Visit to Dieppe and the English Channel

On Saturday, yesterday, one of the English teachers, Sonia, took me to her house for dinner with her family.  Her husband is an English teacher at another nearby high school, so he brought his American assistant to lunch as well.  Their house is out in the middle of the country in a pretty farming area with lots of cows.  To get there, we had to drive on roads that were nearly less than one lane wide...slightly terrifying, especially at faster speeds!  They have a very pretty house there, and two children.

After lunch, we all, except for their son, hopped in the car and took a little drive over to the costal town of Dieppe.  This is my first view of the English Channel. I'm so happy it was blue with the sailing boats.

When we got there, we parked our car at the top of a hill so that we had the full view of the shore.

This is the chateau at Dieppe.  Since I couldn't pick my favorite picture, I will just post all three. Only in Europe can you mention "the castle" to someone and receive the reply, "which one?" 

Crossing the bridge, to walk through the castle. 

This is the other American assistant that teachers at the husband's school. Emily is really sweet. 

This is the actual beach.  It was rather hard to walk on since it's very stony and there's no sand whatsoever. 

Here I am with Sonia and her family on the beach. 

There seemed to be some sort of a sports complex right next to the beaches that included this swimming pool.  You could just stand there and watch people do laps. 

This very ornate chapel is connected to the biggest church here in Dieppe. 

We saw this on our way walking back to the car. It's an old, preserved sign for a person who carves ivory.  Happily that does not go on anymore, but it's striking to see such a sign now. 

So that was our day in Dieppe! Next edition will be a visit to the forest to see a private artist's show and their atelier. 

Shopping and dinner in Rouen with Carine

After school was over yesterday afternoon, Carine, one of the English teachers, very nicely invited me to spend the day with her shopping and exploring Rouen.  She had the day off since her children were visiting other families, so we had some nice girl time! 

On the way to Rouen, we passed this impressive bridge. I've really never seen anything like it!

Remember the picture that I took of the great big clock on the arch in Rouen?  Well this is the underside of that arch. I had never looked up at it before, but this time passing underneath I was amazed to glimpse this intricate detail.  I'm not sure what the text says, but perhaps someone can translate?

This is another picture of the Palais de Justice.  I don't think I posted one before? Anyway, it looks like every other gothic building in Rouen, but it's pretty all the same!

I believe this was on the Cathedral...I guess even little cherubs have to take a leak sometimes...

This is the entrance to a building that was historically used to treat people with leprosy.  Now, there are obviously no more lepers, but it is used for poetry readings and other such artistic endeavors.

Inside it is just one big courtyard with lots of living space around it for the lepers.  It was made this way so that the patients could get outside, but not endanger all the healthy people in the street.

The white sheet tacked up to the side of the building is an advertisement for one of the poetry readings.

All of the walls were covered in skulls and crossbones...as if it weren't morbid enough here with the dying lepers and all.  Also, there was a dead, dried out cat in one of the windows.  There was a sign next to it, but it didn't explain the shriveled cat. So, I really have no idea why it was there, but maybe they just wanted to make the death theme more prominent...

Now this building looks very similar to the other typical "Normandy" buildings with the crisscross wood beams, but this one is slightly different.  The wood has a regular hatched pattern and in-between each wood beam there was an individual carving of a face. It must have belonged to someone rich.

Ah I just wanted to go in and play all the violins! All of the luthier shops here have big windows that let you look right in on the workers.

And I am in France, so I must post an obligatory photo from a bande dessinée shop. 

This is another view of the Rouen Cathedral.  Unfortunately I can't take a picture of the front because it is being cleaned right now. Hopefully all the scaffolding will be gone before I leave France because I'd really love to see it.

We also passed by the tower where Joan of Arc was held.  It's just mind blowing to me that when I'm in France I can actually go to a place where someone like her has been.  There's so much less tangible history in the US that it makes me especially amazed to visit places like this.  It's funny that this tower sits by itself in centre ville Rouen.

Carine showed me the building where her dentist works...apparently it is over one of the places in Rouen that Joan of Arc was sent.  My dentist doesn't have nearly as cool of a building as that. ;)

And finally, here is a picture of Carine and me.  This is when we stopped to get a drink in Rouen before our dinner.  Then we went home and watched a number of French films on TV. I think I'm finally getting this French thing down, since I can understand the movies!
Then, I stayed over at her house (she lives in a beautiful little country town) and came back this morning.

Today, was a trip to Dieppe with Sonia, another English teacher...but that can be in another post.

Look at my cool new apartment-mate!

The girl that I am living with, Mariel, arrived this week and she and I took a walk down to the bank together this morning. Here we are by the river in Barentin! When we walk around together she helps me learn Spanish words. I promise I'll be a pro at speaking Spanish when I come home. :) It's a lot of fun, because she can help me with Spanish and I can help her with English.

I think this building on the way to centre ville Barentin is really cute! They were pretty gutsy, painting their doors that way. Especially, considering the fact that all the other doors on that street and very neutral colors! 

This is some artwork done by one of the students here at the high school. It's quite dramatic...the kids here seem to like 3D type work. 

The artwork that I just showed you is in the main entrance of the school. This is where many of the students hang out in between classes.  At the far end you can see some drawings that other students have done. 

Close by to the main entrance is the teacher's lounge, pictured below.  That is where I have a little mailbox, (on the right) and where I spend time working on projects. It's also a nice place to go right now as I'm settling in, to hang out and start learning everyone's names. 

