Mordicus (that's French for Oscar the Grouch)

I have not had a great week. I've just been kind of mopey, not going out much, feeling a little depressed. This kind of thing is not unusual for me and, in fact, has happened every time I have moved to another country (this is the fourth time). I'm sure it just has something to do with trying to get adjusted to life. It can be frustrating, I guess, but I have not really had that difficult a time getting around or communicating, surprisingly.

The majority of my woes so far feel like they stem from this damn French class I signed up for. Don't get me wrong, the school and teacher are excellent, yet every time I go I start feeling like I just want to quit. What I'm struggling with is the fact that I'm probably the worst student in class. Thanks to my ability in Spanish and a decent grasp on linguistic concepts in general, I did very well on the placement test and was placed a level or so higher than I probably should have been. If any of you have known me for any period of time or ever attended school with me, you'll know that things come easy to me and that I'm usually one of the best in the class. So it's hard for me to sit there being the person that everyone thinks is an idiot.

It's not all me, of course. For the most part, I understand what is going on in class now. I'm used to the teacher's manner of speaking and generally get what he's talking about. The most frustrating thing at this point is my inability to communicate even on a very basic level. I cannot say most of the things I want to say because I lack important, frequently-used words in my vocabulary. Every day I learn a couple more and incorporate them, but you never realize how many words are important in your day-to-day life until you are confronted with the fact that you don't know them.

This has really only affected my ability to interact with other people in my class and participate in group exercises. I usually cannot understand the things they say to me, both because of the vocabulary problem and the fact that pretty much everyone sucks at pronouncing French. However, this is actually one of my own strong points. Yesterday I had to work with this Italian girl who, besides the other anglophones in the class, has the absolute worst accent. She pronounces her vowels as she would in Italian and rolls her R's to a ridiculous degree (Je parrrrrrrrle le Frrrrrançais, if you can imagine), making her very difficult to understand. In fact, it pretty much just sounds like she's speaking Italian all the time. Yet, she had the nerve to get frustrated with me because I could not understand her. She expressed this to the teacher, who could not understand her either. Nothing like a little schadenfreude to brighten one's day.

Another problem is that I took the afternoon class, which is probably the worst time of day for me to try to learn anything. It's when I get all sleepy and hungry and end up yawning all the way through class. One good thing is that I have started making a few friends. I actually ride the metro home with two Spanish-speakers and was relieved when I figured this out because it meant that I could actually have a real conversation with someone and impress them with my language skills. I even wowed a Chinese classmate when I demonstrated my ability in that language. Now, if only I could add in the French...

All this week as I have been moping around feeling sorry for myself for being the classroom dunce, Charlie has been off enjoying himself in the south of France, sightseeing in a place that probably has not changed in 500 years, and eating excessive amounts of cheese. I wish I had gone with him instead. I might not have learned as much French (or maybe I would have?) but I certainly would have enjoyed myself more while taking part in cultural immersion. Don't worry, I'll make Charlie write all about his trip when he gets back on Saturday.

Not much has happened this week, partly because of my bad mood, but also because of circumstances (mainly that my school schedule interferes with my ability to go gallivanting about). As I have been going around Paris and carrying out my daily errands, I have been wondering how the French came to have such a bad reputation for being rude. Maybe I have just been lucky, but the worst thing I have been met with is indifference and even that has been scarce. Almost everyone I have interacted with has been extremely gracious and patient. I haven't really even had any linguistic troubles. For daily tasks, such as shopping, I more or less know all the words I need to know. In the few instances that I did not, whoever was helping me did their best to make sure I understood without showing even an inkling of annoyance about it. I even went to a restaurant for the first time here the other day, all by myself. There wasn't anything particularly complicated about it. The busy host showed me to my table, I ordered a croque-monsieur (a hot ham and cheese sandwich with another large gob of toasty cheese melted on top), paid my bill and voila! Nothing to it. It was surprising, actually. The restaurant experience differs depending on what country/region you are in and I have indeed been in some awkward situations, but as far as I could tell this particular restaurant worked just like one in the U.S.

Besides French class, the only other thing really irking me this week is my supposed student advisor at AUP. She is actually substituting for the usual very pleasant woman who went on maternity leave. Her job is to help students carry out all of the administrative tasks they need to, in terms of financial aid, visas, etc., so that they are all set when orientation starts. Going to school in another country is particularly complicated and, in the case of Paris, extremely expensive. Anyway, she has been a royal bitch ever since I have begun dealing with her. She takes forever to answer e-mails and does so in a condescending and uninformative manner. Recently, there was a problem with my student loans for which she first treated me like an idiot and then, realizing the problem was on the school's end, brushed me off completely, telling me not to panic. Excuse me, but without my loans I can neither pay for school nor my rent or food, so don't tell me not to panic. When all is said and done I will indeed be submitting a complaint to her supervisor. It is hard enough to do all of this without some asshole making things harder for you.

Sigh....

I'm hoping things will start getting better soon. My college friend, Sabrina, is in town and I'm going to try to spend some time with her while she's here. Also, Charlie gets back Saturday night and we have tentative plans to visit the Dali museum on Sunday. To atone for complaining this entire entry, I will now list 10 good things that happened this week:

1. I found a delicious sausage at the store - Saucisse de Toulouse - and ate copious amounts of it.
2. I gave money to the homeless man at Notre-Dame-de-Lorette who always wears a suit jacket and carries a bottle of red wine (you can see him in the previous entry's video at about 2:10). He is the classiest homeless guy I have ever seen.
3. I bought some avocados for €0,50 apiece from a random street vendor. They usually cost at least twice as much in the grocery stores and open-air markets. Avocados here are scrumptious and way better than what we get back home.

4. I figured out how to operate our washing machine, which is in the middle of the kitchen:

And here is our dryer:

5. I watched two excellent movies: "La Bête Humaine" by Jean Renoir and "Fifty Dead Men Walking" by Kari Skogland
6. I impressed some of my classmates with my Spanish AND Chinese skills.
7. I made my first fully-edited movie, the one of the previous blog entry.
8. I went to a restaurant all by myself and ate a mountain of cheesy goodness.

9. I checked out the outside of the pretty church near our apartment - Notre-Dame-de-Lorette - but you can only go inside and do group tours at certain times during the week.

10. Uh... I moved to Paris?

Stay tuned for a more cheery blog entry soon.