23 juin, 2008

It's not me, it's you...


So, despite trying hard to find something with a substantial amount of hours for next year, it looks like if I'm going to stay, it would have to take ye olde student route. On verra. I can keep some of my old jobs...actually, 3 or 4 out of 5, which ain't bad and I'm sure I could find some replacements for the ones I can't keep, but the problem is when a lot of what you're doing is tutoring, you can only work during certain hours and so consequently, you can only take on so many jobs. Kinda annoying. There are a few jobs that I'm still waiting to hear about, but time is a tickin and I really should let the landlord know if I'm leaving...umm, two months ago? In reality, the only sort of job I've been avoiding is teaching English at a language school...otherwise I've applied for formations in English, sent out the CV to all the private schools, applied to be a receptionist/secretary/admin assistant, customer service rep, work at a hotel, etc, etc. Basically any job where you teach English or they consider it very important that you be bilingue. Yes, I know I'm not technically bilingue, but ca passe quoi.*
What else can a girl do? I mean, I'm still cherching in case anything comes along, but it seems I keep on just missing out on things. Maybe someone else would take this as a sign that it's not meant to be, but it just makes me want to keep looking even harder to find something. When I really want something, I tend to really stick to me guns. I know I don't want to live here forever, but I wouldn't mind 1, 2 or 3 more years. I don't feel like I'm done here. So much more to learn, see, do and I haven't had enough time. But, I can't seem to find something that would allow me this opportunity. So, I would like to officially take this time to blame my failure to find a job on France. Even I know this is ridiculosity times 5 bajillion, but it makes me feel better to just think, "hey, France, it's not me, it's you!"


*This reminds me of the fact that in the past couple weeks I've had varying reactions from strangers and friends saying I either speak French really well or that they were astonished I didn't speak better after all the time I've been here. One friend of Roomie#2's even interrupted me while I was speaking to say (in a slightly disgusted manner) "mais, t'as un accent, Lea!"** To which I quickly responded : "c'est normal, je suis americaine" and then continued on with my convo. My English friend got told she had a sale accent by a friend of a friend of hers and asked "if there wasn't anything she could do to soigne it?" Umm, is it a maladie? En plus, my friend has an excellent French accent and I would say speaks more fluidly and with more slang than me. My friend was like "I should've asked her to speak English and hear her sale accent." But, alas, my friend is a NICE PERSON and wouldn't try to belittle someone like that. France, I love ya, but sometimes you're a bit too critical, judgemental and loving of the corriger-ing of others. I have many more examples, but please don't get me started!


**I did not, in fact, misspell my name, I go by Lea in French and it just seemed weird to write Leah which is pronounced Lee-ah in case you've been wondering. PS-Don't call me Lay-ah in English unless you want a poing in your gueule. Kidding...sort of.

3 commentaires:

au soleil levant a dit…

GO YOU for continuing to fight. And I don't think it's that ridiculous to blame France for failing to find a job. Combine ridiculous labor laws with the fact that we all know how hard it is for Americans to get jobs here, I think they share a healthy portion of the blame. I feel like we're "I don't want to leave France yet" twins except that you are much, much more motivated than me to stay! Keep it up.

I think I'm probably the only person who is happy to live in France because here they actually pronounce my name correctly all the time! I hate "Myra." If my name were meant to be pronounced like that, it would be spelled with a y. Learn to read.

Leah a dit…

Yay for being IDWTLFY twins! Umm, that's kinda long, we should find another nickname. That's bon you can keep your real name in France, I actually don't mind "Lea" just as long as it's in French or Spanish and not English. Plus, whenever French people pronounce my name as it is in English, it sounds weird unless they speak English well, too much emPHAsis on the wrong sylLAble if you know what I mean.

BlondeInFrance a dit…

People correcting my mistakes when I speak can get pretty annoying, especially when I'm trying to tell them something really important or exciting, and every other word they're like "no, that's wrong" "it's des not les" "masculine!" When I listen to people speak English (badly) if I can understand their message, I don't worry if they didn't say it 100%. But then they get upset I didn't correct them! The French desire for perfection outweighs the more important issue of successful communication I guess . . .

And the French have way less trouble than Americans with Andromeda, but they all insist on calling me Andy, which I hate usually, but it comes out kind of nice in French. "Ahhndeee"