I don't have the internet as of yet but I still want to keep people posted with what is happening in my French life so I am pre-writing my blogs which I will upload when I get to an internet cafe or wifi zone. Although conveniant for me it may mean you get hit with a load of posts to read at once (if you choose that is) - Soz - I blame the French :)
Oh my! What a day I have had. It has been proper mental like...and after checking my rota (which the lovely Hannah brought over for me) It is about to get a whole load more mental one would think.
So, I figured I would just sleep in this morning, get up when I get up, it was an absolute manic day yesterday, I have never driven so far and although the drive (both in the UK and France went well - I didn't get lost) it really took it out of me. Then the move, carrying all my stuff upstairs and unpacking, it was hard. My flat - wow - teenie tiny.
PICTURES WILL FOLLOW
I was speaking to Joe about it and he was saying I had to look on the positive - I have my own flat - completly my own space. I can do what I want with it and what not but still...when you lie in bed you stare at the kitchen (that doesn't have a cooker). Anyway, other people have made done with it, so can I.
So, I was all ready for getting a nice lie in, which obviously meant that I woke up at like 8am French time (7am England time). Joy. But after a lovely morning of mooching around and lazying about I decided it was time to finish unpacking, which I did - with slight storage issues, who would have thought that I would have SO much stuff. But everything got put away, and the flat is starting to look more homely and once I have gone through my photo's and stuff it will be banging (cue High Mead photo wall).
Everthing was going swimmingly, until I went for a shower and flooded my bathroom...need to practice showering in confined spaces! But that disaster was averted and I decided to venture out, for the first time, on my own. Well, after taking a massive detour (which brought me out at my flat) I finally made it into town. EVERYTHING SHUTS IN FRANCE FOR DINNER!!!! Between the hours of 12 and 4 most shops are shut! Well I knew about this but didn't believe it. Bloody Hell. I found myself a little supermarket and got the basics of living (which thankfully was open over the dinner period). Then I pottered around Calais trying to get my barings. And all of a sudden, like a vision, I saw the road signs for the tourist information centre. Well, I was off in a shot, I needed to find this place as I figured this would be the best place for me to start. If I could get a map of Calais then the town was my oyster. But alas, nothing is that simple. I completely missed the information centre, walked on for a good while more and got myself lost. It was at this precise moment that Joe called, and we chatted for a while as I wandered further off route. And it was only as he put Nat on to talk to me that I realised that I was lost, and I must apologise to Nat as I did rather rudely cut her off in an urgent need to speak to Joe as I got more and more flustered. In the end, as I stood in the street, silent tears dribbling down my cheeks, a homeless man approached babbling in French... I stood there, in a very English mannor, pointed at myself and loudly stated 'ANGLAIS'. The man looked at me, and like a saviour, said in broken English 'You ok madame'. I full on cried. I told the man my prediciment and he showed me to the information centre. The French are lovely.
Or are they?
The man in the information centre certainly wasn't, which I was astounded at as that was clearly his vocation in life? He gave me a map of Calais, which looked like it had been drawn by a two year old, to which he then squiggled all over...I mean come on, how am I meant to navigate my way around using that...Calais was starting to look more like a sea slug than an oyster. It was at this point that I decided to head back to the appartment, it was looking like France was going to be my friend so I was going to hide from her. And to aid this disapearing act, I was going to buy cheese and meat and bread and get fat doing so. Which I did.
As I wandered back to the flat with goodies in toe, I found a news agent, which for the grand total of three euros seventy I could purchase a map of Calais. As I stood there shaking my fist at the image i believed to be France, I purchased this map and started to realise that when you are in a foreign country and things go wrong they really go wrong and you feel so very low, but when things go right, you feel like you have achieved something so great, no matter how small a task.
I promptly sauntered home, had my cheese and meat (as a metaphorical two fingers at France) and planned my way to work tomorrow. That will be my next task. An extra bit of time will be required to get there I would think, just in case I get massively lost...which could happen.
Now it is an Italian tea of pasta, pesto and cheese followed by a couple of drinks in Town with Hannah.
Tonight I am mainly drinking La Posta Malbec - Majestic UK.
Hope and Safe x
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