I finally have internet... though barely...

So it's been a week since I arrived in Gerardmer... and I finally have internet! But being as I have rotten luck with technology, my magic jack, skype, gmail calling, and mozilla firefox refuse to get along with said internet. Thankfully internet explorer decided to play nice, and at least I can now update you all on this blog as to what I have been doing, which without a cell phone and many friends has not been much. Hence the massive amount of photos I am uploading to this blog!

Let's start with the view:

And now my apartment:

<------- Kitchen! If you can call it that.

French food in said french kitchen!!!! (I did not eat all of this in one sitting, in fact a week later i still have half the cous cous in my fridge.)

My mouth cried when I finished eating this. So did my fingers, because as I did not realize that there was silverware hidden somewhere in my apartment, I ate it with my hands. Voila le mille feuille.

Hey guys, see those pink things in the bread? That's bacon.. yea the french are pretty cool like that.

View in the morning, when clouds decide to invade the city.

My bedroom: or what was my bedroom:



Yes there is a sink in my bedroom. Which is great because the real bathroom... well lets just say if the old 70's style dorm bathrooms in Watterson Towers had grandparents, my bathroom would have been grandma, and my "toilet" would have been grandpa... aka they're very old, and not at all attractive. Oh and one of them smells. Luckily I don't have to go in them much!

So you might be asking yourself. What happens to an american who is left alone at a school with no cell phone, no internet, and has no contact with the outside world. The answer: we go stark raving mad, and out of sheer spite and bordom we rearrange all of the furniture in our apartments, even if it is wayyyyy to heavy for us to lift. The result:

Yes this was difficult... and yes I had to crawl under things.

The end result was worth it however: look!

I didn't move the sink, as it was attached to the wall....

And then as if rearranging the entire bedroom wasn't enough, I moved the armoire holding all of my kitchen supplies and crap left behind from previous assistants out of the hideous grandma bathroom and into the common area/ kitchen eating room. And then I organized the inside. All of this starting at about 7 am on saturday. After that, I was too tired to be insane, and decided to relax a read a book, that I found inside the amoire containing my dishes.

The substitue math teacher that spends 2 nights a week here wondered how I did it all... especially because half the furniture is twice my height.

Things have gotten better since... I met the other high school assistant and her friend from Florida. I joined the town rowing club for a picknic on the beach. And I have started observing classes. By observe I mean the teachers make me stand in front of the classroom and let the students ask me whatever they like for a half hour. It's an adjustment, last week was harder than this week... although I have to say things are going by really quickly. I miss everyone at home very much. But I am really super excited for all the people that I am going to meet, and all the super cool places I will get to see soon. Hope everyone back home is doing well!!!!