As I sit in MacDo's

At last! An internet connection! I'm at McDonald's of all places in order to get a little WIFI ("wee-fee") to write you a little update! I don't have a ton of time, unfortunately, but I'll try to type my fastest....

Things are going great.

Getting Acclimated
Hyeres is a lovely little town. Very charming. I'm living in the old part of town, with cafes/boulangeries/tiny little streets to wander up and down and around. I feel very safe here, too. I've been on a few early morning jogs: watched the sun rise from the highest point in town....my goodness, it's amazing. I've also walked around a little at night and feel very safe. It's a little place (pop: 57,000) but has about everything I think we'll need (except night life...but that's not why I'm here...) My house is in the old part of town: perfect location. My view is unbelievable, overlooking the town. I've been sitting on my little sort-of-balcony for breakfast...I'll try and post a picture for you to see. I've visited the Town Hall (Hotel de Ville) for community information, signed up for a membership at the Mediatheque (awesome way to check out books/dvds/cds, similar to our awesome King County Library system). I passed a dance studio and might check out a class. I've set up a bank account with help from my banker, Fabian who gave me his # just in case.... It's not what you think...hahaha. I am basically just getting myself acquainted/acclimated to my new home! I love exploring and have a good feel for where most basic things are. The bus system is quite good, so I'm learning how to get around to other towns as well (like Toulon to the bigger train station). My town is small enough, though, that I can walk just about anywhere (including my schools where I will be working, which, trust me, is more than many other assistants can say) and I can bus to the beach (which we did today....that's right, swimming in warm, salty seas with sandy beaches in October!!!!) We checked out the marked today, it's each Tuesday/Saturday morning -- got lots of inexpensive fruits and veggies, way cheaper and way better than at the grocery store. I made a big trip to the Carrefour as well to stock up on foods for our kitchen, as well as other goodies to make home feel more livable (laundry detergent, bath towels, pillow case, etc).

"Who's this 'we' you're referring to?"...Who is Who
Ok, a bit about who I've been spending time with. My living situation is basically, perfect. The man who is sort of in charge of helping train me helped me find this apt. I can't remember exactly what I said in the last post, but it's a house with 4 rooms for students and one small shared kitchen (two gas burners, one microwave, a fridge...no oven/toaster..boo). It is SO great to have my own, nicely but modestly furnished room with my own private sink/standing shower, but then to also have awesome roommates! Austin, from London, and Dani, from Malaga Spain, are two really nice lads who've welcomed me in. Sharing the space with them has been great so far. It's perfect to have others to chat with so I'm really not alone. Austin is sitting across from me at MacDo's right now and is dancing a dorky dance to the song that is playing. He's super super nice and we've been hanging out quite a bit. The other important person to whom you must be introduced (ok grammar, mom?did i pass?) is my friend Laura. We emailed a bit over the summer, seeing as she is the other assistant at primary schools in Hyeres. There are around 6 assistants in my town total, about a dozen in Toulon, and 187 in our entire district (l'academie de Nice), 111 of which are English assistants (other languages taught include Spanish, German, Italian, and a few others). Ok, so Laura. She's from Manchester, so apparently she has a different accent from Austin (I'll talk about language in a moment). Laura and I have been spending lots of time together the past few days and she's a really lovely girl.

Parlez-vous Francais???
Um...not really. Yikes, I know. I keep saying that if I go back to the states after nearly a year here and I can't really speak French any better than everyone'll think I'm an idiot or something. haha. Well, here's the thing....I've been speaking some French, but where I've REALLY been improving these past few days is in my ACCENTS speaking the English language! I have learned many new vocabulary words, in French, oui, but also in English! Austin talks quite quickly, and sometimes I can't understand him at all. It's fabulous. Today I learned "knackered" which means very tired. Being around Austin and Laura makes me want to speak with an English accent like them, which I do. haha, I would, right? My intonation when asking questions is already changing, and I'm adapting to use their vocabulary instead of my own, just because it's fun. Did you know jello is jelly and jelly is jello?? Yeah, I know, right? And maybe sometime we'll have an outing to the cinema to check out a brilliant film and bring the sweets of the make that Laura really fancies. Yeah, yeah. And another thing about language, can I just say that it is lovely walking through Carrefour doing my grocery shopping singing along to the songs that are playing...Maroon 5, Sarah Bareilles. Right now at MacDo's Pink is playing, right after a Coldplay song (of course). American pop culture is such an amazing beast. When french people ask me where I'm from, I say Seattle and ask them, well if they know Starbucks/Microsoft/Boeing/etc, which they do...but they also all know Grey's Anatomy...haha. But yeah, the French is coming along. I figure, I'd rather have friends than isolate myself because I refuse to speak English with cool young people.

I've gotta run, we're headed to dinner soon. Hopefully my apt. will get internet soon so I'll be able to be in touch a bit better.
A bientot!