Marie in France - pt 3

Strasbourg, September 12, 2013

Before I start the next set of events, I want to mention once incident which took place the same day I had the encounter with the bus driver (Tuesday September 10).  I did some food shopping at a good-sized market in the neighborhood, and on my list was some cheese.  I am very partial to Bel Paese (Italian) but the lady at the cheese counter had never heard of it.  Another shopper overheard our conversation and remarked that she also liked the Bel Paese, but the French cheeses were even better, and she recommended such and such cheese.  So I said to the attendant, "Bon, Mme. has recommended this cheese and I will take it".  Well, I didn’t like it.  The next day I returned to the market and this time I asked for Emmenthaler, which was promoted on most of the menus I had seen in the last few days.  The same girl asked me how I liked the other cheese, I replied “Pas trop” (not so much).  And she said Hein (hah) and Mme. Thinks she can make a good recommendation.  This particular scenario made me feel like I was beginning to be a part of the community.  The focal point was not that I was an American who needed help, but that Mme. What’s-her-name overstepped her expertise in cheese recommendations.

Yesterday I had a double class with my director.  French/Spanish translation is in one building, Spanish/French translation is in another.  You only have to take one or the other, but you have the option to take both, which I am.  But I think I will only take the exam in one.  In the first class the door was locked, there were a number of us waiting, and then the instructor showed up with the key.  Somehow there were already others in the classroom.  This is where the EMOS students (of which I am one) take the same class as the students who want to be teachers, and there are both M1 and M2 (first year and second year) students.

When the French/Spanish portion was over I followed the crowd to the sous-sol (basement)  batiment 4 for the Spanish/French portion. There were about 30 of us waiting outside another locked door, but I didn’t see the instructor.  We waited about 20 minutes before she finally showed up.  She had been looking (who knows where) for a key to open the door.

My airbnb hostess had referred me to a friend of hers, an agent immobilier (real estate agent) who did not do rentals but who referred me to his colleague Audrey, a beautiful blonde francaise, very nice girl. At this point I realized if I wanted a furnished unit, it would most likely be a studio, and anything larger would be unfurnished.  So I began thinking in terms of unfurnished apartments and furniture rentals. I showed up at their office at 2:30,  Audrey and I talked about various options.  Quickly enough we realized that because I did not have a bank account I could not rent an apartment in France, clearly I could not do anything in France without a bank account.  Audrey made a few phone calls to banks without success, the agent and another colleague got into the act, and for the next half hour the three of them were making telephone calls and checking the Internet, all the while the agent was telling me “We will find a solution.”  Bottom line is the agent made an appointment for me the next day with a bank near where I’m staying, and this banker, based on the information he received from the agent (whom he did not know) agreed that he could open an account for me.  Although not convinced that this would happen, I was hopeful and left their office thanking them profusely.

Meanwhile Audrey had given me an option (once I got the bank account) of a hotel/apartment rental in Petite France, a lovely section of Strasbourg.  But the units themselves were small and sort of non-descript. Audrey had told me that apartment owners would only rent for two or three years, so I presumed this was my only option (I have since learned differently).

My first class this morning (8:00 am) was a seminaire transversal (combination of students in other disciplines) on Renaissance myths and the medieval Mediterannean.  I hope this class will turn out to be as interesting as it sounds.  I say will, because the instructors never showed up.  There were four of us waiting, finally after fifteen minutes, one of the second year students took the lead and suggested we go back to Monde Roman headquarters (in another building of course) and find out what the problem was.  So off we trekked to Batiment 4, troisieme etage, and slowly made our way down the hall looking for signs of human life.  I spied a female functionary in one of the rooms and asked her where this new instructor was.  She said he wasn’t here this week, and he had posted a message on the panneau (glass panel) down the hall.  We must have checked about a dozen panels full of postings, and finally found an 8-1/2 x 11 piece of paper  informing one and all that this instructor was out of town this week.  Not too far away was a similar message regarding yet another instructor, the other half of this invisible team.  So with a sigh, further discussion on the various programs, and an exchange of emails, we all went off to whatever else we had to do.

My "else" was a 9:00 meeting with a retail banker (about 25) at the Banque Populaire d’Alsace.  He had had some concern that I did not speak much French, but seemed gratified that we were able to conduct our business in French.  He spent some 45 minutes with me, explaining everything slowly and clearly, about 90% of which I understood.  Long story short, I walked out with a bank account, transferred some money on line from San Francisco, and returned in the afternoon to conclude the transactions and sign the papers.  I now have a stack of documents in French which I have no intention of reading, but I am assured that everything is in place for me to negotiate an apartment rental (carte bancaire, assurance, etc.) sans souci.

Back to the apartment.  My airbnb hostess explained to me that even if one rented an apartment for two or three years, the renter had the right to terminate the agreement with three months’ notice.  My bank representative confirmed this, although there are of course certain procedures which have to be observed.  I will need more explanation on this, but in any case tomorrow I will check out the units at the Petite Marie, a really lovely part of Strasbourg.  I also have to go to the Place Kleber (Orange, Apple, International bookstore) and pick up a copy of Don Juan by Tirso de Molina, and Robert’s French/Spanish dictionary (I have Larousse French/English and Cassell’s Spanish/English which I will undoubtedly have to refer to).

My only class tomorrow is 2-5, entitled Seminaire Pratiques d’Ecriture: Traductions Adaptation  (the French really seem to like long titles).  I hope this instructor shows up.  On time.  With a key.