Printemps du Cinema

It appears that French cinemas welcome spring with cheaper admission. For the past three days, all movies have been 3,50 so I took advantage and went to and saw Les Femmes du 6eme Etage and Made in Dagenham (which is referred to as "We Want Sex Equality" here in la belle France). I thoroughly enjoyed both, though I felt Made in Dagenham got off to a rather slow start. 

Les Femmes du 6eme Etage is about Spanish women who work as maids for wealthy Parisian families and follows the evolution of one male employer's perception of these women, which in turn affects his relationships not only with them but also with his elitist wife and friends/colleagues. Immigration, class, and gender issues all rolled up into one, plus a cute and often hilarious love line made it easy to like, despite the challenge of having to decipher French spoken with a Spanish accent. 

Made in Dagenham/We Want Sex Equality is based on a true story and follows the strikes of women employees at the Ford Dagenham plant, who protest sexual discrimination and demand equal pay as the men. It was pretty lighthearted for the most part, but did also show the consequences of fighting for rights - on marriage/family, friendships, etc. Some of the scenarios are highly unlikely and difficult to believe, but overall I appreciated it. It is a feel good movie, after all. 

Aside from watching happy, feel good movies, I've been preparing lessons in order to teach French schoolchildren about texting slang/shorthand and the civil rights movement (late, I know, but sadly I had to work really hard to convince people to let me do it at all) and soaking up as much sunlight as I can while this gorgeous weather lasts. Have to stimulate vitamin D synthesis!

Today's day 1 of my fifth to last week as an English teaching assistant in France. And unlike far too many of my other days here, it has been/is marvelous. The sun is out and shining, skies are gorgeously blue, flowers are starting to bloom, and everyone is generally much cheerier than usual. Like the one teacher that I was frightened of, for instance, who decided to have a nice heart-to-heart with me in hushed tones as she oversaw her students doing a devoir. Even the man at the post office was unusually nice, joking with me as he did his job efficiently and with a smile(!!!).

The view from my window - tell me those blue skies would not plaster a huge grin onto your face!

Strangely enough, this place is (finally) starting to feel a little bit like home, and I suspect that I will miss it dearly when I leave in 5 weeks.

Am back from a marvelous two weeks traveling around Portugal, Spain, and Morocco, wonderfully refreshed and ready to take on the system once more. Only six more weeks!

It's 11am and all I want to do is drink. I'm so unhappy with my job. And taking initiative and talking to my supervisor about that discontentment and what I'd like to do instead of these *expletive* annoying, useless mock exams I've been doing since I got here just led to...wait for it...plans for me to do basically the exact same thing, only with more work on my end. I DON'T WANT TO DO THIS WORK BECAUSE I COULDN'T CARE LESS ABOUT THESE SUBJECTS AND NO ONE GETS ANYTHING OUT OF IT. What part of that is so difficult for you to understand??

So sick of being in a school where teachers want nothing more than for their students to pass their exams. There is more to life than exams, people. And I say that as someone who did really well on basically all the standardized tests she took. I miss being around people who think outside the box and use unconventional methods if traditional ones aren't working.

Aaaand all this frustration/negativity is clearly a sign that I am in need of a break. Good thing I'll be leaving this place in 10 days!

Cultural Differences, Prelude

I'll expand more on the differences between the American and French cultures on another day, when it's not 2am and I haven't just gotten back from a terrible theme party. But the theme party and how different it was from, say, theme parties at American colleges across the country shed some light on one of the major reasons for the frustration that I experience somewhat regularly here. 

Before I start, let me clarify and state that I'm talking mostly about college aged students and middle-aged people in this post. I have met far too few people over the age of 50 for me to draw conclusions about the whole of the French populace. 

So I went to a traffic light party (such a good people watching opportunity!), and in order to get into the spirit I wore the one article of clothing I possess that is red, orange, yellow, or green. And as luck would have it, that piece of clothing was of course a green cardigan. Let me just add that while I am not presently in a relationship, I have no problems whatsoever with that fact. Unlike many of the women I've encountered here, I enjoy singledom and all the things that come with it. I like that I'm introduced as Jenny rather than x's copine or girlfriend. But that's a post for another day. Point is, I only had something green to wear. But I figured, it's a theme party and people will probably be dressed up enough that I'll blend in. Right? Wrong. 

