Yesterday started with my first observations on the rabbits at 8.30. Everything went well and I got to see my first ever rabbit pups! Not very nice though, but they will look nicer soon when they get some fur.
I went to Langlade rabbit farm with a bike borrowed from INRA. As every bike in France, this too was a mountain bike (super expensive one), with only a shitty lock in the back wheel. I was thus afraid to my soul that it would get stolen all the time. It didn't get better when I decided to go to Labège 2, a shopping mall, in order to finally get myself a french card for my phone. I thought I could do this everywhere, but no. So I look at the map and think "huh, 4-5km to the mall from where I live, that's a piece of cake, and like only 3km extra to go there from the farm, I'll go during my lunch brake".
And so I went, all along Le Canal du Midi on the biking lane. I biked, and I biked, and I biked a little more. When I arrived to the payment station for the highway of Toulouse, I started to wonder if I hadn't biked just a little bit too far after all. I took a look at my map, and there it was: the biking lane of Le Canal du Midi, took me to my rabbit farm. Then, however, i was supposed to leave the biking lane around where I live, go under the highway and then go approximately the same distance to where I was standing now. So back I went, all the 25 minutes of biking in the wrong direction, to go under the highway, through the tunnel, and bike another 20 minutes to actually get to Labège 2.
Good, now let me get my friggin' card so I can get back to INRA. I go to SFR, I get a number, and I'm next. Only, there were apparently two ladies bying new phones that were being served at that moment. Getting stressed. Super expensive French mountain bike borrowed to go to the rabbit farm only is outside waiting to get stolen with its shitty locker. I hear ringtones coming out of the cell phone that one of the ladies are buying. Yes, apparently, showing all of the phones functions is included in the service when you buy a phone from SFR...
There's another girl working in this store. She's in grey and not in red as the other ones. So I ask her if I may buy myself a card from her, and a refill for it. She sais no. She doesn't have the authorization to sell things. Her assignment is to give people their number, and tell them how many people are in line before them. I go back, sit down, grumpy, hungry, and not even a cool iPad could entertain me at that point.
40 minutes later, one of the women had seen all the apps of the app store, I am at this point sure that the bike is long gone, and one of the red guys comes to me. I feel the light has come to me. The girl in grey sais "No, you should go for lunch, I'll handle the costumer". Without as much as a card or a password of some kind, given from this lunch man in red, the girl in grey sells me this card I had been waiting for my whole life. Or so it felt.
I was, if possible, more disgussed than when I realized I had been biking an hour in vain.
Thank you for your patience she said. Have a good day she said.
Ran out to the shitty locked billion dollar mountain bike, and it was there. I almost cried of happiness. The remaining 25 minutes of biking felt like flying. Got to work, returned the bike, returned the key, and asked while catching my breath when the restaurant stops serving food. 13.30 she said. What time is it I said. 13.31 she said.
As the elite athlete I am, a quickly switched from the elite biking to the ugly elite walking, 13.34 I stumble through the door "DO YOU SERVE ME FOOD?", French, surprised, eyebrows met me at the entrance: "Off course, we close in 10 minutes". Second cry of happiness for the day. I ate and I worked. It was good.
In the evening a nice girl from work came to pick me up at my place to take me to the metro where we would go and meet with 18 other INRA people. She is so nice, that she even let me borrow her (off course French mountain) bike during the entire time of my stay here in France. I love her. She's so cool.
We first went to Mulligans, an Irish bar and then to la plage to eat tapas, drink fruity rhum drinks and wine. Everyone was super nice to me and I felt like I really belonged there. It ended up being a really nice friday after all :)
Today, I managed to get up to my Body Pump at 10.15 at Movida Castanet. I'm so excited that I can do Les Mills workout before the summer this year, as opposed to always during the summers in Malmö. My first "beach" summer ever maybe?
It's important to only teach the French the most important parts of the Swedish language.
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