City of Light and the Land of the Midnight Sun

I've been feeling conflicted lately. I suddenly have the possibility of a good, stable possibly well-paying job-- which continues to be the elusive holy grail that foreigners can never find abroad. Unless they are very lucky or know with/date/sleep with the right people.

Since I don't have a stable job with paid vacation and a fixed monthly salary (I'm paid depending on how many hours I work, which just depends on the demand for English classes that month), they've become the most important things that I'm looking for in a job. Especially in a place where the job market is really tough post financial crisis. In France, you have to have VERY specific training for each job; foreigners usually don't have the equivalent of the exact degree necessary, not that the equivalent would even necessarily be recognised abroad. Foreign degrees and professional experience don't seem to count for much. And your great qualifications (like a BA and a BS from prestigious American colleges that are really impressive in your home country) don't mean anything.

However, this job? Yes, it would provide stability, but temporarily (a 1 year contract and the possibility to renew it once). It would probably pay well. It would have a fixed monthly salary (which I don't have now...), housing would be included and there would be loads of paid vacation (which I also don't have now). But the ironic thing is that I don't really want it. Because although it's in a French school, the job isn't in France. It's in Scandinavia. And thinking about this possibility, a temporary year in a country that I have NO connection to, where I don't know the local language and where the culture holds no particular fascination for me, made me realise that there are things I like a lot about where I live now, like:

-picnics in the spring
-stand up comedy (I LOVE this)
-free outdoor movies
-my friends
-speaking French
-free jazz festivals
-running in Parc Monceau, and doing organised races, something I just started in May.
-although I don't always realise it, I do feel a connection to France. When compared to leaving for another completely unknown country, at least.
-my balcony with its lovely view
-my neighborhood

I mean, I could also do a whole list of things I don't like, too. Like the metro, being in a crowd, the HIGH cost of living and the LOW salaries. But these suddenly pale in comparison when faced with the unknown-- especially when I'm not necessarily dying to know about it...

I also realised that there are some things I'd like to do here next year, like:

-keep learning Spanish-- continue my language exchange and take an evening class at the Mairie.
-perfect my French some more. (In the absence of a French-speaking boyfriend at the moment, I think I'll have to take an advanced language class).
-run the Paris half marathon and train with a local marathon group

It also makes me think that if I left France to teach abroad temporarily, I'd like it to be next door in Spain for a year. That would be fun, close to France for easy visiting and it's still mediteranean culture which I'm kind of used to by now. If I left more permanently, I'd like it to be someplace more familiar, like Montreal (still North American, but with a francophone influence). Some possible ideas to try to line up for next year...

Overall, this possible working abroad opportunity has been a very healthy and much-needed reminder of reasons NOT to leave Paris in impoverished disgust, disappointment and not necessarily financial ruin but definite inability to save any money and get ahead. It makes you re-evaluate your current city and realise what the positives are instead of just focusing on the negatives, as we so often do. Especially in France.

A study in the Economist recently named the French as among the most pessimistic people in the world. A stand up comedian I saw recently said it best, the French are never impressed by what's good and don't enthuse about it. "Pas mal" (not bad) is a huge compliment. But they have the rare ability to get extremely animated and excited about negative things, like how bad traffic is, what a jerk their boss is or how rude other parisians are. Parisians are fun to hate sometimes-- and of course, after saying something like that, I have to mitigate it by adding that I have lovely French friends and people are individuals and not cultural stereotypes. At the risk of being reductive again, the French are also often the first to admit stereotypical French shortcomings (since French culture is very critical). Scandinavians might be less fun. Or less endearingly irritating.