Typical Day

BUZZ! Bolting out of my wonderful sleep complete with fabulous, positive dreams, I stumbled my way to my door. Some overly happy fed-ex mailman greeted me BONJOUR! and held up a package with a smile. You are Mlle. Tamra .... - I interrupted his confirmation by pointing to myself (sans actual communication) and motioning for the package. Barely giving him time to hand it to me, and certainly not enough time to sign for it, I mumbled 'merci', closed the door and went immediately back to sleep.

Much later...after some GRE studying, I motivated myself to visit EDF (the electric company). I hadn't received a bill in the mail and definitely did NOT look forward to a late notice for this month's overdue payment. So, I thought I'd visit and seek out the missing 'fracture' (bill). Except that, when I reached the office it had disappeared. I looked at the address from an old bill just to be certain I was indeed at the EDF office; I was, but EDF didn't seem to exist anymore. Bewildered, and annoyed that I had not received a letter in the mail about a change of office location, I asked the nearest person I could find. 'Oh, they aren't working here anymore, you can find an office at 'Place Capitol'. Awesome, what was going to be a thirty minute errand (because of all the walking) was now going to be much longer.

Arriving at Place Capitol,  the town square of Toulouse which has several busy streets branching off from it, I knew I would need help. Timidly I approached the gentleman manning the tourist office's counter. He drew a circle on my map of Toulouse and pointed to the door while telling me it was just a right and a left away. 'Okay'. However, upon consulting my map his circle looked like it was down a side street from the Place. Off I went to discover EDF's top secret hiding place.

I had walked for over an hour down every side street off the Place and asked at least 6 people on the street (all of whom gave me conflicting directions) and still could not find EDF. I decided to ask just ONE more person and was resigned to giving up for the day after that. In front of the MacDonald's on the Place, I approached a gentleman and asked him if he knew where EDF was. He signaled that he was deaf. AWESOME! Okay, not awesome that he was deaf, BUT I knew the alphabet in sign language so this prospect would not be a loss. I spelled out E-D-F and raised my hands in a lost manner. He motioned for me to sit with him and wait for his wife, who was not deaf, but who was in the line getting coffee. I signed m-e-r-c-i, thanking Heaven for my mischievous friends in sixth grade who had learned the alphabet with me so that we could annoy teachers with across-the-classroom 'silent' conversations.

Soon his wife joined us, 'Do you need something?' 'I'm looking for EDF and I have searched and searched and the man at the office of tourism said it was just right here (showing her my map) but I don't really know where that is...' The woman softly turned me toward the Place and pointed straight across from our location to three golden letters, EDF, on the opposite building's facade. She gently rubbed my arm when I admitted my stupidity. I explained that I was new to Toulouse...still. After thanking her, and her spouse, I headed across the square toward the building thinking, "I may not speak French with grace...but at least I know the alphabet, and in some situations it's enough."

-Tam in Toulouse