Rainy Friday

A rainy day is a good day to describe the things slightly more banal, more ordinary of my life in France. My blog has shown little but hte details of my weekends, each of which have been magnificent (note: I just typed magnifique, and I had to erase it). But forget not that I still have Mondays and Tuesdays like the rest of the world. I'll start with my classes.

Grammar: Grammar is, well, grammar. I will not go into detail because, frankly, I don't know the words in English. For example, we're currently learning the ways to say "for." We've always known the words themselves, but there are three different ways to say it, depending on the circumstances and tenses. It's hard to wrap one's head around when it doesn't exist in English. We're also continuing with the trilogy of celebrated plays by Marcel Pagnon (Marius, Fanny, and César).

Resistance: For the last few weeks, we've been talking about the books L'Armée des Ombres, Le Silence de la Mer, and Efroyables Jardins. Of the three, I particularly liked Le Silence de la Mer. Unlike L'Armée des Ombres, and Lucie Aubrac before that, Le Silence de la Mer talked more about the actual people, their feelings, and their emotions. I am, according to Adam, a secret romantic. After weeks of accounts of bravery and prisons and torture and general inhumane crimes, I can't help but be a little nostalgic for stories of the heart, and stories of those who could not take up physical arms to resist, Pétain, Vichy, the collaboration, and the occupation.

Writing: Pretty much the best class ever. Our professor has such good ieas to spark inspiration and usage of the language. For example, last week we wrote a circle story about the Pont d'Avivnon. Each person (we were in groups of 4) was responsible for plot element. I started off with the exposition and setting, then passed it around to have the characters, historical context and action, and dialogue added before finishing the story with my own conclusion. My story started on a rainy evening on the Pont d'Avignon, and ended up being about Robert Kennedy and the assassination of his brother. Humorous.

Oral Production: I have little to say. We're learned some slang, I guess. I learned about five ways to say cigarette, and money, and guy. But, I really don't feel the need to throw in random slang in my every day language. It's entirely more embarrassing to use slang words in the wrong context than to not use them at all. Imagine using "groovy" in English. Now, that's just humiliating. The best way to learn slang and everyday language is to just talk with young people. Charts of the three levels of language, full of "slang" and "hip" words look pretty, but serve little purpose.

Literature: Personally, I am a fan of literature. This is probably simply because I am a literature nerd. We haven't actually read a whole lot in class, but we have learned about a few of the major literary trends in 19th century France, such as naturalism, romanticism, and realism. We've also touched on authors such as Flaubert, Balzac, Baudelaire, Zola, Pagnol, Sand, Dumas, and other important literary figures that really should be read by one seriously interested in literature, and in France.

History: I loathe history with a large portion of my being. I feel as though i'm in high school again. I mean, M. Boura is quite intelligent, unlike certain other unmentionables who "taught" me history. It's evident that Boura is incredibly well informed, and that he knows what he's talking about. The problem, however, is not his knowledge, but his presentation. He simply does not know how to teach international students. But then again, even if I were perfectly fluent in the French language, I still don't think I would understand and/or be able to tolerate this class. Allow me to present my cases against this class.

1: M. Boura takes entirely more pleasure from humiliating students and asking banal question than recognizing a student who actually raises his/her hand to answer an actually legit question. There is no point in asking a student "who is the author of this text."

2: M. Boura does not understand the concept of FERPA, and that it is not acceptable to say, in front of the class, "Brad, whatever the hell you wrote on this paper was clearly out of your ass" (paraphrased quotation, of course).

3: History class should not be a vocabulary lesson. I now know several ways to say bishop, bell, church, clergy, royalist, and power, but ask me how all of those go together, and I've got nothing. Maybe I'm just historically challenged.

4: It took us 45 minutes to get through the first stanza of La Marseillaise. Now, I have spent hours analyzing 20 line poems in English tutorial, but again, this is a history class, not an analytical literature class.

5: We receive worksheets. Thanks to said unmentionable history teacher, I have a personal vendetta against worksheets.

I could go on, but in short, this is the pain and torture that I endure every Tuesday and Friday for two hours. At least I have my blog to keep my occupied while we "learn" about the French Revolution.

That's about it for my classes, but I should probably enlighten the world about my Deportation Situation.

Deportation Situation: This small (large) pester (crisis) is not exactly accurately named. I am not being deported (yet). I refer to this as the Deportation Situation because deportation is just what I am trying to avoid. For those who don't know, I have been having quite the problem with the whole Visa thing. I did not obtain a Visa before leaving the US because thanks to a miscommunication and misinformation, I did not think that I needed one. I could blame Christophe/the Office of Educate Abroad, but what good is blame at this point? More important, of course, is that I do not find myself on a plane to the US with an irremovable stamp on my passport that would forever banish me from returning to the European Union. This would be problematic, to say the least. A brief description of the problems that I have encountered thus far in the search for international legality:

1: A certain Adam informed me that I might need a Visa. I was under the impression that leaving the Schengen countries for a few days would renew my allotted 90 day period within the network. I was wrong.

2: I discussed said problem with Christophe. He did not seem worried/concerned in the least.

3: I did a massive amount of online research. I got discouraged. I ate a goûter, and drank some tea. I did obtain some phone numbers and addresses.

4: I called the US Embassy in Marseille. I got a recording. I called the Visa Operator Service in Paris, but I was informed that I had called a number that I was not allowed to call via Skype.

5: I talked to Christophe again. He still seemed quite indifferent. He suggested that I send a message to a certain Justin, which I did. I learned from Justin that a Visa was in fact needed for an extended stay within the Schengen countries.

6: I borrowed Isabelle's phone to call the Visa Operator Service again. Before speaking to anyone, I had to pay 14.50 euros. Leave it up to the the US government to charge their citizens for information. Horrendous. Anyhow, I finally heard an English speaking voice. I was quite relieved, but my relief was short lived. I learned that I had called the wrong service. I needed to contact US Citizen's Services (shouldn't that be a part of the US Embassy?) or talk to the French authorities on Visas. I wish I could have been helped more, but at least I talked to someone.

7: This morning, I went to the VIsa department of the Avignon town hall. They directed me to the prefecture, which was closed. I was then directed to another location of the prefecture.

8: After history was done eating my soul, I went to the prefecture. I explained my situation to an indifferent looking man who constantly smacked his lips. He told me that the VIsa service was only open Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, from 8:30 to 11:30 in the morning.

So, this is where I am now. The good news is that I did not receive any pity English today, and when I explained my situation to both the woman at the town hall and the obnoxious lip-smacking man, neither immediately responded with "no, that's not possible." This is a positive thing.

Anyhow, I'll have to discuss the other banalities of my life at a later time. I need to get working on a little reading before literature class.

Wish me luck with my Deportation Situation, and I hope you are all enjoying your Friday.