Sundry thoughts in a sundry life

Where have I been you ask?

2009-04-23T03:57:00.000-07:00

To the USA and back again!

I sat down to write a blog yesterday....and I was too lazy to bother. I've been home, had a horrible experience with Delta Airlines (do not, I repeat do NOT fly internationally with them, it is a choice I have come to regret), back to France, and I am going to Nice (!!) this weekend.

I will have to take yet another sleeper train tonight at 10, arriving at Nice at 9 am. This time, I will have no companion on the train, so I booked a "women only" room to sleep in. When booking, I made the conscious decision to choose the top bunk of the train as it offers the most space and you don't have to set your bed up. What is now very unfortunate is that I have hurt my back again to the point where yesterday it took me 10 minutes to make the 2 minutes journey to the pharmacy. So climbing into a top bunk in the dark at 10 pm should make for an interesting adventure. Not to mention that I am on codeine for the pain which makes me woozy and unstable at best.

This week due to testing, illness, vacation (mine!!) and laziness (also mine, but it wasn't really on purpose!), I have only worked 6 hours this week. Next week is a three day week (I get back from Nice on another sleeper train at 6 am to my town. Hopefully it's not late as I have class at 8 am that day!) in which I work 9 hours. On Tuesday, the English teachers are gathering in the staff room for a going-away type deal, which will involve alcohol. In the staff room. At school!!! Hilarious. (PS Anything you could think of that would be a nice gift to ... 10 teachers?!)

On Wednesday I have 2 classes, then I must have a clean room with all of my things packed and out to be at the train station by 12:45, then in Paris to fly to Dublin where I will stay for a few days with some family friends, then flying to London for a day or so before flying home. I am attempting to upgrade to business class using all of the thousands of miles I have accumulated so far on all of my international journeys. We'll see how that goes.

I have been thinking back to when I first came to France for this job. I was so excited when I left home, so READY. I was excited until I got to Germany and ran into my first problem. I had pre-ordered my tickets to my little town, but was unable to get them at the train station. Combine 24 hours of travel time with a snag in the plans and I was in tears. That was my first experience coming to France, and I think it set the tone. Had everything gone smoothly, I think I would have done better. After I finally made it to France, I ran into "problems" everywhere: I couldn't get a bank account without this piece of paper, but I couldn't get that piece of paper without the secretary giving it to me, then I couldn't get the Internet without a bank account, and I couldn't really talk to my family without the internet. Add into that being thrown into a classroom with 25 kids for the first time ever teaching, and you have a frustrating two weeks.

Looking back (it's not over yet, haha!), I feel like overall it has been a good experience. I think I had really high expectations coming in and that's just not the way the "real" France works. My last visit to Paris had been planned, scrutinized, and was completely smooth sailing. I quickly found out that Paris isn't the rest of France. This assistantship has really opened my eyes and has afforded me some great opportunities. I have been extrememly lucky to be able to visit different places and meet people that I never would have otherwise. I think I've been incredibly lucky so far, and hopefully that luck will extend to a good law school or a good job.

I've been thinking about law school vs a job and to be honest, I like the idea of law school, but I don't know that I can do school again. I also don't know that I will be able to go 3 years with only the most basic of insurances. Then again, I don't know that I can find a job with insurance, let alone a job at all. We'll see, I suppose.

Hopefully I will get better at blogging. While I've had a lot of "time" this week, not all of it has been for me. There have been water problems and school things that I've had to take care of. The next few weeks are looking pretty full. I may not post again until I get home. I'm horrible at this. BUT! Once I do get home-home there are some DIY projects that I really want to do (recovering an arm chair, making an upholstered headboard, curtains, a comforter cover, etc) so I will try to post about those things!

14 year old French kids making my day...

2009-03-20T06:20:00.000-07:00

One of my students made an effort to come talk to me after class. She told me I was very pretty (in English, too!).

I think I will take her back to the US with me.

Life called (and she's kind of a bitch)

2009-03-19T02:55:00.001-07:00

Life called today, while I was in the shower. She (he?) asked me in one of those all too serious tones- "What are you going to do with your life?"

At that point, my 10 minute shower turned into a 30 minute long reflection session on my expectations for the rest of my life. I had flashes of future possibilities- in law school, working at the CIA, working at the company where I did my summer internship.....which one fits ME?

Maybe when I was younger I just had this crazy idea that once you graduate college and have that piece of paper, your life will be decided, you will know exactly what career you want to have and that career will happen to fall into your lap with a nice salary, a signing bonus and maybe even a company car.

