taking care of business*

Note: I have been trying to write about my days before I go to sleep each night, but since my internet access has been unpredictable, I haven't been able to post the stories daily... I will try to only post one tale per day until I am caught up, but know that these are several days removed from the actual events... :)

Day 4

Today, I woke at 1:30pm & met M at the Uni. We first went to the residence to request that I stay in the single studio apartment. I couldn’t justify spending the extra $$ for a 2^nd bed & a door to the kitchen. It was a little bigger – freshly painted – but still... we’re talking a pretty big chunk ‘o change, so it was worth asking. And they said “Yes!”, what a pleasant surprise!

We rushed to meet the other lectrice with whom I’ll be working – Claire – so that she & I could receive our timetables & go over some departmental expectations/suggestions. I learned that I will be teaching 4 days/week: MTRF. I will have all day Wednesdays off every week this term, unless something drastic happens with the schedule in the next few days. Mondays, my first class is at noon, the earliest classes I have are @ 10am Thursdays & Fridays, and also on Thurs/Fri, there are pretty big breaks between classes, so Claire & I are hoping to schedule planning meetings on Thursdays... not too shabby.

I also learned that I am not required to be on campus on school breaks, which is wild, because there are a LOT of those!

After that brief meeting, M & I had to run to the bank to set up an account. This evolved into buying the required renter’s insurance & subscribing to a mobile phone as well – a very productive meeting! I will have my new phone a week from tomorrow & I can receive texts from all over the world for FREE... HINT. HINT.

The bank meeting took 2hrs, so it was after 6 before we left & I hadn’t eaten yet today, so M & I went on a search for a restaurant when we immediately ran into 4 of our colleagues who were out for a drink... so we all sat down together and had a lovely visit!

There is this girl, Sara, I met yesterday & who was in the group we ran into tonight that I wanted to mention special on here – partly because I decided I wanted to & partly because I told her I was... haha: She is SO sweet! She is also this crazy blend of all 3 Hingston sisters, which is just so lovely and reminds me of “home” (she had Bron’s hair, wears sweaters similar to Ky’s and her sense of humour is only slightly-less-sarcastic than Lynnie’s)... AND one of the 1^st words I heard her say was “uff-da”, which doesn’t necessarily scream “Hingston”, but it does scream “Canada” (She’s from Midwestern US, fyi), and it’s also a word I’ve gotten my niece to start saying, so it’s a little piece of two of my worlds... *sigh*

At the end of this day, I can say that I am not planning to hop on the plane just yet, things were a little more encouraging... but this is my very first “homesick for NC” feeling ever... and that is a big deal. If I stop, I tear up, so I hope that doesn’t last too long... or at least I hope I can get internet access SOON and feel a little less isolated. I think I am going to survive this adventure – didn’t think that was an option 3 days ago! Baby steps... please keep praying – this is scarier than anything I’ve done before...

also, fyi: my French is not great, but it is not as horrible as I’d feared, which is a blessing!

*feel free to sing the song in your head as you read... unless you just saw this note... in that case, feel free to REread this post while singing the song! :)