I do not think I would be functional or in the right place at all if it was not for Nick. He showed me around Montpellier my first day here and I did not think that it was going to be that beneficial but more for the sake of showing me the town.
So my second day in town started late since it was a late night out. We got out the door around 11 to get to where I am living by 11:45. Nick and his two brothers, John and Tom, drove me out to SupAgro. I went into the office with Nick and the lady who gave me my keys did not speak much English and I did not speak much French so Nick helped us through that since he is fluent in both. I was just thinking at that point "how the hell would I have done this without him?" I mean, we would have figured it out eventually but this way was easier. And with such important information I did not want to misunderstand anything. half an hour later or even more, I was in my room with my stuff and the boys were saying goodbye. I was very appreciative of them being patient with my lack of knowing anything about anything here. They waited around that whole half hour and helped carry my luggage up to my room. My luggage is very heavy so that was an extra bonus (my arms are sore from lugging it around European trains yesterday).
Woo Hoo! Finally have a place to call mine. Except I don't have internet access until Monday when I get my student card so I can't research anything or contact ANYONE since I also don't have a phone. And to get a phone I need a bank account….Holy pooper scooper, I thought I was going to cry from how frustrated I was knowing I had so little done. On top of that I forgot my charger at Nick's house with my ONE adapter but since I don't have a phone I couldn't tell him. So at that point I had to manage my laptop and phone's batteries. No useless Candy Crushing or Big Bang Theory. Yea so that hour or so was very stressful.
Things looked to be going down hill after Nick and his brothers left me. I asked some french student where I could find a bank to get an account and she told me where a bakery and grocery store was. She also had no idea where I could get internet without this student card I need to get. I decided to use the information I got and went to the boulangerie. Deciding to do this was probably the turn around point for my down hill day. I ordered a sandwich in French, and also asked the bakery lady if she knew where a bank was (in french). She pointed me down the street that I was already walking along so I kept going. A few minutes later I saw an aqueduct which I remembered seeing on my tour with Nick!!!! SCORE!! That meant if I followed the massive aqueduct I could find the town center which had to have a bank somewhere. I ended up in an area that Nick actually took me to and told me he hung out there often blah blah blah, but now I started to think back to my city tour. I decided I was going to attempt to go to O'Carolans, where Nick and all the people I met last night work. Nick gave me a hint to find it also which was look for the massive cathedral tower point and go in that direction. I spotted that point, and continued towards it. I passed another few buildings or so Nick had pointed out to me so I knew I was going in the right direction. Next thing I know I am at the pub, I knew the people working, and they have wifi there so it could not have worked out any better. One of the girls who was working, Leila, suggested some banks that I should use after I was looking around the internet a bit. It was getting close to 4 and I did not want to waste any time so I ran off to find the one she told me about, LCL. I found one rather quickly, they had an english speaking banker girl, and I opened a student account. I did not know I was going to get beneficial benefits but I now have renters insurance (which I needed), I get discounts at some stores, it is really cheap, and just so many other things that made my frown turn upside-down. I ran back over to the pub and thanked Leila for her help. It made me feel so much more prepared for everything, though there is still a lot to do.  |
| Sunset from my Window |
On my way back home I ran into the gang I had hung out with the night before so I was able to share my relief and thank all of them for being so nice and helpful. This sh*t is hard but I am managing.
Also, to help my French I bought some french magazines to read and refresh my vocabulary. I may only be able to talk about health and fashion, but at least it is something.
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