What a week et c'est seulement mercredi!

It has been one rough week! After a relatively uneventful weekend spent with friends I should have known something would have to happen to spice up my life. And it sure did, Monday morning at 8:30! Monday mornings my 8:30 lesson is with a group of three women, one of whom is a complete bitch. Every week she treats me horribly, gives me nasty looks throughout the entire hour and a half lesson, lets me know she thinks I'm stupid, and so on. So, as usual I was dreading this lesson but dragging myself there because I had no choice. And I should have just dug myself a hole and buried myself in it; it would have been less painful! I arrive at the building 10 mins early and as usual go to the reception desk to get my visitors badge. The receptionist knows me well because she helps me every Monday morning when I struggle to get into contact with these students upon arrival so we can start the lesson. Well, this morning was no exception. She was unable to reach them, and we tried 5 different phone numbers. None of the students would answer, not at their desks, not in the room where we hold the lessons and not on the one cell number I have. After spending about 15 mins at the reception the receptionist finally said that she knows me now and I can go up if I want to see if someone is in the office to let me in (cause you have to have an employee badge to get into their offices, visitors badges only allow you access to the elevators, this is why we have to call them every week, so they can open the doors for me). I decided to go up, figuring I could always come back down if no one was around. I reached the 8th floor and didn't see anyone, so I waited at the doors for about 5 minutes. Finally, a man who works there walked by and saw me and opened the door for me. I asked him where I could find my three students and he told me they hadn't arrived yet, but that I could sit in the waiting area near the door. So I did, figuring they would be there soon. The man shut himself in his office, and that was that. After waiting for about 20 mins, I really started to wonder if they had cancelled and I didn't know about it, or what the problem was. Sometimes they are a few minutes late, but never half an hour! I finally see another man who works there and so I asked him. He volunteered to take me to them, and that's when I knew my day was going to be shit. He gets his badge and takes me into another locked room in the company's offices and leads me to a desk where 2 of the 3 work. We went to the room where we normally have class, and then they went and got the 3rd person. And it was all downhill from there.
I told them I was sorry and prepared to start the lesson. Then the really bitchy student just started yelling at me for being 30 mins late. So I explained the situation (basically yelling back, which was probably bad, but I couldn't contain my anger after all the shit she had put me through). Unfortunately, she didn't believe me, treated me like I was stupid because I didn't just ignore their colleague who said they weren't there (as well as the fact they didn't answer their phones which in the normal world means a person isn't there) and just wondered around the offices until I found them. Ummm...not my style I told her. So we battled about it for about 15 minutes, yelling the whole time while she basically said she thought I was lying about my arrival time and refusing to sign the paper for the day's lesson. She said it had already happened twice before and blah blah blah, it's just ridiculous and she thought I should do a whole extra lesson for them without getting paid to make up for the 3 lessons I showed up for half an hour late. And I nearly exploded. Out of the three times I have been late, only one of them was in any way my fault. And that was the first one and it's because I had the wrong address and so I went to the company's other office on the entire other side of La Defense and sat there for 15 minutes before the secretary and I realized I was at the wrong location. Fine, I had agreed to make up that half an hour. But not the other two. The second time I was late was similar to this third time, except I never even made it upstairs because the receptionist didn't know me yet. So we just spent 30 mins trying to call the students while I sat in the lobby bored and irritated. They finally answered at about 9:00 and so I was able to go upstairs. That is why I requested to have the phone number for the room as well as at least one cell phone number: to avoid having that problem again. Unfortunately for me, that didn't work.
After the lesson on Monday I immediately called my boss, before I had even left the building. She was freaking out because they had emailed her and said I didn't show up. I told her that no, I had been there since 8:20, waiting. My boss took my side, luckily, but it has been a battle this entire week. Non stop emails and frustration. I spent the rest of Monday pissed as hell, wishing I had just punched the lady in the face. When I got home I emailed a more detailed explanation to my boss and she is in the process of trying to figure out how to handle it. Luckily she believes me entirely. She even emailed me to tell me not to worry, she knows I'm telling the truth and she knew even before the lessons started that this lady was going to be miserable just because of the way she had been acting on the phone and through emails even before beginning classes. Now my boss is trying to confirm with other people so she can completely confirm my story so that she might be able to shut the crazy bitch up. She also offered to let them change professors if they so desired and I'm praying that they do. I don't care if they think they have won (though it kinda irks me that crazy woman will think she was right when she wasn't), I just don't ever want to see her face again and I can't even imagine the tension that will be in the room at the next lesson if I have to continue with them. Evil woman even lied and said that they were letting me leave the lessons early so that I could get to my next class, which isn't even true. I moved that class back 15 minutes so I would have no problem finishing with these people at 10 and then making it to the next lesson in their company's other offices. Evil! She thinks I should have to make up an hour and forty five minutes of class time when only 30 mins of it was my fault! If only I could smack her.....
So this has been occupying most of my week and every time I think about it I get really pissed again. I'm just glad my boss really believes me, I'm not going to lose my job and I might be rid of the bitch for good.
Well, nothing else really to update with. That was the biggest event so far in my week. Other than that it's been a normal week of teaching, running around Paris, and working on wedding stuff. Can't wait for the weekend though, it's the salon du chocolat!!!!