a few more observations....and my wednesday

man purses
lace curtains
the french have a knack for decorating with pastel colored and textured wall paper
no toilet seats in public restrooms
no hot water or soap either....
so much dog shit on the sidewalks

I moved into my apartment on tuesday night finally, and spent the night listening to someone do doughnuts in the school parking lot. Wednesday was our "formation day" for the assistants so I woke up nice and early and took the train to lille. Once i finally got to lille, i realized that I didnt have any directions to the school, or any idea as to where it was. After standing for a while, i noticed some other girls looking just about as lost as i was, they were also assistants. so we got together and made our way to the school with some incomplete instructions. the school was a highschool that is getting remodeled. The very vague signs pointed us in one direction. when in reality we were supposed to be going the other direction! finally made our way to a hallway with three classrooms. and sat down in one. but it apparently mattered as to how many lycee assistants and how many college assistants were in each room. sooooo after some shuffling around, we started about an hour late. didnt get any useful information. and the 300+ assistants then walked more than thirty minutes to a university cafeteria where we stood in line for what seemed like forever to receive the worst lunch i ever had. mystery fish with mystery neon yellow sauce (the french and their mustard...) chicken with grapes? celeriac root and peas. they really did not do the celeriac root justice. cold, however cooked broccoli and cauliflower. weird yogurt. terrible. then.....300+ students walked back to another school into an auditorium that was like a sauna, started 1.5 hours late and sat through an hour and a half of information that everyone already knew. things that you learned when you applied to the program. useless information. finished late, rushed to the metro to get to the train station to buy a ticket back home.

what follows is i think proof of why i have terrible luck. we take the train from lille to dunkerque, it has a few stops in between and a layover at hazebrouk. we stop there, and stay stopped for a while. they transfer us to the train ahead of us because of some disturbance on the line ahead. get on the new train, which was a great improvement to our plastic seat/bus/train from the 70's. it was swanky. if a train could be that. then we get a text from one of the other assistants who is still in lille, stuck in the train station because up ahead on the line, between lille and dunkerque a train has caught fire. we hear gossip from other train riders that we will be stuck there for 2 hours....it was about 1 or less. got to dunkerque and ran to the bus in the downpour, and got on the wrong bus....corrected ourselves and finally made it to the birthday dinner of one of the assistants.

i always thought i would enjoy living alone, but now im starting to think otherwise. it might just be because my apartment is an empty shell at the moment, and my neighbors are the administrative staff, and i have no internet. but it could be a lot worse. i think im finally starting to be home sick, just a little bit. but only for specific things. like peanutbutter. and a sink that actually drains. and a washing machine.

also, got a new bike! pictures to come soon.