Long time no write!

Long time no write! What a shame!

A lot (and so few at the same time) has happenned since July!

Work and love disapppointments (again and still), vacation in the South of France with my moto (that was a very nice thing!) and a new (crappy) job since mi-October.

I am currently working as a hostess in the head office of a bank in the business center of Paris La Défense. The conditions, the salary (and the bosses) are very pitiful but hey, one has got to pay the bills, the rent and survive. Apart from the (many) negative aspects, the good thing is that I work not very far from home, I have my weekends free as well as Monday afternoon from 1PM (French law about work contracts based on 35 hours per week), so I try to take advantage about this. But there will be a lot to talk about from work as weird/bad/silly/stupid things happen each day here because of the staff, the visitors or our bosses.

Today, Christmas trees have been placed in the welcome halls of the compagny buildings of the site. Green decoration, pretty but not gorgeous, green on green?...

This year has gone through so fast again! Xmas is only a month away!

A part of my job is to create badges for the visitors of the next day for the Executive Directors meetings and the Breakfast/Lunch/Cocktails salons invitees.

We, sometimes, also have to create badges for big meetings, colloquiums, , for 30, 50 or even 200 people. When we receive the list early that is fine but sometimes it is very short noticed and as i work alone the afternoon, it can really be a mess for me. I am supposed to received a liste of 30 invitess for tomorrow, I really hope I will not receive it late or that this meeting is not tomorrow!

2009, année du neuf!

Hey blog people!

Long time no see!
Last summer, I needed to take a break from the blogsophere cause many (not nice) things happenned in my life and it was too much to handle my blog and my inspiration most of all...

More than once, I wanted to write again but the inspiration (and motivation?) was still not there, I also thought that my fellow friend bloggers would have forgotten me. I hope not cause I'm definitely back on the Web!

It's getting late and I'm getting up "early" (for a Saturday off work) so I won't stay long tonight.

Here are some news about the past 6 months:

JULY
- D. changd his mind about me moving in with him
- Thus, I had to find a place to live in 3 weeks! (because my parents' appartment had been sold already)
- D. suddenly broke up with me
- I worked as a temp secretary for 2 weeks while I was looking for an appartment and didn't like the job at all
-I visited 7 appartments in 2 weeks and finally found one nice (what a record!), not near where I lived for 26 years because I was still dating D. when I signed the papers, so now I live in the city next to where lives D. (how nice...)

AUGUST
- Moved my stuff into the new place with my dad and my former neighbors and lived at my mom and her partener's place for a month for practical reasons
- Got a permanent job in a fashion firm as an assistant buyer
- Worked at the new job for a week before my vacation
- "Had" to go in vacation to the south of France by myself because I still had the train tickets I had bought for me and D. for our vacation (actually lost money because I obviously didn't use all the train booked tickets), but finally had a great week an a half in Marseille and Nice, meeting some friends and family!
- I turned 26 and it was okay
- I indirectly learnt that D. found a new girlfriend and it is still not okay

SEPTEMBER
- Moved in my new appartment with Sisi
- Started the permanent contract job
- Got fired after the two "test" weeks of the contract for no decent reason with a rent to pay

OCTOBER
- Italian friends of mine spent a week at my place, it was very nice but it's really small to live as 3 people here
- Went to a work exhibition in Paris and I decided about my (hopefully) new work life

NOVEMBER
- Went to an information meeting about that (hopefully) future new job and it is definitely what I want to do!

DECEMBER
- My 21 years old niece and her boyfriend from Nice spent a long weekend at my place and it is definitely too small to live as 3 people here! lol
- I had my hair cut... a lot! Like I never did since I was a kid, was scared to do it in one time but I just love it now and so do my friends and relatives! New hair cut for new year!
- After 3 months back on job seeking without any response, randomly encountered a wanted ad for a job on Dec. 31, asked about it and did good because now I have a partial contract job as a salesperson in a Kookaï shop, in my new town, 5 min from home by food, the environment, the job and the co-workers are nice and I have time to prepare my (hopefully) new job test selections.

JANUARY
-Spent a long weekend in the south-west of France at my grand-parents' I had not seen for 2 years (medical problems from my grandpa), didn't do much, was kind of bored but watched plenty of movies in the train and at their house and spent a nice time with them! Family counts!
- Began new job a week ago, not much money but have time for HNJ (hopefully new job) preparation and the job is nice.
- Has been living in new suburb "far" from home, new city, new appartment and I like it here!
- Is back on the blogosphere and it feels nice.

Don't need a shrink, I write a blog!

- Over -

July has almost passed and things have changed.

Have not been on the blogosphere at all since my last post, lots of worries and things to take care.

Not feeling like writing right now.

Will be back soon with news and explain what happenned for the past weeks.

Still need time away for now, but will try to read you to cheer me up a little.


See you soon.

Here goes Meme!

Few days ago, I have been tagged by Marianne, for a Meme...

