Whew! Finally in Valenciennes... awake at 3:56 am... But it's great to be here. And it won't be necessary to haul suitcases around for two more days!
Getting here was quite a thing. It was funny hauling giant suitcases through tiny french doors. It was awful parting ways with Sarah. I now know the heartache of watching two train doors hiss closed right in front of your nose. And then not open when you push the button. Repeatedly. This happened once this morning. But it ended up alright. Because I missed that train, I got to take the next one and sit by a lady with an adorable maltese puppy named kiko :)
It's cold here. 14,5 C to be exact. Maybe in the 50s? People don't mess around with cold here. They are all wearing down jackets already.
Antoinette (the teacher responsible for me) and her husband Phillippe came to collect me at the train station. They are so wonderfully kind! They captured my heart with friendly smiles and Leonidas chocolates. We had lunch at their house, and then left my bags at a place I can stay until Tuesday (some sort of housing for young people?). She sent me with some food to eat tomorrow (everything's closed here on Sunday), but only essential things (bread, milk, etc) because I'll be moving so soon. One essential thing? Two different kinds of cheese-- as if they couldn't fathom a day without cheese. One of them was unpastureized. As Phillippe said "This is not legal in the United States, but as you see...we are still living."
By the way, I just got to video chat with my family on skype. Fantastic!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment