Things are getting better!

I'm sitting on a train right now heading from Calais to Dunkerque to see some friends there, and I have a lot to update about! (And sorry to my English teaching friends for ending a sentence with a preposition.) So, the last few weeks have been pretty interesting for me, and I feel like I am finally starting to get some footing here in France and make sense of all the many differences between our two cultures.

A few days after my last post I went to Lille, the major city here in the northern region of France, for the first meeting comprising all the language assistants in this area, and I came upon some luck, meeting three girls who are teaching in Dunkerque, the closest city to me, and we became friends. It's very interesting how friendships work here, I must say. You can really have NOTHING in common with someone, but because you're both in a foreign county, you're like best pals automatically. Nevertheless, I really like the friends I've met. We went to Belgium two weeks ago, to Brugges, and had a really great time. If you're not familiar yet with my flickr page, you should look at it. Once I get internet at my house I will take some time to upload all the pictures of I have taken so far. The address is www.flickr.com/mrbrianpowell . So, Belgium was great! My feelings toward the entire northern part of France still stands - it seems that no one likes it here, that it's kind of the "armpit of France," that it's definitely a poorer region, and the quality of education is not up to par with the south, and that's something kind of hard to overlook when I'm a teacher. My professor friends have told me that the education system in france works on a system of points. When you start teaching, you have zero points, and you get a certain amount of points each year for teaching in any given area of France. If you teach in the north, especially in a place like Calais, you get one of the largest yearly point totals, and once you save up enough points, you can use those points to transfer somewhere else, (read: the south.) So basically, teachers stay in the north of France only until they have saved up enough points to get somewhere else. This creates a feeling of... people not really calling this place home, on top of all the tourism that comes across on the ferry from England that makes this less of a "Francey" city and more of one that caters to the higher value of the pound.

The lack of internet is really killing me. If you're a technological person, IN ANY WAY, never come here. Ever. Don't move to France. It's not just a place that really has much interest in bits and bytes, there is no silicon valley, there are no major tech companies, there is ONE computer store within a thirty mile radius of me, I think, and the French idea of a good cell phone plan is the ability to talk 200 minutes AND send 15 texts a month for ONLY thirty euros a month! My friends tell me that even when my internet finally DOES get set up, it will take another two to three weeks for them to actually activate it, and none of us, (read: me and the other assistants I talk to) can figure out WHY everything is so slow in france. I mean, my personal feeling is that socialism creates a general laziness in people, where the government will take care of them no matter what, where they feel an obligation from the government to provide "basic" needs for them, ("basic" being determined by a larger amount of things each year...), and where they can't fail out of school because everyone has to be even, where all stores are closed on certain days because there is no capitalistic drive here to become wealthy, just to "make it." It's very hard seeing this and talking to people about it. There is a general like of America here, honestly, but almost all people disagree with our economic system. I don't think there is any autonomy here, if I'm using that word correctly. Everyone is the same. They are all European, they all think like Europeans, and French moreso. They complain about things being bad, but then they don't want to work to make it better. They want to strike, because the government should make things better. Everyone has this chip on their shoulder that everything "should just be fair and equal" between everyone - which is GREAT in theory, but I try to tell people that that is like... an evil though in America, the idea that everyone should be equal, because that's socialism, which is a dirty word. We're NOT equal, some people try hard, some people don't. I agree that people in a country, either by private enterprise or by governmental enterprise, have a responsibility to take care of each other, because you just can't have x% of your population dying on the streets. A healthy society is a happy one, but that doesn't mean I want my tax dollars going to giving EVERYONE a good life regardless of whether they work or not. Sorry - this rant could really go on for about nine pages after ALL the discussions i've had with people, but I'll wrap it up. It's generally difficult to see no drive here, to see stores, literally, closed about 50% of the time - all stores, even supermarkets. Everything is closed here on Sunday, and most of monday. Tuesday is a full work day, as is Thursday. I haven't figured out yet why, but Wednesday is also a half day, and Friday - well that's the day before the weekend, so everything closes early. Saturday is a toss up, some stores will be open, but others are not open because it's a weekend. basically, you do everything on T/TH, or else you're out of luck. I don't like how much everyone complains, but how they still think their balance of capitalism/socialism is better than ours. They all want a better standard of living, but they don't want to work for it. Call that a simple-minded analysis, but it is what it is.

