Swallow your pride

Hanging out in my first Parisian apartment 

Sitting on the metro on the way home today I got thinking about my life here in Paris. It has been almost 7 months since I moved here and I can't believe how fast time has gone. Reflecting over the last few months I also can't believe how much my life has changed in the last 12 months. This time last year, I was well into the swing of Christmas season in Australia. I knew at this stage I was planning to move to Paris, but it was still months into the future and I was enjoying the Silly Season in Melbourne. I was working like a crazy woman, but for weeks on end it seemed like there was a different event/party to attend every weekend. The sun was beginning to shine and with every new event I would reward myself with a fabulous new dress. For a while there it felt like life was just one big party.

Silly Season antics of 2011

Fast forward 12 months later and I am living in Paris and can't even remember the last time I wore a dress let alone bought one. The daily temperatures are hovering around 2-4 degrees and we are expecting the first snow of the season overnight. I have no Christmas parties planned and work is really slow for me over the next couple of weeks. I am finding I am trying to fill my time with cheap or free activities around Paris as to not resort to just lazing about in my nice warm apartment. So having all this time on my hands especially this time of year has made me think about the sacrifices and changes I have had to make to follow my dream of living in Paris.

When I left Australia, I really had NO idea what I was going to do in Paris. I organised an apartment for the first 3 months before I left and had saved enough money to live here without working for that time. I took a year of leave without pay from work and bought a return airfare, so figured if I couldn't find anything, I would enjoy a 3 month holiday in Paris and return back to my job in Melbourne. A win/win situation really. So with nothing to lose and no solid plans, I packed up life in Melbourne and moved to Paris.

For some reason, I had it in my head that I would be able to find a job in the medical industry easily here. As I have mentioned before, when I arrived, there were lots of colleagues here from home, so I figured I could network through them and find a job. Excellent plan. Reality however had a different plan in store for me. On those first few days when I had my networking hat on and was meeting loads of new people, I was getting a lot of the same response.

Random Guy at dinner: 'So you have moved to Paris?'

Me: 'Yep, I have always wanted to live here so thought, why not?!' 

RGAD: 'Thats great. Do you speak French?!'

Me: 'Not really.'

RGAD: 'Do you know anyone here?!'

Me: 'Nope.'

RGAD: 'Really?! Wow.... You are very brave.'

I probably had this conversation about 20 times in the first 3 days alone and quickly learned finding a job in my profession may not be as easy as I had once thought. None the less I pushed on and one of the reps from back home even invited one of his French colleagues to dinner to introduce to me and maybe give me a lead on future employment. We engaged in some light chit chat at dinner and he gave me his business card and said he would ask around for me. I left the dinner with a glimmer of hope that maybe this guy would be my lucky charm. I emailed him a couple days later with my CV and references and he replied saying he would ask around and get back to me. Days turned into weeks and after sending a second email without a response, the light flickering at the end of the 'medical job tunnel' finally burnt out I was back at square one considering my options.

When I was back in Australia I did a lot of googling of 'English speaking jobs in Paris' and had come across an American Tour Company that had been looking for Tour Guides for their 2012 season. I had sent them an application, to which they invited me to a phone interview, only to tell me it probably wouldn't work out. They needed me there in March and I wasn't arriving to May, but they told me to keep in touch over time 'just in case.' Realising there may still be hope in this, I contacted them again when I returned to Paris after my stint in Bordeaux. They got back to me almost straight away saying they had some jobs available in their office so to come in for an interview. Suddenly, just like Stella, I got my groove back and things in Paris were on the up.

I made my way to their office a few days later for my interview. I remember stressing something fierce on the day as I felt I didn't have anything appropriate to wear. All my clothes were either too dressy or too casual, so I settled for a white blouse and black jeans hoping they wouldn't notice. When I arrived to the office, all my worries quickly subsided as all the staff looked casual in their jeans and t-shirts. The interview felt more like a chat and they told me that there was a possibility of working as a Guide as one of their current Guides was leaving. I jumped at the opportunity and next think you know I had myself a new job, just like that.  So, it wasn't in the healthcare/medical/corporate field that I had been working in for the last 7 years, but it was a job and suddenly 3 months in Paris looked like it would just be the beginning. 

It did take me a while to get my head around my new chosen career path. The career I spent 3 years studying for and the last 7 years developing and growing, was suddenly thrown out the window and I felt like I had resorted back to my uni days as a lot of my new work mates were in their early 20s. After my initial jubilation of finding a job, I was plagued with doubt. Suddenly I felt like a loser, feeling like I was this 'old woman at 29' working with 'kids' just out of college. I felt out of place and almost ashamed of myself that I wasn't being faithful to my career. Really, it wasn't me being unfaithful to my career at all, I was being unfaithful to my pride. It was my pride that was making my feel like this, not the awesome new job or my fabulous new younger colleagues. My pride and the voice in my head were trying to convince me I was a loser when in fact I was anything but. I was doing something extraordinary. I was living in Paris as I always dreamed and if meant taking time out from my career then so be it.

You make many sacrifices when you move to another country. Especially one which speaks a foreign language. You learn to accept things differently and things that you take for granted every day in your life back home, suddenly become a blessing. I always felt like I had no money living in Melbourne, but that was not the case at all. I had a successful job and I never went without. I was constantly eating out, buying new clothes, going out with friends. I had a new car and lived in a gorgeous inner city one bedroom flat with a view of the city skyline. Here in Paris, I live on the edge of the city, almost never go shopping (only to buy the winter staples I didn't have in order to prevent myself from freezing to death) and VERY rarely go out for dinner. I am constantly having to watch my pennies, but it hardly crosses my mind as it has just become part of my daily life here. 

I recently caught up with a friend visiting from my London days and he was flabbergasted at my new life. He knew me when I was working in the corporate world and I think he almost felt sorry for me, but he really need not be! This has been one of the most humbling experiences of my life and I believe I can only come out the other side as a stronger and better person. I am living a wonderful & simple life and wish the Emma of Silly Season 2011 would have taken a leaf out of my current book. I am living an adventure that I can be proud of for the rest of my life. I came here to live in Paris and learn French and I am doing it by whatever means I can. When the day comes that I have to leave, my pride need not be dented but remain proud.

Tandem biking with a friend  at the Pantheon - I get to do and see things like this every day.

So its with this attitude I enter the next phase of my time here as a Nanny. Yes I am sure there will be days when I will have my doubts but I look forward to the challenge and the next few months of living in this wonderful, cultural & historical wonderland they call Paris!