Arriving in Poitiers

When we got off the train two girls from the Aloha team (the ESCEM international help team) were there to greet us.  T and I put our bags in the back of one of the girl's car and headed out.  Our first stop was my new home.  They dropped me off so I could unpack and took T to a hotel.  It was the weekend and T wasn't able to get in her new French home until Monday.  Then they came back and we went shopping.  I grabbed a coffee pot (a requirement), coffee grounds (a requirement), milk for creamer (another requirement) and a loaf of chocolate chip bread.  Yea buddy!  Coffee and Chocolate chip bread.  I have died and gone to France!  The girls loaded up on beer.  There was a party that night.  T and I were invited.  T went but I was way to tired so I had to skip on this time. 

On the way back the girls showed us the school and T's new home as we passed by.  So bright and early Sunday morning I got the bright idea to walk out to the school.  Anyone who knows me understands that I can not be shown directions by car and get there by walking.  If you want to give driving directions I have to drive the route.  To learn walking directions I have to walk the route.  The walk is amazing!  I ended up getting lost the first time but it's not my fault.  The school was closed and looked a lot diffrent in the day light! 

I was lucky and found Subway.  You don't know how happy I was to find something familiar.  I ducked in, got a sub and started to try and ask for a direction home.  I did realize that going to subway in France doesn't mean that the people inside would be English.  I just felt better and more confident speaking or trying to speak to people there.  I got lucky again and found Tom.

Tom is an Austrian exchange student, majoring in History and came to Poitiers to work on his thesis on the battle at Poitiers.  He spoke English and was, like most history people I know, a human mapquest.  He also lives at the same building as me so he was able to show me where the market in town was, the best place for food, the easiest way to school and best of all how to get home!

It wasn't until Monday that I snapped pictures of my daily walk to school.  School is on a hill so it takes 20 minutes to walk up it and 15 to get back home.  I'm not use to walking this far every morning but with views like this I don't mind the walk.

When I got back to the flat after meeting Tom, I met a few neighbors.  The first person I met was Danta (Don-tA).  Danta helpped me set up the internet in my room.  When people in Europe say WIFI it doesn't mean WIFI.  It just means they have internet connections.  He also gave me a cup, plate and some silverware.  I didn't have any at the time.  Danta is an exchange student from Mexico.

The second neighbor I met was Chewy.  Chewy is an exchange student for Thailand, and was sweet enough to leand me a bus and walking map.  Later Chewy took me to the store outside of town (like a walmart) so I could get food, dishes and other needful things.  I told both Danta and Chewy I would cook for them.  (If you can cook you make a lot of friends here!)

That was my first weekend in Poitiers (Potty - A).  I think my posts will now be a little scattered depending on what events happened.  Should have one or two a week still and a whole load of pictures still yet to come!