When I thought that being in France this year would be easier than last year, I made a miscalculation....I am in a new city, albeit one only slightly south of the one I was in last year. I made sure I had all of the documents that I could possibly need--including the x-ray of my lungs that I had to get last year before getting my carte de sejour--and went to the Prefecture. I went to the secretary, explained my situation, took a number and then went to the waiting room. When my number was called, the lady behind the desk said that I shouldn't have come to see her, that I needed to return to the first woman and make an appointment. Went back to the first lady who said that I needed to go back to the woman behind the desk and ask her what kind of carte de sejour I need. I went back to her, and she said, "Do you have number?" And well, no I didn't because the woman who'd told me to talk to her (this is the woman who distributes the numbers) hadn't given me one. "No, I don't have a number, but I just have a quick question...." "You have to take a number. I already buzzed someone else to come to the desk" I waited several minutes, and no one came--apparently there was no one waiting. I had a stare-down with her, but she refused to talk to me with out a number, so I went back to the first one woman and got a number to ask my 10 second questionI . Then the number lady gave me an appointment to come back and depose all of my documents--in November! In Metz, the prefecture took my documents on my first visit. So the process to get my carte de sejour won't start till November, and there go my hopes for getting CAF (housing subsidy) money before the spring. \

My friend Andromeda (also assistant last year, lectrice this year) had an interesting reaction to stress of French bureaucracy--she said that she has become very relaxed because she realizes that all of this stuff is completely out of her control, and you can never count on anything to be correct or on time, but c'est la vie. I (obviously you know if you have been reading my blog at all) have had quite the opposite reaction, and I am in a state of constant stress about whether the recalcitrant French functionaries will help me or whether someone will lose my dossier or someone will do something else that will make my life more complicated. I am trying to adopt her point of view. It's a good thing she's developed some patience because she's in love with a French guy and it sounds like she'll be in France dealing with all of this stuff much longer than I will.

This statement might give you the false impression that I know what I want to do with my life or where I want to go, and this is not true. I am just crossing France off the list. It's not that I don't love this country. I wouldn't be here right now if I didn't love it (well at least the camembert), but my list of complaints is getting long, and I know that I could not stay here for the long haul. I was reading a really interesting link to a CNN article about peoplle's attitudes towards France (link!). There are so many Americans who love France (especially Paris) so much), but to really understand the country,, you have to leave here an experience all of the frustrations related with that. One woman described the situation here very welll, and I will sum it up.
1. The French dont' like rules. This fact is reinforced by the fact that there is barely any physical presence of the law enforcement so no one obeys laws. No one picks up after their dogs; people park everywhere, and on the less serious but equally annoying level, people cut in line in stores a lot.
2. French people think they have the "right and privelege" to everything. They always want the government to give them more than they already have, and this explains why they have gov't subsidies for housing, free time, and vacations. Everyone has the right to enjoyable free time and fabulous vacations,r ight? And when they feel like one of the rights or priiveleges may be taken away , they strike.

One thing I've learned about why French functionaries are so horrible is because they have such tremendous job security. It takes an act of God to get them fired so they don't care how many months (centuriies) it takes me to get my carte de sejour.

Another thing it takes an act of God to do around here is for me to make a single copy. Some of the other lecteurs have it easier because they work within specific departments , and they get copy cards for the printers. I, on the other hand, work with a department which works with almost all of the departments. This means that on a regular day I am running around the city trying to get to different campuses for my different classes. It also means that if I need copies, I have to find the copy-maker for that department, and make a formal request, which might be refused simply because the copy maker does not feel like making copies that day, as I learned the hard way.

Yeah, so the university is a little bit ghetto. Professors have to share (tiny) offices along with their computers, and there have been some classes cancelled simply because there were not enough classrooms available. I know this is because the universities get their money from the government and don't have the tuition and donor resources that American universities do, but even the high school I was in last year in Metz was better equipped.

Anyway, it was not my intention for this entry to complain about the French so much--I just wanted to do a little cultural comparison .

I started classes today. First I had my sociology students, but then I wasn't teaching alone--I was giving them diagnostic English test (it's not looking promising!) with the real teacher. Second was the class that is already planned out-(this class is called S5)-and the topic this time was speeddating, which I thought was kind of dumb, and I consequently rushed through the lesson, and ended up finishing early. Lastly was my phonetics class, and I had some kind of basic activities planned for the class, but I got there, and a problem. The problem was staring at me from the front row--a 60 year old woman. Myactivities were kind of fun, silly things--just like the teacher of the class told me to do, but I almost couldn't do it with her there so serious, pen ready and poised to learn from me. But I got through albeit 15 minutes early.

One thing to know about to understand my classes is that one of four things happens:
1. I take half of the class while the normal teacher takes the other half, and this allows for me to focus on oral expression and allows the students more individual attention. (sociology, business finance, law)
2. As in the S5, I am the primary teacher of the class, but the materials are already pllanned out.
3. For one law class, I am the primary teacher, and I have to plan the lessons and all, but my boss is keeping a sharp eye on my lesson plans. I am hoping to milk the American elections in this class as much as possible.
4. For phonetics, the teacher gives a lecture for two hours weekly to about a zillion students, and then these students have one hour a week with a lecteur(or lectrice-this word varies based on gender) of practical work in which they practice the skills learned in the big lecture class.

Anyway, it doesn't sound too bad, but for the classes that I split with the teachers, some of them are giving me ABSOLUTELY no idea of what to do with the students (especially my class focused on business finance--where I need the most help!) so it's still a little stressful. Plus with the S5, when I don't like the activities (i.e. speeddating), it's pretty obvious to the sttudents . But well, it's sort of a relief to have started classes. Being a lectrice is like being an assistant in that I am younger and "hipper" and more able to relate with the students, and they like that.

Carlos is glad to know that I talked to one of my colleagues about auditing a Spanish class (she's really sweet about it) so hopefully I will be more prepared to talk to his friends and family than I was during my last trip to Spain. He told his little sister that I would be coming, and asked her if she was excited, and she wasn't! She said, "She's coming in a month? That's a long time away! She should be coming sooner than that!" �