Like Herding Cats
Okay, today endeth my blogging about work (at least for the time being). Rather than give details about today—which also consisted of almost 100% work—I have a few general comments, sort of directed at the parents of these students:
- If he or she is still your "baby," why are sending him/her to a big, complex city on the other side of the globe for 3 months?
- 3 months in this program is a VERY expensive substitute for therapy. If your child is fragile, shy, or ill-tempered at home, he/she will be here,too.
- France is France is France. Everything is more expensive, amenities are more difficult to provide, and blanket-cover WiFi is not an inalienable right.
Sorry, I'm sort of channeling my parents right now. And, if any of the students ever find this page and read this: don't worry, it's not specifically about you. Everybody did something stupid or embarassing or bratty since they've gotten here, so nobody has distinguished him/herself in that respect (yet). In fact, that sort of describes my day in an indirect way. Everybody was doing their best to keep it together after intercontinental travel and a full day of school the following morning, but all the little mistakes and misfires of the entire group sort of clustered together. Admittedly, my perspective was skewed. I was dealing with nothing but problems, so I missed the moments when things were going well. I have to remind myself that for each moment that one student is in trouble, the other 20 are not.
Anyway, the day was long and full and I have little hope of getting any of my own doctoral work done this week. Hmmm, about that paper I'm supposed to write by Nov 19th...
P.S. French young radishes and butter. Why is it so damn tasty?
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2 commentaires:
"Boo hoo... I accepted a job and I don't like what the job requires of me. Therefore, I am going take out all of my pent-up, homosexual rage on the students, those damned cats which I have to herd and lead with my 'excellent' abilites in the French language and my incomparable WiFi wizardry." If Luis happens to find this on the internet, he should note well that this is not aimed specifically at him, but at the job his parents did raising him as well. Paris, as much for the gay graduate student whiny type as for the undergraduate, is, as he wrote so profoundly, not a substitute for therapy. We should all remember that if the WiFi isn't working, that the person who asks the person whose job it is to fix it to do just that, that he will reach the revered annals of a blog as "doing something stupid or embarrassing or bratty," which is really funny, because it is all of those three things to blog in such a fashion. On a lighter note, I ate a carrot today... and I put some sauce on it... it was über très good! Tonight... it's off to the Marais to faire some connaissances, if you catch my drift.
Hey, I just got my first troll! And an anonymous one, at that. I feel like I've finally arrived in the blogosphere!
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