have to cut down my budget for November. Money is hard.

Monday 10/17
Mondays always suck, but at least with this school's A-week/B-week schedule, I only have a class at 8:00 AM every other week. This week is a B-week, so I start at 10:00 today. I woke up before my alarm, which gave me about an hour to try to fall back asleep, unfortunately without success. I wasn't hungry, so I only had a cup of tea for breakfast, and actually managed to finish the whole thing before I left. When I got to the classroom, I waited outside the door for 10 minutes (either teachers here are always late, or the schedule they gave me tells me to get to class very early; I don't actually know exactly what times the classes begin) before the teacher arrived. She told me, "You don't have class today," even though I hadn't received an email or any other sort of notification saying this. I showed her the schedule I was given, and she checked her own copy of the same schedule, and said, "Oh, I made a mistake. Can you come back at 11:00?" It's a good thing I live on campus, because I would have been SO upset if I had made a full commute to school only to be told to leave and come back. At least I know I wouldn't have been able to sleep in any later, since I wasn't able to fall back asleep anyway, but I'm definitely not happy about climbing up and down the stairs more times than necessary today.

When I returned at 11:00, the teacher explained that the students just finished learning about gun violence and the second amendment in the US, and asked me to discuss that subject with the students. Fun stuff. One of the students asked if I'm for or against guns, and I told her I'm for gun control: I don't believe ALL guns should be taken away, but it should be much, MUCH harder to access one, and assault rifles should absolutely be banned. Someone else asked if I owned a gun, and the whole class's jaws dropped when I said my mom does. I explained that sometimes farmers need a gun in case a predator threatens their livestock, but that you don't need an assault rifle to chase off a coyote. One student brought up the argument of people having guns for self-defense (they personally didn't agree with this stance, it was just one of the pro-gun arguments they had learned), so I listed a bunch of non-lethal weapons people could, and SHOULD, use instead. Once we ran out of things to say about guns, I asked the students if they had any other questions about the United States. Here are some of my favorite questions that I got, along with shortened versions of how I answered:

Q: Is it a cliché that when Americans graduate, they wear little hats and throw them in the air?
A: Nope, that is very real, and actually part of the official ceremony! Some schools even let you decorate your hat. 

Q: Is it true that there is a rivalry between New York and New Jersey?
A: Not really, although people from New York drive differently, so we hate driving behind New Yorkers.

Q: Are there any laws in the US that you think are completely dumb and unnecessary?
A: It's illegal to collect and rainwater. I guess all my pets are criminals because they drink out of puddles and buckets.

I was absolutely delighted when two boys asked if they could compete for the honor of having one of my goats named after them. I told them that we're not planning on having more goats anytime soon, but we also hadn't planned on having 87 of them, so sure. They proposed several different games and competitions, but I said they really need to prove themselves worthy of the herd, and suggested that I provide a list of all my goats' names, and whoever can name the most from memory at the end of the year wins. They absolutely loved that idea, and now I have to send their teacher a list of my goats' names. I'm glad the students appreciate them as much as I do! 

Lastly, the topic of the school choir somehow came up, and the students said I should definitely join (it's open to both students and teachers). I actually was planning on doing so, but their encouragement made me even more excited. They have rehearsal tonight at 6:00 PM, and two of the students even said they would wait for me outside the building. How sweet! I've already missed several weeks of rehearsals, but it seems to be a very laid-back, stop-by-whenever-you-can sort of thing.

My next class was at 1:00 PM. This time, I was greeted with "I forgot you're supposed to be here." Really made me feel appreciated. Still, she said I was free to present whatever I wanted to the class, and I gave the students the options of 1) the pros and cons of living in the United States, or 2) Halloween. They unanimously chose Halloween, which I was VERY happy to see. I had the students read from my slideshow so it wasn't just me lecturing at them, and then I showed them some clips from the iconic Scary Godmother: Halloween Spooktacular. Some students seemed to get a kick out of it, and laughed a lot; others literally fell asleep. That's just the way it goes, I guess. They weren't as excited to learn about the holiday as I had hoped, especially after they chose that option, but at least a few of them seemed to enjoy the presentation a little bit. My favorite part of the whole class was when I paused the movie and asked the students to predict what the characters would do next, and one girl, dead serious, said, "Kill Jimmy." Ma'am, this is a children's movie. 

As promised, I went to choir rehearsal at 6:00 PM. It was really fun! It's a very small group, but the director is super nice and the kids are hilarious. It's crazy how if you didn't hear them speaking French, you could easily assume that they were American high schoolers based on their mannerisms and clothes. They're currently learning "What Sweeter Music," which I'm 99% sure I actually sang when I was in choir in high school. After the break they're going to start "I'm Still Standing" by Elton John. The director doesn't speak any English, so she asked if I can correct her pronunciations, which makes me feel important. The alto part in "What Sweeter Music" is higher than I'm comfortable with, but I'm just happy to be performing music again. I'll have to find a folder for my sheet music. 

Tuesday 10/18
I stayed up way later than I should have last night, and strongly regretted it when I woke up for my 8:00 AM class. I love Halloween so much that I would think I'd be able to give a presentation about it even in my sleep, but I tiredly stumbled through the whole thing. At least these kids didn't fall asleep on me like yesterday's did.

I took a nap before my 11:00 AM class. I recognized a couple of students in this class, but apparently this was my first day working with this specific group (again, they all blend together), so I had to do my About Me presentation instead of the Halloween one. The students wouldn't ask many questions, so I was going to show them my home tour video, but one of the only questions they did ask was if it's difficult integrating to a French school, and I said no not really because it's surprisingly similar to US schools except the rules are different. The teacher asked for an example, and I said that students aren't allowed to have their phones at all in this school whereas in the US we can use our phones for assignments in class, and she said they actually do too and nobody follows the no-phones rule. This reminded me that I had made a Kahoot game to accompany my introduction PowerPoint, so, now that I knew the kids were allowed to take out their phones, I pulled up the Kahoot. They asked what they would win, I asked what they wanted, they said a million dollars, I said yeah me too. Someone else asked if the winner could have one of my goats, so I said sure. I hope they realized I was kidding. A tag team of two girls won (the first one's name started with an M but I forget it, the second one's name was Elo), so I promised to show them a custom goat video after vacation. I may or may not actually put something together for them.

The students that I'd seen in a different class asked if I could come in on Friday morning because they wanted to make me a French breakfast. I thought that was so incredibly sweet! I have off this Friday, so I said absolutely. I'm really looking forward to it.

I got an email from the rectorat that she just submitted my dossier to CPAM. Apparently you needed to submit everything by October 15th in order to get paid before November, and although I submitted everything to the rectorat on October 10th, I don't know if I'll be penalized because SHE didn't send it in until today. I really hope not, because I'm going to be pissed if I don't get paid until November because someone else was slow processing paperwork that I turned in 5 days early. I'll either get paid on October 24th or November 4th, so I guess we'll just have to see.

Speaking of money, I remembered to apply for student debt relief today, since the application opened a couple days ago. I got an "Access Denied" message when I tried to open it, so I changed my VPN to the United States... but it still didn't work. I asked on WhatsApp if anyone else had that problem, and they all said yes. I didn't think it could be a geolocation issue since changing my VPN didn't work, but when I turned off my French sim card and turned on my American one, then used AT&T mobile data instead of Free, it worked. I don't understand why that is, but at least I got it straightened out. My total loans are less than $20,000, so if and when this goes through, I'll be totally debt-free!! Well, except for my car payment. And I might end up going back to graduate school and taking out new loans for that. But at least I won't have any debt left from my undergraduate education.

After doing my usual About Me presentation with my 5:00 PM class, the teacher told me "It's okay to talk, but the students should talk more than you." This was something they emphasized in my TEFL certification class, and I was embarrassed to hear her say that because it made it seem like I didn't know about this rule of thumb. I don't remember what my response to this was, but now I know to make extra sure to limit my talking time. That's going to be extra hard with this class, though, because they are SO quiet and have zero confidence in their English. I could hardly even get them to ask me questions about myself. I'm hoping that as they get to know me better, they'll open up a little more. She also said that after the break, the students are going to be learning about punk art culture and then American TV shows including This is Us, Outlander, Breaking Bad, Stranger Things, and Game of Thrones. At first I was excited when she said "American TV shows," but the only ones that I've seen out of those are Stranger Things and Game of Thrones, and I never actually finished the latter. So I'm not too sure what I'll do about that lesson... "Punk art" also isn't really a thing in the US, and she admitted that it's really more of a British thing, but she said I can do a lesson on street art instead, since that has a bigger presence in the US. She also said I can do something about Thanksgiving with this class as well as her other class, although she was only planning on discussing Thanksgiving with her other class.

I completely forgot that there was an online training tonight. I had it written on my schedule and everything, but it just totally slipped my mind, and I didn't realize it until I happened to check the WhatsApp chats an hour after it ended. Fortunately, I'm not the only person who missed it (a few other people also forgot and E couldn't get Microsoft Teams to work), and N said that none of the information they gave was new. I just hope attendance wasn't mandatory.

Journal 10/12: Settling In Nicely

I meant to post this update back on October 8th; clearly, that did not happen. My bad. Here's what I've been up to this past week. 

