Written on the evening of September 30th
In which I: rent an apartment, cook on my gas stove, buy the card for my cell phone, and learn the French word for peanut butter.
I currently have keys to two French apartments! The one I'm living in now and the one I'm renting starting Monday. I went to look at an apartment today, thinking we (Sylviane, who is loaning me an apartment for now and me) would look at the apartment and then look at some others and then make a decision. But once I pronounced the apartment "bonne" (good) the paperwork started to fly.
The French (and the French government) love paperwork. I'm amazed any trees are still standing in France.
Sylviane had to fill out pages and pages of papers to be my guarantor (which I didn't even realize was necessary). I'm so grateful to her--she's making my life in France so much easier. She had to write whole paragraphs of information on one paper. I have a paper that says whether my apartment is at risk for floods, volcanos, tornados, earthquakes or avalanches. (Don't worry- the only box we had to check was floods because of how close Elbeuf is to the Seine…that's right, I live on the banks of the Seine!)
And this is only about half the paperwork necessary for the completion of the contract. Oh la la!
Of course I forgot all my important paperwork and didn't even bring enough cash for the deposit…I didn't realize I would be renting it already. i'm still a little worried that there might be something better out there, but I know I need someone who speaks French to apartment search with me and I can't drag Sylviane around for days. I wouldn't mind living in Rouen, the nearest big town, but the bus ride is over 30 minutes each way. I'll see.
Elbeuf is a nice town too, just smaller. I went exploring a little today until it started to rain and I discovered lots of hairdressers, shoe stores and rental agencies.
Also I bought a SIM card for my phone. It has four euros on it which equals about 8 minutes of talking in France…I think I can receive calls for free though…message me if you want my number.
Also I managed to cook chicken and pasta on my gas stove, improving on my usual meal of baguette and peanut butter. I tried to describe to Sylviane and her husband Alain what peanut butter is:
Sylviane: What are you eating? (in a concerned voice)
Me: Bread and…I don't know the word in French….buerre (butter) of peanuts?
Sylviane and Alain: (guessing possible French words) Cheese? Butter? Chocolate? Ham?
Eventually we decided to wait until we got back to the apartment and I just showed them. So here is your French word for the day: "beurre m de cacahuète"
Tomorrow, I have lots of other exciting adventures planned; I'll be doing more things that I might find boring in the States, but I think they're exotic here. Also, I meet my contact professor and the other assistants.
duh, of course boring american things would be exciting in France! it all has an accent! =0)
ReplyDeletealso, since you're living so close to the Seine, don't jump off any bridges... remember what i told you about that?!
so have they never had peanut butter before??? You need to inform them that peanut butter can be pretty much amazing on anything...especially when that "anything" has chocolate in it. Maybe you need to try it on crepes!! that might be spectacular!
ReplyDeleteAmerica is one of the few countries that actually eat peanut butter. Most people think it's gross...Some assistants have made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for their students, who very politely said "Thanks," then threw them away because they didn't like them. No wonder with the peanut butter I found in the store-it's a pale, pasty version of my favorite JIF.
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