The first thing I noticed when I walked into the cleverly named Love Boat was the all too conspicuous lack of color. Any color, not just red, yellow, and green. Everyone, and I mean literally everyone minus maybe two of the bartenders, was dressed in black or gray or some other very dark shade. Which put me in a very awkward situation, because let's be real, there was no way in hell I was taking off my jacket. But I sat down and talked to a friend and waited, because there weren't too many people there at that point and I expected the room to slowly start filling up with painfully bright colors as more and more people started arriving. As per my expectations, the bar did after some time become fairly crowded. Sadly the color palette did not change. 

Compare this to what happens at theme parties in the US. I'm pretty confident that this would never have happened back at home. The few theme parties I've gone to have been eye-opening experiences; people will literally go all out. Americans love theme parties. Or perhaps they just like being able to use whatever excuse to have a party. In any case, people will get into it and plan costumes and actually dress up. They're enthusiastic and react to suggestions. Whereas the French just s'en foutent and ignore everything. 

In all honesty, I admit that this is a terrible example and probably does nothing to support my case. It's just a party after all. You don't have to get dressed up, and doing so says nothing about you one way or another. But I've noticed this same apathetic attitude in so many of my (admittedly limited) interactions with the French. People here don't like to do things. They complain, they moan, they dislike how things are handled, but they don't do anything to change it. Even in taking action, they minimize, as much as humanly possible, the amount of work that they themselves have to do. The French are notorious for their strikes, and rightfully so. And strikes, when carried out properly, can be a useful and effective way of showing displeasure and effecting change. But even these here are really more of an excuse to complain than anything else. People block gas pumps and schools, walk through towns and disrupt traffic, all the while not doing their jobs and singing and eating cotton candy or, on the opposite end of the spectrum, setting cars on fire. Moreover, they do this so often that the strikes have lost their impact. 

So why not start grassroots movements? Why not organize other ways of protesting government policies? Why not suggest alternatives? It's so much better to say "I don't agree with what you're doing, and here's what you can do to better represent me and the other people who have elected you" than just "I don't agree with what you're doing." But the French just can't be bothered to do that. They show their displeasure by holding up signs then sit back and prepare to complain some more when things don't go the way they want them to. They recognize problems that exist but do nothing to address them, or better yet, pretend those problems don't exist at all. Like racism for example. Most of the people I've talked to either 1) acknowledge that racism is a problem but don't do anything to change people's attitudes or 2) think that racism does not exist in France since race as a concept doesn't really exist here. One of the most interesting and mind-blowing conversations I had was with an immigrant from Africa, who told me that while he recognizes that racism is a real problem in France, he thinks it's best to just rise above it all and simply work toward his personal goals. Which is certainly a very noble attitude. 

But the problem is that, if everyone thinks that way, if every single person who has ever experienced discrimination on the basis of race (or gender or class or sexuality or religion, for that matter) simply "turns the other cheek" then just walks away, nothing will ever change. There won't be any real progress. Generation after generation will experience the same problems, face the same challenges, and nothing will improve. It blows my mind that someone can think this is the best response to such a deep-seated issue. Granted, I can be idealistic sometimes and firmly believe that one person can change the world. But individuals have, in the past, set entire movements and revolutions in motion. A single grain of rice can tip the scale. (Brownie points to anyone who can figure out what movie that's from) And isn't trying to create change, even if you don't reach your goals, better than adopting the laissez-faire attitude displayed by so many of the French? At the very least, you (and others) will learn from your mistakes, and it could potentially set the groundwork for future activists.

Maybe it's just my fatigue-addled mind speaking, I don't know. I don't even know whether I've conveyed what I was thinking. But I'm convinced, at least for the moment, that Americans more actively seek change and progress. And I miss being around people who do.

"According to me"

is a phrase I would really like to never hear again.

Couple of not necessarily related things:
 
1) I've started going to the cafe des langues in Nancy, where I met the first people to really make me feel welcome/included here. I mean the teachers I work with are nice, of course, but they have their own lives and are generally much older than me, and they tend to do things almost out of obligation I feel. The people at the cafe des langues are much more lively and animated, and for some reason have started including me in their group. I went for the first time last Thursday and was invited to someone's house for her birthday party on Saturday, and now it seems I'm actually becoming friends with them. It's such an incredible thing, and I'm so grateful for it. Plus, where else would you be able to meet people from Malaysia, Colombia, Romania, Brazil, Tunisia, Canada, and China all in the same hour?! Too cool. (Plus you learn interesting things, like the fact that "to make a move" in Malaysia actually means to leave a place, and not to hit on someone.)

