Success/Failure Ratio

I’m finding that my life abroad can easily be classified into two categories: success and failure. To take the examples from my earlier entry –

• Running away from my disgruntled cleaning lady: failure.

• Having an administrator think I wasn’t a foreign exchange student: success.

Now let’s consider today, shall we?

• Translating a tour of the Marais given in French to a Japanese Sciences-Po exchange student who understood English pretty well but knew not a word of French: success.

• Emailing my parents about money during my second week abroad: failure.

• Navigating a busy French post office to get a money order and send a letter without offending anyone: success.

• Locking my key in my room and having to pay 1 euro to retrieve it: EPIC failure.

Ideally, I’d like my Success/Failure ratio to stay above 1, but really, as long as it it’s above 0, I think I’ll be doing ok