why must i work?

why must i work?  i am asking this, not as a rhetorical question, but as a serious question.this summer i have worked very hard.  now granted, i get to be in france while i do it and there is coffee and there is food and there are sales that the gods themselves worship, but work?  it interferes with my life.  it interferes with what i want to do.

i know i have it cushy and that i shouldn't complain.  but man, sometimes, the work is a bit much.  part of it is that i am having to deal with a french system, that i understand and get.  i can totally see the humor in the bureaucracy- it isn't like it doesn't exist in the states. 

but there are moments where i would just love to get to the sncf (train place) and not have to wait in line for 2 hours to buy my group tickets which can't be purchased online.  or not have to fill out a police report over the course of three hours (this i shouldn't complain about because i have actually waited five in the states before). 

work is now consoling students, letting them know that they can argue back, that it is not okay to be pushed around, to see beyond the stereotypes, to stop applying the american perspective onto the french, to show them that that church over there, well, it is more than just a photo opportunity.  all of these things add up to no small feat and i ask myself, why again am i not independently wealthy and why can't i just travel over here and do what i want? 

ah yes.  i am not paris hilton.