"Ouah! Ils sont massifs!"

Out of fifty some kids, mine were the biggest and most impressive ("magnifique," actually) pair that he’d seen all day. “He” being the doctor and my lungs being the source of all the excitement. I guess years of singing and cross country have left me blessed. On Thursday I had to go into Rouen for a chest X-ray and an immigration appointment so that I could get my titre de séjour and stay in the country legally. In ten minutes I had my X-ray in hand, and set out to see some more of Rouen before my immigration appointment at 12.45.

I arrived 20 minutes early, only to find that I was the last person in line. Thinking that I’d be in and out, just like my earlier appointment, I calmed down as the line started to move at a decent pace. When I finally got up to the receptionist and checked in, I was directed into an adjacent room where everyone that was just in front of me was now sitting. I soon found out that several of these people had been waiting since 10.00 or 11.00 to see the one doctor and get their titre de séjour. From what I’ve experienced so far, the French are remarkably efficient when they want to be (i.e. train and bus schedules when there’s not a grève), otherwise (at least when it comes to administrative procedures) they’re painfully inefficient. I ended up waiting 3 hours for a 10 minute visit with the doctor and a 45 second meeting to get a sticker put in my passport. I came in just after lunch and the sun was setting as I was walking back to the train station. It was a necessary visit, however, so I sucked it up and just went along with it. Admittedly, my day went more smoothly than for some of the others. At both offices the receptionists perked up at seeing my name and were noticeably nicer to me because of it. I didn’t even realize it until other assistants commented that they weren’t that nice to them. At the immigration office, the receptionist was so interested that while having a conversation with someone else on the phone she proceeded to ask me where I’m from, where my family is from in France, when they came over etc., recounting the details to whoever was on the other end.

Friday night I went into Rouen to meet up with some of the other assistants. Keeping it classy, we each white-plastic-bagged a bottle of wine and stationed ourselves in front of O’Kallaghan’s, which draws more of a crowd you’d expect to find in SoHo than at an Irish pub. We were caught by our waiter, but thankfully he didn’t really care, it was packed outside so he was busy, and we did actually order other drinks.

For the next two weeks I’ll only have a three-day week; this Thursday is a holiday and the following Thursday I’ll be in Rouen for yet another stage. Oh and just so you don't feel left out:

Scaled back to 62% and they keep going...don't act like you're not impressed.