Same wavelength?

10h30 Vieux Port metro. My word it was cold! I left at 10 because I had to go and buy credit en route. I was a bit early so I say down to wait. Wind, wind, wind. Cold, cold, cold. Brr. I was meeting another assistant. English. Rachel. We share the same surname. When we finally managed to locate each other, which took a bit of doing. It was a case of 'can you see the orange lorry?' 'Yes'. 'Ok, I'll see you by the orange lorry in about 5 seconds'.We eventually stumbled across each other, both wind swept and cold. Coffee, coffee, coffee. French coffee, mmm. We sat inside in an attempt to warm up. Rachel is from Manchester and at Liverpool university studying French and Classics. She's been here for 2 days. After the coffee we went to the tourist information centre for a map. We couldn't find any so we asked. The lady was marking down where people were from. 'Vous venez d'Allemagne?' Umm, no! After the tourist information centre we walked up La Canabiere to Le Centre Jeunesse which we actually walked past on the way up. We about-turned and walked back down La Canabiere and stopped to admire the 'a louer' adverts. Like everyone else I've met, Rachel's looking for accommodation. She's staying with french people at the minute in the 8e arr... a very nice area. I was there yesterday, I walked the length and bredth of it, suitcase in tow. I showed Rachel what I knew of Marseille which, to be honest, consisted of not a lot! We went in a few phone shops because she doesn't have a french mobile yet. Then we went for lunch - paninis. It was windy and cloudy and there were spots of rain!!! Rain?! How dare it rain?! The cloud was bad enough but rain?! It's like the artic! The waiter person asked us where we were from and from then on it was 'Hello Manchester' everytime he walked past the table. We talked about all manner of things. She is amazingly well travelled when it comes to America. Likes football. We had quite a bit in common and we didn't run out of things to say. We talked about all and nothing. After lunch we walked around some more, Rachel also got a mobile and she came to La Poste with me where a very unhelpful, miserable woman told me 'Il faut toujours apporter votre passeport avec vous.' What was wrong with my driving licence is still beyond me. Then it was a case of needing to warm up - yep, you guessed it, french coffee time! We went inside. It was the kind of place that looked like it had it regulars who had what they considered to be 'their' seats. These 4 men came in and the look on their faces was like 'but you're sitting in OUR seats'! Again, we were jabbering away and laughing. Laughing to the point of crying. It was so funny. Powdered milk and reflections in mirrors. It was good. After we went to check out a museum, but we didn't go in, and then to Monoprix - shopping! After that it was about half five. The day had gone quickly. It had been fun. I felt like we could easily be good friends. Weather permitting we might go to the beach tomorrow. On verra. Anyway, I am now eating les pates fromage-epinards. Auriane isn't back yet. She had her driving test today, j'espere qu'elle a reussi son permis parce qu'elle avait eu plus que 50h de cours! Definitely a 10-stones-in-the-truck kind of day I think.