Thursday, 10/6
I had to leave my first collège class of the day half an hour early so that I could attend the 9:30 virtual Académie d'Amiens orientation. I was hesitant to leave, because the kids in this class were so surprisingly good, but unfortunately the orientation was mandatory. I took my laptop to the teachers' lounge since I didn't have time to walk back to my apartment. The orientation was... a mess. The presenters spoke SO fast, and their presentation slides only had their names on them, so I was completely lost 90% of the time. They also didn't know how to share their sound, so they wasted our time with showing us two silent videos. The second one had subtitles, but the lag was so bad that it skipped over a lot of them. The few slides that did actually have information on them were either maps that I could easily find on Google Images, or incorrect numbers from previous years. To make matters worse, I didn't realize that EVERY teacher in the school floods into the teachers' lounge for their 10:00 break, so it got extremely loud in there and even harder to concentrate, so I had to turn my video off and escape to my apartment anyway. The sole saving grace was the absolutely hilarious commentary we had going on in the Amiens WhatsApp group. I was going to make a mood board of the conversation when the meeting was over, but someone beat me to it:

I think that sums up the utter chaos pretty well. It's a good thing our cameras weren't required to be on, because I was cracking up.

My afternoon collège class was.... not as pleasant as the one I had to leave early from. A girl handed in some sort of homework, and the teacher ripped it to shreds right in front of the whole class without even looking at it. The girl looked horrified and said, "Vous n'etes pas sérieuse?" ("Are you serious?"). If my teacher had done that to me, especially in the tumultuous period of middle school, I don't think I would have survived it. I don't even know why the teacher tore it up; I'm assuming it's because the student turned it in late or something like that, but it still felt like a waste to me. She could have at least put it down as a 0 and returned the paper to the student so she could reference it later and didn't do all that work for nothing. I felt really bad for the girl, but it wasn't my place to comment, and I also don't know the full situation. 

The kids were extremely rowdy and talked during my ENTIRE presentation. At some point I half-jokingly told them "I came here all the way from America to talk to you guys, and you aren't even listening! You're going to make me cry. Do you want me to cry?" And even that did not make them quiet down at all, not even for a second. The "you're going to make me cry" trick always worked on my students back in the US... They did at least eagerly participate in the Q&A portion, but they obviously weren't paying attention because no less than three of them asked me what my favorite activity was. In their defense, though, the classroom was so loud that they probably just genuinely could not hear what questions their classmates asked.

One student asked if I had ever been in love, which I felt was a little personal... Another asked if I believe in God (well, her exact words were "You like God?" and I thought she was saying "goat," to which the answer obviously would have been yes, but the boy next to her pointed at the sky and put his hands together in prayer. I clarified in French that she was asking about Dieu, and she said yes). Due to France's laïcité laws, it's actually illegal for teachers to express their religious views in school, so I politely told her that question was too private and moved on.

At the end of class, the student that asked if I had ever been in love said she has a present for me (but it sounded like she said "I have a boyfriend for you," which made me ask why she was so obsessed with my love life) and handed me a paper flower bouquet. Should she have been paying attention to my presentation instead of making that? Yes, but I still appreciated the gesture. On his way out of the classroom, one of the better-behaved and more engaged students told me I am very beautiful, which I thought was very sweet. I would have been a little more uncomfortable if he were a high schooler, but at 13 comments like that are still cute. 

After class, I went back to my apartment and watched the final three episodes of the anime The Yakuza's Guide to Babysitting. The final scene made me cry like a baby, and it took some serious effort to cry quietly so my flatmates wouldn't hear me. They're great, but we're not quite close enough yet for me to explain that I'm fine, I'm just sobbing over a cartoon.

Around 3:00 PM, I got a message from F saying "There's another girl in the apartment." This was obviously quite surprising, since we were told there would only be three of us living there. I thought maybe it was the MIA would-be German assistant, but F said she must be an English assistant because she only speaks English. That in itself was also surprising, because you couldn't even apply for this program without demonstrating a minimal level of French proficiency. As it turns out, the mystery girl was actually B: the Scottish assistant from last week's journal! Her school is somehow associated with mine, and when they found out she still didn't have a permanent residence, they contacted my school and asked if she could live in one of the extra rooms. She does speak French, so she must have just been taken off guard when she ran into F and only spoke English to her (I know I do that when I panic). She still has some time left on her Airbnb, so she isn't moving in just yet. I'm honestly a little bummed about having to share the kitchen and shower with one more person, but at least I know she's nice.

Earlier that week, the Saint-Quentin language assistants had arranged to meet up for dinner and drinks at Le Golden Pub today at 7:00 PM. B (who hasn't moved into the apartment yet, since she still has some time left on her Airbnb) were the first ones there, and we waited for about 5-10 minutes while the others arrived fashionably late. I requested that we eat outside since it was a beautiful evening, and found a table under the awning big enough to accommodate all 10 of us. There were three of us from the United States (me from New Jersey, J from Vermont, and another girl from North Carolina), two from India, two from Scotland, one from Ireland, and two from Kenya. All of us are English assistants here in Saint-Quentin (F would have been the only Spanish assistant, but she decided at the last minute not to come). 

I ordered "Camembert Cheese Chunks," which were way more delicious than they sound, and a burger called "Holy-Buddy," which I just think is hilarious. It came with a special "Golden Sauce," which tasted familiar, but I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was. It almost tasted like curry powder, maybe. The burger was not as good as the Cheese Chunks, and I didn't finish it. Also, inspired by J ordering a cosmo, I asked if they have amaretto sours, since that's the only drink I've ever ordered at a bar before and I don't like going out of my comfort zone when it comes to alcohol. They did in fact have it, and it tasted just like the ones I've had in the US, except it was garnished with actual flowers and probably-fake flecks of gold. 

After such a fantastic night, I was a little bummed when the bathroom flooded after I took a shower upon getting home. I had noticed that the bath mats did get suspiciously wet every time someone used the shower, but this time, there was water EVERYWHERE. I retrieved the crusty old mop out of the supply closet and did my best to mop it all up, but it didn't help much. Y saw the carnage and helped with a couple of towels. We could not figure out where all the water had come from: the shower curtain was inside the tub, and the water was coming from the opposite direction of the showerhead, which made no sense. Y realized that the other shower room (which we haven't used yet) has a drain in the floor while this one does not, so I guess therein lies the problem. We might have to use the other shower from now on, but before committing to that, I'm going to try to rearrange the shower curtain and change the direction of the showerhead. We will see.

Friday, 10/7
Nothing wakes you up quite like an email from your Human Resources Secretary with the subject line "URGENT." My appointment to open a bank account was scheduled for noon, but apparently the bank was experiencing a power outage so they had to reschedule me to 5:30 PM. I didn't have anything going on at that time, so that was no big deal at all; certainly not URGENT. I was relieved that's all it was.

At 10:00, I met with my prof référente for the first time in the teachers' lounge. She's a lot sweeter in person that she seemed over email. She introduced me to the two other lycée teachers I'll be working with, and then showed me where her classroom is. She introduced me to her advanced class, which I won't be working with, but it was still really nice to meet them. The class is currently studying gun violence as well as corruption in the United States judiciary system. I couldn't believe they're dealing with such advanced and heavy topics! I know damn well I wouldn't have been able to intelligently discuss something like that in French my senior year of high school. The students just watched the film Twelve Angry Men, and one of the girls gave me an in-depth summary of it (another feat I definitely could not have accomplished in a foreign language in high school; hell, I don't even know if I could do that in French now!). Next they're going to watch a documentary on the Central Park Five and read The Handmaid's Tale, which I didn't read until I was in college, and English is my first language. These kids are on a totally different level. I know that we aren't supposed to discuss our political views in class, but the teacher asked me to tell the class about guns and the justice system in the US, and it's pretty hard to take a neutral stance on school shootings and police brutality. I explained that if you have enough money, you can basically get away with anything in the US, and that lots of people are wrongly convicted. I told them about bulletproof backpacks, and the heart-breaking story of the Japanese exchange student who was shot and killed on Halloween, and how "justice" in the United States has the distorted definition of "I can do whatever I want regardless of consequences, and I don't care how it affects other people." I also told them that once they start reading The Handmaid's Tale, they'll have a pretty good picture of what the country is starting to look like for women, and the teacher said that's actually why she picked that book for them to read. She also jokingly said that now the kids will never want to go to the US, which I I felt bad about, but, it's not like anything I said wasn't true. The kids looked so horrified while I was talking (at least one of them appeared on the verge of tears), but that's literally just life in America. I wish I could work with that class more, because they were incredible, but they also clearly do not need my help.

After class, I ventured to the laundromat, since the washing machine I destroyed still hasn't been replaced. I found one that's about 8 minutes away by foot, which isn't far at all, but still too far to lug around a laundry basket, so I picked out the clothes that I needed most immediately (mostly pajamas and towels) and put them in the large plastic bag I'd been given when I bought a pillow at the store Bouchera. I was the only person there, which was super nice. The machines were extremely easy to use, and I was able to walk back to my apartment to grab a book while I waited for the wash cycle to finish. It was a little expensive—about 9 euros for the biggest washer, which is a little less than $9, and another 3.30 euros for the dryer—but still much, much preferable to washing my clothes in the bathtub and waiting three days for them to dry on the drying racks. 

