An American in Provence

I am, I admit, a self-proclaimed Perfume Junkie. I love perfumes. I have way too many of them. It is amazing to me how much a certain scent can bring back a certain memory, person, or even a period of our lives.









Jennifer Lopez: Still
Lolita Lempicka: Midnight Fragrance
DKNY: Red Delicious

I arrived here in France on July 22, 2005. Sometimes it is hard to believe how much has happened in two years here. I took ten months of french courses, got married, bought an apartment, and started working. With trips to Bretagne, Italy, and the US thrown in. I have survived two summers now. Not yet fluent in French, if I will ever be.
I remember how I felt on the plane moving here. Excited, nervous, anxious to see Alain again after 6 months, scared it would be awkward and that he would have changed. How it would be so exhausting to visit with his friends and family because of not really understanding what was being said but concentrating very hard.
And now, here I am, two years later. Wonder where I will be in two years?

Yesterday, we celebrated the national holiday. I must say, it seems much less of a deal than in the US. No Flag apparel, no home town parades, no cakes decorated like flags. Perhaps some people have BBQs. I saw exactly one house with a flag hanging from the window, and the buses had little flags attached to their tops. That's it.

I was told yesterday, by one of my coworkers, that many people in France believe that Friday the 13th can be an extremely unlucky OR lucky day. That a lot of people will buy lottery tickets, etc. hoping that they will have good luck. Alas and alack, nothing super special happened to me, but nothing bad either. Another blog states that the first few events of the day will determine how it will be. Hmm, so I guess my day should have been bad, since the train was half an hour late (again). However, when I got to work, it still wasn't open yet, so everyone was waiting outside anyway. Just an interesting difference between France and America I thought. So I hope that even if you didn't win the lottery, your vendredi treize wasn't bad.

As to be expected, the fourth of july passes rather quietly here. Perhaps if there was a bigger American community here like there is in Paris, or if I worked for the Consulate, it would be different. I don't know. Instead, I went to work as usual. Last year we went to the fireworks display on the 14th of July, bastille day. I just pretend that it is the 4th. Red white and blue, fireworks, all good. I posted this entry last year about national identity.
Am always interested in hearing people's comments.

A few weeks ago, I was feeling poorly. I had a bad all day long headache, a very sore throat, feeling a bit feverish, etc. I decided to take a sick day and go to the doctor. I called in that morning and was told I would need to bring in a note from the doctor to excuse my absense, otherwise it would be considered unexcused. Okay, fine. I went to a different doctor than my regular doctor, who is closed on Wednesdays. The doctor asked how long I would like to be on sick leave, and I told him "Just today is fine". He wrote me some prescriptions (infection of the throat due to allergies), I paid him the 21€ consultation fee (which I guess I will later get most of it back from the health system) bought my medicines, and went on my not quite so merry way. The next day, I went in to work and proudly presented the note from the doctor. All is fine and dandy until I receive my pay for this month.
(interjection- I am not complaining about MY workplace. From what I understand, all of France is like this. Therefore, I am just explaining to you the system in general).
Yep. One day less of pay. Argh. Thank goodness I didn't take the doctor up on his offer of two or more days.
Lesson learned.
I guess if you are sick for more than three days, the health care system will pay your salary. (but I don't know if it is the full percentage or not, so I am not willing to experiment just to find out.)
But I prefer the American sick leave system- you earn two days or so per month which you store up and then use when you need them- 2 days for a cold there, 3 days for a flu here, half a day to go to a doctor. Because really, if you know you will loose pay for being absent, you are a lot more likely to go to work, be unproductive because you are sick and miserable, and therefore get everyone else sick.
Now, I am not making a judgement on the American vs. French health care systems. I (thankfully) have not seen enough of either to really have an informed opinion, though actually I think they both have their pros and cons and are therefore probably about even, it just depends on what you need from the health care system.
Anyway, back to work.