Ah, the French...

Why is it the French can't have a 'normal' bureaucracy system with the typical level of red-tape you find in most Western countries? For some reason they decided they had to make it far more complicated. My issue with them at the moment concerns obtaining a carte vitale - the card that ensures you're at least partially covered by health insurance (I believe it's around 70% coverage). In France, when you go to the doctor, you show your carte vitale, pay the full fee at the end and then get reimbursed 70% of the cost. No carte vitale, no reimbursement. When I was living in the UK I applied (and received) a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC), which covers UK citizens when they travel within the EU, but now that I'm a resident in France (and don't have a UK address), I'm no longer covered by said EHIC card. I'm also paying a contribution (taken automatically 'at the source' from my monthly salary) towards the French social security. Which means that I'm entitled to use the French system and, ergo, a carte vitale. Simple, right? Wrong.

Well, kind of. I am actually entitled to all of that, it's just a matter of convincing the French that this is the case. The first time I went to the CPAM (Caisse Primaire d'Assurance Maladie) de Haute Savoie, they told me that I was covered by the EHIC card and wasn't allowed to get a carte vitale. At the time I wasn't sure on the rules for this, so I didn't argue about it too much and left (although not without first asking why, in that case, I was making a contribution to the French system if I didn't actually benefit from it, but their reply was that that's just how it is).

I did some research when I got home and found out that I'm not actually covered by the EHIC card. This could've been quite serious, since if I wasn't covered by my parents' private health insurance it would've meant that I'd been skiing uninsured for the last 3 months... Anyway, a few days later I went back. This time I spoke to another woman and I tried a different approach (using words that were a little more vague) and, presto, I got to the next step. Which is a person in a room who quite clearly hates her job and couldn't get rid of me fast enough. I'd come prepared, with copies of every single paper I have in my possession (pay slips, birth certificate, passport, rent agreement, work contract, bank information, etc.), so I was feeling pretty confident by this point. I should've known better.

Turns out the bank information I had wasn't good enough. In France you have what's known as a 'Releve d'Identite Bancaire' (RIB), which is the information needed for someone to pay you (in the case of them needing to reimburse me). Normally you have to ask your bank for all of this information, which is printed on an A4 sheet of paper, however my bank had sent me this nifty little card with all of the same information on it. Rumor had it, said my bank, this card could be taken with you in your wallet and used exactly like one of the flimsy paper RIBs. Turns out, that rumor's wrong. So the woman took all of my papers and information, except my RIB, and told me to return the following day with a paper RIB (which I had at home, and by this time was cursing myself for not having brought). I did this, and put it in the mail box on the outside of the building she'd indicated to me the day before. I figured that was it, I'd get a letter soon-ish asking me for 2 pictures for my card.

Sure enough, this week I finally received a letter. Except inside I found my RIB and accompanying letter, with a note saying that I needed to provide my social security number... except I don't have one yet. So god knows how they're keeping track of my payments, but I'll worry about that later. Anyway, I went back into the CPAM today (I have to take time off work each time to do this as well) and explained the situation - all I wanted to do was attach my RIB to my file. Of course it couldn't be that simple though. Normally a file is only accepted when ALL of the information has been obtained (including the RIB), but in my case for some reason my file was already 'en cours' (in progress) which means that they couldn't do anything with it (although nobody could explain the reason why it was suddenly untouchable). I now have to wait for them to send me a letter giving me my 15 character social security number and asking for my RIB. Then I can send that in, and in theory, finally be asked for 2 pictures for my card.

However, since I'll be leaving in 2 months, it's all beginning to seem a little pointless, especially since guess what happens when I leave the 'departement'... that's right! My carte vitale is no longer valid. Besides, if I even get my carte vitale before I leave I'll consider a miracle - or at least a triumph over the French red-tape in the face of adversity. Something like that anyway. What I care about most anyway is my social security number because as far as I know that's what I need in the future to prove that I made payments into the system (in particular for my pension in who knows how many decades), and in theory that should be the next thing to arrive. I highly doubt it though. I have a sneaky suspicion I'm not going to hear from them again...

