Maybe I do want to call you on your empty pretension.

Being from a Show-me state, I'm a show-me person.

I think I would be one even if we hadn't peaced out on gentle Tupelo, Mississippi for stubborn and sweltering Missouri when I was a petit bebe.

France is not a show-me country. And that works for France. And that is good.

The proviseur just came in asking who everyone was in the teacher's lounge a few minutes ago. Firstly, she didn't know her own employees, this should be a red flag.

I didn't have my glasses on (its dumb to wear your glasses at the computer) so I just think, "oh, more professors greeting each other, I will be ignored as usual, good."

So, the Proviseur (the principal of sorts) decides to add me to her game of Guess Who, and she has no clue who I am.

This is the woman who said it would be nice if we had a laundry machine in our dorms. (we don't have one) She didn't even say, "...but...." (?)

Anyway, my super cool stagiare was like, Lori, you know you're supposed to like, be more formal and recognize the proviseur when she comes in the room, etc... and I was like, oh sorry I had my glasses on and I can't see, and ok I'll play that game, sure.

Still, I told her my name, my position, greeted her more or less? It was drill sergeant minimalist, I thought.

I can't help but think about Mr. McCallie here.
Did anyone have to be reminded that he was the principal? If others told you to respect the man, finding a reason wasn't a problem (not for me at least). He was a good boss.

This principal DID NOT KNOW ME, but I'm supposed to have some sortof Proviseur mania on the tarmac of my school whenever her plane rolls in? I'm all for respecting your elders, authorities, etc...but pomp and circumstance for a lady who doesn't know her teachers much less her students? It just strikes my american soul as something a little bit yucky.

Maybe its tradition? That's good, tradition is good. I don't know.

I'll of course apologize for not popping a bottle of champagne and doing a little jig when I noticed that she might notice me...on second thought, I'll just lay low, laissez-tomber, laissez-faire -- its v. french, and I must assimilate!

Mr. Harig used to say, "if you have to say your the big enchilada/kahuna/?, you're probably not."

If others have to remind you to curtsey to you, you're probably not much of a monarch.

Exercises in inappropriateness

My pal Becky just called me to vent about her class discussion on 9-11.

Her first words, after my, "hellooooo?" were, "I just cried in front of 14 high schoolers."

Poor americans, we are so weepy. There's some email joke circulating (or that circulated) showing each county's reaction to Zidane's totallylame headbutt that lost France the world cup, and America's reaction is, of course, thinking its a terrorist threat or something -- I, being american and all, don't really understand.

Its a dillema really, b/c you don't want to be the weepy american who over-importance-izes 9-11, but still, a little bit of you is like, "ow?" I'd be happier if they made fun of New Orleans and all that crap that went down, frankly. (NOLA's going to be fine eventually, though, if you asked me...or these guys. will you buy a shirt already?)

My friend emillie was just hanging out in a bar in the countryside of western france when some girl asked her if she knew anyone who died in the twin towers.

"Yes." she responded. (in french, b/c she's a gangsta french speaka)

Emilie's from quite near new york (in more than just a geographical sense, though her hometown in CT is super close as well) so she really did like, know know people.

"You know it was your fault." responded her kind French inquisitor.

Needless to say, Emilie had not much more to say to that lady.

To be fair, one of her teacher's daughters, when emilie was recounting the tale, said she would've punched that girl in the face. And I in no way am generalizing all of France's baguette-carrying legions of being so rude... in fact, most of them are reassuringly curious, sympathetic, and eager for you to prove wrong their vast misconceptions about the average american.

Still, I got this lovely little drawing (above) done for me by what is admittedly my worst class (as far as attitude, though some are really sweet, its a pity they're in a class full of hooligans, really -- been there before).

When I told them that was a little inappropriate, they, being sassy adolescents (19 years old, does that count?) told me they thought it was beautiful.

What's up with this? This is not where the 9-11 insensitivity stories end (at least in the classroom), but really there shouldn't be a beginning! .

Should I play the Pearl Harbor card? Should I say, would france draw pictures of a couple hundred men entombed in a warship at the bottom of the pacific and tell me its beautiful? Isn't that creepy?

I do realize that Pearl Harbor led to the US joining in the WW2, not some strange "war" on something. This is not an anti-war post, I'm just acknowledging that ww2 does not equal iraq or whatever we're calling it.

Still, the tragic loss of average citizens (and military men and women) just the same is equal, regardless of time, place, context....right?

It's annoying.

Plus, most of america has moved on from 9-11, and is trying to make the world a better place (and succeeding) despite crazy wars that send our friends to sand dunes to play smear the queer with al-quaeda -- or however the heck you spell it.

9-11 is in the past, and that is a blessing - the future is brighter than how the tiny chunk of noisy and rude french, with existentialist malaise and heaven knows what kind of tabacco dependency running through their veins, see it.

Peace in the middle east,
Lori