Saturday, June 04, 2005

Not a lot really

It's actually been a slow few days, and I must shamefully admit I have not been profiting at all from the sunshine nor life in Paris. The thing about living so close to such a famous city is that there's something of a self-imposed 'pressure' to be constantly taking advantage of that fact. Especially when one decides to blog their adventures online...call it performance anxiety.
Even though I have been a hermit, there have been some developments in the works. To answer the Toulouse question (in case you're wondering), Monsieurs job interview didn't bear fruit - pity.
While I don't want to go too much into detail regarding his work and personal life, I will say that here in Paris he works for an IT outsourcing business (ie they post IT professionals to work on temporary projects with other companies). Lately (for the last year), he's been getting the run around - from having no work for quite a long while last year (though he still got his salary) to being posted to a real bitch of a project since January - long hours, stressful workload, no payrise, and not exactly his field of specialty either. The job was starting to have consequences with our relationship also, as the stress of the job had caused changes in his personality - changes that I was having trouble absorbing as I have my own particular issues and worries - those that come with a change of country, lifestyle and language (and limited financial freedom).
Last week he found out he was being taken off the project and replaced with someone else (as was his senior associate, who actually suffered a nervous depression during his 6 months on the job) - which has actually been a great relief for both of us. We're taking the opportunity to make a break with our life here and move to a more regional area - probably Toulouse after all, as we both liked it a lot. Monsieur might go back to studying, and as for me - I'll figure something out.

In the meantime I'm working on my 20th reiteration of my motivation letter...migrainus merdum.

Went to see Star Wars last weekend, here's what I learned;
* Wookies are from Vietnam
* The effects of the incredible instant vacuum caused by a window breaking in a spacecraft can be negated by hanging on real tight
* Darth Vader is actually a cultural metaphor for George Bush ('if you're not with me, you're against me')
* It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

7 comments:

L'Oiseau said...

It feels good to make these kind of life decisions doesn't it?
Congrats!

N. said...

yeah :) but I think maybe for him more than for me - I 've had nothing but movement and uncertainty for the last year, it's kind of become the status quo! But my time thus far in Paris has at least taught me that I don't deal with big city life very well after all.

Anonymous said...

You'd be moving to good rugby country.

How can any Star Wars be bad? Some are just better than others.

Anonymous said...

But where do they play Aussie Rules? I think France did well last year in the international comp in Melbourne.

N. said...

Well that's true Greg, they have a big rugby scene down there (and I have no idea where they might play Aussie rules Anne..).

Well, I have to say here that I didn't like Star Wars 1 or 2 very much at all. I found Star Wars 1 to childish, and number 2 too adolescent, so I'd hoped that number 3 might be a bit more grown up! They developed the political aspect more in the third, which was good.

wandering lizard said...

I agree with you that movement becomes much less exciting once it becomes the status quo. I keep hearing about how much people envy my current bout of travels. I agree that such things can be great, but like all things, too much of a good thing is not necessarily good. In any case, good luck with the shift.

Great analysis of the latest Star Wars. I agree wholeheartedly. And I think the Emperor has been taking power-seizing lessons from Emperor Bush.

N. said...

I'm so over packing stuff into boxes though!