Alors ... welcome to my blog (that hopefully I will keep up ) about my stay at Les Pensieres in Annecy. I'm a few days late in starting the blog, as this is already my third night here. Everything is going well so far, with a few minor blips I will explain later.
I was picked up at 7.30am by a edgy-looking Scottish taxi driver who talked to us the entire way to the aeroport about government conspiracies and revolution - not the ideal way to begin a day, my stomach was already doing enough flips about coming to Annecy, never mind thinking we were going to be kidnapped or worse by a bizarre taxi driver. After saying all my goodbyes to my lovely Andreas, I managed to get through security without getting beeped, woop! In the lounge, I totally did consider getting absolutely smashed at the "Bar de Voyageurs" but after much deliberation, decided against it. I successfully managed to board the flight, and leave the country, all by myself! Off to Annecy I go...
I was picked up at Geneva airport by a lovely elderly French man named Paul, who was holding a sign saying "Fondation Merieux," the company that I work for. When I saw it I got a quick flicker of disappoint that it didn't say, "Jennifer Davison" - I've always wanted someone to hold my name on a sign at the airport! Odd, but yeah.
Although Geneva city centre was heaving, soon we were on the much quieter autoroute, zooming past some of the most wonderful scenery I've ever seen; mountains sticking through clouds dusted with snow, blue sky, clear waters .. it was amazing. After about 30 minutes, we arrived at Les Pensieres, where I met all the staff and was shown to my room, well what I thought was my room ... but instead was actually an entire villa. Laurence, the woman who showed me to the place, explained that it they use the place to accommodate "les stagiaires" - like me, but at the moment, I am the only student here so I have the whole place to myself. At the time, I thought this was fine, but after a bit the reality began to sink in. I miss my family. I miss my Andreas. I miss my friends. I miss my life back in Newcastle already. Omg, I'm here for 5 whole months!!!
Things took a bit of a turn for the worse when I discovered my door doesn't have a lock on it. In fact, none of the doors in the entire building lock properly. I discovered this last night (Tues I pretty much crashed straight out) when the key Laurence had given me to lock the front door didn't work. I spent most of last night awake, paranoid that anyone could get in - after phoning my mam and Andreas, I took their advice and pushed a huge chest of drawers (under which I found the biggest dead spider in the world, urgh) in front of the door.
So today, I am utterly shattered. I've just finished my second day at work, which is going very well; the staff are very friendly and accommodating, it's taken me a while to get accustomed to it all, as I've never worked in a hotel before. At the moment, I've not really done much, just getting to know the system and being shown the ropes, so hopefully soon I will really be able to get in the swing of things and do some proper work. I also mentioned to my mentor today about the room situation, so for tonight I am spending the night in one of the guest rooms in the hotel. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to get my living situation sorted out properly.
Thanks for reading this rabble :) xxx
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