My adventures in Rouen

Well, I'm finally on my own and it hit me that I was really on my own for the next two months when I boarded the train from Paris St. Lazare to Rouen, France. That was a whole mess in itself. The kiosk wouldn't print out my tickets so I had to stand in line to have someone help me and it was a miracle that I made my train.

When I arrived in Rouen I sat down outside the train station for a while just to take it in and I met a few spanish guys that were asking me directions in english and they were hilarious because of how nice and how happy they were that they found someone who speaks english. I took a taxi from the station to the hostel because it would have been an incredibly long walk and I was not feeling anymore walking. Taxi drivers are insane in France. They drive wildly and all over, granted I have never been in a taxi anywhere else so I've only had experience with these drivers. I arrived at my hostel and checked in and got settled in to my super classy room(sarcasm). It's actually decent though, it has a bed, my own bathroom with shower, and a satellite tv. Although it's only French channels so I ended up watching criminal minds dubbed in French last night.

I was feeling a little lonely being somewhere on my own, but that changed when I was in the lobby on my computer when a man named Maher started talking to me. He asked me something in French and I replied with the typical 'Je ne parle pas bien français, parlez-vous englais?' (I don't speak French well, do you speak english?) He replied that he did, but not very well, which wasn't true at all. He is an incredibly nice person from Tunisia who is working here in Rouen at the Technology center/university as a mechanical engineer. He was telling me all the sites to see and everything that I should do. He even bought me coffee and we chatted for a good two hours about where we were both from and what we are studying. Words cannot even convey the kindness he showed me. He was talking about the recent bombings in Libya of the US embassy that killed a US agent and he apologized for his people and explained that they are not all like that. I couldn't even believe how kind and respectful he was. After our chat I went to bed and didn't expect to see him again.

I awoke this morning without any agenda and wasn't sure of what I would be doing so I went to the lobby to go on the internet and Maher was there. He ended up taking me around town since he had a car and showed me the downtown area and the beautiful sites of Rouen. We stopped at a cafe for coffee and I paid which he did not enjoy at all. He claimed that he has to pay for everything since I am the visitor and new comer to the town. He showed me the university he works at and the good places to eat. We then passed this van that he told me was where the women offer 'sexy time' to men who need it on campus. It was hilarious because of how he said it. English is his third language. His first is Arabic, then French, and then English. He kept apologizing for his bad english, but it was ridiculous since he spoke almost perfect english the entire time I was with him.

Rouen is a beautiful place with extremely friendly people. I went to a bakery last night trying to find anything to eat and they woman who worked there, and most likely owned it, spoke no english. So I basically told her I was very hungry in french, (j'ai tres faim) and she made me this GIGANTIC sandwich. I'm not even kidding when I say it was probably a foot and a half long. It had chicken, tomatoes, deviled eggs, lettuce, mayo, and just a whole assortment of crazy things. She was hilarious.

Now I'm just back in the hostel, probably going to get another one of those sandwiches and then I'll hang out here for the rest of the night. Tomorrow I plan on going to the national museum of education. It's a large museum with collections from as far back as the 1600's all about the French education system. I love it here, but I cannot wait till I return to Paris on Sunday. It was such a crazy change going from that large of a city, to such a smaller area. I will try and update more, but who knows when I will have time to write!

Au revoir mes amis!