Monday - the first of many

I went to meet someone today. Gemma. She's living/working in the 13e arr. I met her by the metro in Le Vieux Port at 10h. I had to persuade myself I needed to make the effort to meet people, English or French. I refuse to spend the year by myself watching the pass on around me. She was an interesting person - from Scotland, at uni in Glasgow, speaks French and Spanish, supports Rangers, Italian boyfriend. She was outgoing and friendly. We went for a coffee and then around some of the shops. We spent about 3 hours together but then I had to leave because I was meeting Angeline and she was meeting some other English students who are studying at uni here. She'd met them randomally at the train station the other day. I'm not sure what she thought of me, quiet? shy? completely different to her? Maybe.

In the afternoon I met Angeline outside the church on la rue de la republique. We went to La Poste and I am going back tomorrow with all the relevant paperwork to open a bank account. We then went to enquire about la carte perso for the metro. It's cheaper to buy it for the year rather than recharging it weekly or monthly but I'll have to think about it. She took me around Marseille - la canebiere, rue colbert, rue saint ferreol, rue paradis... I saw the town hall, opera, centre bourse, le prefecture... She gave me a 'welcome to marseille gift' - a chocolate mug! It's got 'chocolat' written on it and then melting white chocolate dripping down the top whilst the rest is milk chocolate, or at least it's coloured to look like that anyway. I saw some more of Marseille and began to form a mental map of where things are in relation to each other. My sense of direction is quite bad though so I think it will take a bit longer. I arranged to meet her again tomorrow, devant la pharmacie a cote du passage lorette a 10h30. We're supposed to be going to the beach and then to parc borely but they have forecast rain!! It isn't supposed to rain in Marseille!