Parislog 75
October 28, 2006

I was answering a letter from Kat, writing how this whole thing came to be and thought I would post it for you.

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I had to take French in high school 3,000 years ago and ended up taking 5 years and creating a dream to be able to live in France and become fluent. I tried to do an exchange program but wasn't chosen. The dream never left.

However, I wasn't able to come over here and my life took various twists and turns. The dream still hovered.

2 years ago I found out that I could now get my British citizenship due to a change in the rules regarding maternal rights. My mother was British. The rules regarding living in the E.U. with a joint citizenship had already come into being and lastly the USA now accepted certain dual-citizenships so I didn't have to give that up.I went and did the process to get the citizenship, which took way less time that I thought. I sorted through my entire life's belongings during the one-year process and slowly whittled my way down to 10 cartons to mail, 2 suitcases, portfolio and guitar. That was tough. I sold what I could through craigslist and friends at school where I taught. I sold my car. I had a tiny pension fund that would be nothing in real money later so I cashed it out. I had been saving everything I could out of my paychecks.

I then set up a French bank account through a woman in the office of Le Credit Lyonnais in New York. That way I could wire money over and have the ability to get to my money.

I found an apartment share online using seloger.com but that was high risk. I had a few straight up scams and mostly no answers to my letters at all. But finally after 2 months, I got one where I felt trust. I left in 2 weeks from that moment, finding a cheapish one-way ticket on one of the online services like Cheaptickets.It was and still is one of the most highly stressful things that I have done but I am hoping that in a little more time, it will all make sense.

Finding work here is really hard. I mean really! It is not like the states at all. Everyone loves to see diplomas and experience for the littlest thing and they are very cautious about hiring because the laws are so strict here about employees. The best analogy that I can think of is that once you have an employee, you have a child for life. Even if your company is tanking, you have to take care of them. It is so expensive and hard to fire someone that it isn't worth it. So they want to make sure that you are coming in with a gold certificate from God saying that you are a worthwhile employee. Well, that is my take on it. Oh and the unemployment office is useless, according to all the French I know. They actually really laugh when you say that you tried to find work there. Here it is whom you know to the nth degree.

Parislog 74
October 26, 2006

I walked into one of the little stores on my street and there were a couple of women in there shopping who were speaking English, so I started up a conversation with them. It turned out that they were from Los Angeles down near the airport. They had been traveling Europe for the last ten days and were heading home the next day.

It was so funny to talk to them because we were so loud in the store and so American. They were a couple of black girls too and so any of you from L.A. know that that means an additional increase in the volume. The guy at the counter was watching totally fascinated but at the same time trying not to look like he was looking. How could he not though? People just don’t talk that loud here for the most part, at least not in this neighborhood. If you go up into some of the more immigrant hoods you will find it.

They were explaining that in the beginning of traveling here that they were trying local foods but found it to be a real problem for their stomachs so ended up eating American food in Europe. They were eating at the McDonald’s and KFC’s of Europe. How sad. I can understand their concern but what a shame to miss out on one of the fun aspects of traveling to other countries. I never thought of Europe as being a problem for the stomach. I suppose that everyone has his or her own sensitivities.