Finishing from where I left off

Okay! I don't have class until 2:45PM today, so here's the rest of that story.

On Monday, I went to the University of Nantes campus (known as la Fac, short for la Faculté) to track down Professor Tanaka. Luckily, my feet remembered how to get to the languages building thanks to the campus tour we did last week. Once I got there, I figured it'd be easy street, since there is only one Japanese professor. 

One floor of the building is solely comprised of teachers' offices, which are color-coded by department. I was in the red-door area. I asked a lady speaking German where to go, and she pointed me towards the yellow doors. I went to the yellow doors. I asked a woman working at her desk where to find Professor Tanaka - she pointed me back the red doors. And so it went, for thirty more minutes. I asked a knowledgeable-looking lady putting up posters. She only knew the Spanish department. I asked a slick metro professor, and he threw up his hands then told me to ask his colleague next door. She gave me unintelligible, hyper-vite directions that involved going down stairs, turning corners - too much for me. I asked a technical assistant in an AV room. Nothing, no help. No one had any idea. Meanwhile, crowds of students are gathered around course listings in the halls or waiting to get in to see their own professors. I think about 65% of them scowled at me, and some of them more than once. 

After I had used up the last inch of my resolve, I decided to return to the woman who had given me directions. At least, she had heard of the Japanese department. Embarrassed, defeated, I knocked on her open doorway and admitted that I still couldn't find the professor's office.

And of course, this lady took my hopeless lostness as a direct insult to her sense of directions. She stiffened and caustically told me that she "had already given me perfectly good directions" and that his office was still in the same place she had directed me to - without taking her eyes off of her computer.  Evidently, I was an idiot.

So, I did my best to reconcile with this woman, my last chance for finding this Japanese man, and explained that most likely, I simply hadn't understood her instructions, since my French still isn't that great.

She turned from her email and looked at me in shock. "Vous n'êtes pas français?"

"Non, madame. Je suis américaine. Je viens du Texas."

And that changed everything. Although her manner was still a little cold, she insisted on taking me to the elusive room and made me wait until she had finished her email (even though I tried to escape), then marched me down to Professor Tanaka's office.

Of course, he wasn't there.

That was definitely the most hair-raising encounter I've had so far here, but part of me can't help but feel a smidgen of triumph in that brief exchange:

"What? You're not French?"

"No, ma'am. I'm from Texas."