road warrior

Now that we are living the country life, 30 kilometers away from Troyes, I'm now the one who has to hop in the car to go back to Troyes for my French classes. I don't mind the drive at all, and it also gives me the opportunity to run errands and such whilst visiting the "big city."

I've also decided to go back to the choir at the conservatory, since I never heard "boo" from Mr. Irish. Steph and I had a discussion about it before I went back, because as much as I love singing, it would have been great to have some extra money in the bank, and it's clear that I can't do both. In the end, we decided that it would be ok to go back to the choir, even if it means turning down the job if he calls, and to continue working on the French and keeping an eye out for any daytime work that shows up.

So, this means that I'm on the road three days a week. It turns out that the choir is working a lot with the Youth Choir this year, so they had a rehearsal last night. It was two hours after the French class, so I ran a couple of little errands and then headed over to the Conservatory. It's a good thing I went early too, since it took me a good little while to find a good space (meaning free and not too far away) and then even longer to parallel park into the space I found, since this is a skill I hardly ever had to use before.

Once I was installed in my parking space, I found myself with another half an hour to kill, so I settled in to read my book and eat a little snack. It wasn't too long before the guy who was parked in front of me came to drive away, and drove right into my car in the process! Granted, it wasn't very hard, but it got my attention! People, I'm here to tell you, I thought I would be scared sharing the roads with the French, but that's not the problem - the problem is their atrocious parking habits! Seriously, unless you have a private garage, there is no point in getting huffy about the state of your car here, as it's bound to get dinged up no matter what you do!

Now I just need to figure out what to do with those two hours between French classes and Choir rehearsals (I should say that the normal time for rehearsals is Wednesday evenings, but since the two choirs are working together, we often rehearse during the Youth Choir's normal rehearsal, which is Thursday evenings... two hours after French class is over. It's not every week, but it's often enough to worry!). Now that it's getting colder, I don't think I can always rely on book and snack time in the car...