New road

I had a very relaxing week end. Just what I needed after traveling so much. I have been reading, sleeping, walking around today. And this evening I finally decided to get on my bike and explore my neighborhood.

In a couple of days it is 2 years that I live in France. Wow. Time passes so fast. I can't believe that it is already two years. But if I think about it, it seems that living in my other apartment was just in another life and that all the past, my life in Germany or Holland or the USA was at the same time not too long ago and very long ago, depending on what I think about. Time is so relative. It always amazes me.

Anyway, after moving so much around the world, I realized that I need about a year to start to get comfortable in a place and about two years to actually start to feel that I live in a place (this with the exception of Amsterdam, where I felt home after probably just a few weeks living there). So, today I felt that it was about time to explore a bit the territory around my apartment. I fought my allergy (pollen allergy. Terrible in this season in the Mediterranean area. I don't have it as soon as I move away toward Northern Europe or the USA). I biked around and I saw some nice area and I also discovered that there is a small park near by. I never know where to go running, since I don't like running on the road with cars passing near by. Now I found a park (very small.....I don't know if it would be good for running) and I realized that there is a short cut to go to work from my place, with a bike road. Quite cool! It took me exactly a year to find it.

Thinking about a year ago, I realized how many things changed in the last months. A year ago my fellowship was just ending and I had to live with another fellowship giving me only 1000 euros a month. And then, out of nowhere, when I was close to get jobless, I got a job offer for two months and then for a year, so that I could keep working and living here. And everything happened in such an expected way...Life can play some weird games for us....
All this to say that what started from very little, now gave me a life in France for over two years, some friends and starting to feel comfortable where I am....not so bad after all!

This French life

I finally slept a lot this morning. And then I started my day with a French treat. I went to the nearest bakery and I bought some fresh baguette for my breakfast. I got back home and had a nice breakfast with strawberries, baguette, coffee with soy milk, jam and honey. Very nice.

Then my plan for the day includes sitting outside at a coffee place with a friend to chat and relax. And tomorrow hopefully, I will bike to the beach where I will relax in the sun sleeping and reading my book.

Life can be quite nice :-)!

PS. The new movie of Sex and the City is coming out soon here in France too!!! Looking forward to that!

Traveling again

I was supposed to get a train to go to Italy. My best' friend kid is going to be baptized tomorrow. Plus, on monday is my father birthday (not that we ever celebrate the birthdays together), plus I wanted to spend some time with my grandma and mom.

I got back from my previous trip deadly tired and I also had a job interview yesterday (but I didn't get the job). Traveling was the last thing I wanted to do now, no matter if it was about going to Italy or in any other place. I just would like to sleep, enjoy the sun here and have a day in which I can just do nothing if I want to.

I got an email before yesterday, at 11 pm saying that I should go to Perpignan for work. Fortunately Perpignan is still in the South of France and hopefully I can be back tonight.....but still. I canceled my trip to Italy, I woke up at 6am this morning and I am getting ready to move again...

My friend didn't take it well at all. I expected that. She took like I don't care about her and she is not part of my priorities....I knew it. My grandma was not happy either, but she understood. My father will take it very badly too.......

It is amazing how the ones who really give me less in their lives, from whom I never hear in months, than get very disappointed if for ones I let them down and I am not doing what it is supposed to be the right thing. Going to Perpignan is not ideal either for me, but the trip is for sure better than spending 12 hours in a train to be in Italy for 2 days to spend other 12 hours in a train to get back. Of course, as it is me traveling all the time and not them, it is difficult to understand how I could be tired of moving or how I need to be selfish now to be able to sleep and just be without having deep bags under my eyes all the time. I am aware that not going to Italy may not be the right thing to do, but why when I do something to take care of myself which doesn't match the expectations of other people (whom I spoiled probably too much, always thinking about them), then I get people I care a lot about giving me a lot of problems for it???

On the move again

I got back from my trip across Europe. I had a great time (beside the horrible weather in Slovenia and Hungary) and the work seemed to be successful (I have to wait for the results to know that for sure).