But it's this kind of unhelpful attitude which the French have which really puts me off ever living here for an extended period of time. It's ok for holidays or short periods, but I can't see myself putting up with it for more than a couple of years. Once you get to know someone they're fine, but with strangers (foreign or French) they're very unwelcoming. Sadly it's pretty much endemic and is like that even between people on the streets (for example, it's amazing how many rude comments you get from pedestrians or fellow bikers when you're cycling on a cycling track, because they think you've encroached on their space - when it's either them who's doing the encroaching or when there's plenty of room for everyone and you're being perfectly respectful of their space).

Anyway, enough of that - if you've made it this far, congratulations. I'd give you a cookie for your trouble, except... well, I can't.

On a different note, I decided to clear the hot air in my head after all of this by going for a walk along the lake after dinner - it was very windy today (which helped with the clearing of the hot gases...), so there were some impressive waves on the lake (impressive given the size of the lake anyway):

A not so exciting weekend in the life of the wanderlust tck...

This weekend has got to be my laziest one in Annecy so far. This is about as close to doing literally nothing over a weekend as I've ever come to before. On Friday after work the weather was quite good, so I went for a bike ride around the lake. Right after getting home though, the weather turned cloudy, then the rain came and... well, it's been like that ever since. So on Saturday I slept in late, eventually got up and went into town to buy some cheese from the Cremerie du Lac (a great cheese shop - they buy cheeses and then 'affine' them in their own cave). Apart from that, I've been holed up in my room watching a couple of movies and occasionally watching the clouds pass overhead... it's a tough life.

In fact, my week in general has been pretty quiet, although I decided to go into town one evening to take a few pictures (one of the few evenings in the last two weeks when it hasn't been raining). The best pictures I took are on film, but I took a couple on my digital camera. Some of the locals (actually, most of them are probably tourists) sampling the local ice cream (naturally I joined in - it only seemed polite):

The building below served a number of purposes. It was originally built as a palace (le Palais de l'Ile) for the lords of Annecy in the 12th century, when the counts of Geneva moved to Annecy. However in the middle ages it became the prison and was in use as such until 1865. At one point the local government wanted to destory it, but at the time had some trouble finding the money to fund its destruction. Luckily some people had some sense and started a petition to protect it, which succeeded. It is now listed as a Historical Monument.

Finally, this is the Saint Francois de Sales Church. Initially a church, it was transformed into a barracks under the French Revolutionary occupation, a factory in 1794, apartments and shops in 1812 and finally back into a church in 1923 for use by the Italian community.

The Changing of Seasons

The other day, during one of my (frequent) bored moments at work, I was looking at a calendar and I realised that I'm already more than halfway through my stay in Annecy. It's amazing how quickly the first few weeks and months can pass. Before you know it, you're already counting down the weeks to when you leave - whether it's in apprehension over the future or in anticipation of leaving, although it's usually the former rather than the latter.

In the first three months of my time here I've been pretty active - sensibly enough, since I'm living essentially in the middle of the Alps! In the first 12 weeks I've been skiing 12 times, most of the time with fantastic conditions - the season was great this year, with plenty of snow and sun. Now though with the air warming up a bit activities generally involve cycling, walking in the mountains and soaking up the sun on the edge of the lake bien sur! Yesterday I cycled around the Lac d'Annecy (40km) in 1 hour and 38 minutes, which is a new (personal) record. I'm hoping to get under 1 hour and 30 minutes by the time I leave. Last Saturday I also went for a walk on a mountain nearby called the Tournette, although we ended up turning around partway up after the second avalanche... we ended up climbing a lower altitude hill/mountain just next to it called the Col de la Forclaz. This was the view from the top:


Unfortunately work here hasn't improved - I have absolutely no interest in what I'm doing and don't understand half of it. Often my supervisor talks as if a) I've been with the company for years like him and know the organisation like the back of my hand and b) I've taken a course or studied the type of work I'm doing here, neither of which is true. I don't get along with my supervisor either, and my job is certainly one thing I won't miss when I leave. At least I now know not to accept a permanent job like this when I graduate!

Sadly that doesn't significantly narrow down the possibilities - I still have no idea what to do after university. I'm still struggling to see how I could ever settle down, but I often wonder if that wouldn't be the best thing for me. It's funny, when I was younger my parents always thought I would settle down and my sister would keep moving around, but now it looks like it's the opposite. My sister seems pretty happy where she is (and has been for 6 or 7 years now) and seems to have established a life and routine now from what I can tell. But I guess for me it will be a case of waiting for time to run out at the end of university next year, forcing me into taking a decision.

