So I have finished my first day volunteering and I am officially absolutely shattered!! I started off the day cooking soup for 600. As you can imagine this is not simple affaire. I turned up at the place and everyone was really nice, I got shown around and introduced to everyone. Everyone was so nice and welcoming and as more volunteers turned up during the day they made a point of saying hello to everyone and introducing themselves to me. I was put to work chopping tomatoes. There were bucket loads of them! They're tomatoes that the association has been given, a lot of them had big bad bits in them that needed cutting out or were slightly soft so they are probably the sort that aren't likely to be sold. I was encouraged to take breaks when I wanted and to help myself to the food and drink that was available. They had an upstairs area full of donated goods too; clothes, packeted/tinned food, toiletries, bedding etc etc and they had a shower in case any of the volunteers are homeless people and need somewhere to clean themselves. The attitude in the place was completely non judgemental; I was asked if I had somewhere to live and told that if I didn't I was welcome to use the shower etc. I chopped up lots of courgettes too and then we had lunch. Large quantities of couscous had been made along with a vegetable mixture and some meat. We all had cheese and bread too and lots to drink. We all sat around a large table to eat. In the afternoon I got chatting to some of the other volunteers a bit more. They all seemed really interesting. I had already said I would go and volunteer serving food with another association this evening so when they carted the 10 barrels full of soup (each barrel containing enough soup to feed 60 people) across to the 19th arrondissement I went to the 13th.
This association seemed completely different. We were given throw away aprons to wear and gloves and the food being served was some sort of soup, pasta with a sauce and a burger, bread, cheese, fruit, milk, water. I was in charge of wandering around the tables offering bread to people who wanted more. Everyone seemed really nice again and the people who came to eat were a real mixture; most of them were charming and very thankful for the services that were being provided. Some however were a little creepy; one guy seemed to take to me and every time I walked past him he asked for bread and looked at me in the creepiest way. When he asked for my number I naturally said no. Another guy gave me abuse for no reason when I offered him bread, I have no idea what he said but the next person I went to told me to take no notice of him. Some of them were very chatty and just wanted to find out about me as they hadn't seen me before. What was surprising to me though was how well dressed a lot of them were. These people didn't seem to be the people who sit in the street begging. The 2 and a half hours went quickly. There was a never ending queue of people waiting for spaces to sit down and towards the end I ran out of bread. Overall people were very thankful and charming and wished me a "bonne soirée" as they left. It was a great experience and I feel like now I'm doing something useful with my time. I'm very tired now though, it seems to me as if I've spent all day on my feet! And to top it off when I got back to the apartment the lift broke on me! The doors shut when I was in it but it didn't go anywhere (yes I did press the button!) then none of the buttons worked, not even the open door one, and I didn't want to force the doors open too hard in case I broke it even more! I pressed the emergency button and up until this point I had kept my cool, however when an extremely loud siren sounded it made me jump out of my skin!! Eventually someone came to my aid and forced the doors open but I think it's still broken now!
Right I must get to bed. The boss (as in Point Par Point) called me when I was on my way home today. He wants me in work tomorrow. I've decided I'll give him one more chance and if it just seems as if he's taking advantage of me tomorrow then I'll leave for good and concentrate on my volunteering work. Night all!
mercredi 28 octobre 2009
mardi 27 octobre 2009
A weekend with Esme and a fresh start
The weekend with Esme was great, she seemed to really enjoy showing Georgia and myself all her favourite spots. The Spaghetti bar is a real find; 3 euros for wine and 6 euros for cocktail and they keep on bringing out trays of pizza, pasta, couscous and salad. It was basically a free all you can eat buffet! Later we went a looked around the Shakespeare company book store which is a little gem near Notre Dame. When you go inside you have the impression it is literally made out of books! There are books everywhere! People are encouraged to sit and read the books too so the shop has loads of people just perched in random corners browsing. Apparently they have free accommodation for writers, providing they write and read a book a day! Then we went to a jazz club which was in a cellar, it was very full and the music was good.
