when in rome... but what happens when one leaves rome?

so in fact, deep down, am a pessimistic person.

we aren't even half way through march, am already worrying about how life would be after april.

it'll be so hard to get back to the "normal" world, where everything works and is efficiently done without having to cross words with the bureaucrats.

let's face it, at the very beginning, i was really worried about this whole system:

schools are closed on wednesdays, kids are off school for at least 2 weeks every 6 weeks.

what are they able to learn?

how on earth do they have enough time to learn anything?

after being "in the system" for some 6 months now (nearly a quarter of which was holidays), you'd think i've changed my mind a bit?

well, to be frank, i am still very worried.

but hey, that's the way it is.

if it has been working for the french for decades, it must be working in some ways.

mysterious? yes. but it works, even if it appears otherwise.

i love having wednesdays off - meaning, you start a new week with monday syndrome.

after a whole day of adjusting, you're slowly getting back to reality and are ready to switch back to "work" mode.

but then it's wednesday again!

knowing that, tuesday afternoon gets just as bad as monday morning if not worse.

you can't use a bell-shaped curve to explain productivity here.

first, the word "productivity" simply does not exist in their dictionary here.

second, a bell-shaped curve is called a "normal distribution" curve.

anything but "normal"!? nah, i thought not either.

then you'll experience the exact same thing, once again, till friday afternoon.

i don't know what primary kids should be doing.

but life does get really hard later on, so let them just have wednesdays off and be nuts while they still can i say!

who cares what you've learnt in primary school, let's just have more holidays and enjoy being a primary pupil (or primary teacher come to that).

but then it's much harder for me when i do leave this wonderful "system".

i will have to go to work on wednesdays, or even saturdays and sundays like how i used to.

and i won't be having 2 weeks off work every 6 weeks and still get paid.

i won't have to pay half of my salary as tax and receive some super detailed payslip only rocket scientists could figure out...

or to expect to pay only $12 if my medical bill was something like $500.

i guess it is true then - the only way to enjoy france is to live outside it.