Residency Card

After many hours in the prefecture, my residency card has arrived! I’ve been showing my residency card to everyone with much enthusiasm. This little card represents my goal to be in France, my first two months here, and opportunity. A friend said if ever I need another French residency card I could obtain one in a week with little trouble. I feel just a little bit French now. All French people receive an identity card when they are born. At 18 they are required to carry it with them everywhere and the police can stop anyone at anytime to request their identity card. A friend saw someone taken off the train, because he didn’t have his residency card with him. People of color are asked for their residency card more often than white people.

Everything is going really well here. Now that my residency card has arrived, I’m waiting for my housing assistance and my health care to be validated. My French is progressing, and I‘ve had one dream in French. (another super exciting milestone.) I still have trouble placing impersonal pronouns such as it, he, she, them, those. In French these little words come before the verb, unless there is an infinitive then it comes between the verbs. If I am using a negation, the passé composé (past tense with two verbs), and an impersonal pronoun, my sentence becomes a messy jumble of words. It’s worse if I have to consider if the verb I’m working with is reflexive or conjugated with ‘to be’ instead of ‘have’.

I’m really lucky that I have excellent colleagues. I have friends that still don’t have a fixed schedule. My colleagues are really supportive, friendly, and professional. All of the assistants I know have had doubts about why they are here, and they haven’t always been happy. I miss my family and friends, but I am deliriously happy to be in France. I know why I’m here, I’ve worked really hard to be here, and time is flying by.