My bank account appointment went extremely smoothly. The lady that helped me was very very nice, and my school's Human Resources Secretary had already submitted all my documents so I didn't need to bring anything (although I did bring my passport and work contract just in case). I got my RIB, which is a number I need to join French social security and get health benefits, right then and there, without having to ask, which is awesome because I've heard that some banks can take as long as a week to get that to you. I'm a little disappointed that I have to pay 1 euro a month just to have an account when other banks are free, but it was probably worth it to have all the paperwork submitted and the appointment scheduled for me. I'll only be here for a maximum of 8 months, anyway, so 8 euros total really only equates to, say, one lunch.

Speaking of food: I had been wanting to try a "French taco" ever since I got here, so I stopped by the restaurant O'Tacos for dinner. Now, I'm not at all picky when it comes to food, so believe me when I say: French tacos are an affront to food everywhere. They are so atrocious, I can't believe it wasn't invented in America. I'm even more surprised that it was invented in France, the gastronomic capital of the world. A "taco" from O'Tacos is a burrito-like wrap stuffed with a special cheese sauce (which I'm almost positive was not real cheese, despite France being VERY big on cheese), up to three types of meats (I chose marinated chicken), an additional sauce (I opted for no sauce, but some of the godforsaken options include ketchup, barbecue sauce, and curry), and, so help me God, French fries. I was a little concerned because my receipt said "escalope," which I thought might be French for "scallop." I told myself they had just punched it in wrong, and didn't dare consult the French dictionary to find out if it really did mean "scallop"; ignorance is bliss. My fear returned when I took a bite and the first thing I encountered was definitely not chicken. I disgustedly wondered if this mushy substance was scallops, but upon further inspection, I found out that it was just French fries, softened by the cheese sauce. I feel sick just thinking about it now. I did eat the entire thing, because I don't believe in wasting food, but sweet lord was it awful. I give it 2/10. 

So, pro-tip: If you're ever in France, DO NOT try a French taco. It's not worth the experience.

In better news, I encountered and petted two dogs on my way home.

Saturday, 10/8
My morning and afternoon were pretty uneventful. I did a little grocery shopping for some dinner ingredients, and then I spent the rest of the day mostly working on PowerPoints for my classes. I touched up my About Me presentation to make it a little more informative for the high schoolers, and also created a Canada VS USA PowerPoint for the middle school class that's learning about Canada. (Yes, this is because I'm subtly trying to tell the teacher that just because the US borders Canada does not mean they are the same or I am at all qualified to teach the students about living in Canada.) I also made a Pros & Cons of Living in the USA. It would go way over the middle schoolers' heads, so I could only show it to the high schoolers, but I'm not sure I'll have the opportunity to show that to any of the classes at all. It's kind of sad how much I struggled finding substantial things for the "pros" section. 

Since I had way more spinach than I needed due to my mishap at the morning market, I looked up recipes using chicken (because I like chicken) and spinach, and chose this one. I bought everything I needed at the grocery store this morning (except for the sun-dried tomatoes, which I have never been able to find in any grocery store in my life), and made it for dinner. It was SO. GOOD. 10/10, would make again. I'm definitely saving that recipe.

My evening was MUCH more exciting. The Saint-Quentin Fair started tonight, and there was going to be a fireworks show at 10:00 PM, so I met up with some of the other English assistants around 7:30 to check out the fair before the fireworks. I made sure to leave enough room after dinner so that I'd be hungry enough for dessert, but a new problem immediately presented itself: there were SO MANY options. Donuts, fried dough, ice cream (though it was too cold for that), candy apples... I ended up going with the latter, which was an excellent choice. I normally associate candy apples with summer because I've only ever eaten them on the boardwalk, but now that I think about it, apples are a very autumn food, so having a candy apple in October made sense. I guess candy apples are a thing at Halloween, too, right? You can't use them for bobbing for apples, though, because that would just be a mess.

J and I were blown away by how much the place resembled an American county fair. The only thing missing was a 4H tent. (Actually, there weren't any tents. So I guess it was more like the rides and games section of a county fair.) There were just about a million claw machines, with prizes including Naruto plushies, Lilo & Stitch plushies, and Pikachu plushies, to name just a few. Lilo & Stitch prizes—stuffed Stitch, Angel, and Leroy, to be exact—were VERY common. I don't think I saw a single game, claw machine or otherwise, that didn't have at least one of them as a prize. I'll definitely have to go back and win a Stitch somewhere. Some games had live goldfish for prizes, and I strongly considered trying to get one; after all, there are no clear rules on whether or not we can have pets in the apartment, and surely a goldfish wouldn't count anyway. I'm still considering it. There were also tons of casino arcades (very American boardwalk), test-your-strength punching machines, and balloons airsoft guns. I found it incredibly ironic that in America, where guns are so common all of my high school students here in France have asked me about guns in the US, we have balloon darts, but France has balloon guns. I've never shot a gun, but my mom knows how, so maybe the ability is hereditary. That's another game I'll have to try next time. 

I was also very impressed by just how independent French dogs are. I remember thinking this when I came to France for the first time back in 2017, but I was still amazed by how many dogs were off leash at this gigantic fair. Maisie is a good, loyal dog, but I know for a fact that if I let her off leash in public, I'd probably never see her again! One dog sat by his owner while he played an archery game (yet another game I need to try my hand at, having worked at the Renaissance Faire's archery booth two years in a row now), and another patiently waited outside one of the casinos. I admittedly tried to lure the second dog away, but he stayed put. Such a good boy. His name was Guizmo and he licked my face. 

J convinced our group (there were 6 of us in total) to go through one of the three massive funhouses together. It was 7 euros per person, but J offered to pay for all of us since it was her idea in the first place. I thought we were going in the first funhouse, but we couldn't find the entrance, so we went into the last one. Little did I know that all three funhouses were actually connected. You couldn't choose one: you had to do all three, and once you started, you couldn't leave. The whole adventure took at least 30 minutes. I'm very shocked by how much fun I actually had, because man, it sucked. I'm clumsy and uncoordinated in the best of situations, so all those moving platforms were a nightmare. The two hamster wheels were the absolute WORST; I fell both times, and J had to pull me up. I mostly cheated, straddling the sides and going around the traps and moving platforms. I treated it less like an American Ninja Warrior and more like a thief trying to navigate a boobytrapped house. At one point there was a fireman's pole, to which I said "absoLUTELY not" and took the stairs instead, despite the sign that said something along the lines of "Stairs are off-limits unless you're a loser." I have never professed myself a winner, and I was more than willing to suffer that loss, even when all five of my other friends braved the pole. I told myself that if there was another pole in any of the other two houses then I would use it, but fortunately there was not. Would I do a funhouse of that size, or even a smaller one, again? Hell no. And yet, did I regret doing this one? Somehow also no. 

After surviving the Funhouse From Hell (its actual name is "C'est Fou!" which means "It's crazy!" and is definitely an accurate title), we went on what we thought would be the much-more-docile swings. I love the ones at Six Flags and the Burlington County Farm Fair, so I assumed these would be pretty similar. I thought it was odd that there was a prize counter at a ride, but I didn't think much of it until we strapped ourselves in and noticed a big sign with a whole bunch of instructions on it. Apparently, this wasn't just a ride: it was also a game. Suspended from a chain high in the air was some sort of stuffed animal's tail (the instructions called it the "pousspouss," though my spelling may be wrong), and whoever was able to yank the tail off the chain won. You had to hold onto the seat of the person in front of you, and launch them at the tail to increase (or perhaps hinder) their ability to reach it. It was absolutely wild and totally would not fly back in the States, where you would definitely get kicked out of the park or fair if you attempted to grab and launch the person in front of you. None of us were able to capture the tail (not even our tall friend L), but it was still tons of fun.

Lastly, the other four assistants went on a ride while YV and I held their things. I'm not sure what is was called here, but J kept calling it The Claw. It swung around kind of like a pendulum and went almost entirely upside down. I no longer have the stamina I did when I was in middle school and could spend eight hours riding rollercoasters at Six Flags nonstop, so the funhouse and extreme swings left me too winded to do this ride as well. The candy apple and spinach chicken I'd recently eaten also didn't relish the idea of swinging upside down. I think I would go on if it's the first thing I did when I got there and I had an empty stomach, but all four of my friends said they felt horrible for at least half an hour afterwards and that it was absolutely terrifying, so, maybe I won't be going on it ever.

Supposedly the best spot to watch the fireworks from was at the McDonald's down the street, but we ended up stopping at a bench across from the movie theater and settled in there. It was super cold, and we were starting to wonder if the fireworks would even be worth it, but I won't be here for the closing day fireworks since I'll be in Paris for vacation, so I personally was fine with sticking it out and nobody made any move to leave early. The cold was bothersome, though, so J and I went in the movie theater to see if they sold warm beverages. They did! I ordered a hot chocolate, which was pathetically small but it did its job of helping me warm up. The fireworks were, well, fireworks, and while I can't say whether or not they were truly worth the cold and exhaustion from being out so late, I definitely don't regret staying to see them. 

