Day 274

Day 274 - 05.08.10

Marseille by night.

This is beyond annoying.

Ah. Everyday life. And everyday bureaucracy. Now see, there are good and bad points about every country. In Finland, bureaucracy was hard because I didn't speak the language well enough to be able to fill in forms that were only in Finnish but most people linked to bureaucracy were good in terms of respecting others. In France, I can perfectly make myself understood but sometimes I just want to bang my head against the wall with the "what the hell are you doing here asking me this?" looks I keep on getting. Right now I'm trying to figure out what my best option in terms of cars is. I just need a car for a year, I want it to be tiny, I want it to be simple, I want it to come with a decent warranty. Not hard, right? Given the looks I keep on getting, it seems it's not that simple. So far I've come to the conclusion that they're more used to dealing with guys coming in and asking them precise, technical questions... and well, they probably wouldn't mind if I were older. In France historically, funny thing really, young people aren't supposed to be really independent. One gets extra rights when they turn 18 but they aren't their own autonomous person till much later, someone told me 25 but I have yet to check it out. Argh. If they can make a "leasing" plan for 2, 3 or 4 years, why can't they make me a leasing plan for a single year? Niargh. I give you loads of money, you give me a car, you service my car, I give you the car back after a year, everyone is happy... what's the problem with my giving you your car back after a single year instead of two, you'll still be able to sell it overpriced afterwards! Oh, and of course all the companies specialising in leasing seem to also want a minimum of two years but they could agree on a year... yet it would take ages to get a car from them because apparently most people aren't looking into leasing small cars. You know what would be the best though? If they ever made the metro come to Luminy/Redon. The only reason I need a car is so that I can drive to Cassis to take the train instead of spending an extra hour in the bus and in the metro. Bah. At least with all of this I get to go into the city a bit. ( and 1x2 photos more of buildings and alleys )

Speaking of bugs...

Recently I've realised that I'm one of those people who doesn't mind bugs but would rather not deal with them. It's the same with snakes. I'm not going to run away if I see one, I don't mind touching one but given the choice, I'd choose not to deal with them. I had an encounter with a snake on Jejo-do and I've had to deal with some random spiders in Lauttasaari. Here it's the ants that are everywhere. I do like some bugs though...

But enough about bugs! Time for some wordlessness. ( 2x2 photos more of random things )