Spring Cleaning

Another week, and what do I have to show for it? Nothing, really. This whole month has been possibly the most boring, uninteresting, uneventful, and long months of my life. I'd say it's verging on depressing. As I'm sure you realize by now, I spent all my spending money on vacation, so it's ust a waiting game until I get paid again. Something I don't like about this job is that I really don't know when payday is! It's just the end of the month, sometime. I've gotten paid at a different time every month so far, and there's no pattern to it. Not the same date, not the same day of the week, nothing. So it could be any time now, and let me tell you, the second I get paid I'm going out and buying something. I don't know what, but something. It's been far too long. It's probably good for me in the end. I'm realizing what's absolutely necessary to buy and what isn't. In France, there are only certain weeks of the year when stores can have sales. And one of those times is right now. The soldes have been going on for a while now. I walk down the street to the post office or to buy some oh-so-necessary juice, and all I see are 40% off, 50% off, 70% off, etc. signs staring me in the face along the way! I don't even bother going in. It's probably good that I don't; I'd rather keep the Target Visa in the wallet until I'm back in MN.

Yesterday I cleaned. Not all day or anything, but it feels so refreshing to clean. And with the weather around here, it really felt like Spring Cleaning Day. One thing I love about temporarily living away from home (both UWEC and in France) is that I can keep EVERYTHING clean. I know I don't have dustbunnies or spiderwebs from three years ago piled up anywhere since I'm only here for a little while. Everything I NEED is here with me, but all my junk and crap is at home (probably acquiring dustbunnies and spider webs). It's much easier to clean my few things here. Here, it's possible to move every piece of furniture and clean behind it. At home, that's asking a bit, although it is possible. Cleaning out the fridge only takes ten seconds, whereas at home could be an hour ordeal. (Not that I ever clean out the fridge at home anyway...) And I love how stuff here doesn't pile up into piles and piles of crap like it does at home. And if it does, it only has nine months to pile up, not 24 years. Moving somewhere for a short period of time just helps keep things nice and tidy, and I love it! One thing I didn't do though while tidying up the room was take down my few Christmas decorations I have up. I just don't want to face the fact that Christmas is over. It was so fun to look forward to. Maybe once it's warm out I'll take them down.

I'm trying really hard to find things to keep me occupied without going crazy! I've had a good few weeks to be able to sort through what I want to do in the upcoming months. At the beginning of the year here, back in September, I was given a school-year calendar witht the whole year shown on one page. I posted this in my room and highlighted all the vacation days in pink. Every night before I go to bed, I highlight the current day in blue. This way, I can see how much time has passed, how much time is left, how much vacation is left, how close vacation is, etc. all at once. I enjoy it a lot. Often I just lie in bed staring at it, thinking about what I can do and where I can go. Some days I get on a roll and decide to go to all these places. Then other days I realize how glad I am I didn't make any spur-of-the-moment train purchases because all that would be so much money! Anyway, what was my point? ... Oh! I often look at my time left in terms of how many more lessons I have to plan. Right now I'm at five more. Really? FIVE more lessons? HA! What an easy job I have, really. (Remember, I use the same lesson for two weeks.) And after tonight, it will only be four. That makes me very happy. And I swear, one of these days I'll do them all at once and just be done with it. I've been saying that for a while now. You'd think I'd have done it already with all this spare time I have on my hands.

It's sometimes scary to look at that calendar though and realize that I'm just now halfway done. Sometimes it makes me happy because, to be completely honest, I'm excited to get home and get back to normal life again. But at the same time, I know without a doubt I'm going to wish I could be back here. It might take a while to feel that way once I get back home, but I know (from experience!) that I'm going to miss this place, even though I'm so bored and annoyed quite often. So while sometimes I might say I'm excited to go home, really, I want home to come to me. I wish I could live in both worlds at once, but I can't. So until June, I'm just going to try to get as many things done here that I know I haven't had (or won't have) time for at home. And yes, there is something that's been on my to-do list since January 2010. Don't ask why I haven't done it yet. It's not at all dreadful, just time consuming. Great! A perfect way to fill my empty time here.

I'm still waiting on Orange to pull through and pay me back for two months of phone service I never used, needed, or wanted. Not sure if I mentioned this in my last post or not, but I did call them myself one day. I tried explaining the situation to the guy on the other end, and he told me he personally can't look at my files and find out exactly when, how much, or even IF I'll get paid back. But he said I will have the refund on my next bill. Then he told me the amount (which I thought he couldn't tell...?), which was not correct, and basically I think he just didn't know what I was talking about. In reality, I need Fabienne to call for me. I can not clearly convey my questions and situation. I could ask the question, yes. I could tell them what I want, yes. But to explain WHY I should get the money back is another story. I could do it, yes. I could do it much more easily on paper or in person, though. Over the phone is so difficult in another language, and this billing situation is so damn complicated. They messed up so much that is clear in my head, but for me to explain their own stupid mistakes in a timely manner over the phone... I don't know how else to explain! It's just hard, okay? I tried, and the man was stupid. Well it was probably me and my French being stupid, but whatever. In any case, I've been waiting and waiting and waiting for Fabienne to call them. All month! She still hasn't. I'm a little annoyed because it would take all of... 30 minutes max. of her life. I realize she has kids to take care of and other things going on, but really? She's my contact person and she's supposed to help me with these things. And yes, we WERE told that our contact person is supposed to help us with life situations like the bank, housing, etc. I'm not asking a whole lot. She helped me a lot in the beginning with things I didn't ask of her. All I wanted was this internet situation to be done with. Ahhhhh! (Hey, at least I HAVE internet. Can't complain there!) I could go on forever about this topic. Anyway, she told me the other day that they're moving this summer, so that's why she's been so busy, trying to sell their house and stuff. Okay, fine. But that doesn't change the fact that I'm here in a foreign country with no one else to help me, losing money to Orange and can't do anything about it because she won't call them for me. With that said, I cannot imagine doing this program with any lower of a level of French than I have, nor with anyone less-helpful than Fabienne. (And that's NOT to say she's unhelpful. I'm saying she's VERY helpful!) And the fact is, many people don't have someone like her. I don't know how everyone else does it, but I'm glad I have what I have, which is one reason I'd be afraid to do this job another year. Second time around I might not.

With two of my classes, we're working together-ish to fill a box with things that are French or represent French culture. In a couple weeks I'll mail it to a French teacher in the United States, and her class is doing the same for us, only with American-themed things. I have some ideas for things for the American box since I am American. But I've been having a really hard time helping the kids here come up with cool interesting things for the kids in the US to see from France, simply because I am not French and cannot think of anything different and cultural besides croissants and berets. (Okay so maybe I know a little more than that about French culture. But you know what I mean.) So it's really been up to them, and I hope the things we collect are worth receiving for the kids in the US! I won't tell you what we have so far though because I don't know if the French teacher there is reading this... ;) And don't bother with your suggestions. Our items are decided and done with at this point.

Well, I think that's about it for now. I'm off to accomplish something with the rest of my weekend!