Sunday morning we went for brunch in Montmartre. We had a huge bowl of hot chocolate each, a large slice of brioche with honey and jam, a croissant, and a soft boiled egg with soldiers. It was sooo good! I will definitely go there again! Then we climbed up to the Sacré Coeur and looked out over Paris.
Next we went to the market and I again decided it would be a good idea to buy bowl fulls of veg; I got loads of tomatoes and loads of peppers for €1.50. We also managed to get some free ends of pumpkins which we were really pleased about! Then we went to the Marais which is about the only place where stuff is open on a Sunday because it's the Jewish Quartier. We had yet more food (fallafels) then browsed the vintage clothes shops. We ventured to the top of the Pompidou centre to look out over Paris from another vantage point. We decided against going around it seeing as it's all a bit weird! Then we headed back to Georgia's and cooked a really good meal with our purchases from the market, roasted pumpkin was delicious! Georgia's apartment is really nice and right near the Eiffel Tower.
Monday I went for a lovely lunch with Esme, Georgia and one of Georgia's work friends and then saw Esme off. I decided to go and see Paris and got as far as the Notre Dame. I hated it; there were so many people inside it had just lost all feeling of spirituality and just become one big tourist attraction. I went to join the queue to climb it seeing as it's free for me as I'm under 25 but they had already shut it for the day when I got there. I went and got lost in the second hand book shops, I bought a book I'd been looking for "Etre Bénévole à Paris" which means roughly "Volunteering in Paris". It is full of some really inspiring ideas, such as helping homeless people (there are a lot of them in Paris, it's quite distressing), volunteering with ill children and helping them to forget their illness for the day, connecting children with their parents who are in prison etc. Unfortunately a lot of them require a long term commitment. I also bought the northern lights trilogy in french. Then Georgia and I went to a student bar that did cheap sangrias.
Today I was fairly productive; I completed my personal learning record and found myself two volunteer jobs in soup kitchens. I'm really looking forward to them seeing as there are so many homeless people in Paris and I want to do something more to help other than give them spare change. Hopefully they will be interesting, I'm really looking forward to meeting all sorts of interesting people. If the university agrees I may be able to take them on as my main jobs and leave Point Par Point once and for all which means I won't be as the Boss' beck and call anymore. The first one starts tomorrow at 10 so I'd better get to bed! I'll try and keep the post shorter next time!
Sunday morning we went for brunch in Montmartre. We had a huge bowl of hot chocolate each, a large slice of brioche with honey and jam, a croissant, and a soft boiled egg with soldiers. It was sooo good! I will definitely go there again! Then we climbed up to the Sacré Coeur and looked out over Paris.
Next we went to the market and I again decided it would be a good idea to buy bowl fulls of veg; I got loads of tomatoes and loads of peppers for €1.50. We also managed to get some free ends of pumpkins which we were really pleased about! Then we went to the Marais which is about the only place where stuff is open on a Sunday because it's the Jewish Quartier. We had yet more food (fallafels) then browsed the vintage clothes shops. We ventured to the top of the Pompidou centre to look out over Paris from another vantage point. We decided against going around it seeing as it's all a bit weird! Then we headed back to Georgia's and cooked a really good meal with our purchases from the market, roasted pumpkin was delicious! Georgia's apartment is really nice and right near the Eiffel Tower.
Monday I went for a lovely lunch with Esme, Georgia and one of Georgia's work friends and then saw Esme off. I decided to go and see Paris and got as far as the Notre Dame. I hated it; there were so many people inside it had just lost all feeling of spirituality and just become one big tourist attraction. I went to join the queue to climb it seeing as it's free for me as I'm under 25 but they had already shut it for the day when I got there. I went and got lost in the second hand book shops, I bought a book I'd been looking for "Etre Bénévole à Paris" which means roughly "Volunteering in Paris". It is full of some really inspiring ideas, such as helping homeless people (there are a lot of them in Paris, it's quite distressing), volunteering with ill children and helping them to forget their illness for the day, connecting children with their parents who are in prison etc. Unfortunately a lot of them require a long term commitment. I also bought the northern lights trilogy in french. Then Georgia and I went to a student bar that did cheap sangrias.
