Generally, life here in Lyon has been getting much better as of late. In March, I found a job babysitting a kid named Max, which was really fun. He taught me lots of french and we got along well. But he was having trouble learning how to read french and obviously I wasn't the best of teachers being that I don't speak the language fluently, so his mom fired me. Here's a picture of my temporary charge:
It turned out alright though because I immediately found another job, one that is more in tune with my career aspirations. The company I used to work for in Chicago has an office in Geneva and they were delighted to take me on for the summer. I'm still waiting for my work visa to be approved but hopefully I'll start there this week or next. I'm really happy, looking forward to doing my old job and continuing to gain experience within the same company.
geneva
I'm looking forward to exploring Geneva. It's a two hour train ride from Lyon and much more international. I visited a couple of months ago with a friend; we concurred that Geneva is what the first moon colony will look like: an expensive, urban, global village. I've never seen a comparable city- the abundance of Porsche's and Bentlee's made Mercedes your default everyman car, you could get seven dollar hot dogs and six dollar sushi, every culture of the world represented, and the speed at which neighborhoods changed in that little, little city... it was shocking. I'm going back. Geneva is a curious place. Plus being an international hub of diplomacy they have a lot of great art and music coming through, and you know I'm looking forward to that!
After Geneva I went to Berlin. Berlin, I love Berlin. I knew I would from everything I'd heard, so I delayed visiting, waiting for that perfect space in time to become acquainted. I visited the same friend with whom I'd toured Geneva; he was living in Berlin for a month working on music. I met a bunch of musicians, even had a chance to perform. There are tons of artists living in Berlin and for some obvious reasons. The rent is generally cheap- less than Lyon and definitely way below London or Paris. The public transportation is great and runs all night, and bars can remain open for 24, 48, sometimes 72 hours!! Food is not expensive by European standards, only a little bit more than the states. But no tipping and no sales tax on groceries. There are lots of farmers markets, they even had street markets targeting the younger demographic which start around 1pm and go until the evening. Oh and of course universal health care, important for freelancers. Overall, it's perfect for artists and creative entrepreneurs. Especially performance artists- the infrastructure makes it easier for audiences to go out at night and stay late. What's more there seemed to be a really warm reception for artists- restaurants and bars host musicians working for tips as an added draw for customers. Did I mention I was impressed? I really want to go back... so I'm going to try and learn German now.
the gate of ishtar in Berlin- origial gate to Babylon (you know the linguist loves it)
I'll have the opportunity to learn German while I'm studying at the University of Lyon! I got accepted- which means I can stay in France for the next 3 to 4 years! I'm very very happy. I'm enrolled as a linguistics major but I want to change after the first year and do English-French-Chinese Translation. Yep, I'm going to try and learn Chinese. Let me explain, it's not a completely random idea I had. I've been curious for a while to learn a language which isn't based on the roman alphabet. I tried my hand at Arabic back in Chicago and discovered that learning a new alphabet is crazy hard, something I probably wouldn't do unless I was getting paid. Being in an academic environment is going to help me to learn a new alphabet. Plus there are lots of opportunities for English teachers in China- and I like teaching English. So if I'm not speaking fluent mandarin in the space of three years, I can still live in China and make a good living, all the while continuing to improve my Chinese. Finally I was thinking maybe as a musician, a classically trained musician who's getting more into improvisation, I would be able to find work in China or Japan (which is like right next door! look there's just a little bit of water on that map!) either as a teacher or performer. That last part all depends on how much I play music over the next four years, so I've been practicing and hope to continue.
I think that's all the big stuff! I've been having a great time. THANK YOU ALL FOR BUGGING ME TO BLOG!! (it takes a village... *sniff* to make me blog...) Oh and I moved into a new apartment- no longer am I living across from a construction site and wedged between two cemeteries. It's like a real apartment guys! Living room, gas stove, BATH TUB!!! It's awesome. I took a bath. And I have two new roommates, they're excellent. Ok that's it for now! Promise it won't be another four months until the next CHILLING INSTALMENT ;} Bye
