Today is Sunday, October 2, 2011.
Matt and I arrived in France on Tuesday.
Good things:
*We have a place, although temporary, to stay! Matt's supervisor at school and his wife are graciously letting us stay with them until we find an appartment. Their house is beautiful with a garden and chickens. We have our own room to ourselves, and we can use their washer and dryer! We have learned more French from talking to them than we would have if we were staying our own.
*We have job offers! In addition to our work with the schools, we've found other work, which is great!
*I went for a walk today and found a random castle, which reminded me that France is awesome :)
Things that will improve:
*Discouragement
I don't know what I was thinking with this whole "I'm going to move to France and it will be delightful, and I won't be culture shocked at all" thing.
Trying to find an apartment in Paris is... impossible. First, there appear to be less apartments available than people who want an apartment. Second, no one seems to actually want to rent their apartment, because they never return messages. Third, even if they DID return our calls, it would be disastrous because of our french language skills. Hence the way in which I feel like Borat. Someone could show us an apartment, and we would respond by saying "Very nice! How much?"
Next, Paris is painfully beautiful. Everything is exactly how one imagines it, and every street corner has something charming about it. It calls out to me and says "Jen, come and be a part of my history!" But then we can't find an apartment and are even more far away from being a part of everything.
Also, head cheese? I am just not adventurous enough yet, I suppose.
We're starting our jobs in the schools tomorrow. Matt has an orientation, and I have a meeting with my supervisor. I think things will get much better in the next few weeks, once we start working, and have purpose, rather than just waiting for people to call us to come look at their apartments.