Today I was fairly productive; I completed my personal learning record and found myself two volunteer jobs in soup kitchens. I'm really looking forward to them seeing as there are so many homeless people in Paris and I want to do something more to help other than give them spare change. Hopefully they will be interesting, I'm really looking forward to meeting all sorts of interesting people. If the university agrees I may be able to take them on as my main jobs and leave Point Par Point once and for all which means I won't be as the Boss' beck and call anymore. The first one starts tomorrow at 10 so I'd better get to bed! I'll try and keep the post shorter next time!
samedi 24 octobre 2009
Week 4
Last time I wrote was a while ago and a lot has happened since then. Firstly last week when my boss assumed I was staying later that 5 I asked him if I could leave and he told me no since I finish at 6. I told him that I normally finished at 5 and that since I had done nothing all day I didn't really want to start doing something now. He seemed annoyed and told me to leave. The next day I again did not a lot and just before lunch I asked the boss to stop smoking in the office. He basically told me that he could smoke if he wanted, even if the law said one thing, in this office it was his law. After lunch he told me to go home and not bother coming in again until he called me.
I went back to Newcastle that night and spent almost a week there. I was supposed to come back on Sunday but I changed my flights and had an awesome week.
Now I'm back in Paris and I don't really know what to do with myself. I have opened a bank account which I'm happy about and I tried for a job as an English teacher but because I'm only here for such a short period of time they didn't take me on.
Esme is here at the moment and she's showing me around all her favourite places to go from when she was here. We went to see a ballet at the opera. It was stunning, the dancing was fantastic and the music was great, it was the Jewels, so there were emeralds, rubies and diamonds. My favourites were the rubies. We paid 10euros each for our ticket and had to stand for the whole thing to see because our seats were classed as "limited visibility" but when we stood we had a great view, much better than the people in front of us who had paid 3 times the amount for their tickets. The opera house is stunning, both on the outside and on the in. We were in a little box with 6 people, we were right at the back of our box but it was fine, I'd definitely go again, especially at that price! We also went to see La Danse at the cinema which really shows you just how hard the dansers have to work and how perfect every single move has to be. And how strong they are too. Really good. Going out tonight to a cocktail place where the happy hour is free pizza with the cocktails!! Bargain!
Anyway I'll stop boring you now and try and get some photos up here soon, altho I haven't really taken many!
I went back to Newcastle that night and spent almost a week there. I was supposed to come back on Sunday but I changed my flights and had an awesome week.
Now I'm back in Paris and I don't really know what to do with myself. I have opened a bank account which I'm happy about and I tried for a job as an English teacher but because I'm only here for such a short period of time they didn't take me on.
Esme is here at the moment and she's showing me around all her favourite places to go from when she was here. We went to see a ballet at the opera. It was stunning, the dancing was fantastic and the music was great, it was the Jewels, so there were emeralds, rubies and diamonds. My favourites were the rubies. We paid 10euros each for our ticket and had to stand for the whole thing to see because our seats were classed as "limited visibility" but when we stood we had a great view, much better than the people in front of us who had paid 3 times the amount for their tickets. The opera house is stunning, both on the outside and on the in. We were in a little box with 6 people, we were right at the back of our box but it was fine, I'd definitely go again, especially at that price! We also went to see La Danse at the cinema which really shows you just how hard the dansers have to work and how perfect every single move has to be. And how strong they are too. Really good. Going out tonight to a cocktail place where the happy hour is free pizza with the cocktails!! Bargain!