I slept very little and now I am crashed. Totally. I have a job interview tomorrow and between being very tired, not in a great mood shape, and being quite nervous about it, I can't say that I am ready for it.

Then I will travel again. I feel I am living with a suitcase. This time I have to go to Italy. And I write I have to go because if it was just up to me, I would spend the coming week end biking to the beach and sleeping either on the beach or here at home. Instead, I have to go. I have one of these things that I have to do to not disappoint a good important friend for me. I am sure that she would not understand if I will say that I can't make it because I am behind being tired. Then after this trip, I will have to go to Marseille, to Spain and to Perpignan. For work, of course.

I wish I could disappear in some place with no computer, no internet, no phone, nothing and just sleep and recover without being worried of not finding a job after that. I am so tired!!!

PS. Out of topic, but very good news! Elio Germano won a prize at the Cannes film festival. I am very proud!

Heading to Hungary

Getting ready for the next work trip. I am traveling all the time and when I am at home, it is often so short that I can't even feel home (nor find the time to do the laundry without rushing and leaving again with half of my clothes still wet).....

When I saw the movie Up in the air I felt very empathetic toward G. Clooney...even if I really like to be at home (chez moi) and spend some time just by myself, for myself, pampering myself.

Before this new trip, this morning I decided to pamper myself with a facial mask. Facial masks are cool, but I don't know how anyone who lives with someone could still treat herself with a facial mask....I would honestly feel ashamed in going around the house with a green tick mask on my face knowing that someone could be around or could enter in the apartment and seeing me like that......

One of the luxuries of living alone I guess......

Thanks god there is Sex and the City

I just had an horrible day today.

Last night I worked till 2.30am on a presentation for this morning. The presentation is for a job interview. I expressively made it quite general, so that people could help me to address the points on which to focus more or less.

I woke up at 9 (so I didn't even sleep 8 hours....and I am someone who needs to sleep a lot) and my day went: first work meeting at 1.30pm, second work meeting at 2pm (very intense meeting that ended at 3.40pm), my presentation's trial at 4pm.

The first comment was that my presentation was bad.
Just like that.
Nothing less, nothing more.

This is a bad presentation. Sweet!

Second comment. This presentation is too general, it doesn't say anything...and from there on, it didn't improve at all. Beside, as I have never worked in a French system till recently or studied here, I don't clearly fit in one of the categories in which you need to fit when you apply to a job. I tried to fit my experiences to these categories and it turned out that:

a) I didn't do a good job, as I clearly misinterpreted some of the categories and
b) consequence of the above is that it looks like I lied in my job application....which of course, it doesn't look so good....
c) obviously the jury will ask me why this discrepancy between my application documents and what I actually did
d)....I will need to explain how little I understood of the French University system....which of course, doesn't look good again.

The presentation ended up with one of the people there asking me if I really wanted the job and another one asking me why I applied to it when there are people out there who would really strongly wanted it.

I would say that it was a success!

I literally felt like shit. Nothing less.

I came back home, crawled on the couch, stayed motionless with a blank mind for I don't know how long, then cooked something, ate and finally decided to watch again for the billion time the first season of Sex and the City (while I look forward to the new movie), while doing some exercise....and I finally started to relax a bit.

Such a crappy day, saved at the end by Sex and the City and some good phone calls by people who love me no matter if I fit or not the French system (but I would need to find a permanent job soon or later).

PS. Top of the day...my famous tooth still hurts (and I think my dentist doesn't know anymore what to do with it)!

Yogurt-lemon cake

If you are looking for a perfect breakfast-tea/coffee break time cake, try this yogurt-lemon cake. I just tried it (and this time I made sure to not forget to add baking powder to the recipe)! I just had two slices of it with a cup of coffee!

One thing. If you have problems with cow-milk like I do, but you can have no-fat plain yogurt, then this cake is for you (I used no-fat Greek-yogurt for this recipe). However, it does contain milk, as one of its main component is yogurt.

