c'est la réalité

Woke up this morning at 5 to go wait outside the Préfécture. I got there at 5h45 and there was already a line. Sat and waited in the pre-dawn October cold just until 8h15 when they let everyone (mainly immigrants and refugees) in. It was crazy. They only give out 40 numbers a day to foreigners (I received the 5th one) but way more than 40 people were in line.

Towards the end of the wait some crazy woman from Eastern Europe decided she would try to cut in front of the line. Unfortunately for her a man from Gabon took charge and established who was premier, deuxieme, troisieme, etc. About 5 minutes before the door opened the lady behind me grabbed my shoulders and I was forced into the woman in front of me, forming something resembling an impermeable congo line. (Ironically several people there were from the Congo.)The huge doors opened and in we ran, and crazy lady had the good sense to give up and go home. Although, two guys got in a real fistfight behind me about whose turn it was. I don’t blame them either, if someone had tried to cut in front of me at that point I would have laid down the smack myself.

It’s scary how serious this is for some people. All I want is a récipéssé, a little piece of paper I will slip into my passport that lets me back into the country should I ever leave France (haha I hope I will?) I couldn’t care about the rest. But some of these people didn’t have a country, and I really don’t envy them in their choice of France as a new home.

And what did I get for all of that? An appointment for 16 Oct at 11h, and a list of papers I need to bring with me.

On a happier note, I have a new friend to introduce:


This is Zelda. She is a type of Cyclamen but I couldn’t understand what the plant lady said. She wanted me to get an orchid but at 20 euro that was a bit above my meager budget, plus, I assured her I would kill it (even though she assured me that I was not, as I claimed, a murderer of plants). Maybe if all goes well with Zelda I’ll buy her a buddy.

Tomorrow I start observing my classes. Went to the Inspection Academique (long story short—in France, there are two jobs for every one job we have in America…one to do the job and one to inspect that is done correctly…I swear the sole reason you have to composte (stamp) your train tickets at the station is to give the man who comes through the cabins to check a job. That’s called socialism, I think?) Anyway I don’t want to bore you with more stories about paperwork but I got my Process Verbale d’Installation that I was waiting on in order to fill out other paperwork. I wish I were making this up! But as the man from Gabon was expounding earlier this morning, this is France. C’est la vie dans ce monde, c’est la réalité.

Hoping some country bumpkin assistants will come up for the nuit blanche this weekend. Need to buy groceries and do laundry, but I’m feeling kind of stingy these days. Sorry do disappoint anyone living vicariously through this. I’ll try and have tales of romance and exotic adventure sometime soon. But first there’s this form I’ve got to fill out…