Chambery. Home Sweet Home

So I'm finally here! It took a while and took me a long time to get settled, but I absolutely love it! The views are spectacular! (I promise to post pics as soon as I can connect to WiFi). The first morning of trying to get moved in was uber stressful. OMG!!! I actually almost broke down into tears. First, there is soooo much paper work in France (i just love the bureaucracy). After lugging 105lbs of luggage, a backpack and a bassoon up the huge ass hill to campus, the housing office proceeded to tell me that I needed to go back to town and buy housing insurance (40 euro) and that the housing deposit was 350 euro!!!!!! I definitely was not expecting that. That's the main reason I was almost in tears. I'm actually very surprised that the ATM let me withdraw that much at once. The secretary tried to comfort me by telling me that I would get it back at the end of the year. Geez, thanks a lot. That really helps me NOW.

But, all is good now. When I was going back to the office to get sheet and blankets, I ran into the two girls from TN, one from Knoxville and one from Chattanooga. I realize that I didn't want to hang out with Americains all the time, but they have been a huge help. They have kept me sane. We have also been hanging out with a girl from Mexico, a guy from England and a girl from Italy. They have all been really nice.

I still haven't really met my roommates yet. There names are Mohammed and Pierre and they are rarely ever at the apt when I am. However, the first night we met the neighbors who were really nice. We went over to their apt and drank with Greg, Jonas, and Thomas. Greg doesn't live there, but he is there a lot. Jonas was very keen to practice his English, and sought out Jean as a target. Meanwhile, Claire and I were talking to Greg and Thomas. They were really cool. We downed the two bottles of wine, a bottle of whisky and quite a bit of pastisse. mmmm tastes like licorice.

well i have to go to a meeting now and i'm sure the other internationals want to use the computers now. i'll write more later.

ciao.