I'm trying to figure out a good way to edit the draft of an entry I started about a week and a half ago. Two Thursdays ago, on the last day before I finished teaching, I gave some lessons on Halloween. I had the students learn the words pumpkin, witch, skeleton, and monster, and then had them say "Trick or Treat," for which they were rewarded with candy. Sugar is always a good motivator. Today a little boy screamed "monster" at me as I left the room, which was very encouraging (there's a weird sentence).

My trips over break were limited to the area, due to lack of funds and a stubborn unwillingness on my part to plan ahead (I have a thing for spontaneity, I might have to let go of that a bit). I visited the Pont du Gard last Monday with Renae and Zoe. It was a very peaceful day; we crossed the Pont, appreciated the graffiti that had accumulated on its surface over the centuries, hiked around for a bit and enjoyed the various panoramic views, and picnicked below the arches. The river was shallow enough that I could walk out to the middle; apparently, though, the arches had to be built exceptionally high because the water can rise suddenly and violently. Afterwards we went to the museum, where we learned a lot about the water in Nimes during Roman times. The Pont was part of a 50 km canal (most of which was underground) running from a spring in Uzes to Nimes, and which carried about 200 million liters of water to Nimes daily (the museum used the metric system). This made Nimes the place to be; the homes of the well-to-do all had running water, and public baths and fountains abounded. Whose brilliant idea was it to destroy the Roman Empire again? Surely a little oppression must have been worth the advanced plumbing system. Apparently not.

Last Wednesday I went to Arles with Robyn and Zoe. Probably because of its proximity to the Rhone, Arles was also of great importance back when Provence was a a Roman province, and can boast (I think) an even more impressive collection of Roman monuments, including an amphitheater, a theater, and the Roman forum, which we saw. I was more excited, however, by the fact that Vincent van Gogh lived and painted there for a while, and I spent some time reading some of his letters to his brother from that time to prepare for the visit. We saw the cafe on which he had based Le Terrasse du café le soir. As far as I can tell from his letters, it was around the time of this painting that he first became interested in painting the night sky, which comes across in his description of the painting in a letter to his sister:

On the terrace, there are little figures of people drinking. A huge yellow lantern lights the terrace, the façade, the pavement, and even projects light over the cobblestones of the street, which takes on a violet-pink tinge. The gables of the houses on a street that leads away under the blue sky studded with stars are dark blue or violet, with a green tree. Now there’s a painting of night without black. With nothing but beautiful blue, violet and green, and in these surroundings the lighted square is coloured pale sulphur, lemon green. I enormously enjoy painting on the spot at night.

I was once informed that I should never end anything with a quote, so this is me, not ending with a quote.

I haven't updated this in a few days. I am starting to get used to life here, which still doesn't mean that I can ever find my way anywhere, but maybe that will come eventually. Maybe. Nimes is kind of an enormous labyrinth posing as a city. A brief review of what I have done in the past few days:
Friday: went to find a bike but was unsuccessful
Saturday: tried to go to the market in Uzes and was again unsuccessful--the bus was cancelled three times; went to The Fox to watch a Rugby match; attended a gods/goddesses themed party
Sunday: woke up early, went to mass, and went to join Z and S for a randonnee near Saussines. The hike led us around to see five capitelles (stone cabins) in various states of ruin/repair. These capitelles were not actually very old, and had probably been built by shepherds from about the 17th century and later, but apparently the construction technique dates back to prehistoric times.

After the hike I came back to Nimes, which was shut down for Sunday. I wandered around aimlessly for a while in a despairing search for tomato soup, and finally came back to the apartment, where I went to bed. On Monday I dragged a bicycle I found in the back of Madame Nurry's apartment (after asking her permission) down to where I had been told there was a bike repair shop. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the repair shop and had to drag the bike back up. Eventually I met up with some others for coffee at the cafe downstairs, and, in a last-ditch attempt to accomplish something before the end of the day, bought my 12-26 carte at the train station, which will hopefully benefit me at some point.

R and I spent Monday night roaming the streets looking for something to do. We finally stopped and got some crepes at the Crêperie La Flambée, which is located on one of my favorite streets in Nimes and which I have wanted to visit for some time. The crepes were delicious, and it was definitely better than spending the night sitting in and doing nothing.

On Tuesday I went to my school for the first time. I had to catch a bus there, which was of course late, but when I finally arrived, nobody was expecting me so it didn't really matter that much. I spent most of the day trying to figure out exactly what I was supposed to do, which hopefully will get resolved by the end of today. I am going back this afternoon and might actually get to do some observation today. Yesterday we had a big meeting where we went over some teaching ideas, which was helpful but also somewhat intimidating. I'm currently sitting in the apartment by myself--my roommates both had to go to work early today. I'm going to start getting ready for the day.

I've been keeping busy lately, which has been great. Yesterday I woke up at 6am and sat in bed reading for a while until it was time to go to our first meeting. All the primary student assistants met together at 9am, and we attended an exciting meeting where we learned all about the complexities of the French school system, filled out some paperwork, and talked a little bit about teaching. We were released at 12:00, and some of the other girls and I decided to go to the beach. I went to the mall and managed to get a swimsuit for under 5 euro, and we met at the train station at around 1:00, where we quickly bought our tickets.

Unfortunately, we then learned that the next train was not until 5:40, and that if we took it we would not be able to return home that night. Fortunately, we had bought 1 euro tickets (a euro each way, so 2 euro), so although we had wasted money, we hadn't wasted too much. We consoled ourselves with some ice cream and then went and sat in the Jardin de la Fontaine for a few hours, until we got hungry again and went back to my apartment for a dinner of pesto pasta. After that we went to the Irish pub (O'Flaherty's), where we met up with some other assistants for drinks. We resolved to make it to the beach the next day (today).

