La vie lannionnaise

So, do I think I've settled in yet? A little. I've now completely unpacked (not that there was a lot to do...). I had a bit of a wobble emotionally yesterday, but to be honest that was expected. It's scary moving to a country where you mainly have to converse in your second language; at times it is very stressful, so little panics and 'I want to go home' moments are okay. I think I'll feel better when I start teaching. Not because I think it'll be easy teaching, hell no, but it'll give me a routine. Routine, this is something that I've been working on in the last year, and as soon as I don't have one, I tend to lose myself.

Anyway, so what have I done since my last post? Apart from getting sidetracked by various comics and articles (in both languages), I've not really done a lot. I didn't do anything in the day on Sunday because the town is completely shut down. In the evening, the landlords came round to meet me and my other colocs (housemates), not all of them were there though. They seem friendly enough; both the colocs and the landlords. Then, I tried to Skype my parents, but the connection at home was having none of it.

Monday, I went to the bank, first at just gone midday, but then was soon reminded that France shuts down for the lunch hour, or two. As the centre of the town was only 10 minutes from my house, I returned and tried again a few hours later. At first, when I got into the bank/post office rolled into one, the financial advisor, who I saw on Saturday, was nowhere to be seen. After waiting about 15 minutes, I asked somebody who went and found her. She seems very lovely and talks to me at a reasonable pace - not too slow as if to say she thinks I'm an idiot, but not full-flown French. She also talks really loudly, but I think that's just her in general. At the end of the meeting she said she hopes everything would be sorted by the beginning of next week, so I can give my details to the CAF and my employer.

As I left the bank, it started to rain, but I still continued to walk to the Carrefour city - probably a tad more expensive than the E.Leclerc, but I don't fancy walking 25~ minutes with food shopping and giant bottles of water. When I came out of the shop, it was raining a bit heavier [wow, this blog post must be SO interesting for you...] but I made it back to the house without any major issues. Win.

Yesterday, I went round the corner (literally) to the famous steps of this town, Les Escaliers de Brelevenez and took some photos. It was very pretty up there, but the thing that made me smile was when I saw a group of teenagers being made to run up the hills surrounding the church and steps. Good ol' PE, glad I don't have to do that anymore. It also made me wonder if I'd be teaching any of them. For those of you who are friends with me on Facebook, you can see the pictures there, if not, you'll just have to put up with the one in this post.

I haven't taken any photos of my room, as of yet, and I'm not sure if I will. Might take one at the end of the year. It's very plain and basic, but I can't moan. Considering I was petrified that this would be a scam, it has turned out alright. I have heard of people in the city of Rennes, who have been there for over a week and are still looking for accommodation. Not good.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow though. Thursday is market day here and apparently, from what I've read, the market goes on for over 9 hours and there are over 250 sellers. Definitely heading there tomorrow and I'm considering in the evening to go to that bar I've mentioned previously. Gutted that they've changed their hours (used to be open at 2pm!) and cut down on the days, but hey, I guess when I'm teaching I can't have a pina colada every day!

A bientôt! :)