Off to France

Bonjour! I am back! If you read my last post then you are aware that I had a little bump in the road on my journey to Europe. Finally, I am happy to announce that in a few weeks I am moving to France! Yes, it is official! Signed, sealed, delivered. 

You may be wondering why I am moving to France and not Switzerland like I originally planned. Unfortunately, it is nearly impossible for an American to get a working visa for Switzerland. Its sad and unfair, but that’s “just the way it is.” Unless you are lucky enough to work for a company that is willing to jump through hoops to sponsor you, or you marry a swiss citizen then you are SOL. Not only do I not work for a company that has a branch in Switzerland but I am not getting married just to be able to move. When all of this unfortunate information was confirmed to be quite true I decided to expand my search. My second choice was France and so that is where I put most of my focus for the past 6 months. Believe it or not, the French seem to be much more welcoming to Americans than the Swiss! Once I focused on France my search became much easier. Honestly, I think it is for the best. It will probably much easier to live in France for my first time abroad than it would be in Switzerland. Why? Well, for starters I don’t know the tiniest bit of German (or Swiss-German) but I have taken some courses in French and own numerous french books that I can use for practice. I have always been told that English is more to German than French, but frankly I don’t see how that can be true! 

For example: the French word for dress is “robe.” Simple. Makes sense, doesn’t it? The German word for dress is… wait for it… Kleidung. No, I did not know that off of the top of my head; I had to check my English-German dictionary. Just so you know that I am not finding the more extravagant examples, here is another: the French word for pardon is “pardonner.” Makes sense to me. The German word is “begnadigung.” Thats just weird. 

Anyway, France also seems to be much less expensive than Switzerland. I am sure someone could come along and disagree because of “this one time when I was in Paris” but as a rule things are much cheaper in France. 

And last but not least, the people really do seem to be much more welcoming in France than in Switzerland. I am not there yet, so I cannot truly confirm this to be true (YET) but from what I hear from my Swiss boyfriend and the articles I read, the Swiss seem to wearing their undies a little too tight. Don’t get me wrong, I cannot wait to visit Switzerland but it might not be the ideal place for me during my first experience in Europe. I also understand that there will be plenty of stuck-up people in France, but as a rule they seem a little more welcoming. After all, they don’t have a plethora of rules specifically shutting out Americans. Not only that, but I will be living in a small village in the Rhone Alpes, not Paris! Paris is probably another story (which I can hopefully report on later in this journey). I feel that I must also add (as to not offend anyone) that the Swiss are not necessarily hateful towards Americans but since they have had a lot of trouble with non-EU citizens, such as the Balkans, crossing their borders and causing trouble the rules to protect themselves tend to include Americans because, of course, we are not part of the EU. As a result, we are basically being punished because of the behavior of a few idiots that have nothing to do with us! Ce la vie. However, they still have some really dumb laws, such as the fact that you cannot be an au pair there if you are over the age of 25. How stupid is that?! I digress. 

So, where was I? Ah yes, I am off to France soon! I am so excited! In my first post I told you all about the Swiss family that would be hosting me, but since that is no more I would like to introduce you to my new host family: The Kowalski’s!! Of course, I have only spoken to them via Skype/email/text but they seem very sweet and just as excited to meet me as I am them! They have two beautiful children, Augustin and Victoria. Augustin is 2 and Victoria was born in May! They are just precious. Oh, and they have a little chihuahua named Elvis so I won’t be without some puppy kisses! Growing up on a farm with a veterinarian as a father means that animals tend to play a big part in your life. They live in a small village in the Rhone Alpes that is about 20 minutes from Geneva, Switzerland. From what I can see on Google images it looks like a very Beauty and the Beast-esque sort of place. I cannot wait to see it in person! I will mostly use public transportation but they will also have a car for me. I would be really excited about having a car to myself in Europe except that is a manual… and I don’t know how to drive a manual… yet. Not only that but I hear gas is very expensive there! Depending on where you live in the America gas is between $2-3/gal right now. In Europe it is approximately $5/L. There are (I think) 4L in a gallon. Maybe less. That is mind blowing! So even when I do learn how to drive a manual car I don’t see myself using it unless it is absolutely necessary! I don’t know about you guys, but I think needs to get on board with the public transportation system. Easier said than done, I know, but that is a conversation for another time…. and probably another blog. 

Perks of my job? Oh yes, I will still be an au pair as originally planned, if you haven’t already picked up on that. I will have my own room and bathroom in the family’s house with my own entrance, I believe. They pay for my living expenses and food and they also give me a salary for things I want to do on my own. My schedule is not 100% set yet but I I should have 2-3 days off a week. On Tuesday and Thursday mornings I will go to French school with other au pairs who are also learning French. Isn’t that awesome?! They want me to be like a big sister or “Mary Poppins” for their kids and I am more than ready! They have a beautiful patio overlooking the mountains where they enjoy meals and entertaining their friends. It sounds so divine and I cannot wait to be a part of it. 