So this morning I left with two others for Grau-du-roi at 10:30am--two other girls missed the train, but were eventually able to make it. On the way we passed Aigues-Mortes, a walled city that we will definitely have to explore another day. We also saw flamingos, which I thought was very exciting. We spent the day soaking up what we have been told is the last of the summer warmth, bought some postcards, had coffees at a seaside cafe, and swam in the Mediterranean. I left at around 5pm with a girl who had a dinner planned with her host family, and we took the bus back. I learned later that we were fortunate to make it back; a train conductor was stabbed this morning, and train conductors throughout France are striking (http://www.nordeclair.fr/Actualite/Depeches/2011/10/06/greve-sncfc-gare-lille-flandre.shtml). The three other girls who stayed behind were stuck there for some time, and were not able to make it back until fairly late tonight as the buses are being flooded with the would-be train passengers.

For me, it was back to the apartment for some dinner, and then out again to the Fox Tavern. This feels like an eternal vacation.

I left the apartment at 11:00 this morning so I could wander around the city a bit before my appointment at the Inspection de Circonscription.I paid a visit to to the musée du vieux Nîmes--one room devoted to old methods of transportation, one room to bullfighting, three rooms to the history of denim, one enormous room to various kinds of pots, and two rooms to armoires. It was not an enormously popular museum. I also spent some time looking for postcards, but most of the Nîmes postcards were kind of ugly. There were some very beautiful postcards showing scenes from the Provence countryside, but I felt that sending them would be dishonest, because I have not yet seen any of the Provence countryside, except perhaps out the train window through a jet-lagged haze. I finally gave up wandering after an hour and a half, and got some quiche at a cafe across the street from the Inspection.

The meeting was a much more relaxed experience than I was expecting it to be; when I arrived, everyone was about to go on break, so I sat in a little outside terrace in the back with some of the women who worked there, and had coffee with them. Then I went inside with conseiller pedagogique and tried to figure out which bus I should take in order to get to my school (which is located well outside of Nîmes in a town called Milhaud). Afterwards she drove me to the school, where I spoke to the principal along with some other members of the administration and tried to work out my hours and responsibilities. I will be starting on Tuesday morning, taking the bus from Nîmes at about 8:20 in order to get there for 9:00. I did not get to meet the students today, or any of the English teachers I think, but I'll get to do that all in a nice big rush on Tuesday morning. Next week promises to be exciting.


The conseiller (I'm not putting names on here deliberately, trying to respect people who don't know I'm writing about them) drove me back to Avenue Jean-Jaurès and I took a long, winding way back to the apartment, stopping in les Halles to stare at all the home decor I still hesitate to buy. It's so exciting to have an apartment, and I want nothing more than to fill it with stuff, but I know I should save my money for traveling, rather than building myself a colorful nest that I will never want to leave. We did put a huge map of France up in the kitchen (free decoration). My room, though, is definitely starting to bore me. I think I might need to put some pictures up soon.

I spent most of the rest of the night sitting in the kitchen either talking on skype (with Danielle, which was awesome), or making/eating dinner. I went and read in bed for a bit, because the kitchen benches are not exactly comfortable, and then made my way back into the kitchen to update this and to search for a bike (I think I might have found one! but we'll see).

Tomorrow: meeting with all the primary school assistants!

The weekend is over, and everything is open, so today was the day to start doing things. I woke up early this morning and walked with Renae (one of my apartment-mates) to the bank and post office. We set up our French bank accounts, which was a long and boring process but not a very difficult one. We also mailed off our OFII forms...again, relatively simple. I spent most of the rest of the day around the apartment, but went food shopping late in the afternoon at Carrefour, where I managed to find some organic peanut butter. I made lentils and rice for dinner tonight, not very complicated, but the first dinner I have made here that wasn't a nutella sandwich or a bowl of oatmeal, so I felt very accomplished.

I definitely need to be more adventurous than I have been today, but I felt so accomplished after successfully opening a French bank account that it seemed acceptable to laze about a bit for the day. I will be more productive/exciting tomorrow.

I arrived in Nîmes by train last night at 7:30pm. I had gotten on the plane the night before at 9:30, and had been traveling for a total of 16 hours--not actually all that much, but I was still tired. I developed a deep and abiding hatred for my luggage, and the amount of time and energy I invested in carrying it on and off trains gave me a painful understanding of exactly what everyone had meant when they advised me to "pack light." I did not pack light. I paid the price.

That aside, the trip was not bad, just long and boring. When I finally got to Nîmes I took at taxi to the Place du Marché, and was dropped off more or less at the door of the apartment. I was greeted by my two roommates, and then was given dinner by the woman who owned the apartment.

This morning I woke up at 6:00am, unpacked, and went for a walk around the city. At first I managed to get myself pretty lost, and wandered through some narrow residential streets. Eventually I happened on some Roman monuments and found myself in the more touristic part of town. The walk felt surreal--I had traveled in a sort of semi-conscious daze, and suddenly woken up to find myself in a foreign country. The first street I walked down (technically an alley, I think) ended in les Arènes, a Roman amphitheater. Everyone speaks French, which is somehow shocking, even though it really shouldn't be. The buildings are old, the streets are cobbled, and it smells like Europe (which I think smells sort of like deep-fried soap). Later I went to purchase my cell phone and buy some groceries, and the apartment is slowly but surely starting to feel more like home.