Hallelujah!

Hallelujah, my faith in humanity has been restored!

(Note: sorry in advance for my terrible typing: all of the punctuation, the a,q,w, and m are all in the wrong places so I really have to hunt and peck.)

Time and time again on my long voyage I was confronted with fantastic people who supported and helped me....every step along the way. Just when I was beginning to become so synical about the intrinsic good nature of humanity and Americans in general, something like this happens to restore my faith...I'm not sure I would have made it here with my sanity without their help! Whoever you are, je vous remerci mille fois!

I was a little shaken up on the plane from Charleston to Detroit...yes, yes I shed a few tears and wondered what temporary insanity had taken me when I decided this would be a good idea...but with the kind words and encouragement of the two men sitting around me, I had regained my composure by wheels down in Detroit. And who would have thought that a fellow Parkersburgian...let alone someone I know--or at least whose children I know--would be on my flight to Detroit and also to Amsterdam. It is indeed a small world because Mr. Tunell was on both of my flights! He was flying to Marseilles for work. It was nice...during our lay over in Amsterdam we talked about Nick, Cory, soccer, and other people we both knew. It really helped to pass the time and keep me from worrying too much.

The Toulouse airport was a little scary as was traveling with my huge suitcases after I retreived them from the airpot. But a kind man helped me get them on the shuttle to the train station, and I managed to get them off myself. I also got them on and off the trains myself as well, and finally arrived in Limoux--18 hours later--without any significant tragedy.

My first couple hours in Limoux were really hard, I'm not going to lie. They were giving me keys, showing me around, explaining the procedure for eating and leaving the building after hours and on weekends. I was on information overload, not to mention the fact that I was probably only understanding about a third of everything being told to me.

BUT--the team of English teachers here that I am going to be working with are all very nice and very funny. Two of them don't seem that much older than me, which is nice. They were very helpful and considerate. Françoise et Virginie took me and the Spanish assistant, who is from El Salvadore, to dinner after which I slept for almost 16 hours. I still don't think I'm completely adjusted to the time change because I had a lot of trouble getting to sleep last night--or maybe that was just nerves.

Anyway, on Tuesday I bought my meal tickets and filled out most of the paperwork that I have to do. Today I think I'm going to explore town and maybe try to buy a phone. I want to get a phone before training next Wednesday in Montpellier so that I can exchange numbers with all of the English assistants I meet.

Virginie is going to take me to open my bank account on Friday. I'm glad I don't have to do that alone--I'm still not very confident with my French. I hope that gets better. I ate dinner last with the Spanish assistant, Luis, and some of the surveillants from the school. It's sort of like a boarding school in that the students live here during the week. The surveillants are kind of like their chaperones when they aren't in class. They are closer to my age than the students. Anyway, the one guy was super nice...but I had to ask him to repeat two or three times almost everything he said. I felt really bad about it. Everyone just talks so fast, and the southern accent is rather pronounced....

Anyway, stop your worrying, I made it in one piece...

Also, for some reason I can't get on IM here, so if you want to talk to me I suggest you look into Skype. It's an Internet phone service that is free for international calls from computer to computer. I've already talked to my parents several times using it and it works very well. I'm already getting kind of homesick so it would be great to talk to some people. My handle is Murph1613, also you can look me up by e-mail, which is Murph_1613@yahoo.com

I guess that's all for now...
bissous,
Murph