I probably could have SAILED faster.

At 8:30pm on Tuesday, October 12 I FINALLY PULLED UP TO BETSEY'S BUILDING IN THE SIXTH ARR.

Let me explain how this could be so, given that I had departed from JFK a solid, you know, 26 hours before. It starts with "Helsinki" and ends with "IS A TERRIBLE PLACE."

Just kidding, I mean, at least they had free wifi (or I might have died).

First problem: I got to JFK unnecessarily early because I'm a bundle of nervous wreck when I have a plane to catch. Second problem being that the cheap flight went through Helsinki, Finland. If you're not up on your geography, this requires you to bypass France, by, oh, A LOT. But I like this airline and their service is good, so whatever. AND you get two suitcases, unlike the other cheaper flights I had found.

When I got to Helsinki, I looked at my boarding pass, which said I didn't board until 3:30pm, which brings me to the third problem: IT WAS A QUARTER TO NINE. AM. WHAT?! So I looked at the departures, and there was a plane boarding for Paris. Naturally, I wanted to be on it, but evidently after boarding begins they can't add anyone. Jerks. So I go to customer service and very nicely point out that even if I can't take the flight boarding right this minute, there's another one at 12:15 that I would very much like to be on. The service desk very nicely informs me that ACTUALLY WE CANCELED THAT FLIGHT.

Crap.

So I settle in at Helsinki, for my now SIX HOUR LAYOVER, and feel like crap because I (for reasons unknown) haven't been able to sleep and we're going on all-nighter at this point with time zone nastiness. Can't eat, can't sleep, marathoning episodes of Bones and messing around on Facebook ...

Finally board. Another two and a half hours to Paris, which could have been the end of my woes. BUT IT WASN'T. Why? BECAUSE FRANCE HAS STRIKES. I got here just in time for a massive transit strike, which meant not only were there no RER Bs to get me to the city, the buses were hit or miss and the info desk didn't even have their schedule.

At this point, I can't take anymore and go straight to the taxi stand with my two fifty-pound (literally) suitcases, my violin, and my "personal item" purse that weighs another 30 pounds. DONE. After some traffic I finally get to Betsey's, but I don't want to discuss the price of that cab.

I insist, however, that it was necessary. Especially since I proceeded to haul all that luggage up six flights of death stairs to Betsey's apartment.

THIS IS WHY I DON'T EXERCISE. EVER.

By the way, I checked my boarding pass later to see if I had really been stupid enough to book that return flight without checking times. Totally wasn't, guess who was SUPPOSED to be on that 12:15pm flight?

Right.

Dear Albany, WTF?! Love, Molly

So as some of you may be aware, SUNY Albany has decided that it can put "the world within reach" by ...

Drumroll, please ....

DELETING ITS FOREIGN LANGUAGE PROGRAMS. Nevermind the fact that vast swaths of Americans can't speak English properly, now you're going to encourage them to blow off foreign languages too? Call me crazy, but I don't think that's going to do anyone any favors.

This is why countries like France have bad reputations for foreign language skills in places like, uh, the world -- Because their language was the dominant language in business and diplomacy for so long, they were reluctant to study foreign languages like ENGLISH. It's all very well that English happens to be the language of world business at the moment, but there's nothing saying that in another 20 years it won't be Chinese. Or Esperanto. OR PIG LATIN.

This article from Inside Higher Ed sums it up, but if you want the short version, I'd go with:

WTF, ALBANY?

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/10/04/albany

There are petitions out there to stop them and a million other things, and if I ever get my act together I fully intend to email everyone I can find nasty letters about how that's the worst.idea.ever. As someone who has seen the effects of foreign language study firsthand (Not like I ever saw myself spending two years in France when I was at FM), I'm living proof that foreign languages are not only relevant, they're IMPORTANT.

One of my friends has a neat quote on her Facebook: "If you speak three languages you're trilingual, if you speak two languages you're bilingual, and if you speak one language you're American." We should be trying to change that, not reveling in it.

Ironically, she's in the Masters program at Albany.

Denial. Excitement. Procrastination.

I'm beginning to think going back will be fun, but every time I look at the pile of things I want to bring, I silently will them to pack themselves.

Not working.

So instead I stubbornly bury myself in books. I've discovered that the post-traumatic stress of reading scholarly articles is reversible, and I have a renewed interest in reading for pleasure. Marathoned my way through The Hunger Games trilogy, then The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and now The Importance of Being Earnest (which, I never realized, is hilarious).