One week to go

In exactly one week and 8 hours I will be starting the first day of work at my new job. I'm getting a little nervous about it already, because I'm not really sure what to expect. I get the impression there will be quite a lot of translating from French to English, which suits me. I'm very comfortable switching from one to the other at a moments notice - probably because I'm used to my parents doing it at home, so I've grown up listening to it and doing it already myself. I also had a translation class a couple of semesters ago at university and always did very well in it, so I'm reasonably confident about that. It's just a new place, new people, new customs, new lots of things and who doesn't get butterflies about that? On top of that I'm a little vague on the exact details of the things I will have to do at work (I have a 'project' description, but my particular role isn't entirely clear...), which certainly doesn't help.

Since I'm not far from Annecy at the moment, I've already moved a lot of things into my studio there and I'm really happy with it. The rent's quite high (because of the location) - it's more than double what I was paying in Belgium - but on the other hand it's completely private (bathroom and kitchen as well), is well situated and is well laid out. I'm looking forward to living there, because I already know two people there and have a feeling I'm going to enjoy the work and the other people I will meet there, plus there are always company-subsidized skiing trips; certainly not something to be frowned upon!

Christmas among cultures

The holiday season is beginning to draw to a close, and I hope you've all passed a good Christmas with family/friends/whoever you spent the period with! I've been with family and I'll be heading off to France (or at least a different part of it since I'm already in France) sometime around the middle of January. In the last couple of days I've found a small studio to rent, which is a big relief, since it was getting a little last minute and I thought I'd struggle to find something. Luckily something opened up and so I found something fairly decent at a good price (for a student!). Now I 'just' need to arrange a bank account, phone, internet access...

During the holiday I've been reading through the TCK book by David Pollock and Ruth van Reken and I got to thinking about the few months I spent in Belgium and the cultures I'd met up with there. Most of the time I was with Spaniards, Italians, Germans or English people, not with Belgians, but it meant I experienced a good mix of Western European culture - since they were all nationals of those countries and not TCK's like me, so they had their own home culture. As I mentioned in my previous post, at the end of my stay in Belgium we all got together for a Christmas meal. But when we discussed what to cook, the different cultural traditions came out. The English people wanted to cook a Turkey, the Germans wanted to cook a goose, and a Spaniard said "ah, we can cook a fish!" I didn't really notice it at first to be honest - since I'm used to cultural differences and they are 'normal' to me. I only picked up on it when the others started talking about it.

It was interesting, as a spectator, because I, an ATCK, got to see other adults becoming a form of ATCK. As they were all beyond their developmental years they technically weren't becoming TCKs, but they were experiencing cultural differences first-hand just the way I did first as a child - so actually watching it happen was something new to me.

Temporary constancy

I am now back 'home' for the Christmas and New Year holidays. I'll be spending some time in the south of France and then hopefully some time skiing in the Alps in early January, before going to look for accommodation (amongst other things) in Annecy, France, my next abode.

On my last night in Liege, I had a Christmas dinner with friends. We cooked a couple of turkeys, a load of vegetables and consumed plenty of beer, wine and gluhwein! At the end they all surprised me (I had absolutely no idea this was coming) by giving me a box full of 'memories'. They had bought a flag of Wallonia and signed it, there were also pictures of us during the time I'd been there, a Santa Claus apron (they considered me the 'official chef') and of course, being in Belgium, ubiquitous chocolate. Having always lived in places before where people are used to friends, schoolmates and colleagues leaving, I'm not used to being given something when I leave. It's just a matter of life - you accept the parting of a friend and you go on with your life. You know it had to happen eventually and, in a way, you've spent all the time you've been together preparing for that moment. The people I met in Liege weren't Belgian, but they weren't TCKs like me either - they'd always lived in the same place, so they weren't accustomed to the same level of mobility and change in social circles as me. So I was quite touched to be given the 'memory box', it was a nice personal touch and left me with several things of sentimental value.

But now I'm at 'home' (as close to one as I'll find at the moment anyway). It's a house which we've had for the last decade roughly and I come back usually at least once each year. Even though it's not really home (it's in a country I've never technically lived in before and of which I'm not a citizen) and I don't speak the language fluently (although not far off), it's a place I can come back to and which is familiar to me. So, at least for a short time, I feel a sense of familiarity - not necessarily like I'm at home - but at least something that I recognise and that is constant.