ESC: First 24

Starting on the left: Claudio-Italy; Adèle-France, Laura-France, Kevin-Ghana

"When I see three objectives, three captains, three ships. I do not see coincidence, I see providence. I see purpose. I believe it our fate to be here. It is our destiny."

                                    - Morpheus, The Matrix Reloaded

My first thoughts of the city were how much it reminds me of Argentina. I guess Argentina is more European than I thought. All the car brands are the same; the houses look the same. There are less dogs though and I think things are even smaller here than in Argentina. What I think are sidewalks and pathways turn out to be streets and somehow the cars manage to fit between the lines like some sort of optical illusion. I think the United States really is one of a kind with how we do things.

Clint picked me up from the airport. He grew up in Utah and played college basketball. His wife, Lucie, is French and teaches the Institute class at the local church. Inspiration set our friendship on a good trajectory when he handed me a milk chocolate bar and some milk chocolate crackers as I got in his car (I'm guessing this inspiration was from Lucie though, not Clint). 

Petit écolier

Clint called my landlord for me since I don't have a phone plan yet, but that didn't really get me too far. Clint left and I was on my own. My lease is for a small private room with a private bathroom (I know, living in luxury) with seven other housemates. The first thing I wanted to do after 30hrs of travel was take a shower, but I didn't want to do that until I figured out how to lock the door to my room. The door to my room leads directly outside, so I spent ten minutes trying to figure out how to lock it. I still didn't have Wifi and was scared of locking myself in my room without anyone knowing I was there. This was probably the first lesson I learned back in Argentina; you have to learn the locks.

After settling in, my housemates knocked on my door and invited me to hangout. We got to know each other over a few games of Mario Party and they are super chill. Kevin, from Ghana, got here the same day and knows about as much French as me so we bonded quickly. Nonetheless, all of my housemates speak fluent English, so it wasn't hard getting to know them.

I went to bed around 11pm French time and woke up at noon. I had an appointment at 2pm with the director of a food bank where I want to volunteer. I also needed to go to a grocery store if I didn't want to live on granola bars for the rest of the week. I walked to the food bank and had my first conversation in French. It went as well as expected. The volunteer there told me the supervisor was busy and I needed to wait. I waited for an hour when the supervisor walked in the front door and told me to come back on Thursday. I talked with a Moroccan woman in English while I was waiting. Apparently, there are a lot of Moroccans here and they speak Darija which I believe to be a mix of Arabic and local Moroccan language. I guess I'll need to brush up on my Arabic.

While walking to the food bank, I noticed a supermarket, so I stopped by on the way home to pick up the essentials (I can't believe I forgot to pack a roll of toilet paper...). Everything was fine until checkout when I couldn't understand a thing the cashier said. I used my broken French to tell her what I needed, but I guess I wasn't answering her question. I wanted to buy a reusable bag and I guess it's free or something for the first one and she was trying to ask me if it was my first time buying at the store. I honestly didn't care if I paid for the bag.

In the evening I walked to the church building to go to the class taught by Lucie. I got to the front gate a few minutes early and saw another guy waiting. I said hi and he asked me what my name was. That was as far as we got before he told me he spoke English. His name is Noé and he told me he got back from a church mission in England a month ago. He also just moved to Clermont and is looking for work. When I told him I served a church mission in Argentina, he asked me if I knew someone that he met on his mission from Buenos Aires. Somehow, in the back of my mind, I recalled meeting someone before I left Argentina who was planning to go to England. It seemed crazy that a random guy standing by a gate in Clermont was telling me this, yet somehow, I knew it was the same person. Now maybe I'm taking this destiny thing too far and too literally, but I've found that acting on such coincidences makes life a lot more entertaining than trying to force a specific outcome. It's why we love connections so much. It's why we'll ask a stranger a hundred meaningless questions just to find one commonality.

The class turned out to be my best language practice of the day. Several people spoke English though and wanted to translate everything that was said, so I had to explain a few times that I won't learn French if they do that. They had good intentions though.

Rather than inching my sleep schedule to French time, I stayed up all night reading Dan Brown's, The Da Vinci Code. I started watching Dan Brown's tv adaption of Lost Symbols before I left Oregon, but it was never ending. I guess it's a lot easier to read about someone solving endless riddles than having to listen to them do it. Funnily enough, the format for his books is almost identical to that of a telenovela. Endless attempts to solve a problem that the viewer wants so desperately to see resolved. That problem being true love in telenovelas, not hidden treasure. I guess that's why Dan Brown and telenovela writers lose my attention after a while. I'm so focused on forward progress that I can't slow down and enjoy the journey.

Anyway, it's nearly 2am here. If I'm ever going to wake up for class next week, I better work towards a normal sleep schedule. Au revoir.