Oh the Adventure!

Alright boys and girls, let us get into it!

1:06 am. Monday morning (Sunday night in the U.S. of A.)

I was wide awake. I had just posted my first two blog entries and was feeling good! Unfortunately, because I was excited, I couldn’t go to sleep. But as I am laying in my hotel room watching Night at the Museum 2 in French (with French subtitles of course) I realized that I didn’t set my alarm for the morning!! Oh no! I acted quickly. This was serious. I leapt out of bed and raced across the room to snatch up my phone. In reality I just slowly rolled over and grabbed it from the bedside stand, but anyways…I saw that when I set my alarm on my phone it said my alarm would go off in 18 hours. But that's weird, because it’s 1 am now and I set my alarm for 7 am the same morning. No fear. I changed the settings and all was well in the world. So around 4 am I drifted into a deep sleep peacefully knowing that my alarm was set for 7 am.

9:12 am

I woke up naturally. No alarm. “How strange” I thought, I went to bed so late I was sure that I would sleep until at least 7, not wake up before it. Oh well. I guess I’m just excited, might as well check Facebook. That is when I found out the horrible truth…I had gone through all that trouble of setting my alarm without actually setting it. It was already 9:12. I should have been awake and showered 2 hours ago. So why was this a big deal? Well, you see the dormitory that I was to live in opened at 8am and I wanted to be there by 8:05 so that I could move in, get situated then head to my student orientation at 10 am. That plan went out the window. I was packed and downstairs by 9:20. I asked the lady working the front desk to call as cab and I ate breakfast because I paid 7 euros for that thing and I was going to get my money’s worth!

Fun fact about that, getting my 7 dollars worth of breakfast was my main motivation for getting downstairs so fast.

The taxi picked me up around 9:30 and took me to the address I was given by the university. I arrived at what I thought was my new dorm and I am not going to lie to you, I was a little disappointed. It was pretty run down, the grass was overgrown and there were officers walking around giving tickets to people who randomly parked their rv’s on the dorm lawn overnight. But it was going to be okay because I was going to make the best of it. 

I entered the dorm off and spoke to the lady working the desk (which was a task let me tell ya). After some time we figured out that I was actually at the wrong dormitory. I called a new cab and he took me to my correct location... which was deserted. So at this point I have now spent wayyyy too much money on cabs within the last two days and I was completely confused about my surroundings and what my next step might be. (Just being real with you) I sat on a bench and thought about crying. By this time I had missed the beginning of orientation and had no idea where I was suppose to go. I saw a building with an open door and I walked over to see if I could find anyone there. I saw two maintenance men working on the front door and they both stopped what they were doing and looked at me. It was the most awkward, silent, non-intentional stare down ever. Finally I just turned around and walked the other way and from behind I could hear one of them saying “She’s lost” in French. Et il avait raison. I was lost. I walked back over to my bench and contemplated my next plan of attack. As I sat there thinking I saw three individuals who looked to me staff members walk into the building I had previously been in. The men were still working on the front door, and probably still thought I was crazy or stupid or both, but I was something else too: determined. So I marched on up through the doors, luggage and all, right past the two men who thought I was an idiot and found those three individuals and proceeded to explain my situation. After saying what I need to say, one of the ladies looked at me and said “You’re in the wrong building. You want the pink building. Over there.” (and she pointed where). Well. Shoot. So again I trekked across the harsh terrain of Limoges to my proper building.* 

Once there I got my room key and asked the lady about the student orientation. She had no idea what I was talking about and it didn’t help that I didn’t know the French word for orientation. But it was all okay! I was ecstatic that I had found my future place of living! I walked into my new room and admired the very new, very European style of dorm. But as I looked around I noticed something was missing: a bed. Then I looked up. And what I saw made my heart turn. It was a bunk bed. But not just any bunk bed. A bunk bed so high up that your nose almost touched the ceiling and there was no way you could turn over to your side while sleeping. Needless to say, I panicked. I tried to remove the mattress from the bunk and place it on the floor but there were side rail guards so that you wouldn’t roll out while sleeping and they were high enough to were the mattress wouldn’t budge. Drat. I decided that I’ll ask my mom to send me a inflatable mattress and until then I'll sleep on my clothes on the floor because there was no way I was going up there. But first things first, I need wifi so that I can tell my family I’m safe and ask my mom very lovingly to send me a mattress. I headed downstairs to ask the lady at the desk about wifi. Come to find out, there is no dorm-wide wifi. You have to buy an Ethernet cord for each individual room. She told me that she could have mine up and running by Wednesday at the earliest. Okay. Fine. I asked her if she had a map of the campus and if she could identify the international student office on that map. She did not have a campus map. But she did have a black and white map of the roads in the city. I’ll take it! Back in my dorm I found some student booklets and one of them had the addresses for all of the main faculty buildings. Awesome! The place I needed to be was 3 ½ miles away from where I currently was. I went back downstairs and ask the nice lady how to get there. She suggested I use the trains but since I had no idea how to do that or where to get off, I started walking.I At the main road I could have either gone left or right. I chose right, and it was right. (right as in direction, right as in correct...it's like 3 in the morning as I'm writing this and I think I'm funny)

12:56 pm

Still not there. I cannot find the street name that was given in the booklet on the map. But I found a mall. Great! I need to buy towels and a pillow! Neither are there.

1:08 pm

Found a towel store. It’s closed from 1-3. Dang it.

1:25

Found a bedding store. It’s closed Sunday and Monday. Dang it.

2:00.

Went to the tourist office to ask for a better map and better directions, I got both. Sweet.

2:07

I enter the international student office. They tell me to go to another office across the city. I resign to buying groceries for the day.

5:45ish

I finally get back to my dorm and it is glorious. I start unpacking and making the place look like home and then, the most beautiful thing in the world appears: Underneath my bed are instructions in French on how to raise and lower the bed mechanically. I press the button and the bed lowers to a much nicer, less claustrophobic inducing level and I thank Jesus. Seriously, I prayed right then and there. I was completely ready to give the ol’ bed a try but I knew I was going to hate every second of it. But I ended up not having too! Now the room is close to perfect.

I also met a fellow foreign student. His name is pronounced Bye but you spell it like Maybe and he is a 26 year old computer programming wiz from Senegal. We watched a Chuck Norris moive from the 80’s and ate authentic Senegalese cuisine. He helped me with my French and I helped him with his English and we are now the best of friends.

I realize it might sound as if I was complaining this whole time but I’m just telling you how it was! All in all it was a really eye opening, educating day. I know the city better now and have actually memorized some streets. I found a grocery shop closer to my dorm. And I learned a little bit about the French administration system. Again, like I said in my previous posts, everyone was incredibly friendly and helpful and patient and I am so thankful to each and every person that I encountered today!

If you ever visit Limoges, I highly suggest you get a city map from the tourism office. It is a lifesaver!

*the terrain of Limoges is actually quite lovely...I was just being dramatic for entertainment value

Things to do tomorrow:

Find my Institute and meet up with the orientation group

Buy a towel and a wash cloth

Buy a French SIM card

Buy a converter for my wall plug in

Find a shower curtain

Au revoir!

Candice