Happy Halloween!

10-31-09
So, I’ve been reflecting the past two days about what might be the best solution to take care of my restlessness problem. After going over two different lists of pros and cons of staying in this apartment, i’ve decided to stay here in Aiguillon, save some money and just make the apartment a bit more livable. Today I called France Telecom to have them come and install a fixed line here with internet, and we’ll be able to cut the contract at 7 months, when I leave. I am also opting to decorate the apartment a bit with a rug here and a lamp there, but I don’t want to spend too much on decor only to have to give it all away in the end.
I called and canceled the apartment visits that I had planned in Agen. I don’t think with the work they’re doing on the rail system right now that there’s even a train to get there on Saturdays- as far as I know, it’s only running through the main stops during the weekend up until November 20th- but Amy and I are going to walk down to the station later to check the schedule.


The other day, as I was coming back from a shopping trip in Marmande, there was a bit of a disruption with the trains that led me stuck in Agen without a ride back to Aiguillon. Here’s what happened: I was on the last train back to Aiguillon, which kept getting delayed 20 minutes, then 25, then 40, then an hour...and so on. Everyone on the train was getting restless and all the conductor could tell us over the loudspeaker was “we’ll give you information as it comes up”. So we sat for maybe 1 hour-1 hour ½ waiting to leave, and then the conductor says (from what I could discern), something about the gendarmerie (police) being dispatched and us having to switch trains....so I asked another passenger, an older woman, what was going on (for a bit of clarity) and she told me that one of the trains had been “attaqué”, or hijacked I guess. Wtf? So I change trains, only to find that the one I got on passed aiguillon and went straight to Agen. I (fretting a little inside but remaining what I thought was calm and collected on the outside). After disembarking at the Agen station, I found the SNCF worker closest to me and explained my situation. She told me, with the biggest French shrug possible, that there wasn’t a train going back to Aiguillon for the rest of the night (it was only 8:30 or 9!!) and that I should call someone for a ride back home. I called the three professors that I knew that lived in or near Agen- each one was out of town, of course, and one didn’t respond his cell or his home phone. That was my “contact” that is essentially supposed to be the one I call when I need something. Go figure. Anyway, Marie José (One of the profs who took me under her wing as soon as I arrived and already invited me over to her house twice for dinner) was in Bayonne at the time and called her friends from where she was to see if they could take me in for the night. I told her I’d just look for a hotel because I didn’t want to bother anyone- so I walked not far down the main road from the Agen station and came across Hotel Regina, a two-star hotel that seemed to be open but whose doors were already locked. The concierge saw me trying to get in and came to tell me the hotel already stopped taking reservations. I told here I was willing to go elsewhere, but I just needed one room for the night and that was it. She brought me over to her desk and showed me that she had one room available, for 36 Euro (an extra 7 for petit dejeuner) and I said i’ll take it. I was just happy to get a room for the night and not have to sleep in someone’s house I didn’t really know. Plus, it was essentially the first hotel I got to stay in during vacation. For two stars, it was just what I needed- the only minor thing being the toilet was a shared one in the hallway. But that was nothing- the public toilets on the streets however, are crawling with all sorts of diseases and black plagues and such. I think the one in the hotel was typhoid free.
I may be returning to the same hotel a few times a month in order to take theatre classes in Agen. I’ve already gone and met the teacher of one of the classes there, but it doesn’t get out until 9 p.m. (and as we all know by know, there is most certainly no way to get back to Aiguillon at that point in time). Amy suggested instead of finding an apartment to be around classes and such in Agen that get out late, to just stay in a hotel for the time I’ll need to be there. This would be during the week however, and I do have an 8:15 class in Aiguillon the following morning, but thanks to the early trains it shouldn’t be a problem.