Procrastination

So yes, it's been a month without updates. I hope I haven't upset the fan base or convinced anyone that this blog isn't worth reading (when it obviously IS worth reading). Now that I've gotten that out of the way I'm pretty sure I owe the world a little bit of catch-up. So let's begin.

Yes I am a part time nanny, sort of. That line was just a teaser thrown out to inspire wild ideas and images about my sordid lifestyle in Paris, but the reality is much less glamorous. The good news, I'm watching a 3-year old for 10 hours per week and earning enough to pay my rent and earn some spending money, therefore not dipping into my savings - the bad news, I'm watching a 3-year old for 10 hours per week. It's not all bad, per say, since the mother wants me to speak English and simply play with her daughter to instill an English vocabulary in her sponge-like infant mind, but I'm realizing how glad I am that she's not my kid. Part time nanny? No problem. Full time father? No thanks, not yet anyway.

I've also been graced with a great opportunity this week - to learn all about the French healthcare system as an active participant! In other words, I was incredibly sick for the entire week, and like much of the paranoid world I thought it was the dreaded swine flu! AAHH! Run! (those damn porks) Meanwhile, back on planet earth it was a cold, a bad cold, but just a cold. But here's the interesting part (you were hoping for one, I'm sure) - in France, healthcare works. Can you imagine that?? A social system working?! Surely every Republican mind in the US just exploded after hearing an American say that. Because we all know that social systems = socialism = nazis = concentration camps. And my having a cold and visiting a western doctor and purchasing prescription drugs and therefore contributing to the consumerist society I live in definitely qualifies as a donation to terrorism. Well, Mr. Republican, get ready to choke on your chicken bone, my entire experience cost $60, uninsured. That's right, a visit to chez-le-docteur and 4 prescription medications cost in total less than $60. To my American "you must be insured before you can even think about getting sick" mentality, this was a major punch to the gut.

Anyway, I'm not bitter. But please, America, land of the greed - oops, free - please pick up the pace on this health care thing. It's not marxist flag burning, it's universal health care and we're living in the stone age (exaggeration).

So those two paragraphs sum up a month, right? What? No? What was I doing the other 25 days in between? Well let's see. My mom and aunt came to visit which was delightful. It reminded me that yes I can love to see my family but be incredibly stressed to balance my work life, my personal life with Alix, and my family life. I had forgotten about that juggling act. We spent a week together and visited Versailles, rode the bateaus mouches, took a tour bus around Paris, and stopped in Montmartre, at Notre Dame, at at the Musee D'Orsay (which is damn cool). We ate a lot of good food (and I can prove that being 2 lbs fatter), we visited some home goods stores, and eventually decided that every home goods store in Paris charges $90 for a lampshade and went to IKEA. Thank god for the swedish and their flat-ish furniture. I say ish because I notice more and more non-flat variety furniture populating the shelves. I'm onto you IKEA.

School has continued to be a mind-blast. What does that mean? Not sure really, except that it's still 21 hours per week in French and I'm not sure at what speed my level is advancing, but I'm loving the coursework and becoming more and more friendly with my classmates. One of whom held a little get together about a week back which was congenial and welcoming, so much so that I invited Alix to come along and she enjoyed it just as much a I did, if not more.

Today, however, I'm procrasitinating. After a week of vacation which should have been filled with dancing and eating chocolate and oversleeping, it was instead filled with hacking up a lung and feeling like death, and now it's over and I haven't done any of my work. That would be all well and good save the fact that I have a test in French history tomorrow and I feel the old "Procrastinator" emerging in me. It's been long-dormant, but rearing to make a comeback, and here it is. I don't want to do my work. Which is silly, because I'm here firmly by choice, doing this just for me, and yet, I still don't want to do it. I want to play video games. I think that's just nostalgia creeping up because I enjoy gaming and it's been a while since I've wasted my days and nights on some useless quest to save the princess.. but well, there it is.

Past that, life is still amazing. No regrets. I miss my family and friends, a lot. It's slowly building to a whole lot. Nostalgia is winning. But, the holidays are coming up with PERFECT timing and I'm looking for a flight home between Dec 26 and Jan 1, so if you're in town and want to hang out, I'll be there! (I hope!).