I was mere seconds from making it home after a super fun evening when I did something incredibly stupid and ridiculous. The school doesn't turn the courtyard lights on at night, so it was completely dark as I walked back to my apartment. I was halfway there by the time I decided I should trying to navigate by moonlight (it was a full moon, at least), but just as I reached to take out my phone and use its flashlight, I somehow collided heavily with one of the benches on the perimeter, fell forward, and rolled on the ground. Miraculously, I didn't hit my head, but the impact with the bench left me with some serious pain in my leg. I definitely didn't sprain or break anything, luckily, but there would definitely be a nasty bruise in the morning. I managed to limp up all four flights of stairs, already dreading how much pain I would be in when I woke up. Overall, though, it was honestly hilarious that I had avoided getting injured in the funhouse that was literally designed to trip you up, and yet I crashed and burned in an open courtyard at my own school. The funniest part is that there's SO much open space there, and I had to go out of my way to find one of the few benches. I'm just an accident magnet, I guess.

I showered away my shame (we still haven't found a solution for or the source of the flooding), and as I was getting ready for bed, I saw a very important message from my mom: she was bringing home two four-month-old puppies. She had told me that she'd be going to look at a blue heeler puppy that afternoon, but when she and Dwayne got there they saw just how attached the puppy they'd picked was to his brother, so they felt bad and ended up bringing them both home. 

I was totally exhausted by the time I saw the message, but I still FaceTimed my mom so I could see the new babies. We came up with the names Smokey and Bandit, which may or may not stick. It was only $300 for both of them, which is a pretty sweet deal; but also, this means there are now four dogs in my house back in New Jersey. That's a lot of dogs! The puppies are adorable, though, and heelers are supposed to be good herding dogs, so hopefully they can help my mom manage the goats. Honestly, if she was going to fill the void I left with anything, puppies are a pretty good choice. 

Sunday, 10/9
I didn't have any plans for today (other than possibly taking another trip to the laundromat), but my flatmates invited me to go with them to the free DreamWorks 25th Anniversary Exhibit at a local museum. I'm not really big on museums, but the exhibit was pretty neat! I was especially excited to see a drawing from She-Ra, which my best friends and I watched together over Zoom last year. 

I couldn't get the donuts from the fair out of my mind, so I walked all the way back there (about a 20 minute walk) just to get some. I couldn't decide which one I wanted, but apparently I had to get a minimum of 6 anyway, so I was able to select a big variety to try. I also bought a cherry slushie, although I don't like slushies all that much so I'm not really sure what compelled me to do that. I immediately regretted the decision to walk to the fair when the donut-fueled adrenaline wore off and my leg started hurting again. I would definitely would not be going to laundromat today.

Mom messaged me that Bandit, the puppy she hadn't intended to take home in the first place, is actually a girl, not a boy. I asked if that meant she was going to take her back (our veterinarian said Maisie would do better if our next dog was a boy), but she's going to keep her anyway. After all, her favorite dog that she's ever had was a girl, and Bandit keeps Smokey company. 

Out of nowhere, I suddenly remembered that while I've been adjusting to life in Europe, I had completely forgotten to pay my car payment for my car back home. I don't remember the exact due date, but it was definitely in the single digits, so today would be the latest possible day (I think it was due on the 7th, though). I scrambled online to pay it, only to find out that the car payment website is blocked in France. What is the point of that??? I had to text my mom my login information and ask her to do it for me, but I don't know when she'll get the chance to do it or if the username and password I sent her are even correct. I'm not sure how long the grace period is, if there even is one. I really hope this doesn't completely ruin my credit score.

Monday 10/10
I finally started in the lycée today (even though my contract started over a week ago, but I digress). The high school students are much better behaved than the middle schoolers, and their English is certainly better, but they had surprisingly few questions. There was so much time leftover, in fact, that I was able to show them the whole 10-minute tour I filmed of my house and farm in New Jersey, and the beginning of a PowerPoint I'd made about the NJ education system. I was at least happy to see that these students were much more excited to learn that I watch anime than the middle schoolers were; in fact, one of the only questions I got was, "Who is your favorite JoJo Stand?" Embarrassingly, I don't have a favorite Stand, so I just had to tell them my favorite character (it's the alien guy from Diamond is Unbreakable, by the way). 

Immediately after class, I stopped by the Human Resources Secretary's office to fill out the paperwork for social security, which I couldn't do until I had an open bank account. One of the only things I gleamed from the disastrous Amiens Zoom meeting was that we needed to submit this paperwork to the rectorat ASAP, so I was very relieved and thankful to find out that Mme Bidard would do that for us. Not every language assistant is lucky enough to have such helpful staff at their schools, and I've seen a lot of them on WhatsApp scrambling to figure out what to do and who to send their paperwork to.

My leg still hurts, but it's supposed to rain the rest of this week, so I managed to drag myself to the laundromat. My sheets and blankets needed to be washed, but they wouldn't fit in my plastic Bouchera bag, so I ended up stuffing all the dirty laundry in my suitcase and wheeling it to the laundromat. Worst case scenario, people would just think I'm a tourist, but it was also a Monday, so I could be a student returning to school after the weekend. There's also the possibility that people just wouldn't care. Unlike last time, I wasn't alone in the laundromat today, but it was still an easy process. I brought a book with me from the start so I didn't have to walk back to my apartment to grab it. I've been reading a book about French culture called What The French. The author is a piece of work and a lot of his commentary pisses me off, but it has been admittedly informative and funny at times. The chapter I read while waiting on my laundry said that even high school students take long cigarette breaks; I'll have to peek out during break times and see if I notice any smoking circles outside. This was a common sight in college back home, but any students caught smoking near campus in high school would have been suspended for sure.

In addition to the ingredients for the delicious spinach chicken, I had also purchased everything I needed to make tacos over the weekend, so I planned on making them tonight. However, the electricity was out in the apartment's kitchen. (I don't really understand how just the kitchen didn't have power, but what do I know?) Fortunately, our apartment has two kitchens, and the smaller one still had power. My flatmates and I moved most of our stuff from the main fridge to the second fridge, but I did forget about a couple things and ended up needing to throw them out. There was a lot of back-and-forth involved, since all the pans and utensils are in the other kitchen, but I did successfully manage to cook my tacos. I ate my first one in a cold tortilla because the microwave is WAY too heavy to move from the powerless kitchen to the backup one, and I usually burn things I put in a frying pan; however, the cold tortilla was so unsatisfying that I took the chance and briefly heated up the second and third ones on the stove. Fortunately, nothing was burned. I assumed that since the kit and the salsa were both Old El Paso brand just like I use at home, it would taste pretty similar to what I'm used to, but... It did not. It was much... sweeter? I'm sure this is less because French Old El Paso is different than American Old El Paso, and more due to the couple of ingredients I had to substitute because I couldn't find them: plain Greek yogurt instead of sour cream, and emmental cheese instead of Mexican cheese. Taste-wise, I don't find Greek yogurt and sour cream to be that different, so I'm thinking it's the emmental cheese that threw off the flavor. 

Tuesday 10/11
I really like my Tuesday morning class. They're a fairly small group, and they were super attentive to my introduction PowerPoint. They even laughed at all my jokes! Like yesterday's high school classes, their faces lit up when I said I watch anime. Unlike the previous classes, however, they had a ton of questions for me; I unfortunately don't remember what any of them were, though. Their teacher said the students had expressed an interest in me doing a lesson on Halloween, which I was STOKED to hear, because I'd actually asked the other teachers on my own if I could do something about Halloween and they never got back to me. So the fact that these kids were actively asking me to talk about Halloween? Say less! The teacher was worried that a week won't be enough time for me to prepare, but I'll have a PowerPoint done by tonight, just watch.

They also told me they're interested in learning about Thanksgiving, as well as American singers (specifically Lady Gaga, which, sure, why not?). The latter led us to decide on an activity where the students have to pick an American singer and give a 2-minute presentation on them and see if I understand them. I wish I could work with this class every day, but I'm at least looking forward to the weekly days I do have with them!

I met up with B and Zlata the Ukrainian girl for lunch at Columbus Café so Zlata could practice her English. I ordered a club sandwich and a raspberry iced tea, both of which were pretty good. I saw a lady walk by with a super cute tailless puppy, and although the woman looked kind of scary the puppy was so cute that I built up the nerve to ask if I could pet him. The lady was actually very nice about it and told me he was 2 months old. I wasn't able to take my phone out to get a picture, but he was SO cute, and he chewed on my sleeve with his sharp little puppy teeth. On my way back from lunch, I also saw a man walking some sort of dachshund mix, and I got to pet that dog, too (I did get a picture of this one, but it didn't turn out well). I had a brief conversation with his owner about how my favorite kind of dogs are ones with long bodies and short legs, and he said he especially loves basset hounds and their long ears. I was over the moon that I was able to have this exchange fully in French! I guess my French is only bad when I'm dealing with food and/or numbers. I was hoping this dog-petting streak would continue, but I didn't see any other dogs today. 

P.S. Zlata is an aspiring musician, and she has a Spotify and YouTube! I've basically adopted her as my little sister, so please check out her music. I really hope she makes it to Eurovision one day.

