aïe aïe aïe

So I am in France. The trip went about as smoothly as I expected...which is to say not at all. But I am here (even if my suitcases aren't yet) in a gaming café w/20 teenage guys & cheap internet.

Note: British Airways are v. nice, but that's about all they have going for them.

Amiens is a cool town, as far as I can tell. I've walked through a good bit of it, at least the downtown area. I met another vetran assistant today which was nice, because I'd forgotten how lonely it can be to travel to strange places on your own. Esp. at 3 in the morning when you have been trying to sleep since 10 pm & can't because of jetlag. & all that is even interesting on tv is 2 men scuba diving 1 at a time...it was bizzare... I was watching it on silent so as not to piss off neighbors @ 4 am... it must have gone something like this tho:

jean-jaqcues: voila, a crab!

henri: that is a very nice crab. Now I will dive down
to the ocean floor w/my silly silly flippers & spear small fish w/an
absurdly large fish-spear.

I don't know. Plus, I broke my alarm clock shortly after trying to turn on the backlight, (don't ask) and consequently slept through breakfast, as l'hotelier gravely informed me. But my french isn't sufficient for explaining "I broke my little alarm clock trying to turn on the little light" so I just said I had a grasse matinée (roughly: lazy morning) and just sounded like a ditz.

Everything here is hurry up and wait. I made an appt. to get a bank account, so this monday i should be able to get that and a cell phone. Note: I CAN RECIEVE INTERNATIONAL CALLS FOR FREE!!!! So if you have a phone card & are feeling kind, call me sometime (i will give you the number).

I also met w/the british-french lady & toured her house. I am in love w/the room (maybe not the 3 steep sets of stairs up to it, but it has an amazing view of the cathedral steeple over rooftops and is a quaint little garret... & also her daughter who is 5 and kept singing songs in english for me & demanding bisous (kisses). & alice made me a cup of earl gray w/milk. Hopefully I can move in Sunday night.

Well it has taken me forever to type this as the letters are all different on this keyboard, and I think I am going to check out an Irish pub for dinner. It's the first thing I saw out of the train station & it has my name written all over it. So I will post photos later. So much more to relate but this keyboard is killing me. à la prochaine, then...