Dans ma chambre

I finally woke up and decided to look around a bit. Here are some pictures of my room and the view from my window. I'll be posting a video tour of the house later. I was going to do it today, but Mathilde is home sick and I don't want to make too much noise. She needs some sleep.

This is the view from my window, looking off to the right. My directions are all messed up, but I think this is North. 

If the last picture was North, This one is West. The street slopes very steeply (say that 3 times fast), which will make for an excellent challenge walking (or biking) home from school every day. 

This is directly below my window. Our patio. Adorable. 

The "steps" down into the back garden. Railway ties. 

Looking back and down into the ravine behind the house. There were some men back there with a campfire lit. They were keeping points for some game I couldn't see. I love the little stone wall. 

My little room at the top of the stairs. It's an intensely old house, and Frédéric and Mathilde are renovating everything. My room is sparse, but soon I'll have a desk to work at. That's really all I need. 

My shelf and window. The smell of the pine in the shelf is incredibly comforting when I come in here. 

My bed. Apparently it used to belong to Frédéric's mom before she passed away. It's pretty comfy, but quite small. I rolled over last night and nearly fell off. I need to get used to sleeping in a twin bed again. It's also quite short. My toes hang off the end, but it's super warm. You can't really see the pillow, but it's like a body pillow, only smaller. We moved this into this room last night because this room has more sun than the one the bed was in. I feel bad that they moved it (they had to completely disassemble it to move it), but I'm glad they did. My room is very comfortable, and the view is incredible. 

My incredibly cute light and blue doorframe. The door is the same colour. 

The internet here is very touchy. I'm impressed that I've gotten as much use out of it as I have. There's a router downstairs, but it only serves to send a signal to a device that plugs into the wall, which has a cable that I plug into my laptop. So in a way it's wireless in the house, but I'm still stuck next to an outlet. I'll take a video tour later with my camera, and post it here when I can. 

Thanks for all your support and messages, everyone! The trip was rough and stressful, but it's great to know that you all care enough to make sure I got here safe. Thank you. 

À bientôt!

Things thus far

Mon dieu, what a trip.

A metric sh*t ton of snow fell in Lethbridge and Calgary the day I was supposed to leave, so I flew from Lethbridge to Calgary to avoid catastrophe on the highway.  After a teary farewell at the airport, and some mechanical issues, I was on my way. The plane was itty bitty (it sat 14 including the pilot and copilot), and the turbulence was terrible. I had taken half a Gravol and a full Tylenol, so I was high as a kite getting into Calgary. Thank goodness Angela came to meet me and hang out with me while I was waiting the 3 hours between flights! Love you, Ange.  :)

The weather delayed my flight from Calgary to London by an hour and a half as well. Thank goodness I had such a long layover in Heathrow. I still had a 3-hour wait, but it could have been worse.  As it was, I sat next to a woman from Romania who spoke no English, and hogged the armrest between us. She also poked me in the side with her tiny, sharp elbows while I was trying to sleep. I got about 3 hours of rest on a 9-hour flight.

My best friend in London. Thank God for Starbucks. 

London to Paris was lovely. 48 minutes in the air, zero turbulence, and no one sitting next to me. And a fabulous view through the window!

Paris!

I arrived in one piece in Paris, but I can’t say the same for my luggage. It was still in Heathrow when I landed. There are not words in any language to express my stress and frustration. The lady at the airport told me they’ll have it delivered to me when it arrives (later today), but I won’t get it till the day after tomorrow. Merde. Thank goodness I had the foresight to pack a change of clothing in my carry-on, but that’s about all I have. That, my identification documents, and my computer. The important stuff.

After all that stress, I hoped Prosper would still be waiting for me (I was waiting for over a half hour before I was done with the baggage claim ladies).  Nearly had a meltdown when I was the last person at the baggage claim, waiting for bags that didn’t show. But Prosper was there! And fantastically nice. As promised, he was wearing a hat and made me a sign:

I safely made it onto my train, and freaked out for 2 hours to Dijon. I refused to fall asleep lest I miss my stop.

De train, boss! De train! Also note the purse under the jacket to deter thieves.

I nodded off a couple times, but not for long. The inside of the train was pretty cool, but very bright. I couldn't see anything outside the window.

And I nearly missed my hosts at the train station! Frédéric was on the wrong side of the terminal. Pretty scary for a bit, but we found each other. And now I'm here, and exhausted. More adventures tomorrow. 

À bientôt!

Packing

This post is mostly to see if I can upload pictures, but it's also proof that I'm trying to get organized in advance.

