Citrate de Bétanïne UPSA 2g
Price : <10,00€
Whats it do? help for digestive problems.
Directions for use : take orally, dilute in water.  1-3 times a day during meals.
Caution : If digest problems persist, see your docter.
Can I kiss him/her? Yes, but as it is for digestive problems, 
                                                                                               keep a wary eye.

Forlax 10g
Price : <5,00€
Whats it do? : Anti-constipation.
Directions for use : Take 1-2 packets with water a day.
Caution : Side effects may include stomach pains, intestinal inflamation...
Can I kiss him/her? Technically, Yes. But you might want to work on 
                                            your timing.

Effexor
Price : <5,00€
Whats it do? Pain relief against sickness nausia, and vomiting.
Directions for use : Take 75mg 2-3 pills per day. If after 2 weeks still depressed, increase dosage to 150-225mg per day.
Caution : May cause constipation, anexoria, insomnia, and ejaculation problems.
Can I kiss him/her? Yes. But are you in the market for depressive 
                                                                                          partners?

Norvelo
Price : <10,00€
Whats it do? The morning after pill. Prevents pregnancy.
Directions for use : Take 1 pill after sexual intercourse.  Maximum 72 hours. Do not exceed 20mg.
Caution : May cause stomach cramps and vomiting.
                                              Can I kiss her? Yes.

Levitra
Price : <70,00€
Whats it do? Helps man combat erectile disfunction.
Directions for use : Take 1 pill 24-60 minutes befire sexual intercourse.  
Caution : May cause pain to nervous and immune systems, and other...
                                           Can I kiss him? Yes.

Spasfon
Price : <5,00€
Whats it do? Relieves intestinal cramping.
Directions for use : Take 1 pill 24-60 minutes befire sexual intercourse.  
Caution : May cause rashes, angioedema, analeptic shock...
Can I kiss him/her? Yes. But you might work on your timing.

Aerius
Price : <10,00€
Whats it do? Relieves allergies from animals, pollen,etc.
Directions for use : Take 6 pills max every 24 hours.  
Caution : May cause drowsiness...
Can I kiss him/her? Yes.

Zelitrex (aka Valtrex)
Price : <30,00€
Whats it do? Relieves herpes infection.
Directions for use : Take 2 pills 3 times a day for 7 days.  
Caution : May cause gastro-intestinal pain, vomiting, diarrhea
Can I kiss him/her? Your choice.

You have 24 new messages: Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep! 

Message 1:

"Murphy you're a dead motherf%#ker, you hear me?!  My car is vintage!  You son of a b$tch it's gonna cost me a fortune to replace the front seat you stabbed with a knife!  If I find out your back in London, your @$$ is dead. You hear me? DEAD!" Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep! 

Message 2:

"Murphy! Murrrrrphy pleeeeease! (sobbing) How could you do this to me?  How could you make love to me like that and then just disappear? (sobbing) I love you!  My family loves you! (sobbing) Was it me? Did I hurt you? Murphy!(sobbing turn into screams of anger) NO! You know what I hate you! I hate you! Pleeeease call me. (sobbing) I love you sooooo much!" Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!

"Oh my!" Murphy's mother became concerned as she made her weekly stop by Murphy's apartment to pick up the mail, feed the cat, and check the voicemail. Murphy was on a three month vacation backpacking around Europe during his summer break. She immediately called Murphy's international cell phone. It went directly to voice mail. "Murphy? Is everything okay?  What's happening over there? Please call me AS SOON AS you get this message!"

Message 14:

"Hey Murphy, I'm calling this number because it's the only one I could find on your couchsurfer page.  There are two bullets in the kitchen sink, bloody towels in the bathroom, and all your stuff is gone!  What the hell happened? If you're not back in the next 30 minutes I'm calling the police. What the f$ck!" Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep! 

"Murphy Ray Williams Jr., This is your mother!!  Call me back IMMEDIATELY!"