I know that this post is starting to get a little long but it has been a few months since I updated everyone so I want to include everything that has happened. After my plans “went south” shortly after Christmas I was very upset and didn’t want to say much about it. I knew that I was not going to give up but I wanted to wait until I had good news to write anything else. During my searching/waiting time I took two jobs: tutoring 4 kids and working at Painting with a Twist. I really loved both of those jobs! It made my wait so, so much easier. I was surrounded by people that brought a smile to my face and the work was very fulfilling. Regardless, I still knew I wanted to get to Europe. I found the Kowalski’s in late February. We emailed and Skype interviewed for a few weeks before we finally made the agreement official. While that felt wonderful, we both still had some obstacles to overcome! Once we signed the contract they had to get me approved by the French Ministry of Labour. Once that was approved a huge weight was lifted but it wasn’t over. The next step was for me to pay a little visit to the General Consulate of France in Miami. This was the fun part [insert sarcasm here]. Miami is approximately 12 hours from Pensacola, whereas the consulate of France in ATL is only 6, but since I am legally a resident of Florida I was required to go to Miami. 

The trip to Miami: a huge stack of documents + a copy of each, 700 miles, $$$, lots of coffee, and major anxiety. If you have never been to Miami, don’t bother. Let me save you the trouble. It is basically New York City except extremely hot, covered in palm trees and graffiti and no one speaks English.  My appointment was at 10:45 on Friday, May 27th (because it was the only appointment available in May when I made the appointment at the end of April). So, I decided to drive through the night on Thursday night/Friday morning. I left Pensacola at 8pm on Thursday and drove down to Sarasota to pick up my best friend and then we arrived in Miami around 8:30am Friday. Sarasota was almost on the way so it didn’t really put me off track, and it allowed me to spend time with one of my favorite people in the whole world… and she drove the rest of the way! And thank the Lord for that, because once we arrived in Miami my anxiety went through the roof! I have never seen people drive so crazy and stupid! Seriously, the cars were centimeters from one another and just honking, honking, honking, honking. The driving in Miami makes ATL or Washington DC look like a small town. Both me and Marisol were flabbergasted. After almost an hour of circling a few blocks we found parking and it was only $4 for an hour. We used one of the restrooms in the skyscraper containing the Consulate to change clothes and freshen up. Deodorant, fresh undies and soap were very much needed.  Oh, and of course, we needed to change into clothes that didn’t make us look like homeless people. I was allowed into the consulate around 10:20 by a very intimidating black man. I prefer to say African-American but he was most definitely French so what do I call him? African-Frenchman? But maybe he is also an American citizen so do I call him African-French-American? I really don’t know, so if I sound racist its not on purpose. He was very nice but very intimidating. A no-nonsense kinda man. He saw Marisol and I before we had changed into our normal-human clothes and by the expression on his face I wouldn’t have been surprised if he called security on us. Haha! 

So far, everything was going okay. Nothing terrible had happened yet. But as I sat in the TINY waiting room for my interview my fear and anxiety got even worse. Before I made the trek to Miami I read some reviews on the consulate. I wanted to know what I should expect. Everything I read was terrible. People said that the employees could not speak English, that they were mean, and no matter what you did you would never have the correct documents. Now, I checked the website 50,000 times to make sure I had all of the paperwork but after what other people said I was still terrified. Marisol was not allowed in the consulate with me so I just sat there, alone,  pretending to be confident. As I sat there I could overhear a conversation from a military man and the French employee behind the glass. She was telling him that he did not have the proper paperwork. She sounded very polite about it, but in all honestly, HE was the one being a (excuse the expression) dick. HE was giving me anxiety, not her. He was complaining about having driven 2 hours to get there and I wanted to jump up and yell, “I DROVE 12 HOURS THROUGH THE NIGHT! I AM EXHAUSTED! I AM DIRTY! I AM POOR! I AM STRESSED! I DID MY RESEARCH ON WHAT I NEEDED, UNLIKE YOU! GET OUT!” He had to make another appointment to bring back the proper documents and next….. ALLISON HORTON. I stumbled to the counter. I was called up by the most handsome older French gentleman. He was like an older Jude Law with a French accent. I melted. Slightly. You know what? He couldn’t have been more friendly! Not only were all of my documents in order (thank you, inherited Horton anxiety) but he made conversation about my tattoos and fun things to do in France. I was done and out in 10 minutes, with a smile on my face. Of course, my visa was not completed, but so far everything was going perfectly. 

The rest of our short time in Miami was fun. We explored the casino next to our lovely hotel and kicked back and had girl time. 

Around June 7th-ish I received my stamped Visa allowing me to go to France. My flight is booked and everything is in order. Now, I just have to wait until take-off! Bon voyage!