The Franglaise at work, part one

When exam results are in June and the torture only starts in September again, one has to find a way to occupy one's summer. And what is better than spending your days in an office, unpaid, and ignored by most of the staff? You got it, the Franglaise is on work experience.

After unsuccessfully trying to get a job as a waitress and salesgirl, I decided that as everyone was asking for previous experience, I would give them experience. Because France is difficult in that respect, contrary to the UK you cannot get a summer job easily at all. Employers all want you to be qualified and experienced, and when you are 15 and the only type of work you have ever done is babysitting, well you can just get lost. I am not only saying it because I did not find anything, it is the ugly truth. What's more, people generally do not care for fancy studies in basic jobs, they take one look at classe préparatoire littéraire and think we are socially-inapt bookworms.. which is not so far from reality, but come on, give us a chance ! So anyway, I managed to get an internship at a well-know French insurance company. And it may have sounded like I was complaining previously, but I do realize that I am extremely lucky to be here. Then again, I managed to get a spot by using a popular French method called piston, a.k.a. 'It is not what you know but who you know'. So here I am, at my own desk overlooking the avenue Matignon, feeling very pleased with myself.  Get ready for some serious I-have-drunk-too-much-coffee-and-am-starting-to-get-bored posts !