Life has been a whirlwind of paperwork, frustration, and confusion for the last two weeks that I have been getting settled here in Brest. Fortunately this past weekend I went out sailing along the Western Brittany Coast and remembered that I have things pretty great right now. I've labeled my year here "My Vacation Life." I am working 12 hours (not including prep time and grading) a week and have 5 day weekends. Yes, that's right I'm only teaching on Tuesdays and Wednesdays this semester... I had one conversation class last week with the Tourism students. I had a lot of fun with them and actually have seem many of them walking around Brest. Katie (one of my co-workers from Philadephia) and I ran into 3 of them this afternoon and we made plans to hang out Thursday night.
Speaking of Thursday nights.... So before I arrived in Brest and in the first few days I had heard warnings about the drinking problem in Brest. There is even a particular area we were instructed to avoid (as far as housing goes) because of the drunks. In any case I imagined drunk middle-aged men. Whatever, not a big deal. HA! The first Thursday that I was here I was walking back to the dorms (we stayed there while we looked for apartments) with my co-workers and passed by loads of heavily intoxicated people coming from the University. Turns out the drinking problem is within the University. Then last Thursday I witnessed something that I still can't believe as I was walking home from dinner. Every Thursday the students go out and drink in front of the TOWN HALL! Hundreds of students were there. Broken glass everywhere and ambulances just hanging out in case they were needed. I can't believe that the city allows this to go on!! Then the next morning the Town Hall square was spotless.
I am writing this post from my apartment in Brest. It’s a nice place only 10 minutes by foot from the college where I’m working. They call it a T1. One big main room (with the bed area slightly seperated), bathroom, and separate kitchen. It came fully furnished included pots, pans, dishes and silverware. Currently, I have internet that comes and goes. I’m paying for it so hopefully I can figure out what the problem is! When the technician came by last Friday to install the box he told me that it could take 30 minutes or half a day to get access. How very typical…
At the beginning of this (very unorganized) post I mentioned that I went sailing this past weekend. It was an amazing trip! Katie had friends in Brest who sailed to Europe from the states this past summer. In any case, they came and picked us up in Brest and we sailed to Ile de Oeussant. In the middle ages people believed that this Island was the end of the world. It was a fairly empty place with houses scattered about, basic stores and a few cafés and restaurants. I shamefully admit that I got a bit seasick on the way to Ile de Oeussant. So for our trip to Camaret the next day they gave me some meds. The weather was fanastic all weekend. Katie kept telling me "We have to soak up this sun while we can!" since Brest will become very rainy soon. Katie's friends; Eric, Rob and Stu, are really great people and I'm so glad that I was able to tag along with them for the weekend. I even learned a bit about sailing! :-)
