I Am Your Mailbox's Worst Nightmare

I am working! YAY.

I haven't been working since i got back to France. Which means i've been one of the many unemployed people who is living on the state's welfare. Don't take me wrong, I don't enjoy it. Yes I receive money to do nothing at all all day but it's far from what i'm expecting from life.

Being unemployed is depressing. You turn around in your living room (in my situation, in the 20m2 studio we live in), you read (a lot), watch stuff on the computer (even more than reading), you play Candy Crush or Angry Birds and there goes your entire day. Next morning, you press repeat. Trust me, you'd kill yourself for less than that.

So one night, I was browsing the internet for ideas and job opportunities. I saw that they were looking for people to distribute commercial flyers into people's mailboxes. In a few words, they were looking for people to contaminate people's mailboxes. And they were going to pay me for that. Badly but still. It's 10hrs worth of work that would get me just a notch more than what I get from the government.

So I sent back my application, got the interview on Monday and started the job on Tuesday. I had 709 sets of 15 flyers to put together and then distribute before Wednesday evening.

I know it sounds easy. Trust me. It ain't. It's hard. Not Einstein hard. It's physically demanding. At least, a lot more than I expected. Standing in front of a table an entire day to gather all this paperwork together in one set. It's repetitive. It's a bit like a cashier at a supermarket. You're doing the same gesture over and over and over again. I was stiffed the following day you have no idea.

I had 468 kilos of flyers to move. And god knows you're moving them A LOT.

From the pallet to the table (1), from the table to the kart (2), from the kart to the car (3) from the car to the kart (4) from the kart to the mailbox (5), FIVE time (and that's without counting when you're dragging the kart from mailbox to mailbox adding so many kilometres walking) Which makes a grand total of 2 tons and 340 kilos. And I “only” had 709 mailboxes. Some areas have 1500!!

Talking about working out.

So next time you get these damn commercial flyers in your mailbox, think about that poor boy or girl who had to drag his/her fully loaded kart all the way to your mailbox. And if you really don't want any, put the “stop pub” sticker on your mailbox instead of spitting at our face. It's not an easy job. But for some dark reason, i kinda enjoy it ...

French Are Good

Unfortunately, it's not always a good thing. To be good i mean.

So i've been back for almost 4 months now and i've hence had my share of French people. Some cool ones, some unbearable ones, some quiet ones and some extrovert ones but all it all, a good slice of the French population. And even though it was quite something to readapt to all the rules and laws that you live under as well as speaking French all the damn time, the transition went quite smoothly.

However, there is something i kinda knew already but honestly didn't think it was THAT bad ... OMFG how much French people complain. They complain all the freaking time about absolutely EVERYTHING. It's either the weather, the prices, the economy, the quality of the food, the waiting time, the traffic, other people, EVERY-SINGLE-THING on the face of the Earth.

How can you live this way? How can you find the will the get up in the morning? Is their coffee not warm enough as well? The bread not crusty enough? The jam too sweet? The more you complain, the more you find stuff to complain about.

I don't have a job, i live in a 20 square meter studio with my man and 3 cats and without enough money to move to a bigger place, i freeze my ass off in my own country, i don't have my own friends and not much of a social life and yet, i find a reason to smile and be happy every single day of the week.

Maybe it's because i have a great man. Maybe it's because my cats are awesome. Maybe it's because there IS a reason to smile and be happy every single day. But when you focus on the good, when you see that every single little detail around you can be a reason to smile or be pleased, then and then only, will you be as happy as i am.

Some think i'm an utopist, others think i'm over-optimistic. I'm not. I'm just gifted at seeing the good in every situation. Even the darkest ones. So to all my fellow-countrymen, stop complaining all the time. As long as you have a roof over your head, something to eat in your plate, a good health and as a little plus, some friends or family to hang out with, what difference does it make if you wait 3 minutes or 8 minutes in line at the bakery and get a baguette instead of a loaf of bread.

Life is good :)