(no subject)

[tarimanveri]

Okay, today appears to be the day the international student people in Rennes come back from their summer holidays, so I spent the first hour after my groggy first-thing email-check on my phone emailing people there to sort out getting my residence request, now transformed into residence reservation, cancelled. It doesn't seem so far like it should be too much of a problem, despite the fact that it was, technically, a binding request when I made it. My observation from my interactions with the various international student people who've been helping me, however, is that, at least in this instance, French bureaucracy is actually pretty flexible, and that the people involved with it have quite a lot of power to override what seem to be the rules in order to make things work. Shocking! North America may have less bureaucracy, but it's never struck me as particularly bendy bureaucracy. Maybe I've never needed it bent, but on the other hand, I bet there isn't a lot of give in the department of Homeland Security, my bureaucratic master as long as I'm a student in the US.

In any case, things must happen today more than they did yesterday, when I was feeling kind of glum and homesick over Jack Layton's death. In that spirit:



Any final emailing of international student people in Rennes
Finally email prof FM

Take box to campus
Finish packing up office to greatest extent possible
Email prof G re: storing my office stuff

Email JK, JK, and AN re: storing stuff
Get boxes at UPS store on way home
Do more laundry
Do something packing related in room

Read/review Wendy Davies, Susan Reynolds pre-meeting advisor R tomorrow
Make list of things to discuss with advisor R
Footnote K'zoo paper
More summer readings
Scan more articles

Read an article in French
Write article summary in French
Listen to French podcast
Work in French grammar exercises

Make stir-fry for supper, lunch tomorrow