Apparently it has rained a few days since I have been in Belfort but I have only witnessed it once or twice for only a few minutes at a time. The rain here reminds me of the rain in New Orleans,.. it rains most days it seems but it is not enough to pull out all your rain gear and call it a day once a few drops hit the cobble stoned streets. In fact, three times I have thought the rain would put a damper on the day so I have turned around and headed back to the hotel, opted to drive the car to dinner once and freaked out a bit when I got lost yesterday because the rain had begun. The rain appears to only be enough to cause this southern girl's hair to become 3 times its size and then it quits! If I didn't know better, I would think I was back in New Orleans minus the giant cemeteries (although while passing through one of the small towns Sunday, we did see a cemetery very reminiscent to N.O.). So is this a French thing? This frequent rain that seems to dry instantly when it hits the ground? I have yet to find a city except New Orleans with rains like this. In San Diego, if it rains however infrequent, it pours with no end in sight. North Louisiana, if it is going to rain, it will rain and most likely all day, the same in Dallas, Chicago, Houston...
So as I said before, I got lost yesterday! I think somehow I even exited the city (not hard to do I guess since it is a tiny city but when I turned to walk back toward the way I came, I was welcomed by a sign stating "Bievenue Belfort"). While I was taking a quick excursion out of this lovely city, it did start to rain and I was already depressed after having tried to open a bank account at a bank for the 3rd time. All three times unsuccessful. I am a little backwards in thinking banks should leave their doors unlocked during business hours and not make you essentially ring a doorbell (its not really a doorbell) to call to them to let you in...at least I think that is what I am doing when I press that little button and as I do not speak french well enough to be understood over a possible intercom, I have given up completely. One bright spot of the day, I purchased stamps! A small victory but the postal lady spoke no English and I had to rely only on French. J'ai besoin d'envoyer la lettre, s'il vous plait. I also continued to explain I wanted to send a letter and a post card to aux Etats Unis. Success! My only difficulty was in understanding it was possible to send a letter and postcard to the United States using the same value stamp and I only had to use one of those stamps on each item.
Today I planned on another small victory...finally opening a bank account with Soner's help and an English speaking banker near by Soner's office. Struck down again unfortunately but we have an appointment tomorrow at 9 to open myself a French bank account. Woohoo! Finally!
On other news, we may have the keys to our apartment tomorrow afternoon. There's a good chance we will not have furniture and that we will be stuck in this hotel throughout the weekend continuing to eat out for every meal BUT at least I know there is good healthy food around the corner. It was fun at first trying to read a French menu but after a while, you just want to be able to go to a restaurant and order without so much thought! Everything takes so much thought around here. Who knows if I will ever actually take the time to continue learning French or read any of the great business books I had planned to tackle. My mind is so worn out by the time I muddle my way through any thing French (product manuals, menus, French phone, tv and internet information!) that I am unsure it will be able to grasp anything other than a kids cartoon (which by the way also takes much work just to have on in the background...lots and lots of high pitches with the same phrases repeated over and over and OVER again! At least they are an easy learning tool!)
Well I am off to enjoy my 4.20 Euro ($5.72) coke and try to be quiet and still for a little bit.
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