WE could all use a little change
I decided to make Wednesday a super productive day because I didn’t have to work. The plan was to start by busting my bum to finish all my French administrative business. Then I was going to come home and go to the Laundromat across the street from my place and kick it with a book while my stuff got clean. I had to go to the bank and get them to send me a checkbook (I didn’t get one before, my bad. You NEED a checkbook in France, it’s weird). And I had to go to the social security headquarters and get signed up for healthcare, despite not having some of the needed documents. I figured this was an optimistic plan. In my past France experiences, going to either the bank or the Social Security office can take the better part of a day on its own. But biting off more than I can chew is kind of my thing, and I don’t see why being in foreign country has to change that.
The bank visit took a total of 2 ½ minutes. I said I needed a checkbook, gave the clerk my name and she was like “okay, it’ll be one week, have a nice day!” I was half expecting them to ask for a blood sample or something, but it was easy as pie. I walked out feeling super awesome and efficient at France.
The Social Security visit took a little longer because no one felt like helping me. That's about right for French customer service. The office had an awkward set up. Their cubicles are out in the open, so the whole staff is visible from the waiting area. This means that I could see and hear them chatting and choosing not to help me while I waited. After about fifteen minutes, the front desk woman walked over to them and was like “hey, guys….eh, can someone help her?” She even had to persuade them a little by telling them I had all my papers and it’d probably be super easy. When the woman who reluctantly accepted this assignment called me up to her desk, it took about A minute. I handed her my stack of papers and she was like “okay, it’ll be 2 weeks, have a nice day.”
I’m a little scared to type this because I might jinx myself, but, here goes: it appears that I am done with all the paperwork stuff for getting established here. Whew.
The first part of my day was quick and easy, but laundry ended up being a royal pain. Figures. I got all my stuff together and lugged it over to the laundromat by my place, only to find that they won’t accept anything but coins. And they have no change machine. This is exceptionally ridiculous because all of their services are over 5€ (laundry is pricey here!), so you have to pay with a fat stack of coins. What a bunch of boobs. I decided to go home and wash by hand instead. Not quite the leisurely experience I had been hoping for. I only had enough hanging space for half my dirty clothes, so I only washed half and I’m saving the rest for when I find more motivation or loose change.
STEREOTYPES
On Thursday, I got up at 5:45am again to get to work for my first class at 8am. I arrived on time, but the students were doing another strike “demonstration” out front. For the high schoolers at Villaroy, strike demonstration means dragging trash cans in front of the main doors and then yelling or singing for an hour or so until they get bored and catch a bus elsewhere (probably to a movie or something). So none of my kids came to class.
For my second class, all of three girls showed up. We had a really good time talking about American/French stereotypes. We also talked about the differences between body images for the two countries. I’d say that in America there’s definite appreciation for the petite girls, but we tend to celebrate a busty hourglass shape when paired with a rock-hard abdomen. Women are supposed to be curvy with as little body fat as possible. This is achieved by diet and spending endless hours at the gym, probably doing sit-ups and butt exercises. I’ve found that French girls don’t really do the gym, because that’s not the body that they want.
They expect different, but, of course, equally ridiculous female dimensions. The French female ideal isn’t too far from a high fashion model. Maybe not as tall, but definitely as skinny. Women want to be thin, long, and relatively curveless. For example, the mannequins here have A/B-cups with barely any butt. This body type is achieved by dieting and smoking. My students thought this was probably because the high fashion industry is such a big deal in Paris. It was an interesting conversation.
When the bell rang they actually stayed through their passing time to get some extra chatting in. No students showed up for my next class either. I started heading back to the teacher’s lounge and the same girls from my last class saw me and asked if I could spend a little more time in English with them. They had an open hour so I didn’t see why not. We played Celebrity. It’s the game where everyone gets a slip of paper with a celebrity name on it. You put the paper on your forehead so that everyone but you can see it and then you have to ask Yes/No questions to determine who you are. I was surprised by some of the celebrities didn’t know. For example, they didn’t know Le Petit Prince or Lance Armstrong.
I only had one other class where students showed up that day. We also did an exercise with American/French stereotypes. They were calling stuff out and I was making a list on the board. We had all the basics: fat, war-mongering, loud. This kid in the back goes "They party."
me: “like… what sort of party?” (I was expecting him to say fraternity or something)
kid: “like 'In the USA.’"
me: “Like, do we have parties in America?”(I was still a little confused)
and he goes: "no, like Miley. Like, I put my hands up, they're playing my song..."
For those of you who don’t know what that is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M11SvDtPBhA
I couldn’t help but laugh. I told him that we do sometimes. That whole situation made me smile so hard my face hurt.
When we got to French stereotypes they were shocked and hurt that people think they smell bad and that the women don’t shave. They wanted to know where this idea had come from and I had to admit that I really had no idea. I guessed that it’s because we think of France as really liberal and so we make the leap from liberal to hippy, and hippies are known for not showering or shaving their armpits. They were like, “Hippy?? That’s your thing!”
They also didn’t know that we consider the beret a typical French thing. Because no one actually wears them, you only ever see them in tourist shops. And sometimes on an old man. Marina spotted a guy in a shop that appeared to be wearing one in all seriousness and we got excited, but then we realized he worked there and that was part of his uniform.
