When I first arrived in Paris, I decided I wanted to get a job. Although I have my internet work, it's nice to have some actual human contact. Since I had read that English teachers were in high demand, and since I not only speak English, but also studied it, I figured that was perfect.I asked around about how to find these types of positions, and a few people mentioned FUSAC, a classifieds advertising magazine for English speakers. Lo and behold, there were tons of positions for native English speakers to teach at professional, business and conversation language schools. I applied to most of them. Being the naïve American, I decided to ignore the fact that the majority of them required 'working papers'. I mean, how hard can those be to get?Sure enough, I wound up with plenty of responses to my queries, but all ended the same way -- nothing happens without working papers. So I looked into getting this French requirement - la carte de séjour. But once I discovered that it can often take over a year for an individual to get one, it didn't seem worth the effort since we might not stay in Paris that...
Recently in The "Locals" Category
Two planes, two taxi rides, a bus and a Louage...I had a sinking feeling we wouldn't survive the flight to Tozeur on TunisAir. A small plane in a foreign country with questionable security and unknown technology added up to surefire disaster in my mind. Geoff comforted me saying my biggest problem would be the smell emitted by some other passengers. We waited hours at the airport although the flight was never listed as late. Children amused themselves by climbing around signs, running in circles, and lying on the floor. The adults just sat. Finally we went through security x-ray where our bags got caught up in the rollers causing the entire luggage carousel to collapse. I bit my lip to avoid bursting out laughing and calmly took my bags away. Afterwards, we laughed imagining next we'd lift the armrest and rip out the whole seat of the plane or lift the window shade and inadvertently pull off the entire window. Well if we were going to die, at least we would go out smiling.On the evening flight, I looked out the window below and saw scattered white lights on dotting the darkness like stars in a night sky. We had...
If things tend to be closed during Ramadan and things tend to be closed Sundays, what happens when you put the two together?If things tend to be closed during Ramadan and things tend to be closed Sundays, what happens when you put the two together? We woke up and had breakfast at the hotel and then walked to the beach. On the path we spotted a snake which Geoff was very excited about - only the second one he's ever seen "in the wild". Unfortunately, despite his looking for it every subsequent time we went out there, we never did see one again. On the beach, there were camel, horseback and 4-wheel drive rides, but no water sports.After loafing around for the day, we decided to head into the big city of Tunis despite the fact that we didn't expect anything to be open. The taxi cost us only nine dinars - half as much for twice the distance of the airport. The centre touristique of the city had modern buildings - many of them clearly French inspired. We took a table at the only open café and had some tea. Served piping hot in tiny glass shot glasses, the...
Located between Algeria and Libya, Tunisia doesn't sound like it should be a friendly, peaceful country. But we had decided on a brief beach getaway, and discovered it was a popular destination for the French for a few reasons - 1) It's only a 2 hour flight. 2) It's a tropical climate. 3) They speak French.Before this trip, my mind's image of Africa was indigenous bushmen, rainforests and jungles, elephants and tigers. In Tunisia, we would find none of these things. But perhaps we would discover something even better.Approximately 98 percent of Tunisia's population is devout Muslims. Their native language is Arabic, but the business language is French, having only been liberated from France a few decades ago. We arrived at the end of Ramadan, a monthlong religious fasting which is one of the five pillars of Islam.When we first stepped out of the airport, the palm trees and sunshine conjured up my mind's images of any warm place - Florida, Mexico, California. We walked over to the 'official' taxi stand after dodging several shady characters offering us a ride. Since there were two rival companies at the stand, members from each immediately swarmed around Geoff trying to grab his...
There are many stereotypes of the French, one of which is that they are constantly going on strike. For this reason, I was quite excited to witness the national strike day scheduled for October 4. I had expected traffic, transportation and services of all kinds to come to a screeching halt. It wasn't just because of France's infamy that I thought this, it was also because of the local anticipation and preparation for this upcoming strike. Sylvia had warned us about it weeks earlier and advised us to wear sneakers that day instead of relying on public transportation. Our housekeeper Andrea had switched her cleaning day from Tuesday to Monday so she would avoid travelling during the strike. And L'Alliance Francaise had signs posted that classes may or may not occur that day, presumably depending equally on transportation issues and the political persuasation of the teacher.Geoff and I had taken to watching the news at 8 pm each night to practice hearing French. Our comprehension wasn't too good; it was lucky they had pictures. The night before, I watched in anticipation of the strike to see what would be said (or shown). They posted some statistics of the RER and...
The day before, someone had buzzed our apartment from downstairs. Since this didn't happen often (or ever actually), it caught me off guard. Geoff was at work, so I tentatively picked up the intercom phone and mumbled a cross between "allo" and "hello." At that point, the woman on the other end began babbling in French and all I caught was something about a kitchen and bathroom. So I said, "je ne comprends pas." She asked if I spoke English and I said yes. Then she babbled in English and was equally incomprehensible. She kept saying "it's very important," but that was all I got. Figuring she must be trying to sell something, I simply hung up the phone and went back to my computer. At this point, she somehow had managed to get buzzed into the building and rang my doorbell which I ignored for several minutes. I figured that eventually she'd give up and go away. Considering I couldn't understand her at all, that really seemed for the best. Several minutes of ringing was followed by a brief silence. But within seconds, she returned to buzzing the downstairs intercom. So instead of my polite Franglish 'hallo' I now...
My first order of business this morning was to call the front desk at the hotel and book one more night. My head cold had worsened, which made me lazy about speaking French. Since I knew the hotel staff spoke English, I cut straight to the point. "We'd like to stay an additional night, if possible," I informed the receptionist on the phone. But he replied that there were no rooms free that night in the hotel. Hmmm, great. I hung up. Then I realized I didn't know the time for checkout. So I called back and this time he answered with a drawn-out "Oui?" to ensure I could detect his annoyance. More hesitant, but still in English I asked about checkout. Instead of answering, he told me that in fact there was a room available tonight, just a different one. Apparently, one became available in the last 30 seconds. But I didn't complain. I put together a list of the apartments that were my favorites so far. It didn't take long since there were only two of them. One was from the NY Habitats site which we probably couldn't see before renting and the other was the loft with...
A stream of apartments blurred by today. Upon waking, I forced myself to pick up the phone. Each conversation started with me saying, "J'ai vu votre annonce à FUSAC," meaning (hopefully) I saw your ad in FUSAC. Then, "Parlez-vous anglais?" Twice the answer returned a firm "non." Luckily, they seemed to understand me better than I had expected. Perhaps when you're a potential customer worth thousands of euros, bad French is worth stomaching. One man I called, who probably could hear my heart pounding through the line, kept saying "Je vous écoute" ("I'm listening"). Ironically, even the English conversations seemed a bit strange. One woman warned us about the tricky stairs to her apartment and bluntly added that if we weren't interested in walking up two steep flights of stairs then please don't come. Quite a sales pitch. Another man asked my nationality and age. Apparently my bust size he could deduce in person.Somehow I arranged four appointments. Our first stop was rue de la Grande-Chaumière. The owner had given me the code to the outside door. Once inside, there was another door in the courtyard to buzz the apartment. In fact, it seems most Paris apartments use this system....
