Brad Nguyen Photography

Still Waiting to Unpack

It’s five fifty-two and I’m awake again. Sometimes I think I get my insomia from my mother, whom I can hear often early in the morning, making a racket in the kitchen. But actually, it’s really my tendency to wake up early whenever I sleep somewhere new or strange.

I’m laying here in my fourth French home in about three weeks. We’re CouchSurfing again. The skylight and windows make me feel like I’m actually outside, camping. I’m listening to the soothing fall of the rain and the gentle roar of the wind.

This is my fourth Autumn abroad in three years, and it looks to be another wet one. I remember October to be a particularly wet month in Lyon, particularly unpleasant during morning marches through the city. I prefer to enjoy the rain from the inside of a house, or through my car window, while parked or asleep.

I’m thirsty. The process of digestion tends to dehydrate me. I don’t want to drink too much water yet because I don’t want to wake anyone up by going to the restroom. I’m also aching. My muscles are sore from carrying a fifty-pound suitcase up five flights of stairs yesterday morning, after dragging it on and off of a bus, subway, and in two directions on a pedestrian street.

Today is our Assistants’ orientation, technically our first day of work, however, I only have lunch lined up for tomorrow. I wonder what my job actually consists of. I hope it doesn’t involve disciplining rugrats.

I’m pretty sure that Nicole and I have secured an apartment in the sixth arrondisement of Lyon. Nicole is a little less convinced, as the agency has been giving us the run-around for the past couple of days. We have a couple more appointments to look at apartments this week.

It’s six past six and I heard an alarm go off. I guess it’s not too early after all.

A bientôt.

A week with Saraseb

We spent a week CouchSurfing with Sara, Seb, and Maya in the Point du Jour neighborhood of Lyon. It was Nicole’s first time spending the night with CouchSurfers and my fourth. They were incredibly warm and welcomed us like family. Maya, the one year old baby, was really cute and laughed all the time for no reason.

I made them Vietnamese food and Nicole made them Indian food. We even attended Maya’s one year birthday party. We were sad to leave but felt like a week was already pushing it. We then moved on to another CouchSurfer, Celine and Julien, for another couple of days.

Arriving in France, 2008

It’s hard to continue on the journey of writing after such a long hiatus. I’ve never been really great at keeping a journal, but I know the importance of such an excercise. It takes me out of the moment by examining it from a distance, but at the same time it lets me look at it, think about it, remember it.

Nicole and I have finally arrived in France. It’s hard to imagine that we’re finally beginning our journey of becoming English Assistants. Those who have known me for a while know that I have been talking about this and preparing for this for many years now. I had heard about this program from someone whose e-mail I had found written on the railing of the Eiffel Tower in 2003 on my first trip to Europe.

We are currently staying with Nicole’s cousin in Nanatere, a suburb of Paris not too far past La Defense. Aurelie has a two-year-old daughter who is half Senegalese and full of imaginary friends. After having spoken French for less than a year, her vocabulary is probably already greater than mine.

Tomorrow we are taking the RER into Paris and visiting Nicole’s old neighborhood near the Sorbonnne. Half a year before I was studying French in Lyon, she was doing it in Paris with (I’m sure) more intense classes.

Right now it is 6:30am in Paris and 9:00pm in California, a 9-hour time difference. I will be in France until May, enough time for anyone to scrape together a grand in debt and come visit me in Lyon. I’m looking forward to it.

Anna Painting