La Sécu

Hey yall,

Today has been quite the eventful day.

First I got up, ran, and then went to visit my second school, école Victor Hugo. This one is right outside of Lille in Lambersart, but it's only one metro stop from my other school, so it's not bad at all. The school is beautiful and super French. It doesn't look anything like the other school. I unfortunately didn't take any pictures, but will for sure take some next week. The director was extremely nice, but very chatty. He took me to about 5 or 6 classes and introduced me to the kids, which was pretty fun. I never thought I'd be intimidated by twenty 7-year old kids, but it definitely happened.

He finalized my schedule with my other schools, and I'm working full days on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Primary schools don't have classes on Wednesdays, and they gave me Fridays off! I'm pretty excited about that. It should be a really good work schedule.

I came back from that and then went to the bank with Emily to drop off our lease. Then we went to enroll in Sécurité Sociale Française (or la Sécu)! Socialism for the win. We were expecting that to take a really long time, but it really only took 10 minutes once we got into the office. I had pictured it to be something like what an immigration office would be like in the US, but there was only one other person in there besides us. So facile. I'm supposed to get my new social security number and card by Tuesday in the mail. Can't wait. Although hopefully I won't be needing it too much this year.

Last night we knocked on the door of the girls that live below us just to say hey. We were a bit worried that this was a super American thing to do (saying howdy neighbor), and that they wouldn't like it, but they were super nice. We talked to them about wifi and we're going to split wifi for the two apartments, so everyone gets to save money. They're both actually 21 and in Master's programs here in Lille. We really liked them and they even invited us to dinner tonight! At least that's what we think happened. It was unclear as to whether or not we'd be eating at their apartment or going out. So many things get lost in translation here, it's not even funny. Just kidding, it's actually hilarious. Regardless, we're looking forward to whatever this evening/dinner entails.

Speaking of things getting lost in translation. We went to a touristy shop today, and I bought a couple things, and when I was checking out, the cashier asked me something, and I thought he had asked me if I wanted to buy any "cartes postales" (postcards). I thought about it for a sec, and then decided against it, saying "ummm, non merci". He looked at me really funny, which I just attributed to him really wanting to sell me some postcards. We left the store, and I commented to Emily about how weird that was and she cleared up the confusion. Apparently, he had asked for my "code postale" (zip code), and I   had simply responded, "ummm, non merci". Oh life.

Anyways, I hope all is well at home.

Miss yall.

Luv,
Sarah