Even with 24 years of experience at this same old routine, I managed to screw it up, but I'm only taking partial responsibility for this one. Mireille, the director of international affairs at Esarc Evolution, has been helping me through my enrollment process since April. We confirmed my starting date as November 12 but with no specifics on what time I should be there or to which one of the campus's buildings I should report. Normally, this would be an easy fix via email but Mireille was on vacation and completely incommunicado. Great. She was expecting me, though, so I sent an email anyway. I got up at 8am on Monday and checked for a response. Nothing. Having slept poorly with first day jitters, I laid back down for a minute, which somehow turned into two hours. Shit.
I checked my email again and she had responded. "I am in the office now. Come by between 10am and 1pm or between 2pm and 5:00pm to take your placement test. It will take at least two hours."
It was already after 10 and it was going to take me at least 30 minutes to walk to the school. I was still in pajamas and hadn't eaten breakfast. She didn't say what building to report to so I sent another email to ask but didn't have time to wait for a response. If I get there after 11 will she let me take the test? I didn't know I'd be taking another placement test. I didn't study! What if I get lost? How will I know where to go once I get there? I need to leave right now. Go go go.
On the bright side, the walk to the school is quite lovely. I walk by two of Bordeaux's premier wineries, with rows of grapevines and beautiful chateaux overlooking the property.
I was in a hurry, though, and didn't get to appreciate them much. Once I got to the campus, I had to figure out where to find this woman. I looked for a sign that said "Foreign kids enter here" but to no avail. I wandered around for a bit until I found a building labeled "Accueil": This is an all-encompassing word for "welcome," "start," "home," and "try here first if you don't know what you're doing." I asked the woman at the desk where I could find Mireille Lambert and busted out my acceptance letter, proving I really did belong there. This woman spoke slowly and clearly and I completely understood that I was to wait in that chair over there and Mireille would come up to get me shortly.
Mireille is pretty much exactly how I envisioned her: a petite older woman with short blonde hair and gold rimmed glasses. Having years of practice in dealing with non-French speakers, she was also extremely easy to understand. We went down to her office (which was in the first place I looked but I somehow missed the sign with her name on it in bold capital letters...) and I was ready to jump right in to whatever tasks I need to complete to get totally enrolled.
I was shocked by how many other students came through her door while I was trying to get my things taken care of. Don't these people see that I am in here, obviously in the middle of some important business? I was more shocked that she would stop whatever she and I were working on to deal with each of these interruptions. The American in me wanted her to say, "Hello, Pierre. Can you come by after lunch? As you can clearly see, I'm meeting with a new student right now and I want to give her my full attention." This is just not how it works in France, I guess. I had some paperwork to complete for my file and then it was time for the placement test. There were several listening sections, three writing tasks and a brief speaking topic. I couldn't help but chuckle to myself because the test was very similar to some of the ones I designed for my own foreign language students. Mireille graded it right there and determined that I was in the B2 level (intermediate advanced). Apparently, this is the highest level you can place into. Thank you, Louise, for teaching me all that French back at Ithaca!
After the test, I got a quick tour of the campus. It's a lot nicer than the pictures on the website made it out to be: Three instructional buildings, a computer lab, a cafeteria, a student center, several dorm buildings... It's like a regular university campus on a much smaller scale. I was also introduced to the two other Americans that go to the school. Friends! Ashley is from Florida and Hunter is from China but grew up in Boston. We chatted for a bit and I found out Hunter and I were going to be in the same class. Double friends!
I had a bunch of errands to run so I headed back to Auchan. I bought some cookware so I could finally make hot meals and decided to try my luck with their cell phone people. After more of the characteristically French free-for-all costumer service, I landed with a sales rep that spoke a decent amount of English and we managed to get me a phone and a plan even without all the stuff the other lady told me I would need. He even sold me my 31 euro phone for 1.01 euro. What a guy! The process for choosing a phone and getting a plan was much less complex than that of paying for the phone, and I had to visit two separate check out counters and sign away my life in triplicate but whatever. French phone means internet in my apartment and video chatting. Win.
Back at home, I had a delicious pasta with homemade tomato sauce for dinner and managed to squeeze out a few minutes of video chatting with the remaining battery on my computer. Even though it only briefly, I was so happy to see Jason's face. Technology is awesome. I also had two replies from jobs I had been investigating, asking if I was available to work certain hours. Score!
So to summarize, I aced placement test; made two new friends; got a phone, cookware, and internet; and got two potential job offers all in one day. LIKE A BOSS. Keep it up, Stich, and you just might pull this off.
Next time: The start of classes
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