End of Studies

One week ago I defended my diploma. My studies are thus officially over. The defense procedure took place at Sorbonne, just in the middle of severe strike with heavy public transport disruptions. The procedure was hard, unfriendly, kind of a Kafkian process. The people engaged were rather from two different planets. One can merely imagine h o w d i f f i c u l t life and studies can be for an ultimate foreigner in Paris.

I still haven’t any job. I’ve got only 35 euros earned yesterday cleaning a house of an Azerbaïdjan family in Enghien-les-Bains, 15 minutes from Gare du Nord.

The good news is that my diploma is ready in several months and that I’ll be in a regular situation in a few days as I managed to visit Prefecture de Police these days. There’s also a chance to visit Kyiv and see my beloved.

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.

Post 3

Before being trapped in such an ordinary situation, I worked quietly and comfortably in one little, comfortable library which makes part of a scientific center for the Greek and other ancient worlds. This comfortable job lasted for about two years. How did I manage to find such a dream-work?

I arrived in Paris in December 2015. I wanted to conduct a serious, deep research on skin in Hippocrates. But I needed a job. And at that moment, I had no idea of how it is difficult to do these two things simultaneously: to study seriously and to earn enough money to survive in Paris, where the cheapest apartment is a studio 9 m2, on the last floor without elevator, with no WC inside, no shower cabin and no kitchen costs 350 euros per month. No problem! says the householder, you’ve got a swimming pool not far from here. There, you may take your shower. By the way, the door of this “studio” was rather symbolic: old, one half of transparent glass, another one wooden. “There have been no robberies here as yet”, says the householder. Oh, thanks for these words, I feel safe and comfortable now…

Fortunately, around the mid-January 2016, I found a studio (rented, by chance, by a Ukrainian) for 5oo euros + 70 (electricity and internet) in the 9 arr., Cité Napoléon. Cold, humid, tiny, but ok till the neighbour listening music every night arrived.

I also found a babysitting agency and became a babysitter, my first job in Paris. But I suffered from the boys, then I suffered even more from the girls I had to take care of. Finally, a friend of mine and a doctorant from Greece, Vasso who knows well how it is for the outsiders to study and to work in Paris, insisted: ask, do not hesitate an ask our direction for a job at the Gernet-Glotz! So, I did it. And closer to summer 2016 I signed the contract with CNRS (library). Since then, my life in Paris had become more “bourgeois” – more or less quiet and stable…