Got It!

Yesterday morning the company called me back and asked for a second interview. I hurried over to their offices and met the boss of the company who told me a little about what they did, gave me a pep talk, and then hired me. I was excited.

I will only be working about 5 to 10 hours a week working with individual French students who are trying to attend college in the US. It is a good job for me because all of these students speak english really well already, they just need a little help with some pronunciation and understanding some of the more difficult words and phrases. Most of the time I will be working one on one with a student helping them get ready for a big college entrance exam, but I might also help them with their applications and associated essays (you always have to write at least one "personal statement" essay to get into a college or university; sometimes 4-5 essays).

The boss told me that if I do a good job, he may offer me a full time position at their company because they are trying to grow and they were very interested in my resume and experiences. It is extremely tough to get a French company to provide you with the official government work papers because of all the red tape, so this kind of shocked me. I am cautiously hopeful that they will like me enough to hire me on full time.

The initial interview was on my birthday... was it my lucky day?

How did that happen?

I have an interview tomorrow and I am excited. This is my first interview since I got my last job about 4 years ago, so I am a little nervous. The position is for a teacher at a small business that provides classes to prepare French students to take US college entrance exams. They offer prep courses for the SAT, GRE, GMAT, and TOEFL which is the English-language proficiency exam every foreigner has to take before studying in America. I sent them my resume last week, and today they called to schedule an interview for tomorrow!

I think I would be a good fit for the company, but there are some big questions that I don't know how to answer. The first one is the fact that I don't have a work visa allowing me to legally work in France. I only have a tourist visa here and cannot get a job without breaking the law. In addition, I cannot change from a tourist to a worker while abroad. The French Consulate in America has to process the paperwork and so I must return to the states to make this application.

Also, I am slated to leave the continent in early March and I am unsure of my return date. I have to leave before 90 days elapse due to the laws regarding my visa. If I overstay then I could have a lot of trouble at the international airport and I probably would not be allowed to return to Europe for quite a long time.

I am a groomsman in a wedding in April and I would hate to have to cancel that. So my initial plan was to stay in the US from March until after this wedding (around April 10th) and then fly back to France. However, I don't think many companies would go for this- taking 5-6 weeks off before I even begin! I don't know... maybe if the job is good enough I have to take two separate trips.

I have a dilemma! What to do, what to do? Any advice out there?

All Right!!!

I made my first Euros! It wasn't a lot of money or anything, but it felt good and it wasn't too hard either. After 9 months of unemployment this is the first time I have "worked" or "earned" my own money. Whew... 9 months is a long time!

Like I mentioned in the previous posts, I have been advertising to offer tutoring lessons for French locals. I met with two different people the other day, we spoke for an hour in English, I helped make some minor corrections, and they were pleased with my services. Now I am scheduled to meet both of them again and will have 1 or 2 hour long sessions each week with them. Hopefully I get some more students and it would be nice to have maybe 5 or 6 students each week. I've got my fingers crossed!

I do have to start looking at some other jobs and real career type stuff again. It's gonna be back to the grind for me very soon!

Maybe Some Work...

I put a note in the last post about my ad in the paper offering some one on one tutoring lessons and I got my first call yesterday. I am going to meet the family tomorrow so they can evaluate me before deciding to utilize my untested talents. I am a little nervous about it because I have never done anything like this before and I don't speak any French so I hope the student is pretty far advanced in their studies. I need to meet the student so that we can develop a curriculum suited to his/her level of understanding and cater to their desires. I hope it works out and I get some cash! 

Also, I have found another job posting online looking for an instructor to teach prep classes for the SAT, GMAT, and TOEFL (all US college entrance exams). I have talked to them and I am sending in my resume tonight. Only time will tell!

Anyone have any tips to help me with the tutoring? Any advice on what to say at tomorrow's meeting?   

Just an Observation...

Oh my God, the French people listen to the WORST music ever. Honestly, I prefer the Indian Bollywood music over the French music. I would certainly rather listen to one of those cheesy CD compilations that they sell on late night TV than to the stuff they play at your typical French party. You know, the badly made commercials where they sell the CDs with name like POP NOW or WOW! MUSIC or something ridiculous. I would rather endure that treatment than listen to more of the recent onslaught of bad, bad, terrible bad, miserable, boring, love-song-sappy, crappy music that has been assaulting my ears and draining my energy at parties lately. Half of the stuff is American or English too so if you can think of a really bad American love song from the past 15 years, chances are that everyone at a French party will be able to sing it word for word. Stuff I don't even know. I would want to kick my own ass if I knew the words to some of this crap.

Can anyone out there give me the name of a French artist (singers only) that has had crossover success into the American market. I can't think of any and now I know why!

In other news, I have posted some small advertisements online and in the classifieds section of a local newspaper offering my services as a tutor for English. Hopefully, I will get some calls and can make a few Euros and get some money coming in. I need to start looking at other avenues for getting paid as Paris and the Euro conversion have not been so nice to my bank account. Gotta make some money!

Brrr... It's Cold!

So I heard that it has been killer cold over in the states lately and we have had much of the same over here in Europe. A few weeks back we traveled to Belgium and got stuck in a snow storm. It snowed about 5 or 6 inches, but it was enough to wreak havoc. Apparently, they only get a snowstorm like that every 5-10 years, so the cities lacked the trucks and equipment to keep the roads free of snow and ice and the locals aren't accustomed to driving in those conditions. We were stuck for about 5 hours on the highway in gridlock and covered a little less that 30 miles. The fastest Kenyan's cover that distance in about 2hr04mins- on foot.

I am not so accustomed to the cold and man does it suck! I have never experienced this much "winter" before nor lived this far north. The lack of sunlight is starting to affect me and I sure could use some good ol sunshine. A lot of days here it hovers around freezing and we have had snow several of the last days, but it is so light that it never sticks. It just makes walking into the wind that much more unpleasant.

However, the city covered in snow is beautiful and there is something really pleasant about watching big, fluffy snowflakes rain down (as long as you are warm, inside, and don't have anywhere to go). And the cold weather has some perks- I did some ice skating a couple of weeks back. It was good and I had fun, even though I looked pretty bad on the ice. I would like to go back... making it the 4th time I have ever put on ice skates and maybe I can get some pics online of me in slow motion action. I hope everyone is staying warm and let's all hope for no more blizzards!

I'm Back... Blogging Again

After a very long absence from making posts on the blog I am resolved to get back into the habit of making routine updates. I haven't made a post in a long time, but I have been active and a lot has happened in the last several weeks. Here's and ultra quick update of my activities....

Got my passport replaced. A confusing mess, but ultimately cheap and easy.

Flew from Delhi to Paris, France and I have decided not to return to India. Life is good!

Visited a friend in Brussels, Belgium and picked up my step-sister Chelsie at the airport.

Chelsie stayed for two weeks and we saw the Eiffel, the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, etc

Christmas in Paris with Faustine's family. Weird food, nice people.

Spent 2 nights in Amsterdam and had a blast. Red Light District is as crazy as ever.

New Years Eve in Paris with lots of champagne and good cheese!

So my revival of the blog starts today. I am gonna start making some video posts again so that everyone at home can see how Paris looks and see where I am going. I have already been to a lot of the biggest tourist places, but there is so much to see and do here that I am sure I can come up with some good footage. There is something new all the time! Gotta start my job search now too and really start working hard at learning the language. Busy, busy, busy!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and I am hoping for only the best for all of you in 2010. Au revoir!