Keeping you in the dark

And so it all begins. Here's an account of what's happened thus far in zee new yearrhh...
I came back to Toulouse, landlord (hereafter referred to as propriétaire...i.e. lady who lives in this apartment, to whom I pay rent) was pleased enough with how I cleaned my room and shoved everything aside over the Christmas holidays to make it look like I was never there (as she wanted, so she could clean), but apparently I hadn't cleaned the shower enough, so I got to hear her whine about how it took her 2 hours to clean it. Could have saved me the time of hearing this and told me to do it myself. Anywho, spent the most boring birthday yet (which is really saying something) studying french vocabulary in my room. Don't really know what to do when the weather stinks and you can't have people over, but oh well.
Weekend comes, I went to visit Leila and her aunt in Marseille. I'd heard bad things about the city, but it turned out to be pretty cool. It was fun hanging out with her and her aunt and uncle. Her uncle is from Peru and we walked around all day on Saturday while the females worked. Ironic, but maybe we should take a lesson from this experience? Kidding. I think. Anywho, Uncle Ruddy speaks French with a hilarious Peruvian accent, and I speak with a hilarious American accent, so that was a pretty interesting and fun experience, some charades included. We also saw a large protest in favor of Palestine with regards to the mess between Israel-Palestine. I like watching large protests of any kind, and I like Arab quarters of town that sell huge pizzas for 4 euros, so this amused me.
On Sunday the 4 of us took a cool bike trip through the city to the coast and to a skate park. Eventually we all got pretty hungry, returned to the apt to eat and then walked around Marseille before my train left. We said a long goodbye, and I hope to be able to see them again. Leila leaves for ze Bresil on 5 February, but talks of a possible Texas visit either late summer or fall. Master Pasternak, take note, we have to hold her to that.
Next week I think I put in a good 8 hours or so of work because of people being sick and whatnot at the middle school. However, one teacher asked me to give her son English conversation classes once a week. That started last week and thus far it's been good. I tried to watch television one time at my apartment and my propriétaire got mad because she doesn't want me to go into the room where laundry is done. Not even when no one's in there. You don't want to ruin the chi of a laundry room, after all. Things could dry uncomfortably. As a result, I watch TV at the Mediatheque library with the unemployed. One lady saw me watching something about Obama on a French network and asked me something...incomprehensible. "Huh?" After some struggles, she understood that I was American. This should not have been hard, but this was one of those people that you just can't understand. Anywho, she sits down next to me and starts talking about how Bush made the States a Boucherie (a butchery, in French). Hehe, I liked the humor in that, but then she kept talking about it. Eventually we got to the usual, "so what do you do?" and I gave my usual spiel, and then I reciprocate, only to receive "I don't work, I am on permanent vacation." Oh, hmm, okay, well, is that because you just can't find a job in tough economic times? "No." Oh. Voluntary unemployment? Yes we can.
On the 17th, a friend from the engineering days at UT named Colin came through, as he was doing a month-long tour de France. Twas really good to see him and walk around, just chatting. That night we went out with Livan and another friend, saw a Frank Miller movie called The Spirit, which I enjoyed more than I anticipated. We then went and had some post-dinner wine by the river and spun on some merry-go-round type things near the main plaza in Toulouse - a guaranteed good time. The next day, Colin headed out for a nearby castle town.
Last week, schedule change at the high school. I only have 10 hours of work there now, but that could get bumped up to 12. I don't mind either way, but I'm happy that my students in some of the new classes are at higher levels than some of the previous ones.
This weekend, we had 90ish mph winds, which can be pretty sweet when it's not resulting in death. The buses were stopped, but by afternoon on Saturday it was okay to walk around, you just had to avoid tree branches everywhere. However, this has interrupted trains in the region, and I'm supposed to go skiing with Livan and the roommates on Wednesday in the Pyrenees, so we'll see. I think the prospect of a couple guys from Madasgascar and a Texan going to an environment that's completely unnatural for them could be pretty funny. We should probably take swimsuits and nothing else (save maybe large hats) to fit stereotypes.
Last night my propriétaire got mad at me for having too much laundry to do. In 15 years of housing people, she's never had this much to do, even from girls. I think it probably results from all the clothes accumulated over Christmas travels, as well as the fact that my friends brought me some clothes from my parents. As the French say, she makes me "chier," and I'm kind of tired of it here. Kind of is my preferred word selection, by the way. Everywhere I've traveled, people have opened up and said "make yourself at home," even people I met on that day. That's some crazy generosity, and as a result of this, I make an effort to do the same when hosting someone. At home, however, there is no making yourself at home. It's moreso making an effort to not see the people you live with and stay out of their way. Livan's leaving his apartment soon, but I'd have to break my contract, so I don't know what the best option is at the moment. I can, however, find another family, so I might do that. I've been talking alot lately with my Chilean friend, Maria, and we've noted that French women past about 40 years old seem to be crazy and stressed and borderline abrasive. Maybe this is an unfair evaluation, but it's been our experience. My joking proposal to Maria has been that all women are crazy, or at least go crazy at some point. I think the true issue, however, is that young people living with older people often is not that good of an idea. They're less open-minded and accepting, more nagging, and usually set in their ways. This distaste for age difference was humorously expressed when Pete Townshend once said (before later expressing regret) "I hope I die before I get old." Nearly 30 years later, Dave Grohl said "I hope I die before I become Pete Townshend."