Anyway I'll stop boring you now and try and get some photos up here soon, altho I haven't really taken many!
mardi 13 octobre 2009
Tuesday
Work was a bit better today. I decided not to turn up until around 11 so naturally I got there at about 11.30. I didn't have anything to do until about midday when I was tasked with phoning up printing places across Europe, asking them for their email address and copying and pasting an email to them. I took a long lunch and then later in the afternoon I had to roll up 70 posters and put them into tubes. The only upside is that the new girl is really nice, we went for lunch together today and chatted a fair amount. Well she chatted a fair amount! She speaks very very fast!
I velibed it home and I'm not sure what to do with myself now. I may start sending round emails looking for another job because I want real work experience, not just experiencing being an office aid!
I velibed it home and I'm not sure what to do with myself now. I may start sending round emails looking for another job because I want real work experience, not just experiencing being an office aid!
lundi 12 octobre 2009
Monday
I am getting more and more depressed with this job. I turned up today at about 9.50 and was given nothing to do until about 11 when myself and a new girl who is doing a 2 year internship 2 weeks working 1 week at school thing were tasked with sorting through 12 boxes of reels of stickers and noting which stickers were in each box and how many of them. After lunch I literally did nothing for 3 hours. It is so depressing that for 4 hours of the day I am literally wasting time in an office and I'm not being paid to do so. I have decided that if things don't brighten up after tomorrow I am going on a job hunt because this is just a waste of time.
After work I explored Paris' used book shops and came across some real bargains! I got 3 Routard guides and a Lonely Planet guide (all dating between 2002 and 2007) and now have Guadeloupe and the surrounding islands in the Caribbean covered, Paris by bike and South America on a shoe string budget, all for under 10 euros. It was very exciting! I met the cutest old man in one of the shops who saw me looking at the travel guides and pointed me in the direction of more, and then we had a travel related discussion and he advised me on a rock and roll club in town which has an open mic every sunday, 1 euro drinks and apparently all the people there are really friendly and young and it's a great place to get to know new people. I do wonder how he knows about such a place (seeing as he was probably in his 70s) but he seemed cool and told me whenever he travels it's always with just a rucksack so I might check it out at some point.
Anyway apart from the rubbish and pointless day at work that's all from me today, I think I won't bother going in until 11 or so tomorrow because I am just a waste of space otherwise!
After work I explored Paris' used book shops and came across some real bargains! I got 3 Routard guides and a Lonely Planet guide (all dating between 2002 and 2007) and now have Guadeloupe and the surrounding islands in the Caribbean covered, Paris by bike and South America on a shoe string budget, all for under 10 euros. It was very exciting! I met the cutest old man in one of the shops who saw me looking at the travel guides and pointed me in the direction of more, and then we had a travel related discussion and he advised me on a rock and roll club in town which has an open mic every sunday, 1 euro drinks and apparently all the people there are really friendly and young and it's a great place to get to know new people. I do wonder how he knows about such a place (seeing as he was probably in his 70s) but he seemed cool and told me whenever he travels it's always with just a rucksack so I might check it out at some point.
Anyway apart from the rubbish and pointless day at work that's all from me today, I think I won't bother going in until 11 or so tomorrow because I am just a waste of space otherwise!
dimanche 11 octobre 2009
My first Sunday in Paris
The rest of the week was ok, Thursday I gave up even trying to look busy at work. The boss kept on telling me he'd give me something to do, and then that something was taking the rubbish out, buying stamps, folding letters, stuffing envelopes and stamping them. I didn't even bother to hide the fact that I was just wasting time on the internet all day. I attempted to ride a velib home for the 1st time that day and got caught in a MASSIVE down pour of rain. I was literally soaked through and dripping by the time I arrived home. I don't think my little map book of Paris is ever going to be the same again! I went out later fro drinks with Sarah and we discovered a lovely lively area near Notre Dame.
On Friday I was given my first proper task! I had to go across Paris and take photos of a shop front and measure it so they could make a display for it. And Friday afterwork I attempted to get my head around the French banking system and came away even more confused!
