Europe!

I volunteered at the AVF stand this morning at the "Journées d'Europe" and I shook the mayor's hand! The new mayor of Toulouse came by and I got to shake his hand!

Not that I can say I really met him, but it was cool, none the less. Plus there were tons of cameras and important people all around.

I was helping at the AVF booth with a retired couple that has organized a series of lectures/presentations given by and about Europeans in Toulouse. The last talk was about Spain and the next is about Germany. It was kind of funny to be with them because they're really into their project of organizing the lectures and don't know much about the "young persons" group that I participate in. The wife had a really high voice, almost cartoon-ish, and she was constantly bumbling around from one booth to another and then back to us. She was the kind of person that keeps talking whether anyone is listening or not and she didn't seem to look around to see what others were doing but just kept on moving or talking and doing what she was doing. I mentioned that I wanted to do a Masters at Sciences Po Toulouse next year and the wife mentioned that she had studied there. I asked her later what her career had been (in the hopes of finding out she knew someone who could help me get a job) and she said that at first she didn't work but just took care of the kids, and later worked at Sciences Po Paris is the continuing education department. I guess that was normal for her generation, but it seemed strange that she studied political science to become...a housewife.

I did find out a little more about the Maison d'Europe in Toulouse and I'll look into applying for a job there. I asked the people at the booth about teaching English there and they told me they only deal with native speakers, which made me pause (??) and then I said "But I'm American". "Oh, well you don't sound like it," the woman said. I hate to always apply to teach English, but maybe it'll get my foot in the door and I can have a "real" job doing international relations.