Murphy's Law and Moving Day.

Le 23 novembre 2004.

Hello to all those out in Blogland. And to those people who this morning woke up and thought “I wonder what happened to Kate today,” this is the story for you.

We’ll actually begin back on last Thursday, a Murphy’s Law day if ever there was one. The day started fine, all until breakfast; I realized that I had a few minutes left, just enough to clean up my dishes and make it to the bus stop. Only seconds after I glanced at the time, I overturned my milk bowl all over myself. By the time I’d cleaned up the mess, ran to my room to change my clothes, and ran to the bus stop, the bus was pulling away and I was still 30 meters away. Ten minutes later, I was on the next bus filled with high school students on their way to class. After the bus emptied of the students, I had only two more stops left, but as I stood at the door for my stop, the bus kept going. When I’d pushed the button for my stop, it didn’t register as a request for a stop. At the next stop after mine, I got off the bus and was walking back as Céline called me to ask where I was. What a morning! The afternoon wasn’t much better, as the kids were rowdier than usual. The thought crossed my mind that it was a full moon, as I learned that night most of the other assistants had had rough days as well.

Connections while abroad are really these amazing things. You become friendly with people simply on the basis of shared experiences or acquaintance. This weekend a friend of Kristen’s came to visit a friend of her’s in Metz. With her came two of her own friends, thus in two days I met three new people (yes, all Americans) who were a pleasure to meet. The commonalities between assistants are quite astounding to me, especially given the differences between each of us.

Monday was an eerie day. One of my students told me today that she was tired because she had moved over the weekend (this of course involved a lesson in learning “I moved” in English.) My plans for the afternoon when I returned home involved relaxing a bit and then running some errands. Instead, I found myself being told a studio had opened up and I could take it if I wanted it. It’s tiny and quaint, but quite exciting to have. In many aspects it’s similar to the room I had in Pfeiffer last semester, except I only have a shower, not a shower/tub, and I have two burners in my kitchen. The size is also much smaller than my Pfeiffer room. But beggars can’t be choosers, and my status is nearly that of a beggar. Even with the turquoise green décor, it’s quite nice to have this little “apartment.”

PS. It snowed on Friday! For about three minutes we had this really weird snow-hail combination. It all came after a sunny morning when big clouds blew in, all in about a half hour. Then about an hour later, it had all melted away. That’s the story of snow in Metz on Friday.