Social Security, Ikea, Carrefour and the Cinema.

I love it here. I love Tours, I love the schools I'm in and the teachers & assistants I'm working with, I love that I'm meeting new people everyday and turning acquaintances into friendships, and I love the feeling of reality sinking in that I will be here for the next 7 months.

Yesterday a fellow teacher, Michelle, took me to sign up for social security and health insurance. It was a relatively simple process that I'm sure was made much easier because she was there to guide me. I then went with another co-worker, Adeline, to Ikea and Carrefour (the equivalent of a GIANT Wal-Mart). I got some more necessities and bought some groceries. Shopping in Carrefour was quite fun- the store is absolutely huge. We would push the cart a ways and leave it, and then run down the aisles we wanted to in order to grab a few things by hand, then met up again at the cart. By the time I got home it was about 8pm so I had a quick bite to eat before meeting some other language assistants for a film.

We saw a Quebecois film titled "Les amores imaginaires" in French and Quebecois French. It was a smaller budget movie and was completely different from American cinema (as French films usually are). I really enjoyed the music because it was so well incorporated into the film's artsy direction and underlying meanings. The nice thing about this particular cinema is that for 12 euros I bought a membership card that will now allow me to see any other film for nearly half price (about 4 euros). Pretty good deal! They seem to have a really wide variety of films that rotate through regularly and consequently I plan to take full advantage of it.

Tomorrow is my last day of observing classes before I begin to teach solo on Monday. I don't know what the weekend has in order, but perhaps some hiking on Sunday with some other teachers, including the gym teacher Lucy. As much as I love the big city vibe Tours has, it will be nice to get out and admire the landscape. After all, I am in 'Le jardin de France'!