Mirage

First, I lost track of how long it's been since I last updated this. I've been trying to post every two weeks or so. Though I guess I'm not that far off...

I'm pretty tired of France. I'll probably leave in about a month or so, when my lease runs out.

The reason that I don't want to stay is that I'm sick of all of the shit that gets shoved onto someone when they're not unionized around here. I started yet another job last week. This was in a hostel, and for a few days it seemed like I finally had something decent in this country. I was training for the front desk, and the job seemed super chill. The person that was training me was very nice, and all of the customers were great. They were almost entirely backpackers travelling across Europe, so I felt quite at home.

Then the boss showed up, and everything went to hell.

I showed up for my first day of post-training work sick. Very sick. I could barely stand. And her approach to testing her workers is to stand over their shoulders and yell at them every time they move. This was quite possibly the angriest woman I have ever met. And the others told me that she wasn't just having a pissy day. More like a pissy life. It's no exaggeration that she had some of the guests in tears. There was a Russian girl that had her wallet stolen the previous night, along with all of her identification. So she wasn't able to pay for the previous night's bill. The girl was already very upset. The owner decided that she was trying to steal from the hostel, and completely went off the deep end.

By the end of the day, I was about ready to pass out. I'd been sleeping for about 14 hours a night the previous couple of days. When she started yelling at me for not being fast enough and not smiling enough [the irony seemed totally lost on her], it didn't really help matters any. All of this shit is not the reason that I came to Europe. I've had enough. Quiet desk jobs are becoming much more appealing. So, although I'm not coming back to Montreal for at least a little while, the pull of working there is much stronger than sticking around here and getting yelled at all day.

I'm planning on doing some more roaming, though I'm really not sure where I'll go yet. Still, I'm tied up with a mini-lease here in Paris until the middle of next month, so I won't be leaving right away. My landlord tells me that he might be able to get me some casual painting work till I leave. So I'll either do that or just concentrate on drawing for a few weeks.

For the next couple of days I have a girl and her sister staying with me in my apartment. I met the girl in a hostel here in Paris last month, and she asked if she could stay with me when she was passing through the next time, if I'd found an apartment. She's very nice, but the apartment is [well beyond being] very small, so it's quite cramped. My social life isn't exactly booming right now, so it's a welcome change to have some company.

The E.U. has apparently fallen into a full blown crisis. The eagerness of the French to bass the blame onto someone else is absolutely incredible. The media dropped any major references to the French rejection of the constitution, which is the real cause of the crisis. Instead, they're blaming the British for not wanting to increase their payments to the E.U. and thereby blocking the future budget. It's true that the British are being greedy, but almost half of the E.U. budget goes into farm subsidies, and farms don't even employ 5% of the population. And France is the principle beneficiary of those subsidies. In the end, they end up dumping all of their surplus produce on third world countries, thereby driving farmers in these poor regions to starvation. The whole situation is complete bullshit. But most of the bureaucrats are siding with France.

A small rant about Canada. The B.Q. is completely full of shit. By siding with the Conservatives, they shot down every amendment by the N.D.P. to the Canadian budget, for the sole reason of pissing off the Liberals. Despite the fact that the amendments matched the Bloc's platform very well. By being petty, they've hurt Québec more than they realize.

On a closing note, I realize that these entries have been very negative lately. I've been trying to improve them, but it seems like almost everything that's worth writing about comes out as a complaint. I hope things will change soon.