October 12, 2005
The last few days have been a bit uneventful. Not in the sense that nothing happened, but everything that happened seemed to get me down. I guess that I’ve gotten to the low point of my trip where everything that I look at makes me homesick, but I also know from last year’s experience that soon enough I will be back at home and I must make the best I can out of this experience. I seem to be adapting to the French lifestyle all to well in the sense of taking a long lunch and learning how to relax, but there are a few things that still get to me.
- Everything closes at 7:30 pmon a weekday.
- Everything closes on Sundays.
- There is dog crap everywhere.
The third thing really gets to me. I don’t know what it is about constantly seeing dog crap and relentlessly trying to avoid stepping in it everywhere I go that it irks me so much. Oh well, I know that people don’t curb their dogs in France and I should be used to it, but I think I will never get used to it.
Monday, I went to the local police building in order to get my green card paperwork taken care of. I now have a temporary green card for France. I have to wait to get a letter from Lyon telling me when I need to go get a physical in order to finalize the paper work. After waiting two hours next to a screaming baby, I got my paperwork and walked out of the police building. On the way home, I ended up walking to close to a fence and tearing a hole in my leather jacket. My initial reaction was that of anger and disappointment, which came out in a series of English curse words. I took a deep breath because I was lucky it came out in English and not in French, but as I looked up a couple of people were staring at me. One man said “tant pis” or too bad in French, and another man looked at me and said, “Just because you’re in France, doesn’t mean that people don’t understand English”. I got embarrassed and apologized and continued to walk home. After walking home in a bit of frustration, I took a few minutes of lying down, and a couple of cookies and I was back to my normal optimistic self. I decided to take my travelers checks with me for the day as I was running errands just incase I found someone who would accept them. I’m happy to say, that I will be buying more international stamps because the post office is the only place in town that will accept them. American Express means nothing to French businesses, so anyone who plans on traveling, I highly suggest not using travelers checks – opt for one of those American Express check cards, because you can use them. I ended up sending postcards out on Monday. I took the bus to the local supermarket because I had to buy cleaning products. While I was at the supermarket, I came up with the ingenious idea of super gluing my jacket back together. I found a French brand of superglue that was also flexible, that way the hole in my jacket wouldn’t be too noticeable. I also bought a pan in order to cook things in the oven, forgetting to buy a potholder, so I’ve been using my winter gloves to hold the pan when I take it out. I’m happy to say that I recognized a face in the cleaning products aisle under the alias of Monsieur Propre. That’s right, Mr. Clean, the same bald cleaning guy we have in the US is also sold in France. The Energizer Bunny also exists, but he’s been on a diet in France and looks really ridiculous. I found what I needed after meandering around the food store for a while: tin foil, which is placed next to bathroom cleaners; Scotch-Bright sponges and dish detergent (Palmolive), which are next to the towels; and laundry detergent, which is next to baby diapers and formula. My last thought about Monday is that French people are absolutely crazy when it comes to supermarkets. Think about that show Supermarket Sweep, but with 10-15 adults in each aisle with approx. 7 carts, and 2 kids each. Now, turn the carts so that the cart is perpendicular to the aisles and that is exactly how French supermarkets are.
Also on Monday, I decided to try my luck at doing one load of wash. I took most of my clothes in my suitcase and walked to the local Laundromat. One load cost me 3.80 Euros and cleaned out my change purse, so I couldn’t dry anything. I decided that I’d just hang everything around my room until it dries. The majority of my clothes took 32 hours to dry. I spent the last few hours on Monday mapping out day and weekend trips that I can go on while I stay here. I have 10 trips mapped out. Whether I go on any or all of them is a question of time and money now.