Saturday consisted of shopping, but it was so busy I won't be repeating that experience again in a hurry! Shopping from now on will be reserved for week days! Then we headed to the Sacré Coeur where there was a wine festival going on. There were lots of stalls all selling various regional products and lots of free samples. We tried jam made from champagne which was lovely, cider, wine, fig jam, paté (which I think was made from snails) as well as various liquors and juices. Then we met with some of Sarah's assistant friends who all seemed lovely and are from all over the place. It was nice tho because we all spoke in French to each other, even if we were both anglophones. Then there was a really nice firework display. It was funny because we were so high up and a fair bit back in the crowd, some of the fireworks were exploding just over the heads of the people in front, it's bizarre to imagine struggling to see a firework display!
Georgia and I went to the market at Bastille on Sunday morning. There were so many stalls and the veg was so cheap! All the vendors were keen for you to taste their fruits, I tried so many different mangoes and figs. I ended up spending a lot tho because I treated myself to a custard apple and some seedless grapes and some cheese. Oh how I wish I knew how expensive cheese is before I fell in love with it!
At the moment I am creating with carrots. I was going to make carrot soup but we have no blender or mashing implement. They sold huge bowls of carrots and other veg for a euro, so now I have enough carrots to last me a lifetime!
On Friday I was given my first proper task! I had to go across Paris and take photos of a shop front and measure it so they could make a display for it. And Friday afterwork I attempted to get my head around the French banking system and came away even more confused!
Saturday consisted of shopping, but it was so busy I won't be repeating that experience again in a hurry! Shopping from now on will be reserved for week days! Then we headed to the Sacré Coeur where there was a wine festival going on. There were lots of stalls all selling various regional products and lots of free samples. We tried jam made from champagne which was lovely, cider, wine, fig jam, paté (which I think was made from snails) as well as various liquors and juices. Then we met with some of Sarah's assistant friends who all seemed lovely and are from all over the place. It was nice tho because we all spoke in French to each other, even if we were both anglophones. Then there was a really nice firework display. It was funny because we were so high up and a fair bit back in the crowd, some of the fireworks were exploding just over the heads of the people in front, it's bizarre to imagine struggling to see a firework display!
Georgia and I went to the market at Bastille on Sunday morning. There were so many stalls and the veg was so cheap! All the vendors were keen for you to taste their fruits, I tried so many different mangoes and figs. I ended up spending a lot tho because I treated myself to a custard apple and some seedless grapes and some cheese. Oh how I wish I knew how expensive cheese is before I fell in love with it!
At the moment I am creating with carrots. I was going to make carrot soup but we have no blender or mashing implement. They sold huge bowls of carrots and other veg for a euro, so now I have enough carrots to last me a lifetime!
mercredi 7 octobre 2009
Paris So Far
So I arrived in Paris 10 days ago now, I spent the flight chatting to an Australian guy who was over in Europe promoting his surf business. He showed me some pretty crazy videos of the same business in winter going down mountains in cars, going over a jump and landing in a swimming pool!
I took the train into Paris and then met Fred at his metro stop (Fred is the guy I am living with, he is Christine's brother (Christine is my host mum from my year abroad in Geneva)) The apartment is lovely, a large lounge which Fred uses as a recording studio too (he's a musician, check him out on myspace - meetfred) a nice sized kitchen, a bathroom and a bedroom with a little balcony and a view over the Sacré Coeur. Fred made me feel right at home and we went for a walk around the area, there are two lovely parks right nearby. The view of the sunset from his apartment was incredible. I was pretty tired and got an early night ready for work the next day.
I turned up at work after getting a bit lost on the metro only to find no one was there. I waited around for 3 hours before leaving! Then I headed home and attempted to find a phone deal to suit my needs, which is nearly impossible! The French system of pay and go is sooo backwards! The credit expires, so you have a certain amount of days to use it in, depending on how much you put on. 5euros for example will most likely last you 5 days, 10 euros might last you 2 weeks and what you haven't used vanishes! I ended up buying a sim card for 30 euros but it came with 15 euros free credit and 100 texts. The trouble is to get 10 of those 15 euros and the free texts I have to fill in an application form and send them a photocopy of my passport! It's all so backwards! I then went round and round in circles trying to activate the stupid sim card, phoning this number and that number. I eventually left it with Fred and it wasn't until Friday the he was able to register it for me!