Message 21:

"Hey mom, it's Murphy.  I just got your message. Everything's fine and I'm loving Europe!  Don't forget to pick up up at the airport next thursday. My flight arrives at 13:00.  Love you!" Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep! 

Message 23:

"Mr. Murphy, this is Ms. Kovachevik from the Department of Motor Vehicles in Zagreb, Croatia.  I'm calling to let you know that your level 2 taxi driver's permit has arrived and is ready for you to pick up at your convenience.  Have a nice day."  Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeep! 

Message 24:

(heavy breathing, men speaking Arabic, and the sound of scraping metal in the background.)

"Murphy, what the hell happened!" Murphy's mom yelled at him in the middle of the arrivals area of the airport. "Your father and I've been worried sick! Explain the 24 voicemail messages on your answering machine!"

"Really! 24? Awesome!"  Murphy responded excitedly. "All over Europe everytime I made a new friend I gave them my home phone number and asked them to leave me a crazy message as a souvenir from Europe.  I didn't expect 24 responses! I can't wait to hear them!"

True Story.

Pride

Pride is an excessive, and often times unwarranted opinion of one’s own self-worth, dignity, perception, importance, merit, or superiority. Extreme examples of pride include exhibiting an overwhelming sense of self-respect and self-entitlement, a refusal to be humiliated, and an overall belief that one is better than everyone else.   

With status comes power. With power comes respect. With respect comes power. In the corporate world, pride manifests itself by on one’s position and subsequent power over subordinates.  Particularly proud employers/bosses/colleagues will reject, or to do the opposite of subordinate recommendations simply to exercise and uphold their authority, even if the decision is against the company’s best interest. 

Respect

Respect is acknowledging the right, privilege, or status of someone or something, and the corporate ladder is based on a strict system of unquestionable hierarchy.  Whether you respect your boss or not, company policy dictates that he has the final say.

What would you do if a +2 superior (your boss’s boss) suddenly called and, despite your already over-stressed workload, demanded you to do attend to a time consuming project for him/her?  Would/could you say no?  What if in completing histime consuming project, 3 important projects with deadlines that your +1 superior (your boss) assigned you go uncompleted, costing the company thousands of euros?  What would run through your mind, and what emotions would you feel if later that week that same +2 superior’s secretary calls you to his office? How would you defend yourself?

When navigating an employer’s pride and respect you must remember that both are emotions, and emotions can be manipulated.  Therefore, when reasoning and negotiating, structure your arguments and rebuttals accordingly:

1. Discover the employer’s emotional weakness, bias, emotional attachment towards a particular cause or belief, or even against a particular cause or belief that leaves him/her vulnerable to manipulation, exploit it, and prepare your logic accordingly.
2. Provide background, show outcome, and then request action.  People make decisions based on 'available information'.  Budget limitations, time constraints, and all other things constant, a reasonable manager would objectively gather as much information as possible before making an informed decisions.  Pride however, being an emotion and therefore vulnerable to manipulation, skews perception, allowing subjectively chosen 'available information' to sway the final outcome of a decision.
3. Use metaphors as a mind control techique. From a psychological warfare perspective, metaphors are an excellent mind control technique because the unconscious is extremely receptive and persuaded by stories and parables, and what better way to make sense out of something than by illustrating it in an example.
4. Using the logical fallacy of false dilemma, intentionally present a rigged argument against your desired outcome.  For the sole reason of demonstrating their authority, proud managers may make decisions contrary to advice of subordinates, even if the manager’s decision is a bad one. Why not play devil's advocate and selectively argue the outcome you don't want anyway.
   
5. Persuade the employer that the argument you're proposing is inspired by a previous decision made by the employer.
   
6. Explain to the employer how the argument you're proposing will benefit the employer's career, bottom line, reputation,etc.  And, since heuristically people tend to be risk-adverse, explain to the employer how the other options will actually hurt him/her.
7. Present your arguments so that they are positive and in line with your boss's goals.
8. No one really cares what you think, so validate your logic with reputable sources and remind your boss of any previous decisions s/he made that compliments your argument. 