I woke up Tuesday and decided to do the rest of my laundry. The washer in my building didn’t have clothing in it, so I ran to my room and bought the rest of my laundry to the washer and placed everything in and proceeded to put detergent in the washer. I closed the lid and tried to put my coins into the machine and they wouldn’t work. I panicked. All of my pants had detergent soaking into them and the washer wasn’t accepting my money. I ran down to the main office and asked what I had to do to get the machine to work. I didn’t know that I had to buy laundry tokens from the main office in order to start the machine. After I caught my breath, I ran back upstairs to my laundry and started the machine. I went back to my room and ate breakfast and went back upstairs to put my laundry in the dryer. On my way back to my room, I saw that I had two pieces of mail in my mailbox and I had to go back to the main office to ask them to unlock the mailroom so I could get my things. I was really hoping one piece of mail was the package my mom sent me, but it wasn’t. I received my absentee voting ballot and a letter from my bank here stating my ATM pin. PIN’s are assigned in that way people can’t guess it because it has anything to do with any other numbers in your life.
After waiting around for about an hour, the dryer was done, but my clothing was soaking wet. So, my jeans, sweatshirt, and towels are now hanging around my room, trying to dry. I’m lucky that I don’t have any work on Wednesdays because I probably won’t have any clothing to wear, being that everything will still be damp. I draped my clothing around my room and left for lunch. I bought my usual ham, lettuce and butter sandwich with a peach ice tea from a deli close to my school and I ate it in the park. I felt a little foolish going to school with comfy pants, a tank top, a zip up sweater and sneakers. All of the teachers seem to like wearing haute couture fashions, especially the women love wearing high-heeled shoes. I looked like a wreck compared to them. I walked into the teachers lounge and started looking at my absentee ballot. My boss came over and asked me if I was feeling okay, she said I looked a little upset. I told her about my laundry fiasco and explained that I had no other clothes to wear to work and she said that it was okay, as long as I wore clothing, she didn’t care what kind it was. I also explained that I’m battling homesickness and she said she understood. I’m lucky in the fact that the majority of my teachers I work for have done the same thing as I am doing but it’s been a few years for them. They know the jet lag, the culture shock and the homesickness. I was waiting for about 2 hours before I saw Brigitte, the teacher who was making my work schedule. During the time I was waiting, I made a copy of my ballot in order to use it for teaching purposes and then I went on the Internet, checked my mail, and researched the people running for smaller offices in my district.
I was happy to see a 23-year-old Rutgers Grad, who is also a Rutgers Law School student, is running for Board of Chosen Freeholders for my county. It gave me hope in the fact that within a year, I would like to see my name on a ballot for town council. It’s not often that young women get involved with politics, but I’m hoping that my experience with politics will be a good one. I looked up the local party office and e-mailed them, asking what I needed to do in order to get party approval and to start the campaign for next year.
Anyway, my boss came in after a good amount of time surfing the net and reading the news in the states and gave me my schedule and asked me to go with her to the local tourism office and the small mall in town. My schedule is as follows:
Monday: 2-6
Tuesday: 9-10, 2-3
Wednesday: No work, schools are closed
Thursday: 8-10*, 3-6
Friday: 11-12, 4-6*
The hours with the * meet every other week. In total, I’m not supposed to have more than 12 hours of work a week, but I really don’t mind if I’m over. I know I don’t get paid extra, but it gives me something to do.
After discussing my schedule, Brigitte and I went to the tourism office and she showed me what guides were the best in order to find out what’s going on around town. After that, she went to the mall in order to look for a desk, I went to McDonalds and got a shake. After she found what she wanted, she came to McDonalds to see if I wanted to get a cup of tea with her. The line at McDonald’s was too long so we ended up going to a small market store to get water and apple juice. She has basically taken me under her wing and makes sure that I’m ok. I’m going to baby-sit her 6-year-old daughter on Friday night and she in exchange will prepare me home-cooked meals. Food always makes me happy. I sat in on her class around 3 pm and just watched how class was run. French students are more academically driven than American students. There are no after school clubs sponsored by the school, nor are there sports associated with the school. All clubs and sports are run by the town, that way the school budget and quality of education doesn’t decrease with the amount of money put into other things.
