one of the fun things about france being a smallish country is that national sports events resemble college games way more than they do the super bowl (and everbody knows college games are way more fun).
today the national rugby semi-finals are taking place here in bordeaux, in the stadium which is about a half a mile from our apartment. usually a game just means hot-dog stands on our street, but today's game is different: not only is it a semi-final, but it is a semi-final between toulouse, three hours to the south, and clermont-ferrand, three hours to the east. which means the totality of the crowd (about 40 thousand people) are being bussed in.
i envisioned the jam-packed tramways close to our house, but I was not prepared for what I encountered riding my bike home from the grocery store: two large busses parked on the sidewalk, out of which spilled an endless line of seriously tanned middle-aged men with huge straw-colored mustaches to match their straw hats, dressed exclusively in blue and gold, smiling beatifically and reeking of beer.
I approached, realizing that navigating a tightly-packed field of about a hundred drunk men was going to take more than sharp steering, when an extremely drunk young man spotted me and gallantly offered to lead the parting of the red sea; this was working well but ended when he collided with the ping-pong table that was being set up in the bike lane. luckily at that point enough attention had been drawn to my plight that I made it through the rest of the crowd without incident, and was able to continue my ride home with everyone behind me yelling "bonne journée!"
peaches!
there are peaches! peaches peaches peaches peaches peaches! I saw the first ones at the grocery store yesterday. I was eyeing them for a few minutes, when a lady came up beside me and asked if it was really peach season. I told her I thought it seemed a little early, and she agreed. these peaches came from spain, and since mass spanish produce is typically not as good as french produce, they make up for it for by getting to market early. neither of us said so, though, because this close to the border you never know who is spanish.
it's the same dilemma with every fruit, every year. we've had strawberries in the markets for three weeks now, but it's way early for strawberry season. on the other hand, we haven't seen strawberries for 9 months! i've cracked and bought a few baskets already; and i've gotten what i deserved - sour, or mealy, or just untasty strawberries.
so i cracked and bought 2 peaches today - just to try. we're taking the train to paris tonight and so i also bought a baguette and a dried sausage. i had in my head all those books where some european journeyman starts out on a several-days walk through the countryside with just a baguette and a sausage to see him through - but then i thought we might get hungry and i got cheese, olives, almonds, wine and water as well. nobody every made it anywhere in real life powered only by sausages and bread.
socialism!
god know i love countries where you have to start training at the age of 11 to sell tickets at the cinema.
most of the places I have applied to for a job have just not replied, since no-one is hiring, but I have been rejected from a number of prestigious places that are hiring. i thought i might detail my accomplishments here:
not hiring: any job that requires use of a word-processing program. (includes galleries, translation agencies, businesses, etc.) restaurants. also, any cool sales jobs, eg. bookstores, cinemas.
hiring, but not hiring me:
Sephora - unqualified, lack diploma in cosmetics sales.
Ikea - unqualified, lack diploma in sales.
After-School Tutoring: unqualified to privately tutor 4th to 6th graders in english, lack TEFL (teaching english as a foreign language) diploma.
local department store: lack diploma and 3 to 5 years of experience in ready-to-wear sales.
luckily for me, I was accepted into the Bordeaux Women's Club, proof that I qualify for something!
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