Work the next day was a bit more of a success; people were there! The boss didn't apologise profusely enough for my liking though and wasn't the most warm and welcoming of characters; he arrived late and then gave me the task of phoning all the beauty salons in Paris from the yellow pages, trying to sell them our services of creating flyers and other such papery goodies. I quickly became very bored and did not have much success.
The next day was pretty much the same except I was phoning restaurants offering them menus and serviettes. The boss had real trouble grasping that I do actually understand him and that I do speak French. He spoke to me as if I was an idiot, despite his wife shouting at him each time he did it. He also took to asking the other girls in the office to tell me things, when I was standing right by him and heard him tell them what to tell me. Thursday and Friday were the same, but I left early on Friday to go to Newcastle for Richard's birthday. A very tiring weekend!! Lots of partying and it was full of emotions for me, after my awful week at work I certainly didn't want to leave to go back to Paris, but despite doing our best to miss the plane (and the metros being cancelled to the airport) Georgia and I made it to the airport with a few minutes to spare for security checks. I ended up wearing a lot of my clothes on the way back because the easyjet staff took their job way to seriously and wouldn't let me on board with my slightly oversized hand luggage (I say slightly, it fitted into their measuring box, but it was very snug and therefore too big).
Work on Monday was freezing. I began to feel really depressed at work. There are 4 other people who work there; the boss, his wife and 2 girls. I spend all day sitting in an office by myself trawling through the yellow pages repeating the same words in French over and over again. I began to get ill from the cold (and probably from the weekend's antics aswell) as there was no heating in my office. The other 2 girls that work there are really nice but I think share the same dislike for the boss. I'm sure it's illegal to smoke in the office but he seems to think it's ok.
By Tuesday midmorning I had had enough. The boss had asked me to clean the outside window where someone had drawn on it in pen. I felt like telling him that it certainly wasn't my job to be doing that at all, let alone in the rain. He also told me I had the heating on too high (the girls had brought me in a little free standing heater) and that I would get ill. I responded by telling him that I was already ill from sitting in a freezing cold office all day the day before. Shortly after this episode I asked him if I could do something other than telesales and he said that after lunch he would give me something different. Then just before lunch he came in and told me that my french had improved so much that he thought I should continue with telesales for another afternoon. I felt like screaming at him that just because today was the first day that he was ready to admit that I could actually speak French, did not mean that it was all down to his plan to put me on telesales that my French had improved. I went to lunch in a fury and vented it all out to poor Georgia! Luckily he let me go early that afternoon.
Wednesday I was ill. I don't know if I just couldn't handle another day of him but my head was pounding and my throat was sore. I texted him and told him I was taking the morning off and he told me to take the day off, so he clearly has some sort of soul, hidden, deep down inside him!
Other than my work life I have been out a few times with Lauren, Georgia and Sarah for after work drinks but sometimes they turn into all evening drinks! I haven't seen much of Paris as of yet and I have yet to sort out a bank, but other than that I seem to be on top of things. I am also looking for Salsa lessons in the hope that I may meet more French people doing that.
Right, I think I'm up to date now, hopefully posts in the future will be shorter! And hopefully tomorrow at work I will be doing something other than telesales, I checked and it's certainly not in my job description!
I took the train into Paris and then met Fred at his metro stop (Fred is the guy I am living with, he is Christine's brother (Christine is my host mum from my year abroad in Geneva)) The apartment is lovely, a large lounge which Fred uses as a recording studio too (he's a musician, check him out on myspace - meetfred) a nice sized kitchen, a bathroom and a bedroom with a little balcony and a view over the Sacré Coeur. Fred made me feel right at home and we went for a walk around the area, there are two lovely parks right nearby. The view of the sunset from his apartment was incredible. I was pretty tired and got an early night ready for work the next day.