2) Chivalry is such a funny thing, but it's certainly not dead. The Colombian guy from the cafe des langues was concerned about how I was planning to get back last night, and when another guy told him he was dropping me off he responded "oui, j'espere!" with a wide-eyed, extremely worried look on his face. Because, you know, I've never taken the tram alone past 10 haha. I'd like to say that I can take care of myself, but it was sweet of him nonetheless.

3) I think I got a pay raise. We're supposed to get exactly 770 euros after all the taxes and whatnot are taken out, but I've gotten around 20 euros more for December and now also January. Last month, I thought maybe it was just a Christmas/holiday thing, but perhaps not... It's such a good feeling! haha. Probably more so because it was unexpected (I did learn something in the evolution of human nature!), but still. So exciting!

4) Paperwork + France = one huge nightmare. You have different policies in different cities, some places need one thing while others don't, some people require you to get things translated officially and others take things you do yourself. There is so much inconsistency here it makes my head spin. I've sent my birth certificate in to the same organization 3 times, both a copy of the original written in English and one that I translated into French, and despite other people in my region having no problem just sending it in in English, they want me to order an original from the office in chicago, have it sent here, then get it officially translated before sending it to them for the fourth time. Ugh, WHY?! It's a freaking birth certificate; it's not really difficult to figure out what everything means even if it's written in English instead of French. I mean, if it was in Korean I would understand, but really, when you have "city" followed by Chicago, I'm fairly confident even a troisieme can figure it out.

5) I got locked out of my room last night. For some reason that I really cannot figure out, whoever's in charge of the keys here thought that it was a good idea to give me the key to my room but not to the building in which it's located. And he/she neglected to tell me that someone goes around and LOCKS THE DOORS at night. This confuses me for a number of reasons, the first of them being how could someone possibly lack that much foresight. But it's also confusing because I got back around midnight yesterday, and I've definitely come back later than that before and never had a problem. Despite the guy who let me in claiming that he locks the doors every night, I have never before seen it locked. Ever. It's also a door that only the people living in the private studios/apts here use (aka NOT students), so it's confusing to me as to why they would feel compelled to lock us in. Really, all I can say at this point is oh, France. Such an unsophisticated place for a country that was once one of the most powerful in the world. 

6) France has a great healthcare system. It was one of the things I was looking forward to most before I came here, especially after I managed to fracture my foot during the summer when I didn't have insurance. Sadly, I've heard some not so great things about the doctors here. I'll reserve actual judgment until I personally go see one, but I will say that I'm not really looking forward to it. Good health insurance isn't quite so appealing when the doctor can't figure out what's wrong with you.

7) Having so much free time can be terrible because I get bored easily, but on the other hand I've been able to finally watch a few movies that I've been meaning to see for a long time. I've watched quite a few embarrassing ones that I will not mention, but I've also been able to see Toy Story 3 (so good!), Megamind, The King's Speech, and Four Weddings and a Funeral. Sadly, I've also recently realized just how old Colin Firth and Hugh Grant are. That was a very unhappy moment. 

8) My computer started dying a few days ago. That was an even unhappier moment. Good thing I know how to do most of the basic things, because I don't even want to think about how long it would have taken to find a competent yet affordable technician and then actually get it fixed. I had to reformat it when downloading drivers failed, which is never fun, but it did fix everything and luckily I had thought ahead and brought the necessary CDs and an external hard drive. So I have a functioning computer once more, thank God. 

9) I'm thought to be relatively attractive here, and I really don't know how to respond to that. I'm sure part of it is just how direct people are in letting you know what they think, but it still makes me feel rather awkward to hear someone say "oh, you probably don't have problems with the hs boys because you're a jolie fille." I grew up being constantly reminded of my very unremarkable appearance, and while I understand that the hair and contacts did me a world of good, I'm just not used to hearing positive things about the way I look. (For those of you who don't know any Korean adults, let me just say that when they describe other people's children, they generally use one of two phrases. The first is "oh you're so pretty/handsome!" and the second is "oh, you look like you'd be good at school." Guess which one I heard as a kid? haha.)

And lastly,

10) I'm going to Amsterdam this weekend! I'm pretty sure I'm going to come back completely exhausted, because we're leaving on a bus at 1 am Saturday, then spending all day walking around the city before hopping (highly unlikely best case scenario) or crawling on all fours onto the bus at around midnight to come back to France. But I'm super excited to go!