La Semaine Dernière

Surprisingly it took almost two whole months, but Kathryn and I finally witnessed our first car accident. We were walking home from the Carrefour after doing a little grocery shopping, when a car driving down the Grand Boulevard turned right, and cut off another car going straight through a green light. I say "surprisingly" because the French are not the most observant drivers in the world. They don't seem to be as bad/reckless as Greek drivers, but they have their fair share of problems (to put it lightly). They seem to have the biggest problems when they're required to make some sort of tactical decision. By that I mean they are fine going straight, but if they have to: slow down for pedestrians, or turn, or even just cross an intersection, you better keep your eyes open. Even if the cross-walk shows the little green man (signifying that it is ok to cross) that apparently means nothing to the French. That is why we figured the person to blame was the turning car rather than the one going straight. I'm sure this will be the first of many to come.

We also had our "visite medicale" on Friday to get a check-up, and be declared eligible for health insurance. Kathryn and I passed with flying colors despite the fact that Kathryn has been sick too many times to count since arriving (she's fine now). They gave us chest x-rays, measured our height and weight, and tested our eye sight. I guess they were a little surprised by how big and strong I am (the French are known more for their food than their athletes for a reason) because they also checked my blood sugar to make sure I didn't have diabetes (I don't). They didn't check anyone elses. Once we were given the O.K. we got our passports stamped and they glued in our "carte de sejour" so we are official French residents for this year, and entitled to all their social security benefits. It also means that we can come and go from the country as we please without having to jump through any bureaucratic hoops, and we will not have to notify our schools or the Rectorat before leaving to come home to Chicago for Christmas!

After we got all our paperwork filled out by the doctors, we took the tramway to Gare Lille-Flandres and purchased train tickets for our upcoming trips to Dunkerque (where we went this past weekend) and Paris (the first weekend in December). Dunkerque was so much fun. We did a ton of walking, and got to have a little Thanksgiving meal with some of the other language assistants teaching in that city. I plan on writing a seperate blog about that trip when I have a little more time to spare, and we get the pictures off the camera and onto the computer. Check back soon!

A bientôt,

-Jordan and Kathryn