Ce La Vie: a note from my best friend Yvette who is studying in France.

trash, originally uploaded by staarkidd.

When traveling it is wise to leave your best intent at home, or locked away in your suitcase abroad until you know how to use it.
Apon arriving at the residence where I will be living in Anger, France for the next nine monthes of my life (long enough to conceive and birth a child), I was given a few intructions, most of which  I did not understand. I thought that I had heard the French words, "sac", "mercredi", "jeudi", and "apres six heures". I translated that to mean that the trash goes out wednesday night for it's pickup thursday morning after six.

I had been living in Anger only a few days but it was long enough to warrant the garbage being emptied. It is easy to accumulate waste when you move because
there are so many necessities to purchase and each comes with it's own cylaphane, cardboard, and plastic.
So fine, as the need arose on wednesday I took it upon myself to collect the trash and place it outside on the curb to be picked up thursday morning, just as I would do at home. I thought to myself, " Mme will be
so relieved to see the garbage on the curb when she arrives home after her exhausting day as a hospital psychologist."
At  eight that evening I was sitting in my attic
abode, which I rent from Mme D., chatting with my english speaking roommate. "I am learning so much about france", I said, as I saw Mme rounding the bend of my stairwell. I barely recognized her with the fire in her eyes and the smoke coming out of her ears!
"Bon soir, sa va", I said. She began speaking with a rapid fire pace that neither myself nor my roommate could comprehend. I recognized the word "sac", and my roommate yelled, "police", "fire", and "terrorist bomb"!
My heart sank to the bottom of my soul, either sole.It went to the bottom of my feet and to very bottom of my being. Could it be that my very good intent of helping Mme could have caused her more fright than her worse nightmare? Yes it could and yes it did!
Apparently after I put the garbage out, no more than thirty minutes before Mme arrived at home, the police drove by the house, saw the sac sitting on the curb on a non garbage night and telephoned the fire department.
They in turn notified Mme at her place of employment of a possible terrorist plot to blow up her home, her neighborhood, and for all I understand the whole of France. Mme rushed home in a panic that she was on the verge of losing everthing she cherished along with two American girls. When she reached her home and saw the
trash she thought of me. One is not to reason why.
I made so many mistakes that day and it is difficultto say where I first went wrong. However firstly, Thegarbage never goes out onto the curb. It is to be placed against the house next to the big drain pipe, not the small drain pipe. Secondly, Do not mix up thetrash pick up days. The refuse is never to be taken out on a non pick up night, as it causes the authorities' imaginations to go wild. Thirdly, Never never suggest that you have dinner together to reconnect with the one whom you have had a giant misunderstanding. It is most "disagreeable".
Ce la vie, He able to perfect that which concerns me (Psalm 138). Please pray that I will beable to reconnect with Mme.
yvette