How to socially engineer your colleagues (pt.1)
How to socially engineer your colleagues (pt.2)
How to socially engineer your colleagues (pt.3)

The French live surrounded by monuments of their past, relate current events to their historical context, and pride themselves on their contributions to world culture.

“The French feel that France is the arbitrator of all things important in diplomacy and prefer to go their own way in international relations. Their primary objective is: France first in everything.”(p. 95) As a result, the French tend to be seen as “inflexible and uncooperative.”

The French tend to be disrespectful of the law and following procedure isn’t necessarily a priority for the French.  ‘If a rule or regulation gets in the way of achieving a goal, the French will try to find some way to circumvent it.” (p.106)

The French are very thorough when it comes to following the proper form, and doing things correctly is very important. They can be very pragmatic, logical, and realist, the global outcome is more important than the details.  “The French can become fascinated or obsessed with a particular problem and will not give up until it is solved.” (p.109)

The French are agile, work quickly, and communicate with their face and gestures.  They are highly polychromic, meaning they are good at multi-tasking and working in busy environments. They tend to live in the here and now, making the most of each day rather than confining themselves to rigid deadlines and schedules. This often causes problems with American executives.

Occupation, job status, and position in the company are very important as it determines how people treat you. Your education background is equally vital in determining your career as an adult.

As further discussed in the EDUCATION section, the French education system places importance on rhetoric and deductive reasoning. This tends to make French graduates “conformist, theoretical, and uncreative.” (p. 99) Despite this, the French tend to be very individualistic, guarding their sense of honor as very important to them, and tend to be non-conformist, which can make them poor team players.

“The operating principle of French education is negative reinforcement.” –French schoolteacher (p. 99)

The French education system:

1. Stresses abstract thinking and the necessity of statistics,
2. Places heavy emphasis on rhetoric and deductive reasoning which tends to make French graduates “conformist, theoretical, and uncreative despite their verbal facility,” (p. 99), and
3. Focuses heavily on intellectual, philosophical, political, scientific, and engineering studies, with insufficient emphasis placed on modern life and problems, thus graduates may be insufficiently prepared for a modern business career. 
   

“Access to elite schools is restricted by a selection process which rules out virtually everyone who doesn’t come with proper connections. The highest testing students go on to study math, science, and economics, which are the best preparation for the grandes écoles which prepare you to become petite bourgeoisie:  high-level bosses and managers of small companies or class moyennes: middle-class white collar teachers, middle managers, artists. Only a handful of outsiders or ‘not-authorized’ individuals ever achieve entrance.” (p. 98) As a result, “graduates of the grandes écoles are a self-perpetuating class with a near monopoly on positions of power and influence in both business and government.” (p. 101) This is explained further in the SOCIAL section.

Apart from advertising, fashion, and art, most French women are low-level secretaries and clerical workers.  Very few women can be found in top management.

“Only about 10% of university students are from working-class families.” (p. 100) Graduates from schools other than les grandes écoles often complain that studies are too theoretical and not based on real-life preparation, and after graduation many find no jobs available.

“The French start their day slowly and build; they peak at late afternoon and continue going strong far into the evening.”

Company management tends to be highly centralized and French managers have a reputation for being autocratic, demanding, hard, and thoughtless of subordinate’s needs. In a typical French office, the boss is located in the center, and newcomer’s desks will be located on the outside farthest away from the center: the boss’s office. The French tend to only share special information within their own network, and don’t often share information with subordinates. In business meetings as in office spaces, the person in the center is usually the one in control, and executives tend to make independent decisions rather than follow rigorous chains of command. However following procedure isn’t necessarily a priority for the French.  ‘If a rule or regulation gets in the way of achieving a goal, the French will try to find some way to circumvent it.” (p.106)

Most French executives are well educated middle-level employees with a general understanding of  literature and art.