Anyway, I got back to my apartment and started making a pizza out of a French baguette for dinner. I cleaned my room again, folded up some clothes that had dried and organized my train and bus schedules. I couldn’t think of something I want right now more than being at home. I miss it all so much. I miss the clothing dryer. I miss my dogs. I miss Megan and Danielle goofing off around the house. I miss my family, my friends; hanging out, phone calls, listening to people’s excitement when good things happen and about how projects are working out. I miss hanging out with friends on the weekends. I miss the stories my friends tell and how little things that I reminisce about now that bring a smile to my face. I miss my dad busting my chops. Most of all, I miss Phil, so much. I miss his companionship and the way that a good long hug feels. I miss hugs and cuddling. I miss how he covers my eyes when a movie starts to get gory or scary. I miss him racing to open a door for me and carrying my grocery bags even though I fight him the entire way to the car that way I could carry some stuff too. Before I get too upset, I’m going to stop writing this down. I have to walk away for a few minutes.
Ok, I’m back. Karen had called me about an hour again. It’s so good to hear her voice. It’s good to hear anyone’s voice when they call me. Karen called me with some good news that I’m not disclosing, so everyone has to talk to her. It’s nothing big so don’t worry for those who are reading this and don’t have a clue. It’s just really big for Karen and I’m happy to hear from her about it. I’m happy for her and I think my entire building now knows that I’m happy for her. Karen – you deserve all the happiness that the world offers you. I’m proud of you and I hope you know it. Anyway, I called Phil and my Mom to glean my happiness. I love Phil. He has to put up with my kid in a candy store behavior some days and he does it really well. Tomorrow, I have to go to the food store and get more things, like cookies and real food for meals. I have to go to the Internet café and upload this entry and finish uploading the pictures from this weekend.
Now that I have Internet at school, I’ve been reading my e-mail everyday. I know I don’t respond in a timely fashion, but I’m trying to get back to everyone. I really love hearing from everyone, even if it’s a simple hello. It’s like Jimmy Stewart in that Christmas movie, not White Christmas or Miracle on 34th street god, mom’s going to kill me for this one, but anyway when the daughter says: Every time a bell rings an angel gets its wings. Every time I get e-mail, I get a feeling of being back at home and a smile comes to my face. Except when I get a reminder about my credit card, I don’t really like those.
64 Days until I’m back on US soil. J
And I feel like I’m naked in front of a crowd, ‘cause these words are my diary screaming out loud and I know that you’ll use them however you want to. -Anna Nalick “Breathe”
Wednesday, I decided to sleep in. Phil called at 7 am and woke me up for a little bit. It’s always great to hear his voice. I went back to sleep. Around noon, I woke up and realized how late I slept in and kind of rushed to get out the door as fast as I could. I wanted to get to the supermarket before the mobs of crazy people got there. Luckily my clothes were finally dry, so I folded everything up before I left. It seems to be that I’ve lost a sock within the past two days. I got to the store around 2 pm because I had to take 2 buses to get there. On the buses, I planned out what exactly I needed and I knew I didn’t want to spend more than 20 Euro. I ended up spending 29 and change, because I bought some chocolate and some cookies that way I don’t go out at night and buy pastries. I did get real food too. I ended up with eggs, stuff to make a salad, more spaghetti sauce, pudding (vanilla and coconut), a salmon and rice pre-made dinner, turkey cordon bleu, steaks and fruit. The steaks are tiny, no bigger than a paperback novel, and not the Iliad and the Odyssey, more like Dr. Seuss size. There was an exposition today in a local park today with free give-aways. I went to it before I went to the Internet café to upload this page.
Thursday, I will start my first day of work. I’ll let you know how it goes. I think my school has given me more than enough time to get situated – two weeks. Sorry about writing a lot, I don’t have much to do right now. If you read this far to see my apology, I would like to congratulate you, because I’m sure it took forever.