The following are stories within stories. All the links pretty much throw you here, so enjoy! Note: You should read the Romanzo Criminale blog first if you want to understand these "inside stories."
The Weird Dream
In my dream I heard music. I danced and did whatever else you do when you hear music. (In my dancing, I somehow clicked off the alarm clock) Then, a little later in the dream, I had an appointment. It was 10:20 and I should have been there at 10. I was late. I walked in and apologized to the secretary. Then I looked up again to confirm how late I was to myself, and it was 7:40. Wow, that's weird I thought. Then I woke up. It was 7:38. I was late.
Crap Things about my 200 year old building
In my hallway there were three floods last week.
On my floor, the boys sink(s) in the dormitory overflowed. Status: Fixed with French Drano.
On the second floor, water has been dripping for almost a month. The drip turned serious when it suddenly became a stream, and broke threw three ceiling tiles. Status: Something like kitty litter is all over the floor to collect the water (since last Friday) and the water seems to have stopped.
In the entry, they fixed the back door so it wouldn't stick and now water rushes in when it rains. It rained three days last week including one thunderstorm. Status: Despite my opening the doors, someone using a muddy mop, and hopefully some other effort, the floor and the first three steps are still constantly wet.
International Bike Race
They blocked off different parts of town all weekend for this race. Saturday, most of Mézières and Sunday pretty much my entire half of Charleville. But, the race start. On Friday, it was an intertown race, where they went all over the countryside. Saturday, it was in in-town group thing. Sunday (the start I saw) they started one at a time. They were on a little stand and the guy said go, and off they flew down the ramp, along the road and then around the corner - their sponsor car in hot pursuit. It was a race against the clock. Pretty interesting little set-up if you ask me.
Avoiding the Other Assistants
I have become anti-social with people I find to be simple minded. I unfortunately must decide on what events to go to based on how many annoyingly stupid people will be there. In this case, it was a goodbye party for a girl I haven't seen since November. She had my number, I had hers, I called once, she never called. I gave up. She was not simple minded. However, the people throwing the party were. I will not mention names or other relatively unimportant details to people who have never met the people I am actually talking about, just suffice it to say, they aren't the type of people I would usually be friends with.
For example, I recently saw a film with one of them and she had completely gotten the premise of the film wrong. It was the Treason movie and she thought the idea of the movie was to find the traitors. I explained to her that this was not the case. (This wasn't one of those things that were really open ended, she just hadn't understood.) As we continued talking, the discussion let to politics. She has chosen her political party based on the fact that their color is yellow - and she thinks it is pretty. She hates another party because her grandmother used to dislike the leader of that party in the 80's. She claimed that everyone where she came from who wasn't crazy felt that way. This isn't the case of her being super into something and speaking up, it was just her plainness standing out. It reminded me why I had stopped hanging out with her back in December.
I shouldn't have avoided the party solely based on that person being there. However, I find that most of the other assistants are here to avoid going to school for a year, to drink and party, or because they had nowhere else to go. I admit I was sort of possibly in this third category at one point. However, I have made friends outside of the other assistants who speak my language. Something few of them have. I just didn't want to spend a whole evening speaking English with people I didn't already get along with. So, I avoided them. Lord, please help me to not judge people so harshly when I myself have so many faults.
For now, that is all the extraneous stories I have for you. I'm sure I'll have more at some point soon. I always do. Love always, ~Heather
The Weird Dream
In my dream I heard music. I danced and did whatever else you do when you hear music. (In my dancing, I somehow clicked off the alarm clock) Then, a little later in the dream, I had an appointment. It was 10:20 and I should have been there at 10. I was late. I walked in and apologized to the secretary. Then I looked up again to confirm how late I was to myself, and it was 7:40. Wow, that's weird I thought. Then I woke up. It was 7:38. I was late.
Crap Things about my 200 year old building
In my hallway there were three floods last week.
On my floor, the boys sink(s) in the dormitory overflowed. Status: Fixed with French Drano.
On the second floor, water has been dripping for almost a month. The drip turned serious when it suddenly became a stream, and broke threw three ceiling tiles. Status: Something like kitty litter is all over the floor to collect the water (since last Friday) and the water seems to have stopped.
In the entry, they fixed the back door so it wouldn't stick and now water rushes in when it rains. It rained three days last week including one thunderstorm. Status: Despite my opening the doors, someone using a muddy mop, and hopefully some other effort, the floor and the first three steps are still constantly wet.
International Bike Race
They blocked off different parts of town all weekend for this race. Saturday, most of Mézières and Sunday pretty much my entire half of Charleville. But, the race start. On Friday, it was an intertown race, where they went all over the countryside. Saturday, it was in in-town group thing. Sunday (the start I saw) they started one at a time. They were on a little stand and the guy said go, and off they flew down the ramp, along the road and then around the corner - their sponsor car in hot pursuit. It was a race against the clock. Pretty interesting little set-up if you ask me.
Avoiding the Other Assistants
I have become anti-social with people I find to be simple minded. I unfortunately must decide on what events to go to based on how many annoyingly stupid people will be there. In this case, it was a goodbye party for a girl I haven't seen since November. She had my number, I had hers, I called once, she never called. I gave up. She was not simple minded. However, the people throwing the party were. I will not mention names or other relatively unimportant details to people who have never met the people I am actually talking about, just suffice it to say, they aren't the type of people I would usually be friends with.
For example, I recently saw a film with one of them and she had completely gotten the premise of the film wrong. It was the Treason movie and she thought the idea of the movie was to find the traitors. I explained to her that this was not the case. (This wasn't one of those things that were really open ended, she just hadn't understood.) As we continued talking, the discussion let to politics. She has chosen her political party based on the fact that their color is yellow - and she thinks it is pretty. She hates another party because her grandmother used to dislike the leader of that party in the 80's. She claimed that everyone where she came from who wasn't crazy felt that way. This isn't the case of her being super into something and speaking up, it was just her plainness standing out. It reminded me why I had stopped hanging out with her back in December.
I shouldn't have avoided the party solely based on that person being there. However, I find that most of the other assistants are here to avoid going to school for a year, to drink and party, or because they had nowhere else to go. I admit I was sort of possibly in this third category at one point. However, I have made friends outside of the other assistants who speak my language. Something few of them have. I just didn't want to spend a whole evening speaking English with people I didn't already get along with. So, I avoided them. Lord, please help me to not judge people so harshly when I myself have so many faults.
For now, that is all the extraneous stories I have for you. I'm sure I'll have more at some point soon. I always do. Love always, ~Heather
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