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aaaaahhhh!!! Not a happy camper.
At the moment, I really fucking hate the way things seem to work in this country. I went to Longwy this morning, as a rent-a-native-speaker to work for a school that has no English assistants. I was supposed to be there all day meaning that I missed my actual students here in Metz, which makes me feel guilty, even though I didn't have a real choice. It was also my favorite group, the Formation Continues. Anyway, they didn't tell me until too late that I had to go, meaning that when I went to buy my ticket, on which I saved them money with the student card I bought, the bus I was supposed to take was full, and I had to catch an earlier one at 6:20. Getting to the train station for a bus at 6:20 in the morning means leaving my apartment at 5:45 at the latest. Which, again, fine, whatever, I did crew for years, I can get up ass-early if I have to. So, yes. I get to the train station, take the bus, doze to Longwy, all is good, I get there 10 minutes early and wait. 7:15, no one comes. 7:30, 15 minutes after the scheduled arrival, no one. 7:40, personne. So, I figure, fine, I guess they just didn't get my message that I had to take the earlier bus, they must be coming at 9:39, or 9:45 when the next two apparently full buses get in from Metz.
So, I go to a café, read more from American Gods which is almost over and that makes me so sad, and figure, well, I could walk around a bit. So I walk. Longwy is terribly depressing, or at least, seemed so from what I saw of it. It was dead-seeming, with a good percentage of property up for rent or sale. Dirty, empty store fronts. Dirty town. Finally it's time to go back to the station. I get there at 9:25, wait until 10:15. No one. At this point I have already been up for five hours. I walk around more, decide that this is idiotic, and go to buy a ticket to go back home to Metz. The next bus leaves at 12:40, and the train to Nancy, which on the route map seems to pass right through Metz, will apparently not take me to Metz. So I wait. I get a sandwich, comprised of a baguette, brie, and pickles, and eat sulkily in the train station, cursing the lack of vegetarian options and people not showing up when they are supposed to. I start feeling guilty for all the times I have ever been late/decided not to go to something when I probably should have.
12:40 finds me on the bus, terribly frustrated with a wasted day and the consequences of unreliability. I start thinking about how my package is still lost, and how I am being tossed back and forth between the french postal service and express package service, with no one claiming responsibility, and it's just sucky. I am renaming this winter the winter of le suck. I doze on the bus back to Metz, wake up when we arrive at the train station, walk home, buy water, check for mail at the accueil. There's nothing. No package, no messages, no medical visit convocation. I ask if the post has arrived yet, and the woman looks at me as though I must be terribly slow and says nothing. I say 'yes?', and she says 'yes,' and I say 'fine, thanks.' And go back to the apartment to find a letter from JPS, who told me I needed to go to Longwy. It was actually a nice email, saying he was sorry he didn't get my email saying I would be there earlier until this morning, and wishing everyone happy new years. I talk to him on C's phone, and find out that the reason the professor never came to get me was that he never received confirmation that I was coming, and that JPS didn't have a clue what sort of confirmation he had been waiting for. So, yeah. Wasted almost 8 hours for nothing, and I am just so tired and frustrated. So I think I am going to take a nap, and do some grocery shopping to fill our empty fridge.
Peace.
pissed offSo, I go to a café, read more from American Gods which is almost over and that makes me so sad, and figure, well, I could walk around a bit. So I walk. Longwy is terribly depressing, or at least, seemed so from what I saw of it. It was dead-seeming, with a good percentage of property up for rent or sale. Dirty, empty store fronts. Dirty town. Finally it's time to go back to the station. I get there at 9:25, wait until 10:15. No one. At this point I have already been up for five hours. I walk around more, decide that this is idiotic, and go to buy a ticket to go back home to Metz. The next bus leaves at 12:40, and the train to Nancy, which on the route map seems to pass right through Metz, will apparently not take me to Metz. So I wait. I get a sandwich, comprised of a baguette, brie, and pickles, and eat sulkily in the train station, cursing the lack of vegetarian options and people not showing up when they are supposed to. I start feeling guilty for all the times I have ever been late/decided not to go to something when I probably should have.
12:40 finds me on the bus, terribly frustrated with a wasted day and the consequences of unreliability. I start thinking about how my package is still lost, and how I am being tossed back and forth between the french postal service and express package service, with no one claiming responsibility, and it's just sucky. I am renaming this winter the winter of le suck. I doze on the bus back to Metz, wake up when we arrive at the train station, walk home, buy water, check for mail at the accueil. There's nothing. No package, no messages, no medical visit convocation. I ask if the post has arrived yet, and the woman looks at me as though I must be terribly slow and says nothing. I say 'yes?', and she says 'yes,' and I say 'fine, thanks.' And go back to the apartment to find a letter from JPS, who told me I needed to go to Longwy. It was actually a nice email, saying he was sorry he didn't get my email saying I would be there earlier until this morning, and wishing everyone happy new years. I talk to him on C's phone, and find out that the reason the professor never came to get me was that he never received confirmation that I was coming, and that JPS didn't have a clue what sort of confirmation he had been waiting for. So, yeah. Wasted almost 8 hours for nothing, and I am just so tired and frustrated. So I think I am going to take a nap, and do some grocery shopping to fill our empty fridge.
Peace.
