I'm starting to feel a touch of that first (or second not really sure) dip in the "w" of cultural adjustment. My french teacher told me that I was one of only two people that she teaches that showed a strong positive attitude. I guess I must not be very far down in the dip coampared to other people! :-)
I have 3 visitors coming over the next few months, and I'm looking forward to their company. I suppose I had better finish getting my apartment in order. I'm not here that much, and the little bit I am I am sleeping or about to. The only other big thing I need to do is get my kitchen cabinets installed. I haven't really been looking forward to hammering out those details in french, but I suppose I'll bite the bullet this weekend (unless something better comes up).
This weekend I'll probably be joining some friends in going to see the first Alps stage of the Tour de France. Today Lance is in second place overall, and members of the US postal team hold the top 8 spots!! There's still a long way to go...
I've been making more friends at work. Just being an american here is a huge ice breaker, so it makes it easy to start conversations with people anywhere. Normally they're pretty interested in knowing about me and where I come from (most of them quickly realize I'm not french but aren't sure where I am from). In general the french people I talk to don't hide their extreme dislike for Bush, but easily draw a distinction between americans and the american government. Perhaps this is because right now there are strikes almost every day against the french government!
The weather for the past week and a half has been perfect, and nice and cool in the evenings. It started warming up a little again yesterday, but the evenings are still cool. Some people are saying that we have already seen the worst of the summer heat. I hope that's true, but I won't believe it until September!
Posted by Brian at July 9, 2003 03:00 PM