Apparently they messed up my schedule, so when I showed up at a classroom at 4:00 PM the teacher was surprised to see me there. She said I can still stay and introduce myself to those students, but that I probably won't be with them going forward. I'm still not entirely clear on what my schedule is now, so I guess we'll just have to feel it out. This group was also not very talkative, so instead of having me show them my house tour or another presentation, the teacher let me leave for the last 15 minutes of class. There wasn't much point in that, though, because I had to come back to the same room anyway at 5:00. Now this class was great. I wasn't supposed to be with them, but they liked me so much that the teacher said she'll keep that part of the schedule the way it is and I'll come see them every other week. 

I had an embarrassing interaction in the cafeteria at dinnertime. I was waiting in line for my food with the students, because as far as I knew there's a separate room for teachers to eat in but not a separate line to wait in, and the line was really long so I took out my phone to pass the time. A teacher (at least I think he's a teacher, but he almost looked younger than me and was wearing a t-shirt and cargo shorts) yelled at me to put it away, and the kids around me all snickered in that humiliating way that only teenagers can manage. I wanted to tell him that I'm not a student, but I was so startled that I just apologized and did as I was told. Plus, there very well might be a rule that teachers can't have their phones out in line either, I don't know. I stopped another teacher I'd never met before, introduced myself, and asked if there was a separate food line for teachers. She told me we can just cut in front of the students, and proceeded to do so and tell me to follow her. I should have felt powerful I guess, but really I just felt bad. Mr. Cargo Shorts looked really confused when he saw me walk into the teachers' dining room. I really hope he talks to me about it next time he sees me, because it would be nice to hear him admit that he was wrong in thinking I was a student, and maybe even apologize. Unlikely, though.

Wednesday 10/12
I.... do not like my Wednesday morning class. The kids are so, SO bad, and the teacher has 0 control over them. I had to yell at them and tell them that if they have something that's SO important they have to talk about it while I'm presenting, then they can come to the front of the class and share with everyone. That kept them quiet for all of 5 minutes. I gave my USA VS Canada presentation, and at the end asked them to take out a sheet of paper for a quick 8-question quiz. Less than half the class even TRIED to participate in the quiz. Either they knew I don't have the authority to give them grades, or they just don't care. It's probably the latter. After the quiz, the teacher told me they'd already learned everything I told them, which I find INCREDIBLY hard to believe, considering 1) they've only been learning about Canada, not the United States, and 2) the handful of kids that did do the quiz got most of them wrong. There is absolutely no way she already told these kids that milk comes in a bag in Canada but a carton or plastic gallon in America. 

Anyway, she asked me to use the rest of the class time individually asking the students questions to help them practice introducing themselves, since they'd be having an oral test soon. I embarrassingly asked a question to a woman that is apparently a student's 1:1 aid. It's not my fault she looks so young and that I didn't realize they even had 1:1 aids in European schools. The misbehaving students had already soured my mood, but then the teacher did something that totally boiled my blood. When I got to one of the students, I noticed he was struggling to answer the question, but I didn't think anything of it, because literally all but three students had struggled just as much. Before he could attempt an answer, though, the teacher said "Oh, you can skip him. He's from Africa, he doesn't speak English." I was so shocked that I didn't know what to do other than say "Okay" and move on, but Jesus Christ, there's so much to unpack there. First of all, NONE of the students in the class speak English. That's why they are IN AN ENGLISH CLASS. Secondly, English is a first or second language in TONS of countries in Africa. There are probably, if not definitely, more English speakers in Africa than there are in France. Thirdly, if he doesn't speak English, isn't that even more reason to work with him? Is that not what this class is for??? She basically just admitted that she wasn't doing her job with this student. Even if he belonged in a lower level English class, what kind of educator responds by completely ignoring the student? I know it's not my place to criticize a tenured teacher, so I'm not going to say anything to the school or the other teachers, but from now on I'm not going to give up on that boy. If she tells me not to work with him again, I'll just tell her that if he doesn't speak English, then it's my job as an English assistant to help him learn. 

After that miserable class was over, I went to the Wednesday morning market to buy some apples. I also stopped by the U Express grocery store to buy some Laughing Cow cheese (I've formed an addiction to the stuff, but if you don't get to the cafeteria early enough they run out, so I need a more reliable source), as well as a baguette to spread it on. I felt incredibly French sitting down and having a baguette with cheese for a snack.

I spent the rest of today updating this blog, since I had gotten so ridiculously behind. I'm going to try not to ever take more than a full week to update. My plans for tonight are running to Carrefour City to get more Netflix & Chill'd Ben & Jerry's ice cream, then watching the first episode of Chainsaw Man and writing a review of it for my Fandom Spotlite job.

Journal 10/5: First Day of Teaching

 Today was finally my first day in a French classroom. I only had one class today: a 4e collège class (the equivalent of eighth grade in the US). Overall, I think it went pretty well! All I had to do today was introduce myself, so I presented the PowerPoint I'd made in advance and then answered the students' questions. My favorite questions I got were: "What is your zodiac sign?" (I didn't know French middle schoolers were into astrology); "Do you know Tupac?" (I think they meant do I know of him; I doubt they expected me to know him personally, seeing as he's dead and all); "Do you like Eminem?" (These kids lover their rappers apparently); "What is your favorite fantasy animal?" (SUCH a strong and creative question, I said dragons but I'll have to think on that more intently); "What is the tattoo on your arm?" (That's fair); and "Do you like fish and chips?" (I'm from America, but, not England). One of the girls drew a picture of a goat for me, so she already has a special place in my heart. Some students were talking while I was presenting, and a few of them were clearly bored (especially towards the end), but that's pretty much par for the course with middle schoolers. They definitely could have been a lot worse. I realized when I got back to my apartment that I'd left my flashdrive in the teacher's laptop, so hopefully it will still be there when I go back tomorrow. I'll start the day in a different classroom, but it's only two doors down from where I was today so I (again, hopefully) can stop by and grab it before class starts.

I only have that one 8:55-9:55 class on Wednesdays, so I have the rest of the day free. I went back to the apartment for a little bit and played Twisted Wonderland (part of their Halloween event ends at midnight tonight so I had to make sure I was caught up), and then I met up with an English assistant from Scotland at Columbus Café & Co. I ordered a croque monsieur sandwich and some sort of iced chocolate drink. I really need to figure out another way to ask what something is other than "Qu'est-ce que c'est, ça là?" because, just like with the pizza at the mall on Saturday, instead of telling me what was in/on the sandwich, the cashier just rung me up for it. Fortunately, it was delicious, whatever it was, but I don't know that I'll be so lucky every time. The chocolate drink was pretty yummy too, but it just wasn't complementing the sandwich, so I went back and also ordered a peach iced tea. 

While the Scottish assistant (I'll call her "B" here) and I chatted over our meals, a tall blonde girl walked up to us and said, "Excuse me, I heard you speaking English." She explained that she is a refugee from Ukraine, and while she does speak French she prefers English, but she never meets people that speak English in France. I asked if she likes it here, and the short answer was basically "no." She said that people always point out her accent when she speaks French (I noticed that she didn't have a strong accent at all when she speaks English though), and that all kids her age (she's 14 and in 3e, so ninth grade in US terms) want to do is "go to McDonald's and on dates," but she just wants to study and read Harry Potter. She was especially upset that none of her peers are Harry Potter fans, and was very excited when I told her I'm a Hufflepuff because she, too, is a Hufflepuff. I told her that I have also always preferred studying and reading over hanging out with people (which is true). She said that her peers in her English class are horrible at English and that French people have the mentality of "I don't need English, I have French." She also said that she tries to compliment people on the street (stuff like "I like your outfit" or "You are very pretty,") but nobody in this country reacts well to that. I really hope the employees and other patrons in the café didn't speak English, because she spoke very loudly about how unfriendly French people are. Still, her enthusiasm at finding two other English speakers was adorable, and she asked for our phone numbers. I really hope we see her again!

I was still thirsty after my tea and chocolate drink (especially after talking for 2.5 hours straight), and I had been craving a smoothie last night, so I cashed in on that craving and ordered one to go. 

Journal 10/4: Last Day Before I Start Teaching

Right before I went to bed last night, I got an email from my grandma asking for pictures of my apartment. I woke up with that in mind, and it gave me a rare burst of morning inspiration and energy. I put on my Feelin' Myself Spotify playlist and fully organized my room. I had put everything away the moment I arrived, but there were a lot of things just strewn about (when I gave my parents a Facetime tour, they said it definitely looked like I made myself at home; i.e. it was already a disaster). This took up my entire morning, but being so visibly productive made me feel really good. 

After doing some budgeting (fun), I showed F the About Me PowerPoint I'd made and she gave me a couple ideas for how to make it more interactive (this is her second time being a language assistant). My prof référente had told me that sometimes the English teachers hung out in the teachers' room during their 3:50 PM break, so after lunch I went looking for them. The problem is, though, I didn't know what they looked like, so I just stood around awkwardly, trying to gauge who looked friendly enough for me to approach and ask, "Excusez-moi, je cherche les profs d'anglais." I even logged onto a computer, opened a blank Word document, and pretended to try to print it, just to make myself look busy. Fortunately, just as I was about to throw in the towel and leave, a woman approached me and asked, "Are you Gabby?" I'm assuming my lost puppy demeanor is what tipped her off. As it turns out, she was the teacher I'll be working with on Wednesdays and Thursdays, which means my first ever class as a language assistant will be with her (since I start tomorrow, and today is Tuesday). She told me that the students will be studying Canada from now until December, and when I told her I'm from the United States and have only been to Canada twice, she said "Well the United States is close to Canada." Maybe in proximity, yes... I'm going to have to be very careful about staying unbiased and refraining from saying things like Canada is the better version of the US. I should probably even avoid mentioning that I want to move there in the future, because if they ask why, my honest answer is "Because I hate America but I can't move my goats across the ocean." So, best to just stay away from that altogether. At least Avril Lavigne is from Canada, and I'm obsessed with her (I even have a tattoo of her star logo), so I have that going for me.

