Tag: learning

Je repars à zéro

Voilà one week left until I defend my post-doc diploma. What have I got? No regular babysitting, no housecleaning at all, no other job, no ideas what to do next. Got enough money to pay the rent for the next month (670 euros), but nothing to buy food and monthly transport pass, nothing to celebrate the end of my studies just after the defense (to offer some drinks to my professors and to the friends who will be there).

A lonely Mister (I think he’s about his 70s) is trying to persuade me to not only clean his flat, but also to do massage. “I’ll pay you more. Nobody will know… But I’ll pay you more than for the cleaning… But we will know each other… I’ll pay you. I am single”. Oh my GOD, poor man! No, Sir, I wish you good luck in your (I think quite desperate) search. I’ve already tried once and run as quickly as possible. The man (Michel, comedy actor) who said on the phone he was 48, was in fact about 58. He wanted massage sensuel. You get naked so that it gets a bit sexy, you mass my whole body, you mass my penis, the aim is to excite me. 50 euros per hour.

NO I’m not going to do that! to mass your cock, are you crazy? – What’s the problem? You know, you imply moral judgment, you refuse an interesting sensual experience! – Yes, I do, I don’t need it. I was really lucky he was not a maniaс. So I run away veeeery quickly and he let me run. F…..ck!

Résultat de recherche d'images pour "colère"

I’ve never thought it’s possible that all the small jobs one manages to find disappear almost simultaneously. Maybe a golden era is waiting for me and the gods deprive me of all the non-qualified jobs? Or are they trying to tell me, “Valeria, it’s better that you prepare your presentation, spend more time on it!” Thanks, gods, I appreciate. But could you please also show me the path where to move? Thank you, gods, in advance.

Last week, I had to prepare three copies of my work, for each member of the jury. My school did not reply if they refunded such kind of expenses. Luckily, my colleagues from the library printed two copies for free, so I had only to pay the cover. No need in the third copy: one of the members of the jury said she had already did it. These small gestures are so touching and so important when one keeps body and soul together. Thank you, friends.

I do my best

 

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Chill on Mt. Parnitha, Attica. Summer 2015

Below you can find my announcement saying that I give private lessons of Modern Greek (my favourite language!) and that I’m looking for students to share my love to Greece and its culture. Join me, prices are lower if one learns via skype. It’s funny, it’s the best remedy against the bad mood! The first 30 minutes – for free.

Voscours.fr.

Deus ex machina

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Palais Royal this morning
God called me today.

He wanted to help me with my “problems”. “What do you propose?” he asked me. “I’ve posted many announcements, babysitting for exemple”. He asked if I wanted to do the massage, nothing more. “No thanks”. It was a long enough conversation, which touched finally upon my situation and the limits imposed on foreigners…

“There are always by-passing ways to avoid the limits”. “Doing what? massage???”

* * *

дзвонив боженька по телефону. запевняв, що всі тимчасові труднощі в житті плинні, і взагалі їх можна оминути… є всякі шляхи… і запропонував масаж

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.

Girls

I’ve been quiet the last weeks. One of the reasons : a family found me via vivastreet, and we arranged so that I spend now every Wednesday with their 10 yo daughter G. Since then three Wednesdays have passed, and we enjoy time together! We’re cooking and eating, singing, listening to music, going to tennis, playing violoncelle (G.), learning languages, making bricolage, playing with her young playful cat Strato, reading. So, eight hours are almost like eight minutes. G. is smart, mature, independent, and enthusiastic! Especially when it goes about cooking something with chocolate 🙂

Thanks this family – both parents are biologists – I can now survive in Paris. But not save some money to fulfill my dreams.

As for the girl from Saudi Arabia, – her family also found me on vivastreet – two weeks ago, I was asked not to come : R. was ill, and the nest week she had to pass her exams at school. They had to call me back this week, to say goodbye? Perhaps, the Saudi storyline is approaching its end. During Ramadan, R. will go to her home country. She will visit Mecca, then she’ll come back. Shall we see each other in September?

Tomorrow, April 1, I have to meet the father of Inès, the 15 yo girl that needed a tutor for the French literature. Mahmoud wrote me that he “doesn’t wanted to lose” me because of my kindness, that he had a younger daughter in college and that he would like to meet me to talk about my spheres of expertise so that they could adress me in future.

Tomorrow, April 1, I was promissed to be paid for my three days’ work (18.5 hours) in Les Biches à Odéon.

Finally, tomorrow, April 1, I have to sign a new contact to work in Versailles…

Theatre in the theatre

This Monday, a family asked me to help their daughter in French. They found my announcement online and sent me their demand. The girl is 15 and she studies at a lycée. “There’s a little book that she has to read…” told me her father. It was urgent, so I came the next day. They live close to the place de Clichy; their appartment, like all the neighbourhood, is rather poor. Her father met me, greeted, asked some questions about my “parcours”, prices, and competence. Ah, you’re not French, he looked disappointed. Doesn’t matter, how much you’d ask, I’ll pay, just help her. You may read this book quickly right here, and then discuss it with Agnès.

There were a bottle of water, three glasses, and those famous French cookies macarons, which I find expensive, on the tea saucer. Touching and rare gesture of hospitality.

The little book we had to work with was Marivaux’s Le Jeu de l’Amour et du Hasard. There were four questions that the girl answered in her way, but my mission had to be to complete and to structure them. Instead, I told her, not straight away though, that I was not ready, they need a specialist in French literature. Commedia dell’arte and the rise of the Lumières is quite a specific area of expertise for me. I’d have rather asked you before our two hours’ lesson, who’s the author, what are the questions. I took a pic of the questions, which I studied later at home on google and finally sent her the “learnt”, more sophisticated answers by email.

We talked a bit about her own interests. That’s medicine, not the French theatre of the 18th century. Recently, she’s written a paper on pain, every kind of pain; oh, Hippocrates’ understanding of pain is odd! This is how we finished our “lesson” that lasted for 30 minutes.

Her father answered my email today, ‘Thank you for your kindness but that’s a pity it did not help… yesterday I forgot to pay you for coming at our place. Where could we meet so that I give you money?”

Don’t worry, I don’t want your money (just because you are open and good people).

It’s a strange world. The poorest are ready to pay a private tutor without negotiation. They don’t “forget”, like some Parisiens, about two, three, five euros, as if it were nothing… This Arabic family is ready to spend extra money for their daugther’s education, although – think a little bit – where are the Muslims and where is the French literature.