Work has been calmer now that the big event is over and also because I'm trying to take everything not seriously since I won't be there after June 30th.
Today I was able to leave on-time (5:30 on Fridays) and go to the yearly general assembly for AVF (Accueil des Villes Françaises). When I first arrived in Toulouse I was really active in AVF and I went to lots of activities. I became less active when I was busy with my Masters, and now 2 1/2 years later, I'm less active since I have a small if relatively stable circle of friends. I feel a little guilty, but I'm less motivated to go and meet new people now that I have local friends. That's the cycle of things though with AVF: you arrive, meet some people, and when you've established yourself in the city, you don't the support from AVF anymore.
For some time now there's been a bit of tension as well between the "young" group and the rest of the club. Basically AVF is a bunch of activities/outings you can participate in to meet new people. The problem is that 95% of those activities are during the week day, which means that the large majority of members are women, often not working because their husbands earn big bucks, and largely over 50 or even 60. Then there is the group that meets every Thursday evening made up of people who work but don't have kids they need to feed, bathe, and put to bed. The "young" group feels neglected (and is in my opinion) because most people who are new to Toulouse come because of work and thus fit into this "young" group. All the budget and recognition goes to the rest of the activities though.
As I was leaving it was starting to rain and a retired woman offered to share her umbrella until we got to the metro. She commented that I was more dressed for August (light summer dress and sandals) and I tried to explain that yesterday I wore boots and was much too hot. When I saw the sun this morning at 8am I figured I could dress for warm weather, except it never really arrived today. When I said that this morning "il faisait très soleil" (as my attempt for 'it was very sunny') I didn't get "Oh, where are you from?" but "What in the world is that sentence!". I think now I prefer people ask me where I'm from when they hear grammatical mistakes rather than exclaim how wrong my sentence is.
Now back to figuring out how my cell phone bill could be 50€ instead of 18€....
1 comment:
The AVF in my town was the same way. Lots of stuff for the elderly retired and for little children on Wednesdays, but not much for the young adult crowd. I also lived in a town that didn't attract many new young people, so that might have been part of the problem! Not in your case though.
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