Before:

After:

Please notice that the big suitcase is fully expanded to hold all the crap I think I need to pack. Unfortunately, my weight allowance is 51 pounds per checked bag, and that monster was 63.6!! So I need to take 2 bags. 

Attempt 2:

Much better. Hopefully. They're smaller than the first bag, and hopefully easier to manoeuvre. The carry-on remains the same. I refuse to repack 13 pounds of crap into my carry-on, so I'll have to make do with this set-up. I just have to keep in mind that, although I can pack 102 pounds of stuff between my 2 bags, I don't need to. 

I'm tuckered. It's been a rough week (yes, it's only Tuesday), and I need some sleep at some point.

Bonne nuit, et à bientôt!

Lasts and Firsts

Jason (my boyfriend) and I went out last night for drinks with some of our favourite people. "One last time before you go away," they said. Over the past few weeks I've heard a lot of that, and this week coming up is going to be full of lasts:

• last lunch out with my coworkers (also last sushi at the Lighthouse)
• last Spudnut day (pout)
• last night at home in my own bed
• last shifts at my 2 jobs
• last snuggles with Jason and Samson (our bunny)
• last Brownie meeting
• last coffees with friends
• last Sunday dinner with the family

But I need to realize that I WILL be back (if not for almost 5 months), and things will pick up right where I left them. That's the wonderful thing about friendships; you can kind of pause them over time and come back to where you left off. This new chapter of my life will be amazing and full of firsts!

• first day of speaking nothing but french
• first visit to a real café
• first trip to Paris (and many other wonderful places)
• first time cross-country skiing (in the Alps, glee!)
• first time meeting new friends
• first airplane ride all by myself (I feel like I should wear one of those tags around my neck: "If found, please call...")
• first train ride
• first camping trip abroad
• first day of school in a new university
• first encounters with foreign authorities (eep)

... and many other things I can't even imagine right now. Some of those first will be wonderful, and some will be terrifying, but all will make for wonderful stories that I can't wait to share. Only 6 sleeps left.

À bientôt!

A man named Prosper

I got an email from my host family last night. Frédéric and his wife Mathilde have generiously offered to share their home with me while I'm in Dijon. I first made contact with them a few months ago when I first decided to go to France. I'm involved with the Girl Guides of Canada, and I sent an email through International Scouts and Guides explaining my situation and asking if anyone wanted to lodge an international student for 4 1/2 months. Frédéric got back to me almost immediately! We've been chatting for a while through email, and I got the opportunity to call him a little while ago. He's in charge of a few Scout groups over there, so I get to volunteer and go camping quite a lot while I'm there. He has generously offered to arrange my trip from Paris to Dijon, as train tickets are apparently difficult to get over here.

Originally, he was going to mail me the ticket, but I bought my plane tickets fairly late (Boxing Day). So Frédéric sent me an email to let me know that he has a friend who lives just outside Paris and will give me my ticket when I land. His name is Prosper. He's from Cameroon, and is apparently quite large and black. I feel like a spy going to meet her contact in some far-off land. "Rendez-vous with Prosper at the aéroport. He will wear a red carnation in his lapel and will greet you with the code 'The albatross flies at midnight'. Your reply will be 'The jam is mouldy in the kitchen'." Ha. I'm taking this as a good omen, though. I get to meet Prosper as soon as I land. Maybe my trip will be prosperous too. Only time will tell.  I fly out in just under 2 weeks. I should get packing.

À bientôt!

23 sleeps!

Merde, do I ever have a lot to do!

Mom (strongly) suggested last weekend that I should start making lists for things to pack, things to buy, and things to do before I leave. So I did this afternoon. 2 double-sided looseleaf pages later, and there's a LOT more going on here than I had originally thought!

Done:
Draft for tuition purchased
Plane tickets purchased
Host family informed of flight dates
Student visa
... that is all.

To do:
Pack
Shop
Immunization (tetanus)
Travel insurance
Call credit /bank cards to notify that I'll be gone
Compile stuff for taxes (to be filed while I'm away)
More lists than I ever thought possible!

Yikes. I may be in over my head here. I'm a notorious procrastinator, so it's pretty good that I've gotten this far. I'm sure I'll still forget things, so suggestions are gratefully accepted.

In other news, I found out today that I get to go skiing the first weekend that I'm over there! In the freaking ALPS!!! Thank goodness Jason took me skiing last year at Castle, so I won't look like a total fool. Well, I still might. Photos to follow.

Thanks to everyone for their support and interest so far. I think it's really nice that so many of my friends, family, and co-wokers are going to be following me on my adventure! Thanks for taking time out of your busy days to check in on me. :)

That's it for today. À bientôt!