Friday, February 15, 2013

One Year

Hello again blog viewers! I'm back with my second blog entry: "One Year in France!" Seems like just yesterday I was writing my first six months post, right? Well, let's get started. Again, I'll try to keep it pretty compact since I don't like talking about myself on the internet, and I'm sure you have better things to do!

First, I still live with my girlfriend, Anne on Rue d'Alger in Marseille (in case you want to google streetview it). It's about the same... still a nice, small studio that's close to most of the cool stuff to see and do in Marseille. Speaking of which, Marseille is the European Capital of Culture for 2013! What that really means I'm not sure, but everyone says we're going to have significantly more tourists this year, and the city seems to have dumped a bunch of extra money into renovations to maximize appeal. It's true that some parts of Marseille are pretty rundown and dirty, but it appears to be on the rebound. The coolest part so far about this cultural-capital business was the opening night. It was in mid-January, and the Old Port (downtown) was packed full of people. The city paid for attractions, music, decorations, etc. to be set up all over. And so most people, including myself, were just wandering around, drinking publicly, and watching all the nightlife unfold. Among the attractions were: Marseille history museums, a marching band, decorative graffiti, fireworks, fountains, a giant feather-drop (missed that one but saw a lot of people covered in feathers), music, and dancing.

That was just one month ago, so I suppose I'll backtrack a bit. In August, Anne and I went to Germany, Denmark, and Sweden on vacation. It was a great trip, Copenhagen was my favorite, but we were a little underfunded. I brought 600 euros for two weeks, knowing that I had traveled around Europe on about $300 a week pretty comfortably in the past. However, 600 euros was NOT enough. Scandinavia has some of the lowest wealth inequality and, logically, highest minimum wages in the world. As a result, everything is expensive. Pretty much, just take the price of anything you can think of in America and triple it. That being said, other highlights of the trip were Gotland -it's like the Sunriver of Sweden, and it had a medieval festival going on while we were there, Dusseldorf - Germany just rocks in every way, and Gothenburg - Swedish college town.

In September, October, and November I just continued work at the temp agency, so not much to report there. I made some new friends in Aix-en-Provence (college town north of Marseille) because I took another semester of French in order to maintain my student visa. In October, I built a computer - gotta keep up to speed on all the latest computer games while I'm out here. And then in December, Anne and I went back to America for Christmas. For four weeks to be exact. Yup, four weeks. Vacation, French style.

Oh yeah, one thing about French working tendencies, French law says employees have the right to a 35-hour work week and five weeks of vacation per year. If you're an American worker and reading this you're probably thinking two things: "WTF!" and "Damn those lazy Frenchies". Well, as you can imagine, these laws are about on the money for what actually happens in the public sector, which is about the most bloated public sector in the world. However, if you think about it, if everyone worked so little, it's not likely that France could compete with the northern European economies and the US. Well, from what I've heard, French people in the private sector typically work from around 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. with a one-hour lunch. Which, puts them at about a 45-hour work week. This seems pretty likely to me considering the strength of the French economy. Speaking of which, many economists believe will be the next economy to enter the PIIGS category. But, let's face it, if economists were good at predicting the future we wouldn't have hardly any economic crisis, would we?

Alright well that about wraps it up. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask. Also, I can give some advice to anyone reading this who is thinking of moving to France.

One last thing, recently I've changed my source of income from the temp agency to being a private English teacher (fist pump). Yes, the temp agency was not that fun, but it was very practical for me, and I recommend it to anyone who want's to live in France but doesn't speak much French. You will learn French, well at least colloquially, very quickly while working for a temp agency. Also, I'm saving up to do a one-year master's program next year in International Relations. My classes will be conducted mostly in French, but some in English. I'm very excited.

P.S. http://imgur.com/a/Byda5 <------ Photo Album!

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