Even if I'm sounding negative, I am enjoying myself here finally. I disagree with people on the general way a society should live and how a government should govern, but that doesn't put me in a bad mood, it's just a difference of opinion, and to be honest, the people here have been so wonderfully warm to me. The one thing that having a lot of time off does it help build community. The lady at the fruit store on my way to school gives me free fruit everyday. I stop there on my way to school and buy an apple each day, and she gives me either a.) an orange, b.) a banana, or c.) a little piece of candy, and she never excepts payment for it. Sometimes when I'm walking by going to "quat B," our city center, (Quatre Boulevards = the 4 largest streets of the city meeting) she will just come out of the store and hand me something and wish me a good day. The guy at the electronics store knows me as "the american boy" and always say bonjour to me when I walk by his store. Sometimes I feel like Belle in the opening scene of Beauty and the Beast where she's walking through town and everyone is saying bonjour, because everyone here is just... friendly. (I need, six eggs! That's too ex-pennn-sive). I think meeting people has really helped a lot too. I haven't been paid yet, I'm hoping that will happen in the next few days since I'm like.. out of money and kind of tired eating straight broccoli over rice and fruit. I even had to buy a belt because my pants loosened - which is totally cool with me, but I could really go for some good fattening food right about now. On a side note, I really miss eating pho, I would almost kill someone for a good bowl of #17 with sriratcha, some fresh basil, bean sprouts, and lime. Oh, and Tea Station, I really miss that too. There is no asian food of any kind here.. I shop in the asian section of the store, which is comprised of about 8 items. They have rice, soy sauce, something like top ramen, and rice noodles. I've had to start eating bread, which.. doesn't really suit my pallet, as I'm more of a rice kind of guy, but I must say, it's pretty darn good bread. And getting a whole huge baguette for like $0.40 is pretty good when you're out of cash.

My dad, (utilizing many people whom I thank,) has found a church here in Calais that I'm going to try and go to next week. Religiously, I've found the north of France a tough place. I have met about 100 people who are athiests, agnostics, or just don't really care either way. I have met no Christians, I have not many other assistants who are Christians, and I stupidly only brought a French bible with me because I though it would force me to practice my French, which... it does, if I read it. I'm usually frenched out by the end of the night though, (not like.. by girls though... in case you implied that). So, the ideas that France (or I guess Europe in general) is just "over" religion, as our youth vernacular would put it, is very true. People here are just.. done with religion. They don't care. There is no "religious right," there is no religious ANYTHING here. I went to a church the first week I got here and it was closed on sunday. I asked someone passing by what was up and they said it was pretty much just a building to look at, something to remember history by since it was one of the few things not destroyed by WWII, but that no one really used it. A church - not being used! Just sitting there... it makes me sad...


I still hate French cheese, and I don't think that's going to change any time soon, but God bless those French wine makers who sell me a GOOD bottle of wine for 2 euros. we're not talking 2 buck chuck either, it's comparable to a $10 bottle in the states. So wine is a common drink for me. It's such fun going shopping here! Just buying things in Europe is cooler for some reason than buying things in the States. I think one thing I have learned here, even in the month and odd week that I have lived here is a greater understanding for people who have come to America from a different country to make a new life for themselves. It's hard. It's hard using a new currency, learning that even if I am smart, I just can't really communicate with people. I can't talk the way I used to, I can't engage people in conversation that is stiumlating. I can't do a lot of the things I have accustomed to. I bascially just have to survive; my sentences consist of really basic things, unless it's a one on one converation over a glass of beer, then maybe I can have something a bit deeper, assuming the person is understanding of my mistakes and patient with my inability to form complex sentences. If I meet someone who speaks English natively, it's an instant blessing, we are automatically friends - strangers brought together by the unknowingness of a new place. I think this place will change me, and I can already see the ways that it will. I feel I should be more patient of differences when I come home, more tolerant with people who can't do something the way I can. People for whom America is NOT home, because I'm so happy when people are understanding of me and my inability to be French, no matter how hard I try.

Sorry for each paragraph being a completely different tangent from the previous, but I'm trying to get this all out before my train stops, which it is coming close to. I can't think of anything that I really need, except to be paid so I can stop asking mom and dad for money and then getting a 1 to 2 exchange rate.. it seems such a waste, and it's a hit against my pride to have to ask for help. I have started to realize that my pride, while an incredibly useful trait when I'm comfortable and know everything about a society, may be quite damaging to uphold when I really do need the help and am all alone in a country. I really wish I could get some Airborne or EmergenC here, since you need a prescription to even get VITAMINS here, and I don't have health insurance for like three or four months. The French administration has proven to be AS difficult as people said it would be, and has not done anything in my favor. If anyone wants to send me anything, I would be more than grateful. Little cards, gifts, a vietnamese guy who can cook for me, a simple box of kraft macaroni and cheese? - anything, even encouraging emails, would be really nice to have here. It's hard checking my email and getting back to people, but rest assured that I am reading everything I get. My address is as follows:

email: lordterrin at gmail dot com

address:
Brian Powell
43 Rue Denis Papin
Calais, 62100
France

I miss my girlfriend very much, but we found a way for her to come visit me in December, so I am looking forward to that more than you can know, and thinking each day that in December, I will finally have someone to experience this country with and find all the beauty in Europe that I have heard about since I was a child. Again, I'll try to upload some photos when I get the chance! I'm just happy that I have finally made some friends that care about me, who are also strangers in a new land, and that I can go over to their houses and watch election coverage for the next 48 hours straight, since I have absolutely no idea what is going on in my country.

Until next time!

Brian