A Delightfully Sticky Situation

This morning, already feeling very insecure about my grasp of French among the natives, I called my host family's number that I was given by the AUCP. I called early in the morning, since it was about five o'clock in the evening over there. I had a carefully prepared script of how to communicate the essentials (basically - are you meeting me at the right time Saturday so I'm not wandering around Marseille lost and alone? - kind of thing).

It went something like this, only with my garbled French instead of English:

Christine: Allo?
Me: Bonjour, Christine? This is Ansley Clark. I'm an American student through the AUCP, and I believe I'll be living with you this fall.
Christine: Allo?
Me: Bonjour, Christine? This is Ansley Clark, an American student...
Christine: What?
Me: This is Ansley Clark -
Christine: Who?
Me: Ansley Clark. I was given your name by the AUCP. They told me to contact you before my arrival to make sure everything is ok.
Christine: I have no idea what you're talking about....
Me: Uh....
Christine: Who are you with?
Me: The American University Center of Provence.
Christine: I haven't heard about this...I am moving back to America next week.
Me: Oh.

So, I apologized to her, called the AUCP, went through a very confusing conversation with the program director Lilli where she seemed certain this could not be so, waited for Lilli to call Christine then call me back, found out that Christine is in fact moving next week, and that Lilli had hadn't any idea regarding any of this either. "I hand-picked these families myself," she said. "We have a contract with them. I have no idea how this could happen."

The entire time I was thinking, Oh, Lord, please just let there be someone to pick me up when I land in France Saturday night.

So, by divine intervention, I now have a new host family who signed up last minute - like, last night. They are supposedly a "very loving family," which lessens my nerves a bit. The AUCP was extremely nice and helpful about the whole thing, and now I just feel silly for calling a French woman out of the blue who had no idea what I talking about.

I have a feeling this is the prologue to a whole book of similarly confusing and absurd adventures this fall. It will be called Ansley's Marvelous Escapades in France: The experiences of a cheerful, but naiive American girl among the French. The Prologue is titled "A Delightfully Sticky Situation."