Rollercoaster

The title of my blog is how my friend Tyler and I have chosen to describe an exchange. A roller coaster of emotion. This blog is evidence of that.

Yesterday was fun. In my Physics class we had “class elections” and I somehow (and by somehow I mean I raised my hand as a joke) got entered into the vote. All the other candidates got up and talked about how they would be a good attaché between the students in our class and the teachers, and then it got to me. I didn’t really think it was necessary to give a speech, but the masses started chanting for me to do one in English. So I got up and rattled off something about how they shouldn’t vote for me because I wouldn’t really have any idea what to do and that I wouldn’t be able to communicate their wants to the teachers. I don’t really know how much they understood, but someone asked me if I’d be able to organize a Ski trip to Colorado, and I said I probably could (psss…I lied) so that probably tilted a couple more votes my way. Turns out I tied for last in the election, but I guess the fact that I tied for last means that the kid I tied with needs to work harder at his electioneering or I have a God-given ability to charm (like my friend Evan). I’m leaning towards the first.

Today sucked. After school I went to the extreme south of the city (takes about 30 minutes of travel) for the 3rd week in a row to renew my visa. Everything was going great, not too much waiting, all my paperwork was fine (3rd times a charm…well, not always), and then I was finishing up and got told to go make my medical appointment. I guess just by luck of the draw (or God likes do throw me curve balls or something) the only 3 dates for the medical visit are during my trip to Germany. I asked probably 30 times if they were the only dates available, and I guess they are. I tried calling my host dad (because he is a doctor for the prefecture of police, who does the medical checks) but he didn’t answer, and they really didn’t care that my host dad was the doctor for the prefecture of police. I told them I couldn’t change my dates (which really I can’t because my host parents are going to be somewhere else when I’m gone and I can’t just stay at home). And they were like “do you want the appointment or not” and I was like “it’s not a matter of wanting, I can’t” (and this is in French remember, and my voice is raising continually because of the intense frustration mounting in my body). So I called my host mom and she said that I should just not take an appointment and my host dad would call and figure everything out. So I did that, but basically all my time there was lost, as I’ll either have to go back after my vacation or next week with some type of document saying I have a medical visit. My host dad emailed some high up person today so he should get back to him tomorrow. So everything should work out, but if you could just pray that it does in fact work out that would be FAN-TASTIC!

Hopefully tomorrow is the really relaxing part of the roller coaster where they bring you refreshments and a nice water bed to sleep on. I don’t know on which roller coaster they do that, but I hope it’s the one I’m on tomorrow.

Brent