Organizing my room this morning made me want to decorate it more. I had intended to pack pictures of my goats, but I left them at home, so I went to FNAC since I saw they had photo printing there. After uploading 90 goat pictures (and also a picture of me and my mom to put in a frame), I found out that you can only pay for prints using a carte prépayé, which I do not have. I didn't want to wander too far because my phone was connected to the machine and I didn't want anyone to steal it, so I waited for about 10 minutes until an employee passed by. I spent those 10 minutes rehearsing what I would say, but he cut me off right away and said he can page one of his colleagues to help. I stood around for another 10 minutes before remembering that Europeans are not as fast-paced as Americans, and that includes in customer service. I decided it wasn't worth the wait (and it will probably be cheaper for my mom to mail me the pictures I printed at home anyway, rather than print out 90 new copies), so I put back the picture frame and push pins I was going to buy and left the store. Patience is not my virtue.

I stopped at Carrefour City to pick up some bread and tomato soup so I can make grilled cheese later, and was super excited to hear "SPACE MAN" by Sam Ryder (the song that came in second place in the last Eurovision Song Contest, which I am obsessed with) playing. For a brief second I thought "Wow, this song even made it over to the US!" But then I remembered I was in France. We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto. 

I'm not excited to wake up at 8:00 AM tomorrow after sleeping in until at least 10:00 this past week, but I am excited to finally start the work I came here to do! I'll try to post an update on how it goes tomorrow.

Journal 10/3: First Week in Saint-Quentin

When I decided to start a blog of my TAPIF journey, I told myself that I would maintain up-to-date journal entries, maybe missing a day or two here and there but mostly posting about events within 48 hours.

That did not happen.

I make no promises about being more consistent going forward, but I also refuse to abandon the journal altogether, so for now I'm just going to list the highlights of each day instead of detailed chronicles like I intended. 

9/28
One of the other English assistants placed in Saint-Quentin reached out to me on WhatsApp and asked if I wanted to meet up and explore the town together. I invited my school's Chinese assistant (whom I will refer to as "Y" out of respect for her privacy) to accompany us, and we met up in front of La Basilique, since it's a huge building that's impossible to miss. We walked right past the girl (who I'll call "J") at first, and did a full loop all the way around the basilica before approaching her and asking if she was who we thought she was. We stopped into a pharmacy to look for hand soap for my and Y's apartment (we were unsuccessful in this endeavor), and then J asked if we could check out Sephora. I only wear makeup maybe twice a year, so there was nothing in that store for me, but who was I to tell her no? There was an adorable pop-up candy shop (and a carousel!) in the town center, and I couldn't decide between a waffle or a churro, so I bought both. (Which I instantly regretted, because the whipped cream-stuffed churro, pictured on the left, was insanely messy to eat and honestly didn't even taste that good, plus I was too full to also eat the waffle so I had to walk around the town carrying it. I suppose there are worse things to be stuck with than a waffle, though.)

After parting ways with J and Y, I embarked on a solo grocery trip. I've gone grocery shopping alone countless times back in the US, but doing it in a foreign country for the first time felt like an important milestone. I bought some essentials such as milk (side note: French milk bottles bear an uncanny resemblance to American bottles of bleach), salt, pepper, flour, cereal, juice, yogurt, ketchup, etc. My total came to exactly 30.10 €, if anyone cares to know. 

While browsing the yogurt section, an old woman approached me and asked me to do some math for her, because she didn't know if she had enough money for her groceries, she can't do math in her head, and she left her phone at home. Numbers are my weakness in all languages, so you can imagine how difficult this was for me, especially with the woman chatting in between giving me numbers. Instead of asking if I was American, she told me I was, which I thought was kind of funny because my Uber driver yesterday asked if I was from Germany when I told him French wasn't my first language. Maybe my Stockton University hoodie gave me away; other than that, I'm not sure what made this lady peg me so confidently as an American. She rambled about how brave I am to be an American living in France, and told me that she knows another American in Saint-Quentin named Andréa Renée, and asked if she could give her my phone number, I guess because Americans need to stick together or something like that. In retrospect, I definitely should not have given my phone number to a strange old lady in a Carrefour City, but she pushed a receipt and a pen into my hand and I was too startled to even consider writing down a fake number. My mom is convinced that she was a human trafficker and now my life is in danger, but I think she was just a friendly old lady trying to match-make some American friendships. Hopefully. I guess we'll see. Oh, and in the end, she did have enough money for her groceries, so that's good.

My school's Spanish assistant arrived from Mexico later that night; I'll call her "F" here. Also, I broke the apartment's washing machine. I have NO idea how I did it: it was tiny and old, yes, but I really didn't think I had over-stuffed it. Whatever I did, though, it would not open. All three of us language assistants tried to pry it open, to no avail. I even reached out to a German assistant who lived here previously, and the advice she gave me didn't work so she said it must just be stuck. I called the teacher that had picked me up from the train station, and she gave me the phone number of the maintenance guy. I still didn't have a French phone number, so F texted him for me, and he said he would come out the next day.

9/29
I reheated yesterday's waffle in the microwave for breakfast, and the results were... less than desirable. But I paid for it, so I ate it. My school's Spanish assistant asked me to accompany her grocery shopping, so I went with her to Carrefour City. Later that afternoon, all three of us met up with our school's Human Resources Secretary and signed some papers. She also gave us all attestations du logement and said she made us appointments to open bank accounts at Caisse D'Epargne bank for next week. I'm a little nervous that this is cutting it too close, since the date of the appointment is October 7th and the deadline to open a bank account is October 10th, but hopefully we get our RIB the same day. Afterwards, she took us on a tour of the town. I had already seen most of the places she took us during my explorations of the past couple of days, but her commentaries were super helpful, especially when she told us that there's a morning market in the square by the temporary carousel and candy shop every Saturday and Wednesday.

F and I took a little trip to FNAC, which I would describe as a combination of Barnes & Noble and Staples. She bought her Free Mobile sim card from a kiosk there. They were having a buy two, get one free sale for posters, so I bought two maps (one of France and one of the world) to hang up in our apartment's common room, and one of Thor: Love and Thunder to hang in my bedroom, mostly because it has Thor's goats on it. I also bought some push pins to hang them up with, and I thought the three of us could put pins on the world map to show where we come from. I'll also try and reach out to previous Henri Martin assistants that used to live here and find out where they came from so I can put pins up for them, too. I was very impressed by FNAC's manga collection; I had to remind myself that everything I buy here needs to fit in a suitcase to go back home, or else I would have bought the entire Haikyuu!! series in French. 

I ended the night by finishing the last couple episodes of an anime I've been keeping up with since it started airing back in April (Love All Play, if you're curious), and that really helped me feel at home.

9/30
I woke up to some absolutely devastating news. A couple of maintenance guys had indeed come to check on the washing machine, and the diagnosis was grave: I had broken it beyond repair, and it would never be opened again. Before I could ask them what they were going to do with it, they had already loaded the machine up and taken it away.... with my clothes still in it. My two favorite dresses and one of my favorite anime hoodies were in there!!! I ran to the Human Resources Secretary's office 30 minutes before she left for the weekend and explained the situation to her. She called the maintenance guys, and thank God she did, because they had no idea my clothes were still in there! I don't know where broken washing machines go in France, but I have a feeling that if I hadn't warned them, I never would have seen my clothes again. They promised to retrieve my clothes and return them to me. I wonder how they planned on getting them out; a power saw, perhaps? 

While I was relieved to learn that my clothes would not longer be held hostage, the stress from the morning's events still weighed on me heavily. Plus, I hadn't slept well and woke up in a foul mood to begin with. Back at home in New Jersey, a surefire way to cheer me up when I'm feeling down is to spend time with my goats, and although they're on the other side of the earth, I knew where I could find some other goats: Le Parc Animalier in Le Parc d'Isle.

Just walking to the park lifted my spirits considerably. The 30-minute walk in the autumn sunshine was absolutely refreshing, and it was awesome to see a little bit more of the town than I'd seen already.

I was so in awe of the beautiful park that I video called my mom to show it to her, completely forgetting that New Jersey is six hours behind and she was still at work. Oops! By the time I made it to Le Parc Sauvage, I was in a perfectly appropriate mood to appreciate the animals. I'd never been to a zoo by myself, but being alone didn't detract at all from how much I enjoyed seeing the lemurs, and otters, and warthogs, and monkeys, and all the other creatures on display. I couldn't believe how nice the zoo was, considering admission is free! I was confused, though, by the lack of goats. Where were they hiding them? Their "Don't feed the animals" sign had a picture of a goat on it, so I knew they had to be somewhere. Coincidentally, J was going for a run past the park while I was there, so she met up with me and I did another lap around the zoo, not by myself this time. I explained to her my goat predicament, and we walked all the way back to the entrance to find a map. As it turns out, I had taken the wrong exit, and the goats were on the opposite side of the park. Fortunately, J likes to exercise and I was willing to do anything to see some goats, so we didn't complain about going back the way we came. 