Another thing they were surprised to learn was that we don’t casually kiss in the streets. I told them that making out on a public park bench leads to stares and maybe even someone saying “GET A ROOM!” Here, people makeout in public all the time and nobody even notices. Except, today there was a couple in their late 60’s/early 70’s making out in the middle of a metro station. That seemed to surprise people, so there was some blatant staring.
Anyways, it was a relatively quiet school day. I ended up with a total of 10 students for the whole day. So far, the administration has no plan for punishing kids who don't come. Technically students have the right to skip for a political demonstration. The faculty seems pretty divided on that issue. The high school has a new Proviseur (principal), who's in her first year and she's been getting intense criticism in the last couple days. It’s just such a different way to look at rights and freedom for students. The students do not have the right to wear a hijab, a cross or any other religious icon to school. They do have the right to skip class for weeks on end in the name of political protest. In the United States, we wouldn’t dream of telling students they couldn’t wear anything remotely related to their faith in the classroom. That would seem oppressive to us. But if someone was upset about a political decision they could MAYBE strike for a day without consequences, but then they had best find a way to demonstrate outside of school hours or they will be getting marked absent.
On Thursday evening I went to a Japanese restaurant to do a language exchange with a couple of French girls that I met a bit ago. It was cheap and awesome. Way more food than I could eat in one sitting. I had my first real bowl of ramen. Who knew that it could be so much more than what comes in those instant packets? I will definitely be going back there.
TGI FAT
On Friday morning, when I got to my bus stop it said the next one wasn’t coming for 10 minutes because of bus “perturbations” (perturbation = they’re making us late on purpose because of the strike). If I didn’t make my train, the next one wouldn’t come for an hour so I wouldn’t make my first class. I would be cutting it close, but I didn’t really have any other options. We pulled up to the train station 2 minutes before my train was due to depart. I RAN and just made it to my seat before the doors closed.
I got to school on time! But there was yet another “demonstration,” and none of my students came. So, I went and got some coffee and read a little Calvin et Hobbes. I was hoping no one would come to my next class and I could just go home early, but they came and they were jerks. We did some of the stereotypes and talked about American eating habits. I explained that there is an obesity problem, but that not everyone is super overweight and eats McDonalds for every meal, that that’s a stereotype. There was a girl who was convinced that I didn’t know what I was talking about and just kept challenging me and repeating what she’d heard. Whatever. Now it’s vacation, so I get a little bit of time to build up a stronger sense of humor about the less loveable high schoolers.
On the way home there was trash all over the streets, I’m guessing because the trash collectors were either on strike or having trouble getting around due to the strike. It lasted for a day or so, but things appear to be picked up at this point.
After work I met with another man who is interested in private English lessons. He’s less charming than the other two. I’m definitely only meeting him in a public place. We’ll see how it goes.
KABOOM!
Then I went to see this movie Kaboom with Marina. They have posters all over the metro for it so we decided to check it out. SO weird. Just looking at the IMDB page should give you an idea of how weird it is. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1523483/
It’s described as a sci-fi story centered on the sexual awakening of a group of college students. That is accurate. Here’s a handful of character names to give you a better idea: The Messiah, Drug Fairy Nymph, Cult Victim.
We thought it was going to be a weird French movie, but it turns out it’s a weird American movie. I really can’t imagine this having much success in the US. Maybe ironically. Irony is really its only hope.
FRENCH AND COUSCOUS AND BEARS, OH MY!
On Saturday, I went to lunch at one of my coworkers house. She lives not too far from our highschool in Guyancourt with her husband and super cute little girl. We ate and talked for around 5 hours. It felt good to be solidly immersed in French conversation for such a long time. Her friend Claire was there too and she had just been in a national park in the US this summer. We talked a lot about grizzly bears and how you can’t really do anything good to avoid being eaten. Other topics of conversation included motorcycle permits and crazy neighbors/landlords (everyone had a good story to contribute).
When I left their house it was sunny, but sometime during the train ride the sky darkened. By the time I exited the metro stop on my street, there was a downpour and thunder and lightening. It was cool.
LOCKS OF LOVE
Today I went to the same organic market as last week and got some foods and then I went to the Pont des Arts over the Seine. It’s a pedestrian bridge that has a longstanding tradition of couples attaching locks to it as a symbol of their love. It was busy with tourists and couples and tourist couples. I was standing and watching the sunset and this dude came over and asked me if I was Leonardo Da Vinci’s daughter… Because I look so contemplative. That’s a new one. Barf. I let him go for a while because it was an opportunity to speak some French and because I wasn’t ready to walk away form the sunset. I couldn’t tell if he was trying to pick me up or pick my pocket, maybe both. Who knows? Either way, it didn’t work out for him.
In other news, I got 4th student lined up for private English lessons. On Wednesday, I got a phone call from a woman who saw my ad and wants to learn English to help her switch careers and start renting apartments to foreigners. We’re meeting next week after the vacation ends.
Also, one of the students at my high school gave me his sister’s information so that I could go running with her (I had mentioned in my introduction that I’m a runner). I called her last week and we set up a running date for this Tuesday at a park south of the city. So, I’m looking forward to that.
that’s all I’ve got for now. à+
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