Now we have groceries, so we start the day with the breakfast we love: soft boiled egg, cold ham and sausage, cheese, country style bread, juice, coffee, and chocolate breakfast cookies called Petit Dejeuner or "little breakfast". That should keep us until dinner!
Fred has another meeting, so he is off to school. There is a local market that is open on Tuesdays and Fridays. This is where various vendors come to a covered location and set up shop for just those two days. Mostly I want to see what's there, although we have made another list, so I plan to go back to Leader Price today as well.
There IS a fish vendor, which is handy to know, but fred is the fish buyer, so I pass on purchasing and go to Leader Price.
After I put away my purchases, I head to school as well. I met Isabelle, my program contact, at the reception last night and told her I would stop by today to bring some documents and learn about French class.
I can start language class on Monday, even though my actual program doesn't start until Oct. 11. I will also start what they call a "cultural elective" which is group work with other students in my program. I want to get to know them, so I will attend that as well. I learn that the program being offered is my first choice: Masters in International Project Management.
There are 11 students here now, but about 20 more should arrive, most from Senegal, Cameroon, Ivory Coast. I am anxious to meet the students already here - I don't know where they are from, but I sure French class with them will be interesting.
After that meeting, I find Fred in the lobby and we head home for lunch. After lunch, Fred gets the iron out and gets his clothes ready to wear. I can be a little more casual - student style, you know, so I pass on the ironing.
We have a washing machine in the apartment. I spilled coffee all over myself yesterday on the plane, so I decide to try it out. It is small and takes quite a while for one load, but it works well. We have to leave before it is done washing, so I will have to hang the clothes on the dryer (not automatic) when we return home.
I have learned we are only a few blocks from a tram station, so at 3 pm, we walk to the tram and head for the bank. At this time of the afternoon, the tram is quite crowded.
Remember, this is a town of about 120,000, in a metro area of about 400,000. It is really nice to have the tram and that people use it.
When we arrive at the bank, we learn that the lease contract has been approved (within the hour) and we can open the account. WHEW! I am glad to get this done as I would like to pay the rent. We also need the account so we can get the electric service in our names and get internet service.
After the bank, Fred has an appointment with the info security folks at school, so I go off in search of shoe polish, dryer sheets, clorox, and listerene, all items that I have not yet been able to find.
I decide to stop at the supermarket downtown and find some other things we can use, but no shoe polish. I pick up the dryer sheets and a container of gaspacho to start our dinner, then walk on to the Schlecker, a "drugstore" like walgreens except for no actual drugs. I finally find shoe polish and something that might be clorox. I finally return home around 6 pm and Fred has just gotten home as well.
We have an appetizer, then go upstairs for our now daily talk with the landlords. Tonight we are able to report that we do in fact have a bank account and that they will eventually get paid. They are happy to see the insurance also.
They have offered to go with us in the morning to look into internet service. We don't want to waste their time in the morning, so we ask for clarification, and they pull up the online site for two different providers and talk us through the options. This will make the visit tomorrow faster.
So 10 am Saturday we will walk with them to the center of town to the internet office. In addition, they have found a phone number for the electric company where there are english language speakers and they tell us what we need to have available when we make that call.
About 7:30 we start cooking dinner of chicken breast, basmati rice, and eggplant. The landlords have given us a welcome present of bordeaux wine, chocolate cookies and a jar of jam. For this dinner, we open the bordeaux and play some music on my PC. Except for the fact that we walk everywhere, we are feeling very much at home!
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