I turned up at work after getting a bit lost on the metro only to find no one was there. I waited around for 3 hours before leaving! Then I headed home and attempted to find a phone deal to suit my needs, which is nearly impossible! The French system of pay and go is sooo backwards! The credit expires, so you have a certain amount of days to use it in, depending on how much you put on. 5euros for example will most likely last you 5 days, 10 euros might last you 2 weeks and what you haven't used vanishes! I ended up buying a sim card for 30 euros but it came with 15 euros free credit and 100 texts. The trouble is to get 10 of those 15 euros and the free texts I have to fill in an application form and send them a photocopy of my passport! It's all so backwards! I then went round and round in circles trying to activate the stupid sim card, phoning this number and that number. I eventually left it with Fred and it wasn't until Friday the he was able to register it for me!
Work the next day was a bit more of a success; people were there! The boss didn't apologise profusely enough for my liking though and wasn't the most warm and welcoming of characters; he arrived late and then gave me the task of phoning all the beauty salons in Paris from the yellow pages, trying to sell them our services of creating flyers and other such papery goodies. I quickly became very bored and did not have much success.
The next day was pretty much the same except I was phoning restaurants offering them menus and serviettes. The boss had real trouble grasping that I do actually understand him and that I do speak French. He spoke to me as if I was an idiot, despite his wife shouting at him each time he did it. He also took to asking the other girls in the office to tell me things, when I was standing right by him and heard him tell them what to tell me. Thursday and Friday were the same, but I left early on Friday to go to Newcastle for Richard's birthday. A very tiring weekend!! Lots of partying and it was full of emotions for me, after my awful week at work I certainly didn't want to leave to go back to Paris, but despite doing our best to miss the plane (and the metros being cancelled to the airport) Georgia and I made it to the airport with a few minutes to spare for security checks. I ended up wearing a lot of my clothes on the way back because the easyjet staff took their job way to seriously and wouldn't let me on board with my slightly oversized hand luggage (I say slightly, it fitted into their measuring box, but it was very snug and therefore too big).
Work on Monday was freezing. I began to feel really depressed at work. There are 4 other people who work there; the boss, his wife and 2 girls. I spend all day sitting in an office by myself trawling through the yellow pages repeating the same words in French over and over again. I began to get ill from the cold (and probably from the weekend's antics aswell) as there was no heating in my office. The other 2 girls that work there are really nice but I think share the same dislike for the boss. I'm sure it's illegal to smoke in the office but he seems to think it's ok.
By Tuesday midmorning I had had enough. The boss had asked me to clean the outside window where someone had drawn on it in pen. I felt like telling him that it certainly wasn't my job to be doing that at all, let alone in the rain. He also told me I had the heating on too high (the girls had brought me in a little free standing heater) and that I would get ill. I responded by telling him that I was already ill from sitting in a freezing cold office all day the day before. Shortly after this episode I asked him if I could do something other than telesales and he said that after lunch he would give me something different. Then just before lunch he came in and told me that my french had improved so much that he thought I should continue with telesales for another afternoon. I felt like screaming at him that just because today was the first day that he was ready to admit that I could actually speak French, did not mean that it was all down to his plan to put me on telesales that my French had improved. I went to lunch in a fury and vented it all out to poor Georgia! Luckily he let me go early that afternoon.
Wednesday I was ill. I don't know if I just couldn't handle another day of him but my head was pounding and my throat was sore. I texted him and told him I was taking the morning off and he told me to take the day off, so he clearly has some sort of soul, hidden, deep down inside him!
Other than my work life I have been out a few times with Lauren, Georgia and Sarah for after work drinks but sometimes they turn into all evening drinks! I haven't seen much of Paris as of yet and I have yet to sort out a bank, but other than that I seem to be on top of things. I am also looking for Salsa lessons in the hope that I may meet more French people doing that.
Right, I think I'm up to date now, hopefully posts in the future will be shorter! And hopefully tomorrow at work I will be doing something other than telesales, I checked and it's certainly not in my job description!
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