Virtually Home

I still have about a month and a half in Bordeaux, but today I felt really ready to go home for the first time. I mean, I'm far from having achieved closure with people, or even with the school, but I just missed things. People. Driving. What the South Oval probably looks like right now. Frog and insect noise, now that it's warm. It was 84 Fahrenheit today, which means it's reached the temperature that I need to keep the windows open for ventilation. While sleeping that's going to be a hassle, since the windows have no screens and the mosquitoes, though nowhere near the droves found in Oklahoma, are beginning to emerge. If the drapes are closed, no air passes. When they're open, my across-the-courtyard neighbors' lights shine right into my room. To say nothing of their windows looking right into my room, I guess. Morning sunlight is a whole separate issue. I think this will be good for putting me back on a diurnal schedule, though. Coming off of the Amsterda...

This morning I was walking to the tram past a couple of ladies with clipboards. I learned after the first week that once the ladies with the clipboards conducting the survey or trying to get signatures for the petition figure out that you're not French, they absolutely refuse to talk to you further even if you display interest. So I was walking by with my headphones and they made eye contact and I just told them sorry, I'm not French (except I said it in French) - and they're like "wait! Are you English?" (in English) and the confused, resulting conversation that took place in mixed French (on my part) and English (on theirs) was apparently intended to lure me into the church of scientology. I was confused at first -- aside from passing some Jehova's Witnesses at a tram stop once, I have not been proselytized to once since arriving here -- not even in all the churches and cathedrals I've visited. When I looked confused they said "Scientology...you h...

And after a title like that, I have to start off with some more connerie. I called Auchan the other day, and after the lady on the line looked up my work order, was simply told to "be patient" and hung up on. Aside from being offended by that awkward departure from my expectations about customer service, I didn't have any idea what I was being told to be patient for, so I made Maria call again. Maria was told that, when I told the technician to tell me how much it would cost before beginning work, he took that as a request for a formal estimate. Which means that he went back to Auchan, filled out some paperwork, and had them mail me an estimate. By the mail. As in, the kind with a postman. And then, when I receive the estimate, I have to decide whether the cost is acceptable (phone-lady said 107 euros, but refused to take the order over the phone) and then mail it back to them. And then they'll call me to schedule an appointment. Which, judging by the last time I made...