The pendulum swings

A girlfriend told me that when you move back to the States after living in France, everything is even-keel. Everything is more simple, more efficient, everyone is more accomodating. Life is much easier. The lows aren't as low; but the highs aren't as high either. You don't get that thrill from having argued your way into a residence permit extension, you don't walk five miles and talk to seventeen different people trying to do just three errands in one day, you don't touch the untouchable (it's already been done and put on the shelves of your local WalMart), don't marvel at yourself after having participated in a debate in a language that you didn't grow up with. But your packages aren't lost at the post office, your doctor offers you all the options before making the decisions for you, you can finish a list of to-dos in one afternoon, and calling your cell phone company to inquire about charges doesn't cost you 34 cents a minute. The gyms are beautiful and clean, with smoothie bars and Clif bars, but walking into a North African bar requires you to get in your car and go to a specific (and probably discouraged) part of town. You will never be charged 280 euros for owning a television (audiovisual royalty....is it really that much of a luxury these days!?), nor will someobdy called a "hussier de justice" in your neighborhood hunt you down and threaten to confiscate items in your apartment. But you will pay health insurance and medical costs through the nose. You don't come out of the metro with tears only to run into the ex who said he hoped you understood why he could never see you again. You don't meet your next lover in the library, but you also don't stay up talking until 3am, because you have to be at work at 8am the next day. You can find health food on every corner, but you can't get a decent baguette. You no longer know where your beef came from before it was wrapped in celophane, but you can get Neuskee's thick-cut bacon. You only have to make a phone call to resolve problems, as opposed to writing formal letters with all the proper etiquette phrases. Bottom line. The post office in the USA no longer uses hand-written ledgers to track packages. This is the "old world." And in general, I find it quite charming and agreeable. But not today.