Sunday September 21st
Bonjour à tous!
Welcome to my first blog post. Well, day one...
We got up at about 1:15am and left for Gatwick not long after. We arrived at about 3:45, parked the car and dragged the very heavy case to departures. I got checked in – my case weighed 33kg to start off with (we only thought it was about 28) so I had to take something out. Luckily they're not picky about hand luggage so it went in there! Then I said goodbye to Mum and Dad and they waved me through security. I went through to departures to find out that the plane was already delayed by 50 minutes, so I was glad I'd accidentally told Stephanie the plane got in at 10:10 not 9:10 – I'd have felt so guilty if she'd been waiting an hour!
Plane took off at about 6:40 in the end – going into the gate was probably the first time that reality hit me! I felt a bit teary but didn't cry.
I slept quite a lot on the plane, and again as it was coming in to land, I realised this would be my home for the next year. I got a bit nervous then.
I met Stephanie and she took me to Porticcio, where her husband owns a hotel/motel. This is where I'm staying until I can get into my villa next week. Stephanie left at about 11am and I went for a wander since my room wouldn't be ready until 2. I went and bought some postcards and then went to the beach to write them. It was glorious hot sunshine, the sea was lovely and warm and I was really happy!
Monday September 22nd
Picked up by Stephanie from the hotel at about 8:10 and she took me to Ajaccio with her daughter who goes to the lycée there, pointing out the main “sites” (tourist information, my school, the bus/train station, ferry port etc) en route.
Managed to locate them all once more, after Stephanie had dropped me off – it's all fairly close together. Went to the Citadel too, it's very pretty but the Corsicans are ever wary of invasion (saw a saying yesterday that made me smile - “souvent conquise, jamais soumise”) and it is still military territory!
It started to rain and since I wasn't wearing much having expected it to be warm, I got quite cold so I stopped in a street-side cafe for a hot chocolate. Was going to open a bank account but I didn't take any ID with me so I'll have to do that tomorrow, but did take a wander up to Parc Berthault which is actually only about a 10 minute walk from the lycée (less from the IUFM) and about 15 to the town centre although there are cafes and shops the whole way along. Wandered through all the streets trying to get lost – it's damn near impossible!
Stephanie stopped at the road and was on her way back to Porticcio so she offered me a lift. Since it was still raining and I was quite cold, and I was meant to be going back by boat, I could hardly refuse! When we got back it had warmed up a lot, so I went shopping for a few food items (so difficult to buy healthy food that doesn't need cooking or refrigerating!) and then went to the beach for a few hours. At about 2:30 I decided to go back to the hotel to take the food back and get my beach towel – when I was there I decided to have a shower too. Just as I was about to, Stephanie came and knocked on my door and said there was a spare room at the lycée (EREA – it's like a hall of residence for internship students) so she took me over there and got me installed! Had a shower and was going to go back out but decided to leave it until the morning and I can find my way back – I need a detailed map of Ajaccio. I thought I had one somewhere but I don't know where....
Just going to chill out now, put some music on and read. There's a group of kids outside my window being a bit annoying. Maeve really hated this place, but I don't see why, yet!
September 23rd
Got up at 8:30 ish and got myself prepared for going into town and the beach. Realised I'd probably go back between town and beach (hoping to pick up a wireless connection somewhere so have taken laptop and don't want it at the beach!) so left beach stuff and set out for town. The walk from the EREA took about 40 minutes- it was a good 25-30 minutes to Parc Berthault.
Went to Banque Populaire Provencale et Corse to open an account (yes, I'd rather an account with the name Corse in it, just to rub it in!) but they won't let me unless I have some proof of ID for Serge and his proof of address. Went to walk to Super U but was running low on energy so stopped at a cafe by the marina for a coke. No wireless here...
Carried on to Super U and picked up a salad type thing for my tea, then began the long long walk back. Stopped off at the beach by Parc Berthault and tried most of the benches by the apartment blocks to see if I could get their internet, There were a few unlocked ones but for some reason I couldn't connect. Seems I may have found one though...!
No comments:
Post a Comment