chaos

It's become quite comical, really.

I guess it more or less started when I got to Grenoble and started having to deal with various academic logistics. On the third "tour de campus" I started reflecting - hm, not the best organization system going on here... By the seventh or so lap around campus, it was just ridiculous.

[Disclaimer: this is certainly no reflection on the quality of the people here - it's just silliness. I've certainly encountered a very very high number of very very nice people in all of my voyages across campus and town.]

Nothing is online here, so in order to figure out what classes I can take and when and where they are, I have to visit the academic planning offices in person. Certainly not a bad concept - it's nice to deal with real people rather than machines, for sure, and most people I've had to deal with have been exceedingly and quite genuinely nice and helpful. But alas, us California students are a bit confusing (we're trying to take a broad array of classes, which is not really done here).

I feel like the main character in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, when he is sent to New York bearing (unbeknownst to him) documents which sabotage his ability to get a job, when he had been told those documents would in fact help him get a job. That is perhaps quite extreme - but similar idea. Sometimes I think people are just sending me elsewhere, not really knowing if it's where I need to go, but will at least get rid of me and my weird questions. It's certainly not an act of sabotage. I visit one office, blank confused stare, then a revelatory oh, yes, go see Madame Huyghes, she's in charge of that. We know nothing of that here. Okay, where is her office? Oh, um, well, we don't know that either, you'll have to check with the Geology department. And where do I find that? Lap number one. And when I finally found Madame Huyghes, next step, find Monsieur Labiche to register... but alas, he's across town... and then go back to see Madame Huyghes asap. But don't forget to check your class schedule for the Literature classes, it'll be posted today. Oh, no, we're sorry. You'll have to come back tomorrow, it's not going to be posted today. They just didn't get around to it.

So, in short, the bureaucratic organization is not, um, impressive.

But it seems not to be reserved to just bureaucratic things... I decided to go for a swim today at the pool. I stood and watched for a while trying to decipher the pool etiquette. Do they do circle swims when there are 3 or more people in a lane as we do at home? No, not circle swim... hm, some different French system... what is it. Wait, did that person just cut halfway across the pool to avoid that wall of swimmers coming at him? Oh, okay. So more steering than swimming. Well, if that's the way it's done...

Cultural differences certainly abound here - bien sur! - that's why we travel, right? It's been quite difficult at times navigating the organization schemes here, trying to figure out where I need to be when, who I need to see to do what... and my Californian mind often loftily idealizes how much better things could be if they only had things more well organized. As a UC trained student, so much of this feels like total chaos. But how is it that such a civilized culture can function so normally - no, more than that - so healthily and sanely, within such a crazy system? Even the French complain about the organization system!

I am so used to having everything layed out well in advance, concrete. I know halfway through one quarter exactly what I'll be taking the next quarter. If I decide to try to crash a class, I can find the schedule and room online in 2 minutes. But it doesn't work like that here.

So what's better? I don't know - they're different, for sure. But what I am coming to really admire is that within all this seeming chaos, the French are still able to be genuinely kind to me (mostly - as in any country, there are those that are less so), hugely helpful and patient. And the students, while I'm running circles around campus, take their requisit lunch break and sit down with their friends, laugh, smile, and worry about figuring out where there class is when it's time to worry about it. With more logistics to work out, of course I have a little more running around to do, but I think there is something very valuable to be learned here for me.

Ironic, coming from "laid back socal"... I wouldn't say they're "laid back" here. Quite the contrary - one must be on one's toes here, ready to defend his or her opinion at every turn, even if it's just the choosing of a sandwich! But there's a way of prioritizing things here - friends, food, conversation and opinions come perhaps first. Worrying about what class you're going to take next Wednesday and whether or not it will work with the supplemental group work session for another class you started yesterday...? Not even on the list. We'll work it all out as it becomes a reality.

It's going to take some getting used to, but by the end of this year I am fully expecting to be much less of a worrier, and even more engaged in making the absolute most of the present (pardon the cliche). There are far too many adventures to have, recipes to try, and things to learn to worry about fitting them all in. I could spend all my time writing out my plan as to how I can organize my time and fit them all in, or I could just start doing them.

Hey, want to make a gratin dauphinois tonight?