My Roommates & My apartment

I have two roommates here in Guebwiller, Noe and Emily.

Noe is a 15 year old who is working here in town 3 weeks at a time and studying 1 week back at his own town. He is doing some sort of auto detailing/marketing job. The exact details are yet unknown to me. He is very friendly and really mature for his age. Last night he invited me out to come to his gym which he does Muay Thai in. I gladly joined in and was surprised to find I still haven't forgotten much of what I learned in Thailand. Actually looking at the others who were there it seems like I have pretty good technique. And Noe commented on this as well. Unfortunately I didn't bring my equipment and it's quite expensive to partake in Muay Thai here so I don't think I will be going back anytime soon or getting a membership there.

Emily is another language assistant in town who also lives with me. She is from the states and can speak perfect French. Emily is not really shy but she seems to enjoy doing her own thing more than Noe and I. But she is quite lovely in her own right as a roommate. 

We also have another assistant Anna who lives close to us from England. Anna doesn't have internet at the moment in her apartment so she's been hanging out with Emily and I chez moi. She also speaks very good French and is quite lively and talkative.  

As for my apartment. It is quite small but more than adequate for my needs. I am renting a newly furnished house with my own room plus shared kitchen and bathroom. The landlord is quite nice and explained why he prefer to rent to non families which is contrary to most landlords. So apparently there was a family that rented out the whole house prior to us moving in. But they never paid their rent and when he evicted them they destroyed everything on the way out. So we are the first people to rent this place after he renovated it.

Peace from Guebwiller. 

France Update!

I have begun my France adventure! I arrived in Guebwiller in the Alsace region 2 days ago and it has been quite smooth.  I found an apartment within a day and am living with awesome roommates! But first let's start with the start of my journey!

I bought an airplane ticket for the 25 of September together with Aimée the friend I met who is also doing the French program.  Once I arrived at the airport I was greeted with Aimée and new friends who are also doing the program.  In total we were 7 flying that same day doing the same program! Of course everyone was excited and nervous at the same time.  But due to my prior experience with other programs I was quite at ease and calm. 

We had a very uneventful flight except the lack of personal entertainment options. We flew with airtransat holidays and because they were a budget airline we had no control over the in flight entertainment.  So this made the flight quite long naturally.  But because I was sitting with 2 other assistants we passed the time talking and playing cards. 

Finally we all arrived in Paris.  The first thing I did was buy a "carte jeune" for the train.  with this card I now have pretty good discounts for traveling within Europe.  My ticket to Colmar was suppose to be 79 euros but it became 53 euros after the discount.  As we waited for our trains to arrive we got to know each other better.  And now I have the contacts of my new friends in Grenoble, Bordeaux and Lyon! of course I told them they could come visit me anytime they want! 

I arrived in Colmar and was picked up by my Airbnb host Christophe.  It was really easy to talk to him and we arrived in Guebwiller after a quick 10 minute drive. I got settled in quickly and took his bike to apartment hunt. The town itself is tiny and very walkable.  It is only 11 000 population wise.  But I decided to take the bike anyways just in case. 

Luckily for me I found an apartment as soon as I started looking and moved in within the day. I am now living with 2 awesome roommates in a newly furnished house about 1km away from the center of town.  One of my roommates Noe is a 15 year old who is doing an apprenticeship program and works in this town 3 weeks at a time and 1 week studying back at his town.  The other Emily is another language assistant who works at the other lycée in town.  Anyhow we got along famously and it is shaping up to be a good year. 

We also met up with Anna a language assistant from another lycee in town and she's been coming over to hangout with us the past couple of days and it's been lovely. We are having a "cheeky"  time together as she would put it. 

Anyways now that my apartment has been sorted out I'm just in the process of finding a bicycle and setting up my bank account. 

The train station in Colmar which is about 25km away

Town church

I bought these. I am a grown ass MAN!

Entering town center, reminds me of Old Quebec but smaller.

There is a supermarket 5 minutes walk from me, the whole town pretty much consists of tiny streets like these and is very walkable and tiny. 

Peace from Guebwiller. 

France and how I lost $1000

So I didn't really lose $1000 but the ways things went down it felt that way in my mind.

On the flight back from Japan there was a connection in Minnesota and they had overbooked the flight for back to Toronto. The airline was asking for 3 volunteers to take the next flight out in exchange for a $600 travel voucher. However since no one stepped up to the plate they kept bumping it up until it was $1000 plus accommodation for the night in Minnesota. Of course I couldn't take it because I had my embassy appointment the next day.

So the next day I went to my embassy appointment and had my visa sorted out. France is getting closer and closer. I actually met 3 other people who were doing the same thing for the language assistant program and we all chilled together in the waiting room even after they had finished our applications haha.

Peace from Toronto.

Tokyo Recap

I been so tired/busy in Tokyo that I didn't get the chance to write up most of the things that happened. So here is a recap:

Doremon

Tokyo tower

Beer fest with an awesome German band

The other side of Ichiran ramen

Harajuku the fashion district

Pachinko slots

Dinner with Yunjie my PSA friend from University 

Shabu Shabu

Giant lifesize gundam in Oedaiba

A cool hostle worker in Wasabi hostels

Second time performing standup in Tokyo - very short 3 minute set. I would have done more but that was the time we were alloted. Felt so rushed and used only new materials. 

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Last Day in Japan

The last day in Japan Roman and I went to the Fish markets and checked out the famous Tuna auctions. 

We had previously tried to get into the auctions with no success. The problem was the time. In order to see the auctions you have to line up before the crack of dawn at around 3am. We had woken up at 2am last time and biked over 1 hour to the tuna auctions, only to find out they were all out of the alloted 120 tickets / day. Needless to say that was not a fun day.

Anyways Roman and I checked out of our hostel the day before and simply did not sleep for this last day. We arrived at the Tuna auction site around 2am and were the very first persons in line. Soon after more and more people arrived. We got our pennies and were ushered into a small cramped room where they showed us a safety video of how to behave in the auctions. Basically you are only allowed to breath haha. Anyways we waited there for over an hour and finally were lead through the market to this big warehouse where the auction happens. 

The auctioneer was really animated and shouted out things in quick succession. The wholesalers who were buying up the fish went about their business with lightning efficiency and simply used hand signs to bid on the fish. Prior to that they poked and prodded the tuna with their special tools ostensibly to check the freshness of the tuna. 

Anyways having finished the last thing on our Japan bucket list we headed for the airport for the ride home. 

Got my fortune read - very good! 

Used panties dispensing machine out in the open in Ueno ($5 each haha)

Roman catching some zzzs before the start of the auction

All the cartons of Styrofoam for the fish

How to get your fortune

Supermarket sushi

Peace from Tokyo.