The update from the first day at work

I just woke up from a 2 or 3 hour nap. I know, early evening is not the best time to do this sort of thing, but I was just so freakin tired.

So today I went into work. I got directions from Natalya; the lab I'm associated with has a building about a subway stop away from the university in Saint Denis, so she gave me directions there. To get there from her place, I took line 13 of the metro in to La Fourche, then went up and over the tracks to change to the other branch. When a train came that was going to the Saint Denis branch, it was rush hour-crowded, even though it wasn't at all rush hour (10:30 in the morning). I was feeling a bit sorry for myself because I hadn't eaten any breakfast, and was really dreading the notion of this kind of crowdedness for my commute in general. Also it was not a short commute, not the half-hour I thought it was, but more like an hour. (There is a happy ending to this story, see below.)

So after some good use of public maps and my compass ring, I did find my way to rue Catulienne, where the lab (or "labo" en français) is. Honestly, it was a little bit like when I went to Building 20 for the first time at MIT; it really is rather run-down. I learned later that the building is a community music school. In any case the lab is moving soon, for some value of soon, to a spot closer to campus.

When I got there, C (the man with the grant) was not there. The administrator, Cn, was there, and I could tell that she was a positive force in the world, as admin people so often are, and I was very grateful. Of course, my French wasn't really up to the task, but she never gave up on me, and after helping me with some things, took me on the bus with her to the university, where C was finishing up with the faculty meeting, so I could meet the faculty. I wished I could have chatted more with Cn but it was just impossible for me. I like to imagine, though, that she understood I was being friendly.

The university itself, at the end of the metro line, looks a bit like MIT but the buildings are white instead of concrete. There are signs all over the building I was in saying "Université Sans Tabac," that is, "Tobacco-free University," but it struck me as more wishful thinking than anything else. There is a smoking area that one has to go to in order to get to the department, and it's not walled-off. And even far from the smoking area, in the corridors at least, the smell of smoke is omnipresent. In the rooms themselves it seems to be fine, at least.

So I met C finally, and B, who I will most closely be working with; also some other faculty whose names went by in a blur of French, and L, who I knew slightly from before. O is out on maternity leave, so I haven't seen her yet, though we've been in contact. By the time I met C, I was grateful to be speaking English. He is English, I assume London though that's not a professional opinion of his accent, but that's what it sounds like to me. He seems cheery and pleasant and I very much appreciated cheery, pleasant, and English at that moment!

An aside: It's funny how not knowing what's going on, even when you know everything is going fine, is quite stressful. I tried to be phlegmatic about it all, but I really will feel much better when everything isn't new, and when I can talk to people better.

C had something to deal with initially so I talked to B for a bit; she's very warm. Then C and B and I went out for lunch at a place near the labo that they described as their usual hangout, and indeed, the staff was pleased to see them, did the whole kiss-kiss thing, asked about their vacations, teased me about needing to practice my French, and so on. Definitely not the sort of community relations we had at my last job, where the department was unacceptably far from any good place that served food and drink.

We talked about what we would be doing, and they both said how pleased they were to have me there. They liked the idea of me putting together a workshop in the spring (June is best, it looks like) and it was good timing for me to bring it up, because it should go into a funding request that's going in on the 22nd of this month.

Anyway, I felt really happy talking to C and B, professionally we're very much in the same neck of the woods, and I'm looking forward to working with them (and evidently they with me, which is always gratifying).

After lunch, some more headaches: C helped me deal with the administrator from the CNRS (grant-giving organization, French equivalent of the National Science Foundation), but at first she just handed me the phone and I had to try to have a phone conversation in French. C was great though, and I passed the phone to her; she was super helpful in helping me understand what was going on, even though she didn't speak English either. It seems as though if I bring all the right documents, the CNRS people will get my residence permit for me, which if true would be lovely.

C told me that there is after all an office to assist foreign researchers in finding housing and things like that, so I went over there, though finding it took me most of the rest of the afternoon and a lot of asking directions in French. But the person in the office spoke English, so it was all worth it!

Another thing I found out: C lives in the 12th arrondissement, along the RER (commuter rail), which is basically an express train rather than the more local metro. There are fewer of them, and someone had told me that it would be much better to take the metro than the RER, but if C does it it can't be too hard, and he said his train took 17 minutes station to station. So I think I will look for a place in the 3rd, 4th, or 12th, to be closer to the action, and indeed, to bave a quicker trip to work. Both very happy outcomes!

But now to get an apartment. I think I may have to give up on my idea of rooming with students, as they don't really want to spend a lot of money; not that I do, but they have a stipend and I have a salary. And it does seem possible to get teeny tiny studios for not too much, but prohibitively expensive to find real 2- or 3-bedroom places. I was pleased, hanging out this weekend with other expats, to see that it's very possible to just hang out in bars and cafes, and treat your apartment as merely a place to sleep, and maybe cook a bit. So if that's what life is going to be like, I'm not too worried about living alone, though I will have to break this news to the students I was talking to.

In any case, that was my day, plus the nap. Tomorrow: bank, American consulate to get my birth certificate translated into French, and possibly meeting with someone who can help me find an apartment for not an outrageous fee.