rouen at last

So I made it! I arrived in Charles de Gaulle airport around 3 and was picked up as promised by a shuttle that took me to my apartment in Rouen. The trip took longer than I expected (about 2 hrs) and I was greeted by Julien Pacheaux (my contact from the school). Good thing he was there. I live on the second floor and there’s no elevator.

Was introduced to the lady in charge of the residence (I think her name is Beatrice) and she gave me a quick tutorial of the place. Her English is pretty good and she’s really nice. So nice in fact that when I went downstairs to talk to her she decided that the three guys going to the nearby grocery store would take me with them. I needed toilet paper so I went.

The guys were nice but I don’t think they knew what to do with me. Their English was ok and I was way too shy and tired to speak any French so the trip was a little awkward. Highlights include them asking me if there was a word for a beautiful man and if I knew the show One Tree Hill. Oh and they also asked me what the English word for Man who likes man. The only French I used was to ask them their names. They gave them to me but the names were too French for me to be able to retain them.

Actually the encounter wasn’t very different from interactions I have with the Japanese. Maybe exploiting language expertise and pop culture name dropping are universal cultural bonding techniques. Despite the inability to communicate I hope to see them again. They were nice.
Currently in my apartment in Rouen. It’s an efficient [read: small], clean, and fully furnished studio with a bathroom and small kitchen. I like it. It reminds me of my apartment in Sapporo only the furniture is slightly bigger.

The apartment however has two annoying qualities. One is that it doesn’t have readily access to internet. Unfortunately, in order to purchase internet one has to speak French (I’ve already planned on asking Julien). Second is that the shower has the type of nozzle where after you push it, it slowly starts to turn itself off so you have to push it every 30 seconds for water. I am not ok with this.