There are two separate goat enclosures: one with two bucks (whose horns are incredible) and a wether, and one that I think is all does. I made sure to pet every goat that would allow me to. Just hearing their bleats, and even smelling their stink, made me feel at home. I will definitely be taking more trips to Parc d'Isle whenever I need to destress.

While we were at the park, one of the girls ("N") in the Saint-Quentin group chat offered to meet up for dinner and/or drinks. Choosing a place was super hard, but eventually we settled on a creperie that N suggested called La Remise de Tantine. J and I stopped at J's apartment so she could get changed, and I met her roommate, whose name also begins with a Y so she'll be YV. The three of us walked to the creperie together. We arrived at 6:58 PM, but the restaurant didn't open until 7:00 PM on the dot, so we stood awkwardly outside the door for the longest two minutes ever. They took us right to a table upstairs as soon as they opened, though, and N joined us a few minutes later. I am so glad we decided on that place, because it was DELICIOUS. All of their crepes had human names (which we found endearing and a little hilarious), and I ordered "Picarde," which was a savory crepe containing ham, mushrooms, and Emmental cheese, as well as a virgin version of a normally alcoholic drink whose name I can't remember (but I know it had pineapple juice in it). Maybe it tasted better because I was extremely hungry at that point, but it was SO. GOOD. I can't wait to go back. We also got a kick out of the place's eclectic decor: in general, it was very fancy and refined, yet the walls were decorated with shelves of completely random items including a set of Spice Girls Barbie dolls and a huge stuffed Remy from Ratatouille. There was even a little plastic Rubble from Paw Patrol in a basket at the checkout counter, for some reason. 

None of us (except for N, who bought a beer) felt like drinking after our meal, but we still moved to a bar so we could sit at a table in the basement (which I promise is not as sketchy as it sounds) and get to know each other more. We were also interested in playing a round of darts (well, I know I was; I can't speak for the other girls), but unfortunately the dartboard was occupied, so we just went directly down to the basement. A fifth assistant, this one from Scotland, met up with us there, and we sat around just talking for at least an hour (probably. I actually never looked at the time). Eventually we went our separate ways and agreed to plan another, bigger meetup with even more of the Saint-Quentin assistants, probably next weekend. I was strongly craving Doritos for some reason, and miraculously I found a corner store that was still open and had Doritos! I ate the whole bag as soon as I got home. It was a little unnerving walking alone in a new city at night, but I just kept reminding myself that this is not America, and my chances of getting stabbed and/or SA'd are much lower. In fact, I barely passed any people at all on my way back.

10/1

I debated whether or not I would go to today's morning marché, but I needed to stop by an ATM to take out some euros anyway (PRO TIP that I learned from F: look up your American bank's European sister branch, because they won't charge you ATM fees to take out money! For Bank of America, it's BNP Paribas), so I decided I might as well check it out. At first I was completely underwhelmed, because it appeared to just be three or four tables selling toys and clothes. But I quickly realized I was just on the outskirts of the market. Once I turned the corner, the whole street was packed with pop-ups selling produce and more clothes. I had found a recipe for a vegetable soup I wanted to try making, so I decided to buy as many fresh ingredients as I could find. 

Now, coming into TAPIF, I was fairly confident in my French skills. I knew I was out of practice with speaking it (you can't have a conversation with the Duolingo owl, after all), but I've been learning it since seventh grade, so surely I must be pretty good, right? My trip to the market proved me wrong. First, I asked for one onion, and was given one kilo of onions. Then, I tried to ask for 1/4 of a kilo of spinach, but the vendor had absolutely no idea what I was saying, even when I typed out "1/4" on my phone. I ended up with 1.25 kilos of spinach. It was very humbling. I was, however, able to successfully purchase one vendor's entire stock of mushrooms (which isn't actually saying much, because they only had, like, 10 left), as well as a kilo of apples (and this time 1 kilo is the quantity that I actually wanted). Not exactly a resounding success, but far from a complete failure, too. I don't know if I'll go back next Saturday, but I certainly will be back. 

I also stopped by the pharmacy to pick up some multivitamins, since I'd only packed a week's worth (I like the gummies and I didn't want them to melt in my suitcase). I was completely unaware that even if you weren't picking up a prescription, you were supposed to take a ticket before going up to the cash register, so I was very embarrassed and slightly confused when the cashier told me "You didn't take a number." I was not expecting the pharmacy to operate like a deli counter. I shared this in one of the TAPIF WhatsApp groups, and everyone was just as confused as I was, because they all said they'd never had to take a ticket at a pharmacy or even heard of that happening. So I guess I was just lucky. (Side note: I was equally surprised to hear Weezer and Papa Roach playing in the pharmacy. It just doesn't seem like the type of facility to play alternative rock. It was a pleasant--and amusing--surprise, though.)

I was delighted to find that my the time I returned to the apartment, my imprisoned clothes had been liberated and returned to me safely. Soaking wet, but safe. My flatmates asked if I wanted to go with them to Aushopping (the biggest shopping center in the area), and although I didn't have anything I particularly needed or wanted to buy, I agreed to go along to see how the bus works. For some reason the Bus Pastel app wasn't available on my phone (it kept saying it was unavailable in my country, which is hilarious because I am in France and it's a French app), and you can't buy tickets on the bus, so I had to borrow Y's phone and purchase my ticket on there. She already bought a bus pass because she'll need it to get to one of her other schools, so we fortunately didn't need to scramble to scan her ticket, log out of her account, and log into my account when we got on the bus. 

The regular bus stop was closed due to the marché, but the bus stop they use on market days was very close by. I honestly didn't really pay attention to the ride, but apparently it lasted about 10 minutes. Aushopping is... BIG. And this is coming from an American. Auchan, which is the grocery store you see as soon as you walk into the mall, is sort of like a combination of BJ's and Walmart. It was certainly bigger than any grocery store I've ever been to in the US, and it was inside the shopping mall, so you can imagine how huge the mall itself was. I picked out some croissants at the bakery and very seriously considered some strawberry cakes, but refrained. I soon got separated from my flatmates, and one look around the store told me I was never going to find them. I was starting to get super hungry (and I have this fun little habit of fainting if I don't eat), so I decided to just buy the croissants and head to one of the mall's restaurants, then meet up with my flatmates when they were done with their grocery extravaganza. I chose a pizza place and had a very hard time picking something, because they had a ton of super delicious and unique options. In yet another bout of proving that my French is not as good as I thought, I pointed at one pizza and asked what was on it, but I guess it sounded like I was asking for that one, because she put it in the oven and rang me up. Fortunately it turned out to be very yummy, even though I still don't know exactly what was on it (pepperoni and mushrooms were at least two of the ingredients that I could identify, and there were no anchovies, which was my fear). I also got a Lipton Peach Tea, which was much less sweet than the Lipton Sweet Tea I was once addicted to at home. The two guys at the table next to me were speaking American English, and I considered starting a conversation with them, but ultimately decided I didn't have the energy.

While waiting for Y to finish up, F told me that she'd gotten a message from the Bursar asking her to ask me to meet with her (the Bursar) on Monday to discuss whether or not I would have to pay to replace the broken washing machine. My heart dropped down to my stomach when she told me that. She reassured me that she'd looked at washing machines in Auchan just now and we could get one for 200 euros, but that would still be 200 euros out of my pocket. I really, REALLY hoped it wouldn't come to that, especially after paying off my phone (I'll explain that in tomorrow's entry).

In better news, I also received a text from Sarah (it's too much effort to keep saying "the professor who picked me up from the train station," so yeah, her name is Sarah) saying that she and her daughter were going to see Don't Worry Darling at 4:30 that evening and I was welcome to join them if I was available. I had actually planned on watching that with one of my best friends for her birthday, but I ended up canceling because it right before my flight and I still had too much to do, so I was excited to have the opportunity to see it. I extended the invitation to my flatmates when I reunited with them, and while Y turned down the offer F said sure. Before we left, F asked if we could go to a sporting goods store called Decathlon, which looked a lot closer than it actually was. That walk sucked. I have even less interest in sports than I do in makeup, so while she shopped I called my mom to let her know I was going to the movies and tell her about my day. F couldn't find what she was looking for--roller skates, I think?--and ended up leaving with just a yoga mat (at least I'm pretty that's what it is). We made it back to the dorm at 4:00 PM, and it was a 15-minute walk to the movie theater, so the timing was perfect. F had thought I said 6:30 and not 4:30, so in the end she decided not to go. I handed my croissants to Y for safekeeping and walked to the theater myself. 

I got there before Sarah and her daughter, so I bought my ticket at the kiosk (just touchscreens, no box office) and ordered a small popcorn and an Apple Raspberry Oasis. Back when Regal Cinemas still sold Gold Peak iced tea, I would buy a raspberry iced tea every time I went to the movies, so apple raspberry juice was as close as I'd gotten in a while. This transaction went much more smoothly than my marché interactions, thankfully. When I told Sarah (who is from the United Kingdom) that I absolutely must have popcorn every time I go to the movies, she said that's very American of me, which, okay, fair. 

