Wednesday

I was going to write something positive today. Really, I was. Despite the fact that I've seen the sun maybe 3 times over the past month and that I can't communicate with my friends back home and that my job is completely unsatisfying and that it rains every single miserable day here. Okay, to be fair it doesn't rain every day. It snows sometimes too. 

But fact remains that I'm alone in a foreign country and living on a school campus run by administrators who feel it necessary to censor every damn thing online (the organizing for america website, really??). Look, I need facebook in order to stay in touch with people back home. Yes, I know that email exists. But no, people my age do not communicate using email. We're the social networking/texting generation. We send short little messages frequently to keep each other updated. We do not sit down and write nice long letters/emails to each other on a regular basis. Even our emails are short and to the point. So let me talk to my friends back home, get updates on how and what they're doing. Or if you insist on blocking my account, even though I'm not a freaking student, at least let me pay for a separate internet connection. Give me an alternative! Don't just tell me that it's too bad and that I should try texting and email. I cannot text or email people because I don't know who's actually here and don't have their numbers. And I can't text or email people back home because the mobicarte prices are ridiculous and I don't even have some of my friends' email addresses. And your crap internet connection drops every 5 minutes anyway. You are effectively isolating me from all the Americans in France and my friends back home for 7 months. And that is not okay.

That isn't what pushed me over the edge though. Not today at least. No, it was more the fact that the French like to take time off of work for absolutely no reason in the world. If all of my outlets suddenly stop working as they did earlier today, and I go to the res life office at 2:30 on a Wednesday afternoon, there should be someone there. I should not be greeted by a sign informing me that no one is in the office on Wednesdays or Fridays. It being Wednesday is not a good enough reason for you to stay home and do nothing. I can't use my computer and therefore can't prepare for my classes, I can't use my microwave or hot plates, I can't use my hairdryer, and oh yeah, everything in my fridge is going bad. If I can't do ANYTHING in my room except for take a shower and sleep, yes, I expect you to kind of do something about it. And by something, I mean something other that responding with "Oh, that's too bad. But it's Wednesday and no one's here anymore. At 3 in the afternoon." 

UGH. 

I'm far too much of a workaholic to live here. But then again, I shouldn't have to survive on bread and carry my laptop/adapter/ethernet cable/class notes/everything I might need in order to plan for my classes to another building at night in the rain in order to do my freaking job, regardless of what country or city I'm in. 

I miss the sun and my friends and family and people who actually work normal hours and do their job efficiently. I miss home.