As a good girl too, I now take the time to respond to it.


The Rules: Rules are posted at the beginning. At the end of the post, the player tags someone(or someones) and posts their name(s). Then the player goes to each of the “named” people’s blogs and leaves a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged. If you’ve been tagged, you do the same, letting the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer. Your answer is the answer to the following questions.

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?

I was 15 going on 16, first year of High School (within 3) and it was the last academic year of fun because we did not have final exams! The before-the last year you have to take the French exam of the Baccalauréat and the year after, all the other courses.

I remember that, that year, there had been many strikes (teachers and students) and I took advantage of lots of them! In Seconde, you finish school in early June so you have three months off instead of two!

1998, was of course, the soccer World Cup in France! I watched a lot of games, especially at the end. I had never been interested in soccer before... I think many women and many French people had not been before that! And 1998 is the year, France got crowned World Champion! What a victory. Last week, France did not even pass the quarter-final... what a shame! The glorious French soccer team no longer exists.

It was time of innocence... wished I could be older and wiser but never thought work life (and life sometimes) would be so hard as an adult.


2. What are 5 things on my to-do list today?

- Go to my appointment to the hair dresser in Paris at 10am (check!)

- Do some quick food shopping back home (hum... I took a lighter wallet and forgot the paying card of the supermarket, will go tomorrow...)

- Write the Meme on my blog (check!)

- Do my week schedule/agenda/planning (being done...)

- Send some CVs/résumés and take addresses of firms to go and give my CV in person/to the receptionist/put in mailbox this week (to do...)

3. Snacks I enjoy:

- cereals with fresh skimmed milk (I would eat that all day long, every day...)

- salty snack (crackers, chips/crisps, etc.) but do not buy them so that I will not eat them in 5 minutes

- fruit and/or yogurt and/or tea

- candies (same as salty snacks)

4. Places I’ve lived:

Paris (well, East suburb) for 26 years

Bowling Green, Kentucky, USA for 5 months

Nice/St Laurent du Var (French Riviera): I have spent so many times there, at my sister's since I was born, I even stayed there for 2 months in 2002 for vacation and then a summer job, it is as if I had lived there

Paris (West suburb) in just a month with new love...

5. Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

I often thought about what I would do if I won the Lottery...

The first thing would be... a motorbike! I so want to have my own, it has been 4 months since I passed the moto license and still no money to buy one.

A second moto for me and D.

A car.

Offer a great birthday to D.

Offer me a girl-in-need butt surgery...

Hire a sport coach.

Do all the extreme sports I dream to do but cost some money

A flat in Paris. A flat on the Atlantic coast. A flat on the French Riviera. A mas to my mom (Provence little house/farm with animals). A house in England and a flat in London. A flat in Rome and a house in Tuscany near the sea. A flat in NYC and one in California.

Travel..... a lot.... very much... so much....

Help my family and give presents to the friends who deserve them

Give to charities

Build my own business or, like Marianne, buy my way into a great job! lol

Invest

... and not change anything else to my life, unless not caring about the price of food or clothes (but would still go to the same H&M stores and others...)


Now I pass the baton to Annie, Penelope and Onadrought.

"Back soon" & new pictures

To my fellow bloggers and readers, I am facing Internet problems AGAIN, so I have not been able to write on my blog lately or read yours, hope it will be okay soon!

To wait until then, go and check new pics from the Porte d'Auteuil greenhouses on Shoot a Life!

Shoot a Life!

I take advantage of my blog's first monthaversary to start a new one.

Don't worry, there will be very little to read, it will be mostly for the "pleasure of the eyes"

As a lot of people, I life to take pictures.

I like to go to Paris, hang around and shoot. Or every time I go out, you never know...

For me, vacation without bringing back home pictures and visual memories would not be right.

Few years ago, when numerical cameras did not exist, we would have the pleasure and the surprise to discover our photos, masterpieces or completely spoilted. Would they be well centered, would the light be adequate, would they be blurred or turn into a soft focus.

Now that we have access to numerical cameras, image retouching software, extern hard drive to stock thousands of pictures, we can shoot as much as me want and chose the photos we want to keep and create online or virtual albums, we can share with our relatives and friends, all over the world. Do you remember when, before, you would make about 30 photos when the photo film was correctly put and now, it is more about 100 or sometimes even more!

I miss the surprise to discover our photos, the time we had to wait for them to be printed on paper.

But modern technologies have brought the power to make perfect pictures and make it easier for non professionals to obtain nice pictures.

As it is still a blog and I want to keep the mystery of not knowing the person behind it, so far there will not be any faces or, at best, blurred faces.

Hope you like it!


P.S. you can have access from my Blogger profile or "Blogs I like to visit" link

Happy Month(@)versary!

A month ago, I started this blog.

I had been thinking about it for some time but did not know what I would write about, I wondered how bloggers had so much inspiration.

