Dinner and a movie becomes coffee and a wifi connection

29 September 2013

Well weekend number one has passed and I’ve learned a few things, been surprised by a few things, and remain somewhat (aka very) skeptical on Chalons.  In the end, however, it doesn’t really matter what I think of the town, I’m here until the beginning of May and I’d better start making the best of it.  On the 27^th I woke up, took my shower, ate an apple and a sesame stick cracker thing for breakfast, and went to the lingerie (the laundry room) to ask the femme de ménage (cleaning lady for the building) where I could get bath towels.  She explained it was quite a distance and that I should really take a bus.  Well I have somewhat of an aversion to buses and since I could see it on my map (the side that showed Chalons and all of the surrounding towns), I decided I could walk there.  After a solid 30 minute walk, I was at LeClerc, which is the French equivalent of Wal Mart.  Oh, and did I mention that LeClerc is in a commercial zone in the next town over?  That meant I left the town of Chalons en Champagne, walked through what I can only describe as suburbia, and into the outskirts of the next town over!  I actually reached a part of the walk when there were just no more sidewalks - it was actually the grass on the side of the road.  And it was hot.  And I was not impressed.  But I arrived safely and finally found towels.  I got my bath towels (in grey because the only bath towel they had left in white had a big stain on it) and then trudged back to Jean Talon (the high school_ and deposited my new purchase.

Typical house in my part of town - I live in the outskirts so there are fewer apartments and more houses

The French version of the McMansion on the way to LeClerc.  Unfortunately suburbanization is alive and well in France

I wiped the sweat off my brow, sat down, and decided now I would try to get this internet situation figured out.  So I went to talk to Virginie, who is the lady in charge of the Assistants living in the Internat, and she told me that there was already a scheduled meeting at 2pm with the tech guy to see what he could do.  That settled, I decided I would now walk to my high school to see if I could find it and introduce myself.  Well I found it and it is HUGE.  About a 22 minute walk from Lycée Jean Talon, on the other side of town, is Lycée Pierre Bayen, which takes up at LEAST an entire city block.  I’d never been quite that far, and I’m quickly learning that the further I go from Jean Talon, the better things are.  I went in and was quickly directed to the Secretariat (the Secretary’s Office) where I met “Antoinette et Nicolette, Nicolette et Antoinette, et c’est pour ça qu’on travaille bien ensemble.”  (That’s actually how they introduced themselves, sort of in a sing songy way, based on their names, saying that they worked well together because their names rhymed.)  Already things were looking up.  These people had a sense of humor!  Hot damn!  They quickly called in Monsieur le Proviseur (the principal), another very animated and very pleasant man.  (I don’t know what’s up at Jean Talon with the people but seriously: they could take lessons from the people at Bayen.)  Antoinette, or maybe it was Nicolette (I’m still not sure which is which) quickly took me over to show me off to some of the other staff, including the people who are in charge of the lunch money cards, where she got me a free lunch for the day in the teacher’s lunch room.  She rushed me to the cafeteria where I was placed into a special line cutting the students, and where I got my tray and my food.  Lunch that day was cous cous, fish with a sauce on top, apples, cheese, bread, dessert, and other things.  En plus, for every option I chose was at least one or two other options.  It was a veritable smorgasbord.  Then she took me into the teacher’s dining room where I met about a dozen teachers including one English teacher.  He was nice enough, but the others very all very pleasant, probably more so than the English teacher.  Anyway, after lunch I followed the English teacher who showed me where I deposited my dirty dishes (once again cutting an entire line of students) and then back to the Secretary’s office.  She wanted me to meet the Assistant Proviseur, but since I had a 2pm meeting at Jean Talon I had to rush to that instead, promising I’d be back later in the day.  

Well the 2pm meeting went like this: (all in French)  Me: I have no internet because the codes I received don’t work.  Him: Oh.  Me: So I’m wondering if perhaps you can see if you can do something.  Him: Okay.  Do you live at the Internat? Me: Yes (no shit, Sherlock).  Him: Okay (I follow him as we walk over).  Where is your computer?  Me: In this bag I’ve been carrying.  Him: Well what type of computer do you have?  Me: Apple, a MacBook Pro.  Him: Well that doesn’t work on our system.  Me: Oh? Him: Long explanation that I think can summed up into he doesn’t know why Apple computers don’t work on their system and he’s supposedly sent emails asking, but let me be the first to call BS on that lie.  Anyway, I’ll be without internet at the Internat for an indefinite period of time.  Great.

