hello all. as promised i am doing good on my goal to write more frequently. but dont flatter yourselves, this blog post aint because i love you, but rather it is strictly the consequence of french work ethic... /lack thereof. this morning we were supposed to have a "repartage" for my "les grandes risques de la planet " class... basically my teacher decided not to show up one day 2 weeks ago (without warning us mind you... meaning everyone showed up at ten am on a friday morning and waited an hour before we realized the teach aint not gonn come. this is happened to me at least 6 times this semester, literally. and as i explained last entry... ten am classes are really taxing on the soul... especially a soul that is particularly nocternal and doesnt get its beauty rest the night before). anyhoooo the class was reshceduled for today... friday... at EIGHT AM. in the morniong. 8. in the mornong. meaning urs truly was up beefore the sun. i havent been up this early since... highschool?? i dont eve know but its an ungodly hour. and i showed up relativcely on time for the class and i peeped my little head (just kidding.. my giant head. i have a really big head relaticve to my body. and big feet. people dont realize this at first but its true.) i walked in the room and there was some english speaking woman talking in front of the class. i stood confused.. then i left to check it was the right room. it was. i went back to the room, assuming there was a "guest speaker" (.. dont ask why, that was the only logical ex^planation i could think of at 8:15) and sat down. looked around, realized i didnt recognize a single person. realizeed my teacher wasnt there. realized im an idiot. asked random frenchie what class it was. didnt understand the response but it sure wasnt the fucking grand risks of the stupid planet. had to get up and leave as french people snickekered behind me. usually i would have felt more stupid for doing this but when ur a foreigner, being oblivious and confused kinda comes with the territory. its more socially acceptable. or something. except this was an english speaking class so technically i had the upper hand. but shhh... lets just pretend. anyways, i left the class and ran into my techer in the hall who told me only 2 other kids actually showed up to the "repartage". so he cancled it. so i went through all this for nothing and now have 2 hours to kill before my next class.

its small moments liek these when i make my most astute observations about french society. as much as i hate to admit it i am a complete product of a captialist consumer american culture: when people dont show up to things they are supposed to, i get annoyed. really annoyed. not because i think they are morrally obliged to keep their word cuz frankly i dont care. more because i woke up before the sun and i could have easily slept in too but i knew i had to be somewhere so i went. this logic doesnt fly here. people flaking on things happens on a daily basis and its starting to rub off. earlier this week i was tired and didnt go to another class. france is making me lmazy and irresponsible. french mentality towards following rules can be likened to the way they cross the street. here; when u have to cross a road to get from point a to point b... u just go. u dont have to wait til u reach a cross walk or wait until the little man lights up on the thing and tell u to go. u just look both ways and if theres no cars u cross wherever. even if there are cars people usually just cross anyways and kinda sprint to the otherside before they die, thinking they are beating the 50km speed of the car when really they are just making it slow down for them anyways. french people just kinda do what they want when they want no matter who/what they are inconveniencing. this sounds like a really bitter analysis of french society but i kind of mean it in an endearing way. when we were in vienna the thing that struck me was how people, no matter if there wasnt a car in sight at like 3am, would NOT cross the street unless they were at a cross walk and the little man was lit up telling them to go. they just stood on an empty corner. for like 50 seconds. just waiting. for nothing. they were so addament about it. if thats not social conditioning then i dunno what is. thats the difference between austrians and french people. and since being in france i find myself sprinting across the street more often then waiting for little man to light up. wow that was such a profound metaphor. im so deep. i feel like that should be a line in a kelly clarkson song

anyways i have a presentation today for my french class that i didnt practice too much for. o well. its about that french ngo that kidnapped small africans to evacuate them to the land of civilised people and be adopted by french families, even though almost all the kids already had parents. its situations like this that make me ashamed to be part of the "monde occidental" as they say en frenchais. can white people chill with the white man's burden mentality for like half a second. o man ok i gotta go. gots class. not that it matters. no one else will show up anyway, but u know, i still got some of that austrian in me so im gonna go.