Boy, was I wrong. And maybe I wasn't too much younger- only 6 years ago! When deciding where I wanted to go to school, I found out I could go to an out-of-state school for the in-state price as long as I kept this one specific major. So I did. I declared my major my freshman year, at orientation even! I was accepted to the program sophomore year, graduated with an honors degree and special departmental award in 2008. I barely even questioned it. I know now that I had a less than typical college experience.

I suppose what "Life," aka my anxiety, was trying to tell me is that in six weeks my contract is over. I have a total of one decent paying (after necessary overtime) job offer (from my family, great). A depleted life savings account due to my trips around France, to Belgium and Italy (was it worth it? in this economy?) and the hundreds of dollars necessary to pay the IRS (not as fun as Italy/Belgium).

I've applied for what could turn out to be my dream job. It sounds like exactly what I envisioned when I wrote my application essay to my degree program. It's for a decent company, one that is most likely safe from going under due to the economy. Too bad I applied more than 2 months ago and haven't heard a single peep from their hiring service, despite the fact that the job is still listed as "open" on the website. Great.

I always held in my mind that teaching was my fall back plan. Good thing it wasn't my first plan. It's probably a good thing that I came to France, where I didn't need anymore school or any certificates, to try out teaching. While it's been a great experience, a teacher I am definitely not.

I guess that leaves me where I am now. Six weeks until the rest of my life. If I decide to take the summer off to try and find a job that I love, the offer from my previous employer might not be there.

Gah. Hey life, why don't you ease up a bit, huh?

::Edit:: Apparently the company isn't as recession-proof as I thought. That or they found no qualified candidate. The job listing has been canceled. :(

Sunny days..chasing our cares away!

2009-03-16T09:34:00.000-07:00

Today was a gorgeous, slightly warm, and incredibly sunny day. That being said, I slept through half of it. The other half, I was working. I taught a lesson on illegally downloading music and asked them to create their own laws, with the hope that they would come up with very creative (and feasible) laws that would satisfy both the consumer and the artist.

Well, I was wrong. After being put into cages with lions (really??!), you would be forced to pay $1,000,000 for downloading one song illegally. If you were unable to do so, you would either work for the government for free the rest of your life or be cut up by the cops. Yes, those were your only options. At least they got the creative portion right. This coming from kids who admittedly have downloaded thousands of songs. And I suppose I should be happy that some kids even bothered to participate. In one class, 2 students had the nerve to lay on their desks and sleep. The entire class. Ugh.

I would love to attribute today's horrid behavior to the gloriously sunny day that has become so rare. Unfortunately, I can't. These children really are just that bad!! And it's not their personalities- there are some really sweet kids and most of them always talk to me and at least make an attempt to speak in English. It's the lack of discipline in schools in general. No one ever makes them behave. EVER. There are no consequences to talking in class. You may sit by whomever you like. The teachers all shush them, but then tell me after class that "It's just the way they are. There's nothing we can do!" Really?? Can't you send them outside or to the principal? "Bah, no. That would just not be fair!" No, what's not fair is me trying to teach over 16 kids who won't shut up for 2 seconds.

I am currently looking at options (or lack of) for spring break. There are numerous things I want to do, but not having a travel partner makes them very difficult. I had planned on paying around $400 to send my suitcase home so I could make it from Paris to London a bit easier, but with 2 weeks of vacation and plane tickets right at $600 I might as well head on home with one incredibly heavy suitcase and take a break for my mommy's birthday. With my dog. And Taco Bell. Everyday.

We'll see I suppose.

PS- Valernie- my neighbor (the German) gave me mean look this morning. I think it was because he had class at 8 am and I kept him up late laughing obnoxiously about things on video chat. YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

So, blogworld, I'm back

2009-03-15T05:53:00.001-07:00

I've had a livejournal that I never update for a few years, mostly to keep up with friends and enjoy the delightful gossip community ONTD. I had a Xanga during my emo-ridden high school years. I suppose the cycle must start again now that I have graduated from college, moved to France, and am currently on the hunt for a job.

I suppose starting a blog when I first came to France would have made a lot more sense. That way I could've informed everyone on all the strange happenings here, and more importantly, I would have been able to vent my frustrations with this place in a healthier manner than eating Nutella from a spoon on an hourly basis. (It helped, I promise!) Unfortunately, I'm not one who makes a whole lof of sense myself, so I think this blog fits me perfectly. After a few washes, it will be broken in and comfortable enough (I hope), so that I may actually make regular updates.

So here we are (again), first blog entry on a new blog. I'm not sure that with all of these social networks floating around (blog+twitter+facebook+myspace+........) I will keep up with them all, but a girl can try! Maybe I will get around to posting an actual blog entry a bit later today, instead of watching TV online for 12 hours.

Nah...that is highly unlikely.