France États-Unis

Tuesday morning I decided I need to network more/better for my job search, and Tuesday afternoon I discovered that the once a month happy hour for the France-États-Unis club was at 6:30pm, so I took it as a sign.

When I first moved to Toulouse I looked into a couple different groups: Americans in Toulouse, France États-Unis, and Accueil des Villes Françaises. I chose AVF in the end because I wanted to meet French people and because they seemed to have more events. Unemployed then like I am now, the opportunity of a weekly get-together as opposed to monthly was a huge draw.

I've decided I need to present being American as a big advantage to an employer, instead of just another fact. I sent an application to the head of communication at the library and she responded quickly saying I had a really great profile and that she'd like to meet me, but unfortunately all positions were sur concours for which I'm not eligible (damn you Germany for no droit du sol!). I realized I should focus more on jobs where being American is a help, not a hindrance.

So I went to the happy hour. The president is a retired woman who reminded me a lot of my grandmother. The VP is an English teacher at the liberal arts university, as is the woman who runs the "young people" group. I signed up for the Thanksgiving dinner coming up. I met an American couple who've lived in France for 5 years now with the second kid on the way and the husband has a carte 10 ans but the wife was refused one. I chatted with a really nice Economics professor who's moving to Ireland next year. Another English teacher assured that she would put me in touch with an American who spent a long time looking for a job and finally found a great one.

But, best of all, I met Anne-Claire, who runs My American Market! I didn't have my camera to take a picture (since she's practically a celebrity and all), but I did learn that her blogging contest is still going on. She won't do the drawing until 50 blogs have participated (and so for I think there are about 30), so head on over to the blog to get the text to post if you want to participate. Looking around on the site I saw that she does group orders, so those of you in Paris could order together and save on shipping.

All in all, a rather successful evening!