Unconfortable Views 3 - The temporality of international communities.

Dinner again at Strasbourg St.Denis, French, Brazilian, Mexican, Spanish, Turkish, Austrian. . No matter when you go there the apartment is always full of different nationalities. Fun and convivial dinners, with the few people who are left from the HEC times, some of us hadn’t even met at HEC, ironic huh? We end up always confronted with the same question “when are you leaving?” Response: Xmas, February, maybe march. The furthest that I heard was – “maybe April”. Its good to see that like me, many are full of international plans, moves and crazy adventures ahead. The same goes around my apartment “ 22^nd December”, “4^th of January”, “sometime in February”. . . . Yes, hanging around international people is what I am used to we are all in the same situation- new in a foreign country-, however this temporality makes it hard. I’m constantly being reminded that every single person with who I spend my weekends and evenings – except for red cross Tuesdays- will be gone within the next 3 months. I will probably be the last one to leave. And if I stayed? New friends all over again?? I do have some French friends- not many, some also left. In order to avoid all this temporality and sadness of friends coming and going are we meant to stick to local communities? Will we then be assured that nobody moves away from the city within the next 6 months? No. However, maybe then, we will be the ones that will move the fastest and like this feel less the impact of the movement of others on our lives. But let the concept not trap us, at the end nothing is permanent, and even in more local communities things move and change; maybe at a slower pace- but they change too. However, when trying to find a stable life the international community of expats exchange students and international interns might simply move too fast.

Unconfortable Views 2

It was windy on the boulevard, a grayish winter Parisian midday as I was walking back from the gym, after an astonishingly long work out. Suddenly the old woman with a red coat, make up, and shaking hands that hold a black umbrella and purple bag shouted at us. “Madame Madame, vous savez ou c’est la maison de retraite, je suis perdu”. She was looking for the house of the retired people, she was lost and did not know how to get back home She told me she didn’t know her street name, so I asked her for an ID card to try and figure out her street. She didn’t have one, but told us that once she was in front of the retired peoples home she could find her way around. We had no idea where it was. All we knew was our house, the cinema, the gym , the supermarket and the metro stop. We told her to hold on as we asked somebody else for directions. Luckily we got a response super quick as she was not too much in the mood to wait in the cold air. We walked with her the two blocks till the elderly peoples house. Her slow pace due to her age of 92 allowed us to have a nice talk, she didn’t remember her street name, she had a son, no grandchildren, she lived in the neighborhood, usually had lunch at the retired peoples home which was near her house and came from outside of Paris.

We reached the retired peoples house. Outside the building it clearly said that it was opened only from Friday to Saturday, but luckily the door was open. We encountered two women who must have worked there. With a very pissed of face they said that she got lost usually, and then they asked her in the most rude and uncaring tone ever Why she didn’t spend Sundays at her house rather than going out. They told her that she always comes to the elderly home with random people from the street (like us). When she said that we were her friends they could only answer in a continuous rude tone that we were not her friends but just some people who she had crossed in the street. Rude comments continued which did nothing more than underline to the old woman that she was mentally loosing control of herself and getting lost. The woman was nice, kind and thanked us for helping her and told us she would like to see us again some time. I didn’t want to leave her there with the two bitches who clearly had no patience or empathy for older people- and who ironically worked at an elderly home. I told the woman I could walk her home if she wanted, but she decided to stay there and watch some tv and reassured us by explaining that now she knew where her home was. The elderly home was her guiding point. She clearly had some guts to stay with those two bitches. Will we meet again?

La sociedad sería una cosa hermosa si se interesaran los unos por los otros.

Chamfort

......more to come on this topic.....

The parisian trap - Finding an Appartment

Paris is beautiful, specially by night illuminated. As all cities it is even more beautiful when on holidays than when you actually live in it. When you come on holidays and you like it- the streets- the alleys- the architecture- you might think "wow if I could get an appartment here" Be carefull, finding an appartment in Paris is like going thorough a beauty pagent. If you have an objective, if you try hard you will find something, but the path aint easy and you better not be too picky, specially if you are a foreigner.

In Paris there is an undersupply of appartments, in addittion many landloards are afraid that tenants will not pay up so they ask you to proof that your salary is at least three times that of the appartment. Many people end up moving to a chambre de bonne, which used to be the old maid rooms. These ones have a separate entrance in the builduing and are genearally cold and not too well equiped (at least the ones I visited). They are mainly rented out by wealthy parisians who have a large appartment in the same builduing and rent out their chambre de bonne in a way to invest. You only have to go to www.pap.fr or any website to find out that a shared appatment rents for 500 euros a room, somtimes if lucky 470. If its cheaper its that you are either in an extremly dangerous zone or that something in the appartment is clearly not working well. To continue many lanloards will ask for a granty of you parents or somebody, photocopies of all kinds and proof that you will stay for a long time.

Due to the undersupply of appartments you find yourself going to visit places and being literally interviewied by people- what do you like to cook, what are your habits, what do you do in life, where do you work, how long will you stay. I was even told if I cook using fire or microwave and if I shower more than once a day. Every single one of my interviews finished with ´thank you, we have 10 more visits today and 10 tommorrow´ we will call you if you are selected. It even happened once that I was told " see this girl over here? she came 5 minutes before you and she took the room". As you go back to your hostel you realize that the task aint easy. The demand is so high and the supply is so low that future teanants have no bargaining power, if you ask for anything you are not going to be selected, the landloard is able to choose any other tenant. It is for this reason that many appartments and chambre de bonnes are sometimes in a decading state, and the search for appatments becomes a big neightmare for people who rumbles the streets with their ´dossiers´hoping that the day when they will be chossen will soon arrive.

...Ready to Fly Away?

I think you know it as well as I do - Im leaving France. Not yet, still 4 months to go, but suddenly you are all coming for visits. You know its one of the last chances you will have. Myself on the contrary I dont know where Im heading off to. I see the economic crisis freezing the hiring processes of many companies I see the daily life geting more expensive and unless there is a sudden radical change, I will soon not find myself in the French capital, and maybe not even Europe.

My head tumbles around the words - Hong Kong, Sydney, Barcelona, Paris and I find myself trying to decide if I want to live in a place that is meant to be my home, if i want to go live near my family and explore a new continent, if I want to continue living in a place where i have found and establish my life or If I want to go and discover my all time favorite asian city (which I dont even know that well). Four complete different options, four roads, and no final decision. Always an open eye at the job market and a specific job in mind. One day there will be a post- with a final decision.

I dont know where I will be on the 1st of march 2009 but I feel I will probably be on my way to saying good bye to some of you. I will miss you, yes I will!