Toto we're not in Paris anymore

Tuesday: I’m writing this blog from the housing my school provided (which I have fondly nicknamed “The Bomb Shelter”) without any knowledge of when I will actually be able to post this. My roommate, the German assistant, spoke with the phone company today & they said we should have a working phone, internet, & TV in 10-15 days… Welcome to Trévoux! I knew this town would be small… it’s smaller! But it’s also long, which makes getting to dare-I-call-it-downtown a bit of a hike. The Bomb Shelter is a 2-minute walk from the school & I can see it out my back window.

Speaking of which, I really like my school so far. As I predicted, on Monday, the bus driver dropped me off in front of the school (this is not a usual stop, but I was the only one on the bus the entire time), & I was wheeling all of my bags across the courtyard. Complete the scene with some snickering kids. I stopped & asked one of them where the office was & then continued to lug all of my stuff into the school. Everyone was really welcoming & quite surprised that I had shown up with all of my luggage. Apparently they all thought I was from the UK! Not sure where that came from as all of my paperwork & e-mails said USA, but… I get the feeling I’m not really a priority. Most of my questions are met with “I don’t knows,” “We’ll sees,” or "Maybe tomorrows" (which is not so welcome when it involves a working shower). But then again, my contact told me that my job was “no big deal.” Ah… the French.

A few visits to the tourism office have shown me that buses barely ever come here. And if they do, chances are they don’t make a return trip. So I’m going to have to plan out all of my excursions very carefully! It’s off to a bit of a rocky start, but that’s to be expected. I’ve just got to keep reminding myself that I’m in France!