Recipe:

- 350 gr of flour
- 8 gr of baking powder (for this cake I used self-raising flour, so I didn't add again the baking powder)
- 80 ml olive oil
- 425 gr of Greek-yogurt
- 120 gr of sugar
- 2 and 1/2 lemons
- 2 eggs
- a small pinch of salt
- a small pinch of vanilla extract

Mix the yogurt with the eggs, a bit of grated lemon skin, and the juice of the two and half lemons. Mix well and add the oil, sugar, baking powder, salt, vanilla extract, and slowly all the flour. Grease a cake pot, pour the mixture in it, and bake at 180 degrees C for 20-30 minutes. Check with a toothpick when it is ready.

Done! ready to enjoy it!

PS. I am not too happy after all with this cake......my mom tried too and she was not too enthusiastic either....if you know a better recipe let me know...

are you a native speaker?

I saw this message the other day on couchsurf. They were looking for someone who would like to act in front of a crowd, who wouldn't be afraid to talk with a microphone and who speaks English, better with an accent.

I know that I don't have an Italian accent, as everyone thinks that I am front Eastern Europe when I speak English, but I do have an accent. I do speak English and I would like to start again my childhood hobby of acting. So, I got in touch with the person who put the advertisement on couchsurf.

First step: phone interview. The name of the guy with whom I had to talk to was Liam, which I pronounced "Laiam" (read it literally as I wrote it)........I would say that I started very well with my English. He corrected me on his name and then his next sentence was: "we only want native English speakers"....I wonder how he could guess that I was not :-)

Anyway, that opportunity for a nice break outside my main work hobby/earning money (yes, they were also paying for this acting....all my friends were making fun of me asking me if it was a porn movie....otherwise, why looking for inexpert actors???...but would you need to be a native English speaker to act in a porn play??? and would that be in front of a crowd??? I don't think so...) is gone......it was gone in less than a minute of a phone interview actually. I guess I did very well.

Ok, not a native English speaker to act.

Next language. French. I applied for a teaching position here. I do have quite of an Italian accent when I speak French (everyone spots me as Italian already when I say "bonjour")...It seems that I got selected for the interview, which is in French. The person who will get the job will have to teach in French. Mandatory: in French. My ex-boss here has a plan to help me to get rid of my Italian accent in less than a week for the interview.....I don't know how he is going to achieve that.....why couldn't I teach with an Italian accent? I do have problems with the language and I am still lost in translation sometimes (when it comes to work, I think in English)....but I guess I could teach....It appears that as a non-native French speaker, I would have some possibility to get the job only if everyone else who got selected for the interview will not show up......highly likely, I would say.....

Anything that I could do here by speaking my native language then???? apparently, none is looking for Italian speakers.... :-(

At least my consolation is that even if my native language is the wrong one in terms of job market here......it sounds very nice and I am proud of it!

traveling, traveling, traveling

I am currently in France, but traveling all the time. Meaning: one day or two I am at home, the next I am somewhere else for a couple of days (just a couple of days), then back home, then travel again and so on.

All this for work.

It is quite nice to travel and I like it....but I feel a bit like a person scattered all around that as someone who is just traveling. Some days I wake up and I need some minutes to figure out where I am and what I should do that day. Plus, I am often traveling with other people for whom I am responsible.....not that easy, not always. For the last two weeks, I mostly moved here in France and I got to see some nice place and I got to have some very nice experience.

Next stop: Hungary. I am looking forward to that. We will go by car and our plan includes one day stop in Italy and one or two days stop in Slovenia (I love Slovenia!!!), all this to sample different animals. Then 4-5 days in Hungary and then back.

After that (4 days later), I will be on my way to Italy for a couple of days.

Then to Spain and I still don't know when.....

In less than a year I crossed Europe by train mostly I have no idea how many times....one days I should write all these adventures down. Everything happens so fast! Last sunday, even if the weather was very nice, I just got on my bike, visited a friend and had a long afternoon of tea, a bit of cake (a lot of it actually) and a lot of nice chat...I really needed to do something that would not have required too much moving.

I can't say that my life is boring...On the contrary, actually. But I do have a lot of responsibilities and sometimes (like yesterday for example), I feel overwhelmed.