Immigration part deux

The shady sounding "welcome" session went well and the folks were actually pretty helpful. I get to bypass the French classes but unfortunately have to attend the civics session, work assessment, and "la vie en France" session, where presumably, I will learn all-important french tasks like; how to buy a baguette, how to complain like a professional, and how to give dinner table speeches that no one's interested in.

French Immigration part one

I recieve a very imposing letter telling me that the French government demands my presence on such and such date at such and such time for a "welcome" session and a mysterious doctor's appointment. I arrive at stated place on specified date during an intense electrical storm, just to add to the foreboding. It is me and about 15 other immigrants, mostly Eastern Europeans with un-ironic mullets and plaid shirts. Among these is random overweight Eastern European man in overalls who just yesterday was drunk on the street in the middle of the day asking me for change. He, apparently, is a jokester and keeps on making all the other mulleted plaid folks laugh. The other attendees are Maghrebian (is that a word in English?) couples and young east-asian women with their creepy 60-something-year-old French husbands. Though we were all told to arrive at 8:30 am the doctor's office doesn't actually open until 9:00 at which point we are all given time slots and told to wait in the waiting room. Fortunately for me, I am one of the first to be called, at which point I am taken to an exam room, weighed, then taken to another room where I am told to take off my shirt and bra and wait. I stand half naked alone in a room for a few minutes until an older man, presumably the doctor, comes in and sets me up for a chest x-ray. He determines that I don't have TB, compliments me on my excellent french, and then sends me on my way.