October 'n' stuff.

8.10.09

So I’m remembering now all too clearly the way the system works here in France. Everything (from doing your laundry to putting up tutoring ads) must go through the heirarchy before anything can get done. There are so many mindless “required” steps one must take before getting to the desired finish line. And even when you get there, there is no way for sure everything will come out clear in the end. It may be warped, it may have a few stains on it here and there, it may be completely backwards when it’s finally returned to you. But hey, just give it all a nice big shrug, and you’re good to go in France.
Prime example: I’ve submitted some handmade posters that I’d intended to put around Aiguillon advertising my tutoring services (teaching English). Before putting them up, I had to okay them with the secretary to the “Proviseur” or school principal, basically, who had to okay the posters. Good, fine. Whatever. So I gave the secretary the posters a few weeks ado (needing money pretty badly I set in right away on a task to earn some extra dough on the side) and waited & waited for her to get back to me and tell me that they were good to put out. But I heard nothing until tonight when some random lady who works in the collège calls me and asks for tutoring for her sons! I said yes but I charge 15 Euro/half hour and 20 Euro/the hour. She said: “Well it says on your poster that you charge 15 E/half hour and 20E/for an hour and a half!” :-O <-- (my face after hearing this.) So apparently my posters were okayed but only after being modified (without my knowledge) and sent out to various persons instead of being sent back to me, where they originally came from. What can I do but go with it? I told the caller that I’d give her what the poster said because of a ‘malentendu’, but she assured me that ‘ça va aller’ and I should fix the price on the poster. Well, I wouldn’t have anything to fix if It weren’t adjusted in the first place!!
So after that big SIGH of the evening, I am left to tinker around with my lesson plans and maybe watch some ‘telly’ (as Amy calls it) before bed. Goodnight for now!