Toutes Directions

Sunday I went on a bike ride through some of the small towns/villages south of Toulouse with some friends and it was really nice to be in the "country" just outside of Toulouse. My bike doesn't work real well and I got the chain stuck twice while trying to change gears (and then gave up and suffered with the high gear I was stuck on for the hills), but I tried to enjoy the scenery.

Then Monday I started the day early with a doctor's appointment at 8am, followed by the bank with which we also have our insurance and waited around until some office in Paris could fax them an attestation de responsabilité civile.

Then I headed off to the university and re-enrolled (with the attestation). That's right. I'm in License 1 Langues étrangères appliquées English and German. The woman who checked my application said I should have had a transfer document (deadline already passed...) but that she would accept it anyway and I just had to go to the transfer office afterwards (right....). Only one person did a double take that I am an American citizen and I'm signing up for English as a foreign language, but I think the fact that I'm born in Germany kind of disguised that. I paid 175€ and got my ID card, which is finally a plastic card with your picture, a puce, and a magnetic strip, instead of just a paper ID. Mission almost accomplished.

I don't really intend to attend classes of course, but this was the only way I could get a 6 month internship at Airbus, the last part of my mission impossible. I was pleasantly surprised though that the program is very business/management orientated and it's kind of a shame I won't be able to take advantage of the German classes. Next week is orientation, which I might attend half of in order to meet a professor that can sign my convention de stage.

Otherwise, I'm keeping busy recontacting a family I tutored for in August and was paid with a chèque emploi service but still haven't received my attestation assedic. Apparently I have to send a registered letter and if that doesn't work I can think about contacting the prud'hommes.

Today and tomorrow I'm attending a round table/mini-conference Scèn'city organized by Le Hub at the TNT. The discussions are all about culture, technology, and the place for culture in society and the public sphere. Today was really interesting, but I'd forgotten how tiring it is to listen to complicated discussions all day long. They're going to the four cities that competed for the Capitole de la Culture 2013 to talk about different things and if you're interested in culture, communication, and politics, you might want to check it out (they're all free).

Thursday morning I'm also taking the driving exam for my French license. I've been studying for the oral questions (what does an orange light on the dash mean?), but I have to work on my confidence for the driving. Well, I was confident until my last session on Monday afternoon, but the instructor found lots of problems with my driving. The other instructors didn't notice the same things, so I don't know what to make of his comments. I'll do my best Thursday morning and then wait in suspense for the results to arrive in the mail (they don't tell you at the end of the test).

Just to keep things lively, I signed up to volunteer for the Toulouse Marathon on Oct 25th. I'll be preparing things a bit next week, and then working most of the weekend.

And B and I met Penelope Bagieu at Fnac last Saturday and got drawings in her Joséphine books. There were tons of people there and we were the last people to get drawings. After us, people could only get signatures. For once we were lucky!