I was wondering too much because the inspiration and subjects come very easily to my mind, whether they deal with the past, the present and everyday life or the future.

The inspiration, sometimes, also comes from other blogs I found.

I have enjoyed to write for the past month but I also like to read from bloggers. And I have my favorites!

I have been asked if "What were you doing last year?" post had been therapeutic and I think writing a blog is being therapeutic.

The power to exchange opinions, fragments of our life whether we are expat or not, married or single, man or woman, and whatever our nationality.

I find the blogosphere, everyday, more interesting!

Long life to all my fellow bloggers!

P.S. I found "monthversary" and "monthaversary" on Internet... What do you say? In French, we say "Joyeux moisversaire".

Are you Fromage?

When I type "frogmae" on French Google, it proposes me "fromage" instead! LOL

How funny for a French girl!

25 things to know about me

Scroll down and you will see, on the left part of the Home page, a new section.

I saw this on different blogs and thought it was a good idea to picture the person behind the blog .

Customization

Thanks to all the bloggers that without knowing, make this blog being a little more fun than it was the first day, giving tips on their own blogs (i.e. Wolverine for creating this emoticon application you can use in your Blogger/Blogsport blogs)

Some introduction

If you arrive on this blog, first of all, Welcome! You'll think, another blog, there are tons of blogs now on Internet, why should I read this one and come back to read more? Well, I've been a salesperson, I should have the right arguments... but no, I'll just say that I wanna talk about everyday life subjects, stories that can happen to all of us, ask questions you may also be asking yourself and try to answer them... If you like the way it's written, the tone, the environment, please, feel free to come past and most of all, post comments! :o) I don't even know if I'm good at blogging yet, we'll see this all together with time! =) A little about me, I'm a 25 years old Parisian girl. Well, I don't leave in Paris, but its suburb. I have always lived at the same place (although moved apartment 12 years ago). This summer, I'll have to move to my own apartment because my parents are selling this one. The hard part, apart from moving from a place I've been living in for 25 years, is that I'm currently unemployed. I've been looking for a job since I graduated in Sept 2006. I've worked since but nothing relevant. This will be the subject of another post. I've been living with my mom since Fall 2002, she's been actually part-time here and part-time at her partner's. I've had a little black she rabbit since 2005. As far as I know, my origins are mostly French and 1/4 Polish but I don't know anything from my foreign ones, my mother's father came to France during WW2, in the early 1940's but never talked about his past, so my family has very little information, but I'd really like to find more and go to Poland one day. I physically consider myself in the average (height and weight), have long hair, brown eyes, wear lenses everyday, like to dress casual but dress up a little more for special occasions (like wearing hills). I love to travel, read (books, magazines, papers), surf on Internet and learn about anything, am an series addict, only go and watch original version movies (most of them being Anglo-Saxon), listening to music (can't live with music!). I've been cooking and enjoying it for the past 2-3 years (especially deserts, seems like I'm good at it!). I like long walk, having a drink and chitchatting with friends. I also discovered a recent sport-almost-addiction! =) I've never been an athletic person - especially since a minor but inconvenient heart/breathing problem sat in 10 years ago (bad consequences of a vaccine that occurred to lots of young people) - but I registered to a big fitness club of my town last January and since them, I discovered fun courses like Pilates or BodyPump and now, I need to have my dose... like an addict! lol Two to three times a week! I could end up saying that I'm used to going to bed late (even during the week unfortunately for my sleep) as you can see. And this night, we're losing an hour of sleep, looks like it's gonna be a little harder to get up tomorrow morning... Tomorrow, I'm going to the birthday of three little girls of my family (between age 4 to 8), I'm sure I'll have something to talk about...

I did it!

Here it is and here I am. Finally blogging. Finally did it. The most difficult part was to find blog address and title for my blog, you have no idea how people can be imaginative, I wanted to be creative but I had a hard time cause all my ideas were already kind of already taken...

Anyway, hope I chose right and that my final ideas weren't too boring after all.

Dunno if a lot of poeple will ever manage to arrive on this blog one day, but I'd like it to be. I finally decided to create a Weblog of my own to be able to share some beliefs, some fears and wondering of my life (maybe your life too?) with people from everywhere. Right now, I don't really where I'm heading to, in many domains, I lost track of my life and so, maybe I'll be able to find it back with some advice or support I can't find so far.

Eventhough, I'm French, I chose to write in English, to be able to share this blog with the most people possible, because I've liked the English language since I learnt it at school, I only (at least try to) watch original version movies (even apart from English), I love to talk in English, sometimes it even comes easier than my mother langue. Maybe, this will also enables me to improve my English - so please, excuse the possible future mistakes! =)

P.S. First difficulty I encounter tonight, the spelling checking stuff is underline in red almost every word lol yes, can't I have the freedom of writing in the language I want... I will try to find out how to solve this problem later).

Next step, a little of introducing to try to put a (virtual) face to this blog!