Defying the Odds.

Le 10 novembre 2004.
Life manages to defy all the odds at various times. Nothing much has really happened, but the other day I realized how different it is that I work in France from what most people seem to do after college. But I feel that if there are seventeen hundred assistants from the US alone, not including all the other Anglophones from the UK and Australia and New Zealand, plus all the Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and other assistants from around the world, that this program can’t be all that exceptional. In addition to all the other programs that exist for newly graduated college students to work abroad, it really can’t be that amazing that I’m here in France for the year working. But becoming the inadvertent interpreters for two backpackers from Seattle and seeing their surprise that there were some of us living and working in Metz just made me re-evaluate the fact of my being here. (This paragraph’s craziness can be explained all by the fact that Greg just “gave” me a half-empty bottle of rosé wine… C’est la France!) À plus!

Le 11 novembre 2004.
I’ve found fellow Alias-nites here in Metz. Louise is an avid watcher, though they are just showing the third season in Europe this year. Victoria has only become a watcher due to circumstance; she needed something to watch one night and borrowed my DVDs for season three. It’s simply because I only own season three that she couldn’t start the show at the beginning. Maybe someone will get one and two for Christmas, or maybe I’ll get software to watch zone 2 DVDs on my computer, and then Louise owns both of the first two seasons. But I predict an Alias marathon sometime after the Noel holidays. It makes me extremely happy to have fellow Alias fans to feel frustrated with to have to wait for season four. But mostly that I have managed to “convince” another of the wonder that is Alias. Victoria and I have managed already to have several in depth conversations on the ins and outs of various episodes. As fascinating as all this is to us, it might seem rather ridiculous to others, but I suppose when you have only twelve hours of work a week (sometimes less due to holidays) you have time to discuss otherwise trivial conversations. As reassurance though, the majority of our conversations generally involve moderately intelligent conversation.