Bienvenue à Moulins!

Ok everyone, it's me again...finally. It's been four days and things are actually going better than i expected them to! I sit now in my room in the Viltaïs foyer de jeunes travailleurs which is a residence for students and young workers (which is the translation of jeunes travailleurs). It took me a looong time to get here though, and there were some initial problems at the airport but everything went smoothly after that. First of all when I tried to check in at the airport in Atlanta, the man behind the counter told me I couldn't leave for France without a return flight, and my ticket was only a one-way. After arguing for a while, I explained to him that no one ever told me that I would need proof of return, and I asked him if the US was so scared that I wouldnt come back, and he said that it was actually France that wanted proof of this. Basicaly he told me I couldn't leave the airport without a ticket, and according to him the cheapest one he could find was $3600! I was like, "I don't have $3600 dude, but I am getting on that plane today!" Finally he asked a man at another counter and he told that guy "Oh I wouldn't worry about that...they won't care, the guy in passport control will probably be asleep!" And alas, he was right, they barely even glanced at my passport, they didn't even look at my visa! So anyway, 9 hours and a couple of drinks later I landed in Paris at 6:20am (inflight movie = X-Men the last stand, good call Delta...) So I had two hours in Paris, well the Charles de Gaulle airport is under massive renovation and construction, so i had to ride a bus like 30 minutes from my plane to the terminal, then walk probably a mile in the airport to the gate for my flight to Clermont-Ferrand, where we didnt get on the plane...we got on another bus which took me almost to the same spot where i left the first plane! anyway After the flight to Clermont, I took a taxi to the train station where i bought a ticket for Moulins that left like 3 minutes after i bought it, so i had to run to the train with all my heavy luggage, but I made it! I arrived in Moulins, and called my contact Madame Lecole, who came immediately to pick me up. I must say that though she never answered my emails, she is a very nice lady and very helpful, she took me to her house for a cup of coffee, then took me straight to the residence where i am currently living. Luckily they let me go straight to my room and sleep without bothering me with paperwork at the time. I did eat something in the cafeteria there first (cous cous) which serves awesome food! The next day we had steak! I was so tired and delirious that i could barely eat however. Then I slept 9 hours in my room from 2pm to 11pm... When i woke up, I couldn't sleep anymore so I walked downtown to check out the city for a couple of hourse. Unfortunately the residence is on the south side of moulins, it takes about 30-40 minutes to walk into town. But there is a commercial center not far south of me, you can see it on this pic i will post at the end on the main road south out of moulins, where there is a Carrefour (like a super wal-mart but probably bigger) and one thing really cool about carrefour, all the price tags are electric, so anytime a price changes they dont have to physically go change it...also there is a pretty big best-buy like store but I can't remember the name. I found a cool bar downtown called l'Apostrophe with a dance club called le Triptic right next door. I hung out for a while friday night at l'Apostrophe where these 40-something businessmen kept buying me drinks and telling me how much they love America, I couldn't believe it. One guy was like "I have so much respect for americans, y'all saved us back in '45" My jaw hit the floor, i never thought I would hear that. I told him not to thank me but my grandfather. But I got to talking a lot with the bartender, Jean-Marc for a while, and there was this HUGE ripped arabic guy, Sahid, in there too talking to the bartender, and i later found out he was the bouncer at the Triptic. When I went to leave l'Apostrophe, Jean-Marc was like "come walk with me" and he took me over there and told them I was English and to take care of me(i guess he didnt want to say I was american lol) but they let me in for free and everyone was talking to me which was cool. This town is very interesting because everyone seems to already know each other. For instance, Sahid greeted everyone coming into the Triptic en faisant la bise (the cheek kisses) and they all seem to know each other already, which i feel might make it difficult to meet people. Also, there weren't many people there my age, they were either younger high-school students, or like 30 or 40 somethings. I have never seen so many forty-year-olds throwing down in a dance club before! But anyway saturday I went shopping for stuff for my room at Carrefour, and then I walked back to the Apostrophe and Triptic that night, but i found this place, the Solex Cafe first, which was pretty cool, but mostly younger high-schoolers, not really my scene. I met a bunch of kids at the Solex, who wanted to go to the Triptic, so I walked there with them, and the bouncer was going to make them pay, and I was standing behind them all, and he waved me on in, it was awesome lol! I got invited to a little party/gathering for tomorrow (monday) night by the people who work at the Triptic. There is only the bouncer, and another guy Sébastian, and his girlfriend Catie is the bartender. Its a pretty small place. So far there isn't much else to say. I am still just trying to get settled and learn the city, it has been raining almost the whole time I have been here, which sucks. They tell me it rains a lot here so, blah. I'm ready for the cold so it will just snow instead. Earlier today I met Lizette, the english assistant for the high schools who is from El Paso, TX. She seemed nice but she has been here a week already and she seems to be struggling a bit. Tonight I went to have dinner with Madame Lecole, and I met her parents and her 12 year-old daughter and her dog, Zaza :) Dinner was great, and that brings me here! Sitting in front of my computer at 12:25am on a sunday night! Tomorrow I have to go to the Prefecture to start the process of getting my carte de longue séjour (long stay card) which will let me stay in france until the end of July, if I decide to stay a month after my contract ends. I also need to find a cell phone company that suits my needs though i might wait until I actually make some friends to pay for a phone, lol. I also have to find a bank that suits my needs and go ahead and open an account...which is gonna kill me because the exchange rate sucks so bad right now. 1 eur is almost $1.28... so when i put my money into the account i will only get 78 euro centimes per US dollar...blah... I will write again soon with more info. I'm enjoying my time here, but im still trying to get settled in, and I'm still a bit jet-lagged (décalage horaire). I also want to go take some pictures of the city, but I want to wait until a sunny day to do so!



You can click on this picture for the Full size version. I took this a little too late but I didn't even think to take a picture when I realized I was flying over Moulins! I have marked my Residence which is a pretty tall round tower. I will post a pic of it from the ground later.