La Rochelle #31: Poitiers

Today I had to get up at some ridiculous, spiteful hour when the sun and real coffee are nonexistent, so that I could meet Pirate at the train station, to take a 1.5hour train ride (sitting backwards YET AGAIN) to Poitiers [pronuniciation: pwa-tee-ay] to get a final medical checkup and other shit, in order to properly-officially finalise my long-stay visa for France.

Also I know that technically Poitiers isn't actually in La Rochelle, but whatever.

Also-also you don't get to choose your appointment time so I had to miss a class (not that I can understand half of what the mumbling lecturer says, but still).

We spent almost two hours at OFII (French immigration office; the second 'i' is for integration), most of which just involved sitting, and about 10 minutes of which was a basic medical checkup with a nurse, and then for some reason again with a doctor (who made us take off some of our clothes, AGAIN - FYI my doctor back home does the same stuff without any actual stripping required). Then there was an extra couple minutes at the end where we gave all our stuff to the receptionist and she put a big sticker in our passports and stamped it. YAY.

So that was all a bit lame, BUT good points of the day:
- All the admin bullshit is fiiiinally over.
- There were bakeries with LOTS OF PASTRIES FOR CHEAP - and as a result, today I may have accidentally eaten two crepes, one croissant, one blueberry 'armandine' whatever that is (other than YUMMY), and three pains au chocolat. (Don't worry I still ate real food for breakfast, and will do for dinner shortly.)
- Despite my increased intake of cheese and butter, I've managed to not gain any weight (yet)!
- Unlike in La Rochelle, there was SNOW in Poitiers - I'd rank it about 3 out of 5 because it looked proper and white, and there was a good amount of it, but was too icy and difficult to shape.

- I found WEETBIX in a supermarket there - technically 'Weetabix'; same stuff Kay brought me from England, which is wheatier than the NZ sutff and inexplicably rounded at the corners, but still good.

- I also found cachaça! (See: Brazilian spirit that is the main ingredient of the ever-magical CAIPIRINHA, see: lovely refreshing cocktail that still has a little kick) And it was cheap! Yay Europe!

To end on a lighter note: while in Poitiers, we passed a highschool called "Lycée du Bois d’Amour" - which I know probably means "The 'Wood of Love' Highschool", but it is SO much better to translate as "Love-Wood Highschool".  But I liked it more when I confused 'bois' (meaning 'wood') with 'boîte' (meaning 'box').