Virtually Home

My friend Bethan is leaving town in a few hours. We met for coffee today at a shockingly American coffee shop called, inappropriately (and in English) "the French coffee shop". They had all kinds of fancy, sugar-filled coffee drinks in addition to the espresso that is normally available. We started talking about the things we miss about home, and what we'll miss about France. I think the thing that drives me crazy about being here is the utter lack of pressure or stress that exists. There is no emphasis placed on efficiency or customer service, as far as I've seen in my several months here. All of the concentration of those people I've directly observed goes to aesthetics. Leisure. Personal relationships. Which is great for the worker or the citizen, and pretty terrible for the consumer (or, maybe, my type of consumer). Maybe my problems stem from my deep hatred for shopping and desire for blitzkrieg execution of all plans that involve buying things or services....

Apparently that tempest, which barely inconvenienced us in downtown Bordeaux, destroyed a lot of homes and lives and knocked out a lot of electricity elsewhere. Always important to look at things from other perspectives. Or maybe just read the news, which I am notoriously bad at. I just tend to really hate the news, though I occasionally do like to know what's going on. This is a really silly contradiction, but I live with it. Last night, one of our roommates moved out, and we spent the rest of the night cleaning up the apartment. I got my room organized and we bought a new shower curtain. I wish I had more interesting things to report on that front, but I really don't. Tonight, I must read The Illuminations in its entirety. I was supposed to have done this before, but it's daunting with all of its vocabulary I've never seen. I think I'm reading more of my translation dictionary than Rimbaud, at this point. I tell myself I'm learning things, but in reality i...