Frog Blog

my old flatmate, j, came back this weekend from luxembourg for a visit. i realized just how much i'd missed him, how comfortable i am around him and how well our personalities mesh. it's so different compared to the new flatmate who moved in at the beginning of january.

first of all, what i mean by flatmate is this: there are two identical studio apartments separated by a hallway and a shared toilet. my room is blue and the other room is seafoam upchuck green. luckily i had the first choice on rooms.

anyway, j was the german assistant until the end of december when he decided to accept a job translating documents (for which organization i'm not sure) in luxembourg city. he thought it would be a better opportunity and better on his resume, etc. the school was not going to hire anyone to replace him until he thought of his friend, p, also from germany, who needed a job.

it was sad to see j go. the other assistants really liked him, too-- we'd all been together from the beginning and were a pretty tight-knit group. for me, it was nice to come home after class and have someone to talk to-- in french-- about my day, about the world, about the differences in france, about our significant others, etc. he was simply a good friend.

p is a nice person, but our personalities just don't mesh. we're very different. he always seems nervous or timid or like he's trying too hard and when he tells a joke it always falls flat or i don't get the punchline. we speak in english, which is good and bad-- good because i can end our conversations very quickly, bad because i'm not practicing my french nearly as much as i was with j. p eats a lot of vegetables-- he's a vegetarian, no problem there-- but i think he eats too many vegetables. i say this because he takes at least three shits a day. too much ruffage!! disgusting, i know, but it's the truth, and it grosses me out. he clears his throat all the time, tries to huck up post-nasal drip, listens to zamphir the panflute guy quite loudly at night (i once had to tell him to turn it down at 11:30 pm) and always locks the main door behind him if i'm home (something we talked about-- we agreed to leave the door unlocked if the other person is still at home so we're not locked in). he once asked me and the other assistants to the movies-- we all said no for our various reasons-- and he asked us each three more times during that week.

i feel bad. i told j about how i felt during his visit this weekend. he thought it was a shame but understood where i was coming from. i know p is a good person without a mean bone in his body. he even hauled home 12 liters of water for me when i had bronchitis, and he's always offering to help me out with that kind of stuff. i wish him only the best. but he isn't anyone i'd choose to be friends with. i've resigned myself to being polite and courteous-- i'll chat with him briefly, but only when i have to. the other girls don't like him either.

i'd gotten used to all this until j came back. god, i realized how much i miss coming home and having a conversation with someone-- with an ease that i've never felt with p.