You might say I'm reading like someone who won't be buying books [in English] for quite some time ...

Juxtaposition, as per request.

I had rather thought that a summer vacation from the blog would be necessary, until a certain someone at the high school suggested that the juxtaposition of life in Manlius and life in Paris was essential.

Hmph.

At any rate, I can attempt a sort of dishonorable summary of the summer, which is something like:

The Producers,

The Renaissance Fest,

Binghamton,

Manlius,

Binghamton,

Manlius,

Rochester,

Bristol Hills Music Camp,

Virginia Beach,

Manlius,

Plattsburgh,

Albany,

Manlius,

The NYS Fair,

Elmira,

Manlius,

Rochester,

Manlius,

Binghamton,

NYC,

Binghamton,

Elmira,

Manlius.

Call it a tour de force of New York State. The only major city I seem to have missed is probably Buffalo, and not for lack of reasons to go (sorry Carrie :(, I love you! ). You can probably hazard a guess as to why I went where, so I'll skip the explanations ...

While I could elaborate at length about the level of utter relaxation, stress, and general confusion these three months at home have brought me, I suppose the more relevant matter is the resolution.

I'm going back. As an au pair for the family I babysat all last year :) I am not teaching (which, as Burns pointed out, leaves me with more time for reading and writing). I have officially done battle against the forces of evil ... I mean, the French Consulate ... and have obtained a visa. It makes my face look fat. Eric, my personal hero, Fed-Ex'ed my passport/visa/paperwork to me after picking it up. Because some of us can't wait around for a week while they print off a sticker, because NEW YORK IS A BIG STATE.

So now the cycle restarts itself, much like laundry that I leave in the washing machine for too long because I forgot about it because I was busy finishing a trilogy called The Hunger Games because CSweens told me I had to. It was good, incidentally.

Orchestra schedule came a few days ago; concerts at the end of October and November (eek), and then leaving for the tour in China Christmas day. Did some researching about visas for China the other day ... Not really sure what to expect.

Oh well, sticking to the "Things happen for a reason" philosophy. It seems to be working out so far ...

Triumphant Return

Sitting in the Helsinki airport ... Finland seems nice, from the windows. And besides, any airport with free WiFi is cool with me.

On the other hand, I went in so the wrong direction to get here. And I left at 4am. Ughhhh.

More reports upon return to the civilized world ... You know, the one with internets.

School's out!

My last day at school was Tuesday, although I had a dinner with teacher friends last night and I'm going to the teacher BBQ tonight, so the last time I go to school is actually this evening.

Anyway, it was so sad to say goodbye to my 400 (ok so maybe not, but still) different classes ... they were (mostly) so cute, and so sad when they found out that I might not be there with them next year. I gave them my address in Manlius and told them that I'd miss them, and if they wanted to send me letters or pictures I'd be very happy to hear all about their new adventures (and of course I'd respond)! I think I got a bajillion bisous and hugs and they were ready to take me hostage, which a little bit broke my heart.

At any rate, it's miserable here in Paris, it's been 32°C and sunny most days ... aka just about 90°F. There is no worse place to be than a city in such conditions, except maybe an un-air-conditioned city (cough Paris cough) or a swamp.

Monday I leave for La Baule with the family I babysit for a relaxing week of beachy goodness. I'm looking forward to it.

Then after that, hold on to your hats --- I'm back on the correct continent July 13th. I'm so excited to come home that I can barely get out coherent sentences in French these days.

For whom the bell tolls ...

I started freaking out a little because I don't have a contract for next year, and I'd like to at least feel roughly secure in my planning for next year.

So yesterday Nicole (one of my principals) and I call up the bigwigs at one of the twelve thousand levels of French hierarchy to ratchet up the pressure a bit. Instead of reassuring me that of course I'll have my job next year, don't you worry, I hear :

"Not only are old assistants not priority because we want to give new people a chance, this year has an unusually high number of applications, so we won't know whether or not we're taking any old assistants until after we have responses from the new people ... it will probably late in the summer, possibly even in September."

So much for reassuring words.

Now I'm looking at jobs in private schools and internships, and really anything else I can find. It kills me though, because I work in impoverished schools with kids that have very little going for them, and I want to stay ... but the Education Nationale can't get their act together.

Thank you, bureaucracy.

Now I just have to keep breathing, since the sudden stress of this announcement has sent me into stress overdrive.