Disastrous
1 followers
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Credentials & Highlights
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Joined Oct 08, 2021
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Living in Karachi, Pakistan
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Last active Aug 09, 2022
It was in England, "a Frenchman in London":)I was just 19 years old and I had come to work in catering thanks to an association at the time: "European Students". I was a dishwasher in a large restaurant, full of good intentions and determined to improve my English...No way to use my electric razor… The London Underground paralyzes me…, Driving on the left has almost cost me my life more than once… Just by crossing a street, I barely earn enough to pay for my cigarettes and pay for a tiny "homestay" room: a fairly low-end small English family. I feel very small and vulnerable, so far from my countryside!Diving is very hard! You have to go very fast and keep up the pace! The copper pans arrive really hot in the sink and in the confusion, I often grab them with both hands: I have cruel burns on my fingers, hands, and forearms, some crusts threaten to infect, I don't know anything about my health cover: it's not social security. here… In short, I am panicked and not at all on my plate to see depression on the edges.I had a fixed idea "you are one of the representatives of your old country: Show yourself up to it! Also, I behaved as best as I could: courteous, kind, self-effacing, helpful, and very grateful to be welcomed by our cousins across the Channel.Until the day when this "charming" middle-aged English Woman who put me up in her house for rent of more than half my pay came out with something seemingly innocuous but which was sent to the direct mat. One tirade from him was enough for me and the next day I looked for another accommodation. It was in English and I don't have a very precise memory of it, but it was like "pfff, French wine is nothing! I don't care and you don't deserve it". I don't remember exactly, but it was said with a kind of smirk based on jealousy, envy, contempt, and racism. I was only 19, she was around 45, I owed her respect and didn't speak the language.Racism, sometimes even without serious consequences, can really get to the guts... My purpose is not to put on trial those whom some people maliciously call "rosbeefs" but simply an attempt to put myself in the shoes of those who come from so far away and arrive here with us sometimes with death on their heels:-(How complicated!
A few years ago I was on a TGV between Lille and CDG airport. I had taken a first-class hoping to travel peacefully. It's only a few minutes before the departure of the TGV that I see two couples arrive and four children aged between 6 and 10 who settle in the seats closest to me. All these little people were obviously going on vacation and were going to get off at CDG. And what I feared happened. Excited children were running around shouting, I could say goodbye to my quiet hour. I put my book away with an exasperated sigh. During this time the adults had decided to celebrate their departure on vacation and had brought out the champagne and the cakes. One of them, seeing my annoyance, did two things that made me smile. He first tells the children to calm down, which they did with some sweets, then he excused himself and invited me to share the champagne and the cakes with them. It was certainly my most pleasant TGV journey. We then talked about travel and vacations. Like what, what starts badly can sometimes end very well.