November 7, 2005
I know it’s been a while since I’ve updated my website, I just haven’t really had time to sit down and write. I will be updating the writing part of my trip in France today and I hope to get to Phil’s surprise by Wednesday. I returned to France last Friday. It was raining when I returned and I didn’t feel too well when I got off of the plane. I got down to the train station and bought my ticket back to my town. I sat in the train station for about an hour until my train arrived. There were armed military personnel everywhere with what looked like automatic weapons. It was a rude awakening to the changes that happened in France while I was back in the states. I should probably fill you in on the state of France right now if you haven’t been watching the news.
About 10 days ago, two young men were electrocuted while they hid in an electrical room near a train station. They thought that the police were chasing them. The death of these two boys has led to mass riots everywhere. It started in the suburbs of Paris to protest police targeting of people from North African descent and now has escalated to a demand for economic reform and for the government to construct better low-income housing and other issues. While I was in the states, the day that I was leaving, there was an article in the Star-Ledger about how a dozen cars where set on fire and shops were also burned. The weapon of choice for the young people who are doing this is the Molotov cocktail. I haven’t heard of anyone getting hurt yet. I know that while I’ve been back a car dealership was set on fire and all of the cars there were burned. In the past 4 days, the riots have spread to other cities. Paris, Strasbourg, Dijon, Nice and Marseille have all reported that young people are burning shops, houses, and cars to protest the government and other ideals. The police are having a hard time catching anyone because the explosive is thrown and they run away before the police can catch them.
Personally, I am scared to be here because Americans are not really welcomed in France. Secondly, I am taking revenue away from French citizens who are having difficulties finding a job. Thirdly, my mom has told me that the American government has put out a warning for all Americans traveling in France to be careful and constantly aware of their surroundings. There is not much that I can do now. I just have to wait and hope that it does not come to my town. There have been reports of cars being burned in a town a little north of me.
Anyway, I came back to my building and said hi to the women in the office who look out for me. I was pulled into the office and told that I have to keep some distance from the Chef. Being naïve as I usually am, I never thought that malice would come from niceties. The woman told me that he would be looking for me to repay him for making me food. She said she doesn’t know how he wanted to be repaid, but that I should just stay away from him. Needlessly to say, this scared the crap out of me. So I went back to my room, unpacked a little bit and took a shower.
I went over to my school and prepared a little bit for class even though not sleeping for 28 hours was getting to me. During my break, I met up with the German assistant and we made plans to hang out on Saturday with all of the assistants in Valence. My classes were fine and I had the good surprise of the three girls that gave me a hard time before vacation coming up to me and apologizing. Even though I knew that they were forced to do it, they did a pretty good job of making it seem sincere. Afterwards, I went to the bank and got my money for my rent and bought a new calling card because I used up my previous one. Friday was a horrible rainy day. I tried to make light of it by dancing around in the puddles (because I was soaked to the bone anyway) like; I guess it was Dean Martin, in Singing in the Rain. I got home from work, I made some soup and I went back to my room to eat. I had received my bill for my room in the mail and I also received my Carte Vitale, which means that I can go to the doctor’s now and not pay anything basically. I love the health care system here. I watched some Mythbusters on my laptop and then I went to sleep around midnight. I slept for 13 hours. I couldn’t believe it.
On Saturday, I woke up and went to the local Internet provider thinking that because I have a phone line in my room that I would be able to get DSL. I was wrong. I had gotten my hopes up for nothing. I went back to my room and worked on a Christmas stocking to spend time doing something. I made Mac and Cheese for dinner and went back to my room. I still wasn’t feeling good so I took some cold medicine and made some tea. I sat around and cleaned my room a little bit. Around 7:45, I met up with Krista, the German assistant in my school. She showed me around her apartment and we waited for a bus to take us to the other school. Her apartment was beautiful and made my place look like crap. When we got to the other school, their places look like palaces compared to all of the things I’ve seen. We talked for about four hours. There is an empty room in that school and the rent is cheaper than mine so I’m going to look into moving there, if I’m allowed to. It would be nice; a lot of assistants live there. The rooms are big and they have really nice bathrooms. Anyway, on the way home, Krista and I were walking and ended up causing a three-car accident. Some guys stopped their car in the middle of the road to look at us and they were rear-ended by two cars. Stupid. We couldn’t believe it. I went home and went to sleep.
Once again, I slept for about 12 hours and woke up with really no time to do anything. I sat in my room basically all day, writing up e-mails and updates for my website. I try to stay in my room now that I’ve been warned about the chef and I still have my worries about the guy next door. There’s just something about him that I don’t trust. I had brought three Christmas stocking kits with me to keep me occupied until Christmas. Unfortunately, it seems like I’m going to finish them faster than I expected and I’ll have to think of other things to do.
On Monday, I plan on paying my rent, getting my green card, calling to see if I can move to the nicer school and other things like e-mail and website. I’m trying to wait until Wednesday to go food shopping. I’m going to have to budget to make sure that my salary lasts until I get paid next. I plan on updating on Wednesday about how Phil’s surprise went. Did I mention how this week, I only work three days? The French have a lot of vacation.