Finally here...

So...I am finally here in Les Sables d'Olonne/Olonne-sur-Mer/Chateau d'Olonne...
En fait, I'm working in 2 towns and living in the 3rd. I think they all need to incorporate and have one name, but who I am to tell the French to be logical? Haha.
It was really hard the first day.
For a lot of reasons. One: I went from non stop contact with my lover for like a week and a half so I knew that saying good-bye would be hard.
But it wasn't as bad as I thought.
What was bad, was when I walked him out to his car ,said good bye without tears and then returned to my empty apartment and bawled like a baby. It was a healthy cry though. I needed it to cleanse all the crazy overwhelmed feelings that I had.
That night I cried a little more,but took solace in the fact that weeping may endure for a night,but joy comes in the morning.Everything looks better in the morning.Including the beautful little towns I happen to reside in now.
I went down to the beach and instantly began feeling the difference between the good Bordelais (people of Bordeaux) and the Sablaise. People who live by the beach or maybe any body of water generally seem to be happy. And I don't see why they shouldn't.
I live like 15 minutes from the beach and get to be kissed by the sun and sweet talked to by the waves. It's a pretty nice place to post up in post-undergrad. Another difference?
People here take their lunch hour SO seriously.
I went to an internet cafe and failed to notice they closed at 12h...and didn't open again until 15h00...that's a good 3 hours. Most shops however seem to be industrious and reopen at 14h or 14h30...
The ladies at my school, well the college, seem to be really sweet.
The lycee is kind of too perfect looking. It's new and wooden and smells like they just stopped painting...It's like a French Steppford Wives-esue type of school...I'm keeping a positive mindset about all of this though.
My apartment is spacious and really rather nice. (Not as homey as the flat in Bordeaux, but as Nick says "You can't repeat the past)
I'm excited to see what this time here will bring and hopefully the clarity because I should probably decide what's next.
But I don't have to right now.
Right now all I have to do is finish this cafe and go exploring Les Sables...
until next time...

Laissez-Faire

Bleh,
I can feel it starting already, the whole laissez-faire attitude upon me. More like me putting on a sweater I wasn't too fond of the first time and realising it's a great look.
My mom keeps trying to make me excited or concerned about packing and leaving to no avail.
She's worried about my housing situation. I probably should be, mais, c'est pas grave, it's not serious.
I called my contact person who acknowledged receiving my e-mails (2) but not responding back to them because she has to call someone else to see if they do in fact have room for me at the place they say they do... I couldn't help but laugh as she explained the situation. A pre-Spring 2008 Kayle would have been annoyed, and frustrated. This Kayle is cool with it.
I think I'm better, if only a little, prepared to deal with the uncertainty because I know the bag of tricks the French are dealing with and I'm cool with it.
P.S. One thing I am actually concerned about: the exchange rate! It's still a lot better than 1.60+ spring before last, but I'd still not to be an impoverished person for the first 6 weeks.

physically 6 days away from France, but like 9 days away from prepared :/

I'm starting to freak out un peu (a little).
I have 6 days until departure, but need like 9 days to get ready.
I just got back from Norman and some of the best 6 days of my life with best friends/sisters. It was beautiful, crazy, but now it gets real.
I leave for France in 6 days and it hit me hard this morning.
Anyway, there's a lot I need to do such as:
*buy a ticket from Paris to Bordeaux to see Cerulean
*figure out if my housing at the lycee (high school) is free like it's been rumored to be. (I've tried e-mailing like two times, I'm hoping waking up at 6am to call over there will prove more productive...I'm not going to hold my breath though.)
*figure out a decently cheap way to get to Florence, Italy to see a very good friend ( I hope this works out)
All that on top of cleaning up, packing and dealing emotionally with leaving...
I am so very excited to see Cerulean again, although I don't know what's to become of that, but I'm hopeful and not terribly concerned right now.

Some time in the near future I'll explain the long and winding road that brought me back to France, but for now, time for more planning and plotting.