C'est la vie...

Bonjour à tous! I had an interesting day today, both good and bad, hence the title of this blog... Anyway, I woke after a sort of restless sleep and went into town to try and exchange my travelers checks somewhere. Yesterday's appointment at the bank was a success in the sense that I set up an account, but I have no money in it yet and they won't accept my money until my debit card arrives next week. Also the lady spoke ridiculously fast and so I really have little idea what she said exactly, thank goodness Claire was there to help me out. At the time, the banker telephoned a different branch just a little further in town to see if they would cash my travelers checks, and they said they would, so all I would have to do would be to bring some documents and the checks. This morning when I got there though, the lady said they don't do that and that I must go to the post office. I thought, "ok, that isn't great but I will try this". So I walked to the post office and a nice lady helped me to a counter, ask for some i.d. and for the checks. "yes, this is going to work!", I thought. Then soon she and another lady were blabbing about something, the other lady called somewhere on the phone, and all of a sudden hung up and said that they could no longer accept them. "what?! What am I supposed to do?", was all I could think. With that, I left rather discouraged and a bit worried, but hopefully something will work out...
After that misadventure, I met up with two other assistants in my town, one American and one British, and we sat for a while, ate some lunch, and later found a telephone company to buy phones from. I decided to hold off on buying a phone because Claire has the home phone that I can use, and I don't have a huge need for one at the moment, but that may change. Tomorrow we are going to go hang out at a beachy area just nearby (I live next to the biggest natural lake in France!) so I am looking forward to that since it has been exceptionally warm here for late September. It felt good to walk home and first of all have a home, but also to have some friends. I think I am making progress, small steps but good ones. Tonight Claire is having her children over for a dinner (they are older and live and work nearby), and her husband works in Paris during the week (a 3 hour train ride) so he will come home tonight too. She invited me to have a big dinner with them, so I am excited, it should be a treat. In fact, yesterday after the bank appointment we went grocery shopping and stopped at the charcuterie (butcher shop) and the cheese shop, and picked up a lot of meat and cheese, so I'm pretty sure it's going to be delicious. :) All in all it was a pretty good day, just hoping that I can figure out what to do about the checks. I will update soon about the dinner and beach, à bientôt et bon weekend!
Bisous,
Amy