Category: Non classé

Life goes on

This strange and full of uncertainty corona-period is, at the same time, quite rich and interesting.

I haven’t seen my family since the last year, and I’m not going to travel to see them during winter holidays. I would rather wait for a vaccine. But I saw Greece this summer, and discovered some new astonishing places over there.

I have managed to find a job for three months: it reanimates my multi-language skills and keeps my mind quiet and busy.

Before starting the job, my mind was (and still is, but to a lesser degree) preoccupied with administrative things related to my new stay permit in France (I am changing status from “student” to “employee”). The procedure now takes even more time than before the Covid-19, and one should have much bigger reserve of patience in order to reach another shore.

The end of the second confinement was a great pleasure because I visited Vexin français. It is still the most beautiful place in Île-de-France to me.

I wish I could better control my anxiety while fixing all the things related to my stay here. I wish I could be more patient and more quiet. Because I am doing everything depending on me and because the rest will be done somehow, without my intervention.

Океан можливостей

це такий кайф закінчувати десь працювати — щодня приходити на одне й те саме місце, відриватися від нього, зриватися з нього, знову ставати чужою, відступати в анонімність і зненацька, не надто розмірковуючи брати дешеві квитки і зникати світ за очі внікуди майже не думаючи що ж тили не прикриті що їх треба постійно створювати винаходити нон стоп але отой світ-за-очі, дорогоцінна втеча від дійсності в реальну мрію саме тому і є, тому і стають можливими, бо є оця неприкритість

Ocean

There are so many advantages in instability. My job contract’s been over since November 15; cleaning service that I found and did once in two houses is not needed any more; quite irregular babysitting on Wednesday is completely cancelled until the New Year. I’ve got for the moment no real job proposals. The most important thing is not to panic. It usually works in this way: one week you’ve got some very small jobs here and there, the next three weeks you have nothing at all. You have only to adjust to this rhythm, to these tides of human existence. (At the same time, I still don’t have any idea how to pay the rent for my studio at the beginning of 2020. But it’s too far to think about it.)

In fact, such an instable, from the financial point of view, existence offers you flexibility, creativity, and freedom, not only physical, but also the incredible sensation of being free. In this state of mind I begin to search for opportunities to do things I love. To do those things that I love and which do not require a lot of resources. That’s why the thing I did just before my job was over was to buy cheap TGV tickets to Bordeaux (16+10 euros, Ouigo from Massy), to get in touch with people who rent a studio exactly in front of the Ocean (30 euros x 4 nights). And to disappear in a completely another world amidst the sands and the eternal Ocean, who humiliates our too human passions and our fears.

Here and here you can see it and here it.

Dear people

These are my nephew and me depicted on the walls of Paris in the quarter Buttes aux Cailles, 13e arr. We’re dreaming to meet each other. He’s in Ukraine, and me, I’m here. I had my birthday this month, and he felt too shy to tell me something so he wrote, “Lera! I love you! Liova” Today he said I could come to Kyiv on his birthday. Oh, darling, I can’t… His 6th birthday is in a few days. Then, then… he said, come in the winter! come to meet the New Year together! Oh, I wish I could come and play and walk and have fun with you…

But I didn’t tell him why It’s not possible to make some dreams true. At the moment. And immediately.

It’s the question of only about 200 euros for a round trip ticket, but that’s quite a lot when one doesn’t have them… I wish some magic happened and I saw L. in two weeks.

20191018_182721[1]

It’s already crépuscule in Paris, almost dark and night, but if you look at what shows you the webcam, there in the far South-East, the sun is still there.

I’m sad today.

Versailles. Easter

It’s stunning to see crowds of people waiting patiently in a long line for the audioguides in Versailles. The guides are “free of charge” or, rather, included in price of the Billet Château. Some know that, others don’t but follow those who know, yet others are informed by us on the spot and then stand in line. This is not the desire of knowledge but the power of money and of what is seemingly free.

One of the last days, our team distributed around 100 000 guides. The price of the ticket is 18 euros. Now count how much money gets the Château de Versailles during holidays. Don’t forget that the audioguides are distributed only to the 50% of the visitors or even less.

I worked there yesterday from 8.45 to 18.30. It was Easter, and all of us were dead by the end of the day. I think that before I was not really tired. Everything is relative.

The Chinese people want the guides especially bad – for the third reason: because their human Guide told them to take the guides, and they obey.

Seems like the Chinese suffer most of all from the cultural shock. After them the Russians come: the representatives of both nations look really disoriented and… wild. But they express the shock in different ways: the Chinese are afraid of getting lost, so they move around in big cohesive groups menacing to smash everything and everyone who is on their way. It’s a collective body with no individuals. The Russians are not that “collective”, but an overt astonishment and failure to communicate is often drawn on their faces.

chateau vers

Here are some of the less FAL (frequently asked languages): Dutch and Deutsch, Arabic, Romanian, Swedish, Breton, British, Hindi, Farsi, Hebrew (asked once only), cantonal Chinese…

  • In which language?
  • Breton.
  • British.
  • Dutch.
  • Deutsch.

Notre Dame de Paris. After

After.

I’ve been to the Préfecture de Police today to ask some important questions concerning my status. I saw all the area around the Cathedral blocked, but as a visitor of the Préfecture de la Cité, I’ve managed to come closer to see what’s there after the disaster.

All the crowds are beyond the barriers. There are only a few infiltrated souls wandering here and there, the staff of the Préfecture and Hôtel Dieu; and the firemen.