I Am Officially A Resident of France!

Today, the other students and I went to the French consulate/official-ish place where they deal with papers to get our residence visas granted. It was a trip, as everything in France is, but in the end my visa was granted and now I am officially a resident of France (until June 2011)! The most important thing about this is that I can now travel outside of the country. SO excited :)

Other than that, today was fairly uneventful. I was late to the rendez-vous at the gare this morning, and got scolded my Mme Dargan. Typical. And then we went and got chest x-rays, where we were individually ordered around, topless, by French nurses. Awkward. And then we left and got lunch, which consisted of goat cheese, bread, and French pastries. Unhealthy. Then, as we were walking across the Seine River, I walked right past some guy who asked me for my number yesterday without noticing (my friends told me after he had walked by). Weird. And then, we all waited in the waiting room at the consulate place, waiting for our turn for the French doctors to call us fat. Confidence-building.

No, but really - the doctor, after reading my height and weight, says, "okay, so your height is (whatever it is in centimeters), and your weight is (whatever it is in kilos). this means that your BMI is good - it's in the average. But no more - stop!" Seriously? Fuck him - I went out and ate some peanut M&Ms afterwards. Do you think that helped with my BMI, Dr. Dickhead? Apparently he told another girl that she was obese, according to her BMI (she is anything but), and tested a few people for diabetes just based on their weight. Look - it's not their fault that muscle doesn't exist in France. No wonder this country loses every athletic competition. Ever. No one exercises, has any muscle, or can do anything athletic at all. We get called crazy when we say we want to go for a run.

Which leads me to my next issue: I need to start running again. It's SO hard to go here, first of all because I've been sick, but also because there is nowhere to run. It's just busy streets and neighborhoods. And I don't even know if I feel safe going by myself. I just feel like it's really unfair to not even have the opportunity to work out, even when I want to. I really want to be in shape, but it's nearly impossible here. No one does anything. Especially the women - they are, in general, anything but athletic. It's really amazing how little they work out and how tiny they are. I don't understand it. But also, it's not even about size or BMI - I just really like being in shape and feeling strong. I'm already so sad without my Bikram yoga (I totally gave up on running once I found Bikram), but now I don't even have a place to work out at all. It's really hard.

So now, I'm just sitting at home about to do some serious Moliere reading. I went to the store today and bought a bunch of delicious and nutritious things, and I'm really excited about them. I'm so sick of being sick!

Also, I really think that the bus drivers here are certifiably insane. The bus on my way back up to Mont Saint Aignan today almost hit two cars, a man on a bike, a woman and her child, and a curb. Yes, the last one is a stationary object. You would think that, at least, the driver would be experienced enough to know when a curb is coming up, and talented(?) enough to know how to avoid it. Not always the case.

So, that's pretty much it for my day. Oh! I bought a pair of flats for 20 Euro. They are black and beautiful :) The piercing is still looking sweet, and hurting less, so I'm a happy camper. I'm gonna go eat some apples and cashews now.

Bisous!
Josie