9 - 5

I was so tired after sitting around for a week doing nothing that I ambitiously found not only 1 but 2 jobs in one week. The first job was a server in a very up-scale restaurant in the next town over from me. Now, why I considered applying for this job, I have no idea. I always hated working in restaurants, not to mention that I'm a pathetic server. I thought maybe it could work because I had some knowledge of French cuisine and wine. Ha ha ha... So naturally I didn't last very long there. I worked Saturday and Sunday and by the second day I could already tell that I was impressing no one, especially the demanding owners. So, I decided hey, this isn't for me. I quit.
The second job is a little more to my taste. I found a temporary job in a bank doing administrative work. I'm already bored as hell and I miss my job as an English trainer a lot. I especially miss my co-workers. But I just need to keep telling myself "this is only temporary, I'll find something better".

Since I've been home, I've probably spoken French 5 times... I'm so afraid I'm going to lose my level. None of my friends speak French except the ones that I met abroad, but I don't talk to them on the phone that much. I'll just need to try to speak to my french friends as much as possible over skype. I also want to try to join Alliance Française but it doesn't seem all that active and it's also a little too senior... at least in my town. I'll just have to do my best to keep up my level. I just bought an awesome French dictionary that weighs about 5 pounds! I'm so excited!

After my 8 hour work day, I'm ready to go to bed. Goodnight.

The adventure begins

I decided that the week I returned back to the US would be dedicated primarily to spending time with my family and friends since it had in fact been about 8 months since I've seen everyone. After a nice weekend with some college friends for one of their birthdays, I decided that I should start working on some more serious things. I've already been skimming the classified ads and craigslist for job opportunities the past few days, especially in the DC area because...well I'm not sure why but there just seems something right about it. For those of you still in France, the media isn't lying. THERE ARE NO JOBS in the US. Well there are but, it's not the kind of jobs that young people with an expensive college degrees are looking to do. For example, working at starbucks or being a data entry clerk for $8 an hour. But hey, these are the times we live in and we have to make do with, right?
So I'm taking the bull by the horns and making the jobs come to me. I've placed an ad in the local newspaper to give French lessons (let's hope at least one person calls!) and I've made an appointment at a local staffing agency. They've gotta have something for me! I'm not becoming too impatient yet, obviously because it's only been about 10 days since I stepped off the plane on US soil, but because of the job I had this past year in France, it seems like I've been doing a whole lot of nothing for a long time. I hope this will be a fresh start for me and that moving back in with Mommy and Daddy wasn't a huge mistake even though I didn't really have a choice.
I'll check back when I have exciting news to report. That might be a while from now.

A new beginning.

As some of you have heard either from me personally or through facebook, I have moved back to the US. Even though I loved living in France for the past three years, my personal life didn't work out as well. I think everyone gets the gist, so anyway it's back to American life. Which means that this blog is going to take a different direction. It will be about looking back on my life in France and how my struggle adjusting to my new life in the US. I've moved back in with mom and dad and will be starting a tedious job search tedious search in this horrible economy. Let the adventure begin...

Volcano smoke disrupts European air travel

Ok, so how happy am I that I didn't get stuck in another country with no way of getting back home. Very happy! I know several people whose parents were visiting and are now either stuck in France or couldn't even come to visit in the first place. I could only imagine how upset and disappointed you would be in both cases. Luckily I was too poor to go anywhere for April vacation. And to make matters worse, the SNCF is still on strike so there are only a certain number of trains running. I don't think anything worse could happen, unless this volcano erupts for weeks on end. That's going to mess up many people's plans. I hope that it clears up soon. I've never seen anything like this!