Did I mention that I have my own elevator? Well, to be perfectly honest, it's not my own, but practically nobody else uses it, so I like to call it my elevator. :) The cleaning ladies use it, but nobody else.  It sure beats running up to the 5th floor when you're in a hurry!

And then this is pretty random...but I was slightly shocked and horrified to find "zizi" shaped candies in the kids section of the gift shop in Barentin.  There was actually quite a selection of zizi-themed items in with all the kid's toys, but I've spared you having to look at them, by only taking one picture...

Visiting the middle school

Today I spent some more time with the spanish assistant who just moved in yesterday.  She comes from Mexico and is really the sweetest girl around.  I've enjoyed spending time with her and showing her around a bit here in Barentin.  She's also taught me a few words in Spanish! I'm hoping to speak Spanish really well by the time I get back to the states. ;) That would make me very happy.

I ran back and forth a little bit between the highschool and the middle school since I will be sharing my time with them.  I'm supposed to work 9 hours here at the highschool and only 3 hours at the middle school. (Which made my directing teacher at the middle school sad.)  Anyway, I've been coordinating with them to figure out what my schedule and my hours will be.  Until then, I'll just be doing rotations through classes observing how things are run here.  On Monday afternoon I'll be at the middle school to observe four different English classes.

Then, we have the first day meeting in Rouen of all the assistants in the region.  That is on October 1st.  At this meeting, we will be given a little more help with the paperwork involved in moving here. It should be a good day, because we can finally sign our work papers and apply for an advance on our salaries.

Tomorrow, I'll finish talking to my director about my work schedule. Then, I'll go to the bank with the Spanish assistant to help her set up an account and show her around Barentin.  In the same place as the bank, there is the city hall and the boulangerie, which she wants to see.

On Saturday, one of the English teachers has invited me to her house for lunch and to see Dieppe, which is a costal town! I'm excited for that since she is very nice and I'll get to meet her family and another English assistant from the US.

Opening a bank account and walks around Barentin

Yesterday I went downton to open my first ever French bank account.  That was somewhat of a fiasco, which I will talk about later, but first here are some pictures of Barentin that I haven’t shown you yet.

This is the running trail that starts quite close to the high school where I am living. I’m not entirely sure how far it goes, but I believe it goes all the way across Barentin, which is at least a few miles.  It’s very shady, level and nicely maintained, so I’m excited to start using it.  Since I’ve gotten here, I’ve been all messed up with my sleep schedule and my meal schedule, but now that I’m getting used to the new time-zone I’m excited to put running back into my routine.

You’ve probably had quite enough with the “city hall pictures," but I do feel obliged to post one of Barentin. It’s a nice focal point for “centre ville” since it’s on one side of a big square in the middle of the town.

In the middle of that square is this fountain and strange statue.  It’s a little awkward, and I’m not sure what it’s about, but I’m sure there’s some hidden meaning…I think it's the "ow I stubbed my toe statue." 

And then there’s this slightly awkward statue as well.  Honestly, I think most statues are pretty awkward and funny…and Barentin seems to have a ton of statues everywhere! So I’ve got a lot of statues to enjoy this year. It’s pretty cool here because there is literally a new statue everywhere you turn.

…and sometimes there are random old arches in the middle of nowhere. Pretty fancy entrance to your housing development, am I right?

It seems like everywhere you go in this town you cross the same little river over and over.  I kind of like it because they put flowers on all of the bridges and it makes it fun to see the same waterway all the time in different places.

Okay well those are all of my pictures, but there’s also the story of my bank account.  It was actually easy to open the account since all they needed was my passport and other information stating that I have housing and employment, but towards the end of the short process the account kept denying them the ability to fully open it.  The nice woman who was helping me seemed fully perplexed and she called two different people for help and finally had someone come in to look at what she was doing, just to make sure she hadn’t forgotten something.

Finally, they realized that there was a hold on the account because there is a law in the US that Americans can’t open foreign bank accounts without notifying the IRS!  Then a W-9 form (Something that verifies your address and social security number for banks in other countries) popped up on the screen and they were even more confused.  “But it’s in English! What do we do with this??” Anyway, it wasn’t too complex once we had figured out what the problem was, but I was surprised all the same. You’d think I was trying to immigrate from communist China or something…Oh no! It’s just the US, land of the free!

A little walk around Pavilly

So today after I got my paperwork done to open a bank account tomorrow, I went on a walk over to Pavilly to buy my groceries. It's the next little town over from Barentin and since I'm on the outskirts of Barentin, it's easiest to just walk to the Carrefour in Pavilly than to go to the one in my town.

Apparently I should be watching out for a mean dog when I walk that route!

And there's the little sign that welcomes me to Pavilly!

In France it seems that sometimes your lane just ends and turns into parking...sounds a little bit like Pittsburgh!

And here's where all my groceries come from. Unfortunately I didn't realize that they take off two hours in the middle of the day, so I couldn't buy my food right away, but I did get to take a walk around the town.

I found soy-milk and a bunch of other good food that was actually pretty inexpensive!

Pavilly has three flowers (remember from the other post?) while Barentin has only two. I could see why! They know how to grow flowers in this town. 

Here is the town hall of Pavilly. It's quite pretty, but I wish I hadn't caught it at such an awkward angle! 

After walking through Pavilly, I ended up on the outskirts where the town suddenly disappeared and all that was left was a huge green meadow. Unfortunately that green meadow was guarded by an impressive wall and gate (that was left temptingly open).  I didn't go in though, since there was an unpleasant looking sign that warned against trespassing.  It really looked idyllic. 

Here's more of the wall...

And this was hiding behind the wall...

...as well as this awesome castle-type thing.