A manager’s most important job duty is to keep in touch with business and government networks and stay abreast of the technical rules and regulations that affect business in France. Social networks and honor are more important to the French than promptness and your career success depends on your ability to maintain your social network.  “Situation where your money and a French person’s honor are at stake should be handled with great caution and diplomacy.” (p. 108)

Social and economic climates constantly change, so the French don’t generally make long term plans (months in advance) because the French don’t always adhere to schedules and deadlines and aren’t against changing plans at the last minute. Additionally, because the French are polychromic/high-context, requests from contacts with which they have a close personal relationship take priority.  Reconfirm your appointments one or two days in advance. If you are outside of their network, be prepared for delays and late deliveries. Also remember that with the French, personal relationships don’t happen overnight.  In many cases when an employee leaves a company, their loyal clients will follow the person.

Only written commitments are binding to the French. Never take a verbal agreement as binding. (Always come with a paper, always leave with a paper.) Addionally never take any spoken statement or claim at face value.  Get it in writing and verify it before you act upon it.

“Because the French are both high-context and polychromic, they expect everyone to know how to do everything properly…The French rarely compliment employees on their performance and are critical of any errors.” (p. 115) The boss may sometimes be informal with his/her subordinates, however the subordinate should never be informal with his/her boss.

Image is far more important than facts and details, and literary style is more important ‘in-depth’ reporting. In fact the French government tends to influence and dominates the press. “One government agency controls a major part of the advertising budget… and the French press is vulnerable to censorship because officials can deny reporters access to government briefings if they step out of line.” (p. 96)

Your occupation, job status, and position in the company are very important as it determines how people respond to you. Your education background is equally vital in determining your career as an adult. Business occupations are considered less prestigious than government, medicine, law, engineering, teaching, writing, and artistic occupations. Business cards are a must, complete with business title and academic credentials. The French tend to be reluctant to take risks and have a short-sighted view.  Proposals made by foreigners outside of their network are met with scrutiny they prefer to conduct their own market analysis rather than accept prepared summaries. This approach is time consuming and can prove costly in the long run.

Congruent with their EDUCATION, French presentations consist of large amounts of figures, complex patterns, and detailed background information. The French tend to be more interested in what might have been said than what was said. “Discussions, be it social or business, begins with general conversation.” (p.107) Business presentations should be informative, logical, and well organized, and content is very important. Additionally “Language facility is considered the mark of an intelligent, educated person, and those who are not in command of the highly refined language of the well-educated French and who cannot express themselves eloquently are seriously handicapped.” (p. 98) Those who speak French with an accent are also at a disadvantage. The most important skill you need to live/work in France is French fluency, and most foreigners don’t speak French sufficiently enough to satisfy French employers. As mentioned previously, the French want to see all of the figures, and will not accept somebody else’s drafted summary.

French society has clearly defined classes:

1. Haute bourgeoisie:  dominate higher educational systems which lead to successful careers in politics and business. The elites of French society.
2. Petite bourgeoisie:  high-level bosses and managers of small companies.
3. Class moyennes: middle-class white collar teachers, middle managers, artists. “Handicapped by lack of education, and children are prevented from entering elite schools because of inadequate background and education.” (p. 98)
4. Classes populaires: lower-class blue collar workers and low-level employees
5. Immigrants.
   

The French move in very restricted social circles.  They tend to only share special information within their own network. Friends tend to be tight-knit and outsiders are not easily integrated. Social status depends on occupation and education, and they tend to separate their professional and social lives.

As mentioned under the PSYCHOLOGY section, because the French are very conscious of rank and status, they tend to use the proper approach in social interactions, treat more important people with more respect, appropriate dress and behavior, and expect precision and fluency when speaking French. Posture and behavior is very important as it reveals your rank and status.

“Every discussion, be it social or business, begins with general conversation.” (p.107) Like most other national groups, the French expect foreigners to be just like them. The French admire ideas and literature, and enjoy incorporating allusions and references into their discussions. They appreciate a sense of humor, pragmatism, creativity, traditionalism, philosophical discussions involving intelligence, rhetoric, and wit. They also tend to respect autocratic behavior, perfectionism and style in manners. Conversations may become heated and combative, however if your logic is correctly argued, you could become long lasting friends. However when making decisions, the French prefer a simple yes or no answer, not lengthy discussions.

