Paolo (grandson) helping with dinner!

Thomas (grandson)

As of Tuesday, I have officially been in France for two weeks. I would like to say for the record, it has poured rain every.single.day. No joke. Welcome to Brittany. That being said, I am so much more settled then I was last week, and I'm starting to get a hold of things. Last week was an absolute blur/disaster - attempting to send in immigration forms, getting my apartment keys, setting up my bank account and meeting all of the teachers from my school (who are all painfully nice and accommodating). I was so lucky because Sarah Marston, one of my best friend's from Bowdoin, is teaching in Brest (which is about two hours west of Rennes), so she came to visit me for the weekend, and we had an absolute blast! Friday we went to the movies and that night I took her to my favorite galette/crepe place, then we met up with another assistant for a drink. Saturday we went to the market, which never fails to amaze me, and we met up with her old host family from Toulouse, who recently moved to Paris, but the daughter, who is completely adorable and our age, is studying in Rennes. We had some more down time before we made an incredible dinner: chicken, with a goat cheese and fresh fig salad - incredible. We went out on Saturday - drinks and dancing - and had a wonderful lazy Sunday with homemade french toast!

Rennes v. Toulouse

She left Sunday night, and I went to the Rennes v. Toulouse soccer game, which Rennes won! Now are number one in the country - allez, allez! Monday was orientation for all of the assistants in Rennes. I was completely exhausted by the end of the day, but it was so nice to meet new people! I met some nice girls from the UK and two of the other assistants at my high school (one German and one Spanish), who couldn't have been nicer. On Tuesday night, there was a little soirée for the new assistants at my school in order for us to meet all the teachers, and each other. The headmaster made a really nice toast while introducing us, and the 5 of us were able to chat a bit and hopefully see each other this weekend as it is suppose to be beautiful Friday and Saturday (finally!).

mmm figs from the market!

Crepe chocolate pear at my favorite creperie

Yesterday (wednesday) I moved into my student housing! It was a really long day, but it feels good to know I'm able to unpack and not live out of a suitcase for the first time since I've been here. The residence has it's quirks, so if I'm not going to hesitate to look for other options, but I'm lucky to have somewhere very close to the school to call home! I also found out I will be teaching at two high schools, and visited the other one yesterday. It is called CMP, and it is for students who have had problems in regular high schools in the past, whether it is because of mental/psychological problems, or physical disabilities, or just troubled and unable to excel in a regular school. I met some of the students and they are really good at English, and super excited to meet an American. I will be having small conversation groups of 2, which will be great.

I still have so much to do and think about so I'm hoping next week (my first full week of work!) I will slip into some sort of routine. I do have to say that one of the teachers from my school has been so nice and driving me everywhere. People in France drive like crazy people and I miss being able to drive myself, so here are some other things about the good ole' US of A that I miss:

1. Ice (no ice sodas, cocktails, no ice trays ...)
2. To-go coffee
3. Driving
4. Wheat bread (sliced, delicious wheat bread, none of the wonder bread crap anymore ... although, why would you eat wheat bread when you can have baguettes all the time?)
5. Skim milk
6. Grilled meats (they rarely eat chicken, and most of the time is some sort of cold cut ham)
7. Mexican/Thai food, not a lot of options as you can imagine
8. Normal sized refrigerators (mainly mini-fridges here)
9. Spatula (for making eggs etc, they only have awkward, flat, wooden utensils that are not as helpful)

So that's a pretty good list consisting of mainly food, but you get the point. It looks like the sun is finally out today, so I'm off to school to say hello and then into town to purchase some necessities.

À bientôt!