not much

So the France Orange technician came yesterday at 2pm prompt and frogged around with my Livebox. He wasn't able to figure out why the Wifi didn't work, and felt bad about it even though that wasn't what he was sent to do (silly tech support lady), and when I asked him how and who to pay, he shook his head and said No. About an hour later, he calls and says his fellow France Orange technician buddy is here and they're going to frog around with my connection. After about a half an hour of putzing around and mostly trying to translate my English computer, they discovered the problem was an IP address entered by Rodolphe the high school's IT dude to connect to the school server. So I'm online. Granted the signal goes in and out at random times but it works and it's mine and I have unfettered access to the websites and web-based software as I please.

Yay.

Also last night I was invited to Marie-Jo's house for dinner. Marie-Jo is another English teacher at the high school, who back when she was younger, was also a language assistant in England. So she understands the difficulties in being far away from home. Her daughter Elsa was also there, along with Elsa's baby son Thibault. Thibault is a doll and I got to hold him and play with him a lot. I'm not too sure how old he is - his teeth are not yet in but that's apparently delayed and he's just walking but always holding someone's hand. He's not really talking, just word fragments. Dinner was smoked salmon for an entree, broccoli puree (it's better than it sounds and bright green), confit de canard with lentils, regional cheeses, and pastries. And delightful conversation. Every Friday night for the last thirty years, Marie-Jo has watched this program called Thalassa, which is about the sea and anything about the sea. Currently the program is doing a world tour, and last night stopped in the South Pacific. Fascinating. It was really a nice evening.

Today Rocio and I went to the train station to get tickets to Limoges where our mandatory immigration medical visit is, get money from the ATM, and have lunch at the least impressive sandwich shop ever. But the radio played some American music I recognized, and that was interesting.

Right now I'm trying to figure out how to get to the towns I want to visit for the vacation that starts next weekend...at least reserve some hotels! In any case, I'm happy. Rocio just bought me a pastry because I bought her lunch. She's awesome.