Last week, my Australian friend finally made it to Besançon on Sunday and had to leave on Tuesday morning because I had to work all day on Tuesday. It was so great seeing her, especially after 4 years! It seemed like no time had gone by. Everything was still the same. We had a lot of great laughs remembering our time as students in France and the stupid things we did. It was really great seeing her. I tried to convince her to come back to France to be an assistant and she seemed pretty keen on the idea. So let's hope she'll do it! If not, I hope the next time I see her will be in Australia! I would absolutely LOVE to visit the country but there's always the small problem of finances. I've gotta start saving now, which will take a looong time since I don't even have enough money for a plane ticket home yet and it's already April! Thankfully I'm slowly getting some hours at work. Hopefully a few months I'll have enough money put away for some traveling expenses.

the SNCF once again ruins my plans

I am finally on "congé" or holiday officially from work. Unfortunately for Christophe and I, our plans in Annecy have been canceled because of his work-load. That sucks because I was really looking forward to going but I guess it just wouldn't have been possible for him. But all is not lost because one of my friends from Australia, who I met while studying abroad in Besançon, is coming to visit this weekend! But unfortunately for us, the SNCF is once again, on strike. She was supposed to arrive today, but apparently there are no trains running to Besançon from Paris. So we have to put off our visit until tomorrow. Hopefully, she'll be arriving tomorrow and staying until Tuesday morning. What sucks again is that I leave at 6:30am Tuesday morning to go to work all day so we can't even have a goodbye breakfast in the morning.
Ok so here goes my rant...I'm all for people expressing their rights to strike in order to secure their jobs or to get what they think they deserve, but when you abuse that right by striking all the time! (this is the 3rd strike this year alone!) and when you directly fuck everyone over for their vacation plans, I'm sorry but maybe find a different way of expressing your anger instead of canceling trains!!! I don't know how many thousands of people are inconvenienced by these strikes but if this happened to me all the time I think I would go mad. So everyone cross your fingers that all goes smoothly for tomorrow. I'll be so disappointed if I don't get to see my friend after 4 years of not seeing each other and getting to have a long conversation about our semester abroad. So cross your fingers everyone that the SNCF will "sortir les doigts du cul" and get back to work!

It's finally Spring!

This is the first day in such a long time that is sun is shinning bright and temperatures are in the 60's!!!! Thankfully for me, I don't have to work today so I can spend the day with my puppy!! (I did the same thing yesterday even though I had one class). What a difference the weather makes. But hours are picking up at work. This week I was sent to Morteau to teach 8 hours of class. It's a very beautiful village that is not far from Switzerland (thus very expensive). There is a sausage named after this village that is eaten by all Franc-comptois in the Franche comté region.

In a few weeks, our zone will be on April Vacation! Christophe and I will be spending 4 days in Annecy!! We've been wanting to visit this city for a long time and we are finally going. I can't wait to post pictures. Unfortunately since money has been tight lately, we couldn't go abroad during the vacation. Maybe next time. Anyway, just a quick update!

Dum dum dum...

3 weeks in a row I've worked only 12 hours per week.....
I'm starting to go insane. You would think with all of the free time that I have that I would try to be productive. I've alway wanted to learn Spanish so this would be the perfect time to work on my vocabulary and listening comprehension, right? Have I done this...no.
Hey, this could also be a good time to work on my artistic side and do some drawings or write a story or something....have I done this? NO!
Or I could be making phone calls to schedule appointments, you know, important stuff that I should be doing but am not.
How is it possible that the more free time I have, the less motivated I am to do anything??!!
I could also be looking into masters programs as I've always wanted to do a masters. But I've kinda dropped that idea unfortunately because I would have no money to live on unless I worked at the same time which is apparently very rare in France and I don't feel the need to accumulate a huge debt to add on to my already $17,000 from college in the states.

I'm officially in the middle of my blah period. It always occurs between January - April. Not to say that I'm super productive the rest of the year but my attitude is definitely different.
But ok, I have good news. They are giving me 8 new hours next week in a company located in the Haut-doubs, a mountainous area about an hour away from Besançon. This will work out fine, as long as it doesn't snow because apparently it can be pretty dangerous traveling to this area. Great. So spring is just around the corner right? Apparently not because I saw on the weather
forecast today that it's going to snow this weekend and possibly next week :( WWHHYYY?

I guess it will be an...adventure? But hours are starting to come in slowly. (and when I say slowly I mean slowly!) Ok sorry just have to rant a little. It's very frustrating when you don't have work to do and especially when everyone else around you is very busy!