I finally arrived in Marseille on Saturday night after taking the train from Paris. I definitely underestimated how long the metro would take, and I almost missed my train. I ended up doing the “tourist triathlon” running though the Gare de Lyon in Paris with almost 60lbs of luggage. I’m going to count that as my workout for the year.
Since we had Sunday off and Monday was a French holiday, Sheila (the other girl from UM who is doing this internship with me) and I went exploring in Marseille. We went to the beach, to the old port/fish markets, and we took a boat ride (part of Marseille’s transportation system) down the coast to the beach. The beach is a bit different from the sandy beaches of Lake Michigan since it’s really rocky everywhere, and you always have to wear shoes because there’s a possibility of stepping on something sharp.
Currency Exchange (Part 2 and 3): Correction: don’t use the bureau de change. You will get more ripped off than you could ever imagine. The exchange rate is usually not bad, but the commission fees are RIDICULOUS (like 40$ ridiculous). I had some USD cash that I hadn’t exchanged, and since American debit/credit cards are less and less accepted in France/Europe (more on this later), I didn’t really have a choice. So far I’ve found 2 ATMs that will take my card (out of multiple ones that I’ve tried). I have to pay for basically everything in cash, because very few stores (including department/grocery stores) will take my card. This is starting to show up in the US on very few credit cards, but on almost all foreign cards, there is a little chip that looks like a SIM card on the left side of the card. This is much more secure than just the magnetic strip that we use in the US. So, most stores only have the card reader where you put your card halfway in, and that doesn’t work for American cards because the machine needs to read the whole strip, and most ATMs/Merchants now are chip only.
Today was day one at the internship. I think it went well, although it was ‘orientation day’ for us so we didn’t have students (first day with students is tomorrow). It’s kind of funny because everyone speaks English to us, and apologises if they don’t, as we were introduced as ‘The Americans,’ even though we understand (and speak semi-correct) French. (Correction: I can understand them if they speak one at a time and use slang….so basically the adults) People in Marseille all speak very quickly and all at the same time, so often it’s difficult to know who to follow and understand each one and trying to get a word in is basically a lost cause. It’s only day one, so I’ll get it eventually.
In the internship, there are different ‘categories’ for hosting students, since one session of English examinations lasts 2 weeks. So, for the first week, we are doing ‘animation.’ I don’t know the exact word in English, but we basically show them around the School, Marseille, and the National Park that the school is in.
Once I figure out how to upload photos to this blog without putting them directly in the post, I will post more than one photo (promise!). We also have a meeting with the housing lady tomorrow morning, so hopefully we should get internet and a mailing address for out apartment soon. The apartment is really nice and absolutely huge!!!
Go Blue!
thefrenchnerd 