Typisch Französisch

Today, the buses between the RER métro station and the school where I teach weren't running. No warning, no notification, just an unusually large number of people milling about the stop. Thankfully there were a few other teachers who had arrived on the same train, and we set off on the 25-minute walk to the school. As it was still dark, essentially what could be considered the wee hours of the morning for a recent college grad like myself, this was not my idea of a good time. However, I did have some enjoyable, half-asleep-and-can't-believe-I-have-to-speak-in-a-foreign-language conversation with the German assistant and a history prof I work with. I think my favorite part of the morning came as we were scurrying across the street when the light was red (or rather, the German assistant and I were scurrying, while the other profs had naturally noticed the opening earlier and crossed at a more leisurely pace).

"Findest du es nicht komisch, dass man hier immer bei Rot über die Ampel geht?" (Don't you think it's weird that everyone jaywalks here?) I asked.

The German assistant smirked. "Das ist typisch französisch, halt." (That's just typically French.)

Indeed. It's certainly a sharp contrast from Tübingen, where a man once sped up in an apparent attempt to mow me down in the intersection the one time I dared cross on a red light (not achieving this, he instead shook his fist and shouted at me).

Upon reflection, I think the whole morning was very typically French. (Or even this whole week. Or whole month and a half.) The buses weren't running, but no one panicked. No one was even terribly surprised. Everyone passed smoothly to plan B. The heat hasn't been working, but everyone just dresses warm--or organizes to cancel class. It's been taking over a month to get my autorisation de cumul, but the CNRS is still willing to hire me. Delays, mishaps, and inconveniences are taken in stride. It's really quite admirable how patient and and understanding (most) people here are.

Of course I would rather live without the unexpected setbacks (which seem be unusually frequent here...)--but I think there's an important lesson in flexibility to be learned for me.

And I love living in Paris. Just. Love.

:)

Almost three weeks on...

The infrequency of my blogging makes it a bit more difficult to recap everything that has been going on. Perhaps a list this time, eh?

1. I started teaching! It's lovely so far--I really like my colleagues, who for the most part speak English so well I am ashamed to try out my French. The kids themselves are generally sweet (with a few exceptions...), if a little shy. The only drawback to this job is that I have been spending far too much time searching for things in English to work on my French (I went through the entire archives of xkcd.com today to look for interesting comics for them to describe and consider the humor of). Thankfully most of my social interactions are in French, but that means that I notice I don't know a word at the time, talk around it, then forget to look it up. Sigh.

2. I have wanted to CUT whoever is in charge of organisation in France (or at least in government/education). I have been trying to get something called an "autorisation de cumul", essentially a document which allows me to have a second job. However, when I initially asked about this, both the lycée and the rectorat pointed fingers at each other insisting that the OTHER was responsible for procuring the document. The burden finally fell to my lycée, but it turns out no one is really sure how many hours per week I would be able to work at a second job, or how much I could legally get paid. I suggested we just submit a demand with the max my lab wants to pay me, because that might actually be the easiest way to find out--if my request is denied, they should at least give a reason, right? Wrong. The secretary is pretty sure they won't bother to do that, which I think is pretty ridiculous, because it would save them time in the future because then I won't continue to submit unacceptable requests. And in general I just feel pretty bad about this, because the lab wanted to hire me for October 1, but it has just taken SO LONG. All for a stupid formality, as I will BE at the lab for however long they need me ANYWAY, I just may not be allowed to be paid as much. So in a way, the French government is getting me to work for free. Probably not something the Libertarians would like.

3. I don't have (m)any exciting social stories because the first weekend I was living in actual Paris (or "on Paris", as they say in French), I was lying in bed unable to move due to some awful cold/flu/stomach virus thingy. I did manage to go out yesterday, though, and saw what appeared to be something like a marching band playing in the middle of the street around midnight. They really had the whole works: trombone, clarinet, saxophone, two snare drums, a piccolo...it was certainly not something I had expected to see, and although my initial thought was "ca doit être chiant si on veut dormir" (that's got to be annoying if you want to sleep), I ultimately thought it was quite cool, especially since they were not bad.