So I got back to my room, and I stopped in to see Sarah, the German assistant who is also working at Bayen with me to suggest that she comes to Bayen with me now to see if she can get some of her paperwork completed.  So she agrees it’s a good idea and she drives us over (YES!  I live and work with a person who has a car!).  She does her paperwork, we get a great tour by the Assistant Proviseur and we’re both very happy with our school and the ambiance there.  I’m not going to talk about the school too much now because I want to do a blog post about it later, but it’s great and I really like it.  Architecturally it’s beautiful, the people seem nice, and overall it seems like a good fit.  

Sarah drove back to Talon because she had a meeting here in the late afternoon and I walked over to one of the Brasseries (bars) to get a drink and get wifi so I could upload my blog postings (the two that were posted on the same day).  I then went to the market to buy some stuff for dinner, and headed back to Jean Talon.  Because it was Friday afternoon the students were out of the dorm (they leave for the weekend) making it just 4 assistants in an enormous building.  The four of us ate our dinner at Talon (2 Americans, an Italian, and a German) and then we walked back into town for a drink (and wifi).  

Drinking in the faculty lounge - just dinner à la française

On Saturday I went to Pierre Bayen again, this time with both Sarah, the German, and Monica, the Italian) because they wanted to give us paperwork about our trip to Reims for our orientation program.  Well apparently the school never received the paperwork they were expecting, so they copied the little bit Sarah had received and we all crossed our fingers that it would be enough to go by!  We met the lady from Bayen who is in charge of the Assistants (an female English teacher named Patricia) and got yet another tour of the school.  This time we all decided to look in our mailboxes and I found binders full of lesson plans from previous assistants.  SCORE!

Turning drinking games into English learning games?  I can do that!

  

After that I went for coffee and wifi before going back to Talon for an absolutely boring afternoon.  My only excitement was going back to the market to buy things to keep around for meals.  Then Clark, the other American, and I went to a bar near the train station for beers and wifi.  There we met up with Jeremy, who was an assistant last year in another town and is now working for a local university as an English lecturer (basically giving English lessons at a university level)  He came back to the Internat and we eventually went out for dinner (and wifi on our cellphones).  
On Sunday we went to the marché aux pouces (the flea market) looked at the crap for sale and then went to Jeremy’s house and made a brunch.  Jeremy lives in faculty housing a the local university, ENSAM, and looks out into a beautiful courtyard.  While we were eating the students came out in all sorts of costumes as some part of tradition between classes.  It was interesting to see, and comical.  We then went and got a coffee and I stayed longer for additional coffees (and wifi of course).  

Looking for some crap to buy?  Come to the marché aux pouces!

ENSAM courtyard

ENSAM students in their labcoats and costumes.  I have no idea what it all means, but it's tradition.

On my way home I was standing on a bridge watching a boat go into one of the locks (the moanal (the most exciting thing that happens in Chalons from what I can tell) when a man stopped and suddenly started telling me all about his life in Chalons.  It was interesting and I’d say we chatted for at least 20 minutes.  He was very talkative, never shut up, but gave a lot of insight into the town as he’d known it (his entire life - at least 75 years).  He talked about being evacuated when the Nazis were taking over France and when he tried to move to Paris to live and lasted a week.  He told me how great the town used to be when everybody lived in the centreville, and how the advent of suburbanization has ruined Chalons and the lifestyle he once enjoyed.  I really enjoyed talking to him just because it made me feel as though somebody in the town was curious about what an American was doing here and was interested in making sure that I knew a bit about the town.  

The canal in the middle of town

The chatty old man.  I think he's the "Uncle Earl" of Chalons.

He finally bid me farewell and I once again started walking home.  At the last minute I decided to stop at the bar across from the train station (it was closed) and rather than going inside as I had planned, I sat on the terrace for my final wifi session of the day.  A short while later Clark walked by and he decided he’d get some wifi, and within 10 minutes the girls walked by as well and decided to stop for wifi.  We sat for quite a while on the floor of the terrace just to use the wifi.  Most everybody stared at the four young adults sitting on the floor on their laptops, but the fact that we had contact with the outside world made us too happy to care.  Tonight we had a quiet night at the Internat - we ate our dinners and then chatted about our upcoming trip to Reims (tomorrow) and where we were from.  Of course we did the requisite comparison of driver’s licenses, passports, money, photos of home and so forth, and now it’s time for bed because I have a long list of things to accomplish tomorrow, the most important of which is keeping the internet fire burning.  Obviously, the lack of Wifi is really a problem and I’ve already done the math that shows that I will be spending MORE PER MONTH on coffee just for wifi access than on my living.  That’s absurd.  We’re talking about trying to get something worked out to maybe get our own Wifi system, or doing something.  But the status quo just isn’t going to work.  We can’t possibly plan class lessons without wifi, do vacation planning without wifi, keep in contact with our friends and family without wifi, and frankly, living in this day and age without internet access is ridiculous.  I really hope that things get squared away.  

In America it's dinner and movie.  In Chalons it's coffee and a wifi connection.