The French stand and sit closer then the Germans and Americans, and the French maintain strong eye contact, use lots of gestures, and everything else becomes second. In BUSINESS situations, however, the French are more formal and restrained.

Because France is a high-context country, don’t give other people too much information because it may be considered an insult. “Frankness and directness in communication is to be avoided because the French prefer tact and indirection, which is considered marks of politeness and good manners,” (p. 108) Politeness and manners reveal your rank and status.

The French are a high context culture. They enjoy ‘small talk’ and enjoy subtlety, ambiguity, and leaving things to the imagination rather than being specific, however they also enjoy conflict, provided your logic is well presented.

Before getting down to business, the French catch up and get a general feeling of the mood.  Business may be eluded to however no formal agreements generally aren’t made until the end of the meeting. Breaking this chain by going straight to business could break down communication.

Only written commitments are binding to the French. Never take a verbal agreement as binding.  Addionally never take any spoken statement or claim at face value.  Get it in writing and verify it before you act upon it. 

“It is a deadly sin to ignore the fonctionnaires with whom you have to deal.” (p. 113) It’s also vital to know the technical rules and regulations that affect business in France. “Study the French regulations. Break them down into components. Master the complexity. Reduce their regulations to procedures you can follow and you’ll have fewer problems.” (p. 114)

Because everything in France is centralized, paperwork moves slow. If you have the resources or network, a lawyer is advisable because French bureaucrats are reputed to be arrogant, sometimes rude, unobliging, and hidebound in their thinking.  They infuriate the French as well as the foreigners.  The French, however, seem resigned to the frustrations involved while foreigners will persist in attempts to overcome them.” (p. 113)

Only written commitments are binding to the French. Never take a verbal agreement as binding.  Also never take any statement or claim at face value.  Get it in writing and verify it before you act upon it.

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“Hey man,” Nick told his friend Eli over coffee. “You remember that girl I met two weeks ago? Well you’re NEVER gonna believe what that b*tch said to me.”

“Yes” Eli responded “She seemed like a really cool girl, what happened?”

Two weeks ago Nick met Alice at a college party. Nick was taking beginner French courses. What impressed Nick the most about Alice happened after he caught her staring at him out of the corner of his eye.

“I locked eyes with her. Most people look away after a second or two. She didn’t. She didn’t even blink! There we stood 10 feet apart amid 60 people just staring into each other’s eyes for at least a minute! I must have felt every emotion one can possibly feel. I had no idea who this stranger was and yet I felt absolutely vulnerable to her.  What audacity! The experience was inconceivable – I had to know her!”

Nick walked directly up to Alice and started up a conversation that lasted the rest of the evening before they exchanged telephone numbers and parted ways. 

“My French sucked so her broken English was what allowed us to communicate.  Whenever she didn’t know the English word she replaced it with the French word.  It was funny.  She was adorable!”

Over the next week they met twice for coffee until Alice invited Nick over for “dinner at her place”.  Definitely a step in the right direction.

After Alice invited Nick “over for dinner” two more times, Nick cleaned his apartment and went grocery shopping, splurging on a really nice breakfast menu he was going to cook for her, planning on having her “over for dinner” Saturday night after another college party. 

“And check this out,” Nick says in disgust as he scrolled down his iphone to find her response, “You’re not gonna believe this!”

 “What a b*itch, right? I mean, not everyone can be Don Juan in bed, and if she doesn't like me I can live with that.  But to tell me she ‘hates’ sleeping with me?!”

Eli smirked in disbelief.  “You, Nick, are an idiot.  Learn French. It will drastically improve your sex life!”

---

French dating grammar guide :
Verb : hâter : to long for, to look forward do

Example : 

J'ai hâte de te rencontrer.
I look forward to meeting you.

J'ai hâte de dormir avec toi!
I can not wait to sleep with you!
---

Nick called Alice 12 times and left messages to apologize. Alice never responded.

True Story.