The movie was INCREDIBLE; 10x better than I expected it to be, honestly. Sarah offered to drive me home, and I got back to the apartment around 8:00 PM. I FaceTimed my mom to give her a video tour of the apartment, and she inspired me to hang up the Halloween LED lights I'd brought from home in the kitchen, to cover up the tinsel Christmas tree that the previous assistants had put on the wall. (I didn't want to dismantle the art of my predecessors, but I simply cannot abide by any Christmas displays in my home during spooky season.) 

After hanging up the video call, I got to work making the soup I'd bought the ingredients for. I listened to my Halloween playlist while I cooked, and was delighted to find that the kitchen was already stocked with all the tools I needed: a pot, a whisk, a cutting board, a knife. I was pretty certain I had purchased vegetable broth on one of my grocery store trips, but whatever I bought turned out to be... not vegetable broth. I still have no idea what it was. I read the ingredients, and it looked like the ingredients for vegetable broth, except it also had milk in it, which made ALL the difference in both texture and flavor. The good news was I hadn't been able to find half-and-half like the recipe required, so the "broth" having milk in it worked out fine. It tasted okay, but I was displeased to find that the only thing I could taste in the whole soup was that stuff. Next time I make something that asks for vegetable broth, I'll look much more carefully to make sure that's actually what I buy. Do they even have vegetable broth in France? 

10/2
So, the phone fiasco. Yeah, that was far from over. After doing some math (gross), I decided that although paying off my current phone and unlocking it from the carrier was the most expensive option upfront, it would save me money in the long-run. So, being the type of person that is constantly thinking no less than six months ahead, I decided to bite the bullet and drop $800 on the stupid thing. Unfortunately, I jumped the gun and submitted an unlock request before the payment was processed, so I was blocked from submitting another request for 48 hours. That had been at 10:00 PM on Thursday (September 29th--I forgot to mention that part of my day), so I wasn't able to unlock it until last night. With the movie, soup, and Halloween music, though, I had forgotten to submit the new request, so I did it first thing this morning. Thankfully, it was approved right away; FINALLY, something easy! Now I could go online to Free Mobile's website, purchase an eSIM, and be merrily on my way.

But the quickness of the unlock approval had given me a false sense of security, and I immediately ran into another big problem: while physical SIM cards are extremely simple to come by, in order to purchase an eSIM, you need a French bank account number, which I won't have until Friday at the earliest. This meant I would be stuck as a slave to AT&T's expensive international plan for at least another week. There was nothing I could do about it, though. I edited the home tour video I'd made for my students, watched one episode of anime, and took a quick trip to Vival (a smaller grocery store) to buy some Doritos, since my craving for them somehow still hadn't passed. I FaceTimed my mom again on my way there so she could see a little bit of the town. The cashier, an older Arabic guy who seemed to be the store's only employee (he was the cashier the last two times I shopped there, too), asked my name, but when I asked him for his, he said his English isn't that good and he prefers Arabic or French. So I asked him in French, and he still didn't tell me his name. Kinda weird. He also told me I'm his "beautiful English teacher," which would have been sweet except for the fact that the previous time I'd shopped there, he asked if I was free that afternoon. I may have dabbled in fantasizing about a whirlwind European romance, but the middle-aged dude at the slightly sketchy grocery store is definitely not what I had in mind. I'm pretty sure he's harmless, but if he starts getting real creepy, I'll either avoid going to that store or, if none of the other grocery stores are open and I desperately need something like milk, I'll just ask one of my flatmates to come with me. Oh, speaking of this guy: the first time I went to Vival, I told him I was American, and he said "Oh, like Mike Tyson!" which I think is absolutely hilarious. Out of the millions of famous Americans, Mike Tyson is who he associates with the country? Interesting choice. I told him my mom calls my dog Mike Tyson because she's missing a tooth, and he got a kick out of that. God, I hope he really is harmless, because Vival is so darn convenient. Why do men always have to ruin things?

10/3
The phone drama continues. My day started off on a sour note when I was notified that I had used up all of the hotspot data on my phone, and since the school's WiFi blocks everything except for YouTube and Gmail (I'm not kidding), this meant that I wouldn't be able to use my computer. I immediately got dressed and went to the Free Boutique to see if I could buy an eSIM from their kiosk without needing a French bank account. No dice; the eSIM option wasn't even available. So I trudged back to my apartment empty-handed, but first I stopped by the Bursar's office. She wasn't there, which meant I'd climbed the administrative building stairs for nothing. I hate exercising for nothing. On my way from there to my apartment, though, I was hit with a sudden epiphany: I still had the unactivated Airalo eSIM! Now that my phone was unlocked, I could just add that eSIM until I got a French bank account and could get a Free Mobile eSIM instead! I immediately pulled up the Airalo QR code and went to install it... only to receive a message saying my phone was still locked to the carrier. I didn't panic right away: I remembered seeing an email from AT&T with some sort of code I had to enter to unlock my phone. I pulled up that email and read the instructions on how and where to submit that code... Yeah, the only way to access the place where you input that code was to insert a non-AT&T sim card into the physical sim card slot. In my phone that does not have a physical sim card slot. AWESOME.

More pissed than panicked, I called AT&T customer service, only for it to say that the number cannot be reached. Now I'm even MORE pissed. I couldn't use my computer since I ran out of hotspot, so I had to pull up the AT&T website on my phone to chat with a live agent. But to chat with a live agent, I needed to log into my account, to which I didn't know the password. And the password reset link was sent to my mom's email address, to which I also do not know the password. Fortunately, my mom hadn't left for work just yet, so she was able to get the password reset. I explained the situation to an agent, who told me to type some long string of numbers and symbols into the phone's keypad. I think she just made it up, because nothing happened. She had also told me to turn my phone off and on again, which disconnected our chat. This prompted a call from AT&T to check on why the chat had disconnected abruptly (interesting that they can call me, but I can't call them anymore). I explained the situation to this new guy, who kept trying to explain how to remove my sim card. I kept explaining to him that my phone doesn't HAVE a physical sim card slot, that's why I'm in this position in the first place, and he calmly told me that all current Samsung phones have a physical sim card slot. Wait. WHAT?!?!? Lo and behold, there in the bottom left corner of my phone, was a hole so tiny and inconspicuous that I'd never even noticed it. He told me to get a paper clip (in my impatience I grabbed a push pin instead because those were on my desk while the paper clips were in another room) and pry it open. Yup: it was a bonafide sim card slot. Pardon my French (haha), but, are you fucking KIDDING me?!?!?! The woman that sold me my phone told me it ONLY took eSIMs. None of the agents my mom and I talked to back before I left for France challenged me when I told them my phone only took eSIMs. The lady I had just chatted with online didn't say anything about it either. But you're telling me the saleswoman LIED to me, and I DO have a physical sim card slot, meaning that I could have bought a Free Mobile sim card the second I arrived in France and saved myself  $70 worth of international AT&T fees? My god, I was FURIOUS. I still am! I thanked the guy for his help and practically RAN (and I do not run) back to Free. Within five minutes, I had a French phone number, complete with data and hotspot, for less than $35. I should have had that a WEEK ago!!! Ooh, it makes my blood boil just thinking about it. AT&T is now my sworn mortal enemy.

Oh, and it gets worse! They also neglected to tell me that once I inserted a new sim card, my American eSIM--along with the phone number I've had since I was 12 years old--would be deleted. I went to AT&T's website AGAIN and chatted with ANOTHER agent, who assured me that we could get my eSIM back. But I wasn't comforted for long, because he said in order to do that, I would have to buy a special QR code, and someone back in the US would have to go to an AT&T store and pick it up. After accusing AT&T of being greedy, deceptive liars, the man agreed to waive the fee for the QR code (which shouldn't have existed anyway; why would I have to pay money to get my own phone number back?! AT&T is basically holding my American number for ransom), but he said it still needs to be picked up in person. Even though QR codes are literally digital, it cannot be sent digitally. So now I have to ask my mom to go to an AT&T store and pick up this stupid code just so I can have access to my American phone number. 

To add insult to injury, I decided to be productive and pay the 200 euros to validate my visa, which needs to be done within 90 days of my arrival in France. I planned on paying for it with my new Travel Rewards credit card, since that would waive the international transaction fees and also score me lots of points that I can redeem for things like food and hotel rooms. But since the amount is so high, I needed a security code. Which was sent to my American phone number. Which AT&T is currently holding hostage. I could just wait until my mom gets the QR code and I retrieve my American number, but with how things have been going, there's no guarantee that that'll even work. I'm sure (okay, I hope) that it's something I can resolve within 90 days, but I just wanted to get it over with and checked off my list, so I paid for it with my regular debit card. I am not excited to find out how much the international transaction fees on a 200 euro purchase are. 

So that makes two impatience-driven irresponsible financial decisions in one week. According to my carefully calculated budget, I should be fine as long as I don't spend more than $1200 each month for the rest of TAPIF, but... Fingers crossed, I guess.

In better news, I saw a cat today and it let me pet it! It's the little wins.