This morning I had to be at work at 8.30. I had two classes to teach, and was to leave the high school around 12.00 in order to zip back to the city for my 14.00 final exam.
The problem is that I went to bed at 3 am last night. I had taken a nap earlier in the day, and I just wasn't tired come 1 or 2. By 3, I forced myself to bed, and I finally fell asleep around 4.00. The good news is that when the alarm went off at 6.00, I didn't really have a hard time waking up, because I still hadn't really entered the deep sleep zone.
By quarter to 7.00, I was out the door. The winds have picked up here in the last few days, and the weather has turned just downright nasty. My street was dark and deserted when I stopped out the door - a good thing because I actually yelped out loud when the wind hit me as I headed towards the metro.
About 45 minutes later, I was at the train station in the suburbs, where I catch a bus that I take for another 20 minutes in order to get to the high school. Imagine my surprise when I stepped out of the train to find about three inches of snow on the ground.
This is Paris! It doesn't snow here! I thought of my sister's recent experience in Portland, and realized that this was going to be a long day.
Shivering, I waited for the bus, with slush slowly creeping through my slip-on shoes (I didn't know it was snowing in the suburbs! I would have warn my boots!). I waited around some more. And then some more.
By the time the bus finally came, there were two train-loads worth of passengers waiting to get on board. We all tredged our snow-covered, ice-cold feet onto the steamy bus, everyone glad to be out of the cold but not so glad to be packed together like sardines inside a moving vehicle.
The ride took twice as long as it normally does. This is normal, as the bus driver probably has little or no experience driving in snow. And instead of shutting everything down, like a respectable non-snowy American city (ie Portland) would do in this sort of situation, the French technique appears to be different: we'll just keep everything up and running, but nothing will actually function.
At about 8.15, I got off the bus, crossed the grocery store parking lot, and walked the 5-minute route to the school. My steps were amongst the first along the snowy path, so of course I was ankle-deep in snow the entire time. With slip-ons, folks. When I reached the high school, I bolted it to the teachers lounge, said a breathless "Bonjour" to my co-workers, and went straight for the sink in the corner of the room. Without any shame, I took off my shoes, standing next to the sink in my dad's black socks (with gold tips!), and dumped chunks of snow out of my shoes.
My eyes puffy from lack of sleep, my hair in a nappy ponytail from having snow and wind send it in every direction, and my pants now soaking halfway up my calf, I resolved to remain true to my Michigan heritage and think, "This? This? Nah... this is nothing!"
Just then, the teacher's whose class I was supposed to take over gasped. She looked at me, and said, "Oh my God. I'm so sorry."
"Uh-oh," I said, "What?"
"Your class this morning was cancelled. We rearranged the schedule yesterday. I should have called you."
Right-o.
So I left early. The bus was now experiencing delays of over an hour, and I deemed it wortwhile to leave the high school right then and there, before I killed somebody. I could have slept 'til noon, and been fully rested for my final. Instead, I went back to Paris (it took forever to get there), still cold and wet, and sat in a caf� for an hour before my exam began. Which, by the way, was really fucking hard! I still think I did semi-ok, but I bet I would have done a lot better had I not been shivering the entire time.
Anyway, the day sucked so much that, while at the grocery store today, I decided I deserved some cookies. This is probably the first time I have bought myself cookies since 2000. There's a reason for this: I have already eaten nine. The box only has 12. The entire box will have been eaten by noon tomorrow. There's no escaping it.
Nowt wrong with eating cookies :) Strangely enough, I want it to snow here, just because it so rarely does. My sister in Manchester has snow - it's just not fair!
I remember when I was living in London and I was in my local pub, chatting with the manager, when someone came running in and exclaimed "It's snowing!!!"
Everyone ran out breathlessly. When I emerged from the pub, there were a half-dozen people on the sidewalk, trying to catch the six or seven anemic snowflakes that were falling to the ground. I started giggling. I couldn't help it.
Hee.
Poor baby. That so sucks. I hope you've warmed up and that there will be either free drinks or at least pants shitting in your future.