Anyway, I was realizing recently that even though I get overwhelmed and stressed out easily, it is how I function best because if I am not busy, I am bored! Remembering this has made me a happier to be where I am. Living here is challenging, but when I am not challenged, I go nuts. I'm remembering all of the menial jobs I've been through in the past couple of years--hostess, daycare teacher, bookstore worker--and I am remembering how I was just pulling my hair out from boredom. I am definitely learning a lot being a lectrice, and there's never a slow moment.
Today I had the medical appointment I need before I can get my carte de sejour. A week ago, I received a letter at school with an appointment that they had chosen --and of course it was at a terribly inconvenient time--during a class I have that only meets 3 times. The teacher pushed back the class an hour, but I got stuck at the medical appointment all afternoon so I had to cancel it. I will have to reschedule it later, but I don't care because all of the medical stuff went smoothly which is a huge relief. I was late to my appointment last year, and this caused problems with everything else, as a sort of domino effect. This year the appointments were out in the Middle of Nowhere, End of the Tramline suburbs, but my roommate gave me exact instructions on how to get there. They did the x-ray of my lungs, which was awkward but fine and I had a little medical examination, and now I am ready for my appointment in a few weeks to apply for my CDS.
It's an interesting time to be an American. Sometimes when I meet strangers (as with the doctor at the medical examination), people are interested in the elections and want to hear my opinion about it--which is good because I have a lot to say (and after checking www.fivethirtyeight.com I am always prepared with the latest poll results!) In my Spanish class, my teacher asked me to give a presentation on the elections. Carlos helped me beforehand, and I went up there and mangled the language in trying to explain the American system. I wasn't prepared for the students to be really interested in the subject, and they just kept asking questions--questions that I had a lot of trouble with with my Spanish vocabulary of simple words like "man/woman" "good/bad" and a few verbs conjugated only in the present tense, haha. I ended up switching to French, and I am not sure that they understand that a whole lot better, but the point is that everyone was very excited and interested to talk to me.
Other times, on the other hand, as with the man Ruth was buying something from at the flea market last weekend, the reaction is hostile, "This whole crisis is your fault! because of the war in Iraq!" I didn't know what to tell him other than that I didn't vote for Bush nor did I default on a loan. But there are definite hostilities towards Americans based on the financial situation, even though most people will admit that it was the fault of European banks for investing their money in the American loan system.
In my classes, since I have a lot of business and finance classes, we are discussing the crisis a lot, and it's interesting to discuss how the un-regulated capitalism (of which the United States was so fiercely proud) failed and how systems like France's, which seem so complicated to me, are doing better. We also got to some interesting discussions about how different countries' cultural values affect their economies. Although, before I sound to keen on France's political/economic system, I must note, that after the comparative economics I have been looking at, I think it's really crazy how France is unable to make progress because people go on strike every time one is proposed. I've read that a lot of businesses have been driven out of this country as a result of how expensive it is to do business here. This is all stuff that I have had a lot of trouble understanding, and hopefully being able to get the perspective of the students will help shine a little light on it.
Everything in my apartment is good. My building is between 100-150 years old, and sometimes when I am going up the narrow wooden staircase, I can imagine some pensionnaires straight out of a Zola novel living here. The problem with living somewhere so old is the bad acoustics. On my street all of the buildings are the same size and height, and so the result is just two (sound-trapping) walls with a street in the middle--so basically I can hear every single tiny thing that happens in the street. It's funny because people walking down the street think they have more privacy than they do--I (and everyone else on the street) can hear every word they say. It's the same with the people in the building--I can always tell what room my neighbors are in, whether they are watching television, when they flush the toilet. It's weird--all of this stuff should be private!
Tomorrow Ruth and I are going to a Marc Chagall exhibit in a tiny village near here. I am very excited!
On Monday I got into a pretty profound discussion which one of the teachers in my department which translated into me getting invited over to dinner to his house along with another teacher in my department and her daughter. We got there, and the house was kind of messy and there were kids everywhere running around and having fun, and everyone kept apologizing for how unorganized everything was, but was such a relief to see French parents who were not at all like the draconian family I spent the summer with. It was also just nice to be a part of normal family life and hopefully I'll be going back sometime soon or will at least do a little babysitting.
Today I had the medical appointment I need before I can get my carte de sejour. A week ago, I received a letter at school with an appointment that they had chosen --and of course it was at a terribly inconvenient time--during a class I have that only meets 3 times. The teacher pushed back the class an hour, but I got stuck at the medical appointment all afternoon so I had to cancel it. I will have to reschedule it later, but I don't care because all of the medical stuff went smoothly which is a huge relief. I was late to my appointment last year, and this caused problems with everything else, as a sort of domino effect. This year the appointments were out in the Middle of Nowhere, End of the Tramline suburbs, but my roommate gave me exact instructions on how to get there. They did the x-ray of my lungs, which was awkward but fine and I had a little medical examination, and now I am ready for my appointment in a few weeks to apply for my CDS.
It's an interesting time to be an American. Sometimes when I meet strangers (as with the doctor at the medical examination), people are interested in the elections and want to hear my opinion about it--which is good because I have a lot to say (and after checking www.fivethirtyeight.com I am always prepared with the latest poll results!) In my Spanish class, my teacher asked me to give a presentation on the elections. Carlos helped me beforehand, and I went up there and mangled the language in trying to explain the American system. I wasn't prepared for the students to be really interested in the subject, and they just kept asking questions--questions that I had a lot of trouble with with my Spanish vocabulary of simple words like "man/woman" "good/bad" and a few verbs conjugated only in the present tense, haha. I ended up switching to French, and I am not sure that they understand that a whole lot better, but the point is that everyone was very excited and interested to talk to me.
Other times, on the other hand, as with the man Ruth was buying something from at the flea market last weekend, the reaction is hostile, "This whole crisis is your fault! because of the war in Iraq!" I didn't know what to tell him other than that I didn't vote for Bush nor did I default on a loan. But there are definite hostilities towards Americans based on the financial situation, even though most people will admit that it was the fault of European banks for investing their money in the American loan system.
In my classes, since I have a lot of business and finance classes, we are discussing the crisis a lot, and it's interesting to discuss how the un-regulated capitalism (of which the United States was so fiercely proud) failed and how systems like France's, which seem so complicated to me, are doing better. We also got to some interesting discussions about how different countries' cultural values affect their economies. Although, before I sound to keen on France's political/economic system, I must note, that after the comparative economics I have been looking at, I think it's really crazy how France is unable to make progress because people go on strike every time one is proposed. I've read that a lot of businesses have been driven out of this country as a result of how expensive it is to do business here. This is all stuff that I have had a lot of trouble understanding, and hopefully being able to get the perspective of the students will help shine a little light on it.
Everything in my apartment is good. My building is between 100-150 years old, and sometimes when I am going up the narrow wooden staircase, I can imagine some pensionnaires straight out of a Zola novel living here. The problem with living somewhere so old is the bad acoustics. On my street all of the buildings are the same size and height, and so the result is just two (sound-trapping) walls with a street in the middle--so basically I can hear every single tiny thing that happens in the street. It's funny because people walking down the street think they have more privacy than they do--I (and everyone else on the street) can hear every word they say. It's the same with the people in the building--I can always tell what room my neighbors are in, whether they are watching television, when they flush the toilet. It's weird--all of this stuff should be private!
Tomorrow Ruth and I are going to a Marc Chagall exhibit in a tiny village near here. I am very excited!
1 commentaires:
France economy is not doing that good. After all they just finally admited that they are in a recession.
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