Ah, Paris, comme vous me manque...

Part of the reason I have my current job, that would be clerkship #2, is because I spent a school year working as an English teacher in Antibes, France. It was a glorious year of my life. I had limited responsibility and an entire continent at my fingertips, waiting to be explored. Though I was significantly limited by my income (about 800 euros per month, from which I had to pay rent in the South of France and eat in addition to traveling), I was able to do a significant amount of traveling. This blog really flourished during that time, as I constantly had new pictures and adventures to write about. So far I believe this to have been the best year of my life.

So how did this get me my current job? Well that year I was taking phone interviews for clerkships. I happen to be interviewed by a judge who loves to travel and is currently learning French as his primary hobby. I didn't get that job, but late that summer he called to offer me a clerkship to follow the job I was eventually offered. I took the job. I mean, have you seen the economy? Who would turn down a JOB?

So here I am, working for a very nice judge in the superior court who also happens to love traveling and learning languages. Every year he takes about a month off to attend a language school and do some traveling. During this month he works from his new location and his clerk stays behind in Anchorage to do some writing and editing while he is gone. I knew this when I got the job. I had resigned myself to staying behind and hopefully saving up for my own trip to Europe in the spring.

Then, today, my judge says [joking], "Emily, you should just come to Paris too. We'll run the office from there!"

PARIS..... lovely, glorious, magical Paris that stole my heart though I tried so hard to resist.....

Of course he was only joking, so I replied, "Hey, you buy me a ticket and I'll go home and grab my passport."

But no matter how deep in my bones I know that he was only joking, and how much I know that I can't afford to shell out $1,200 to go to Paris right now, of course this got me thinking. You know, Leigh can hardly mutter the name of a foreign city without me researching how much a potential trip might cost and planning a skeleton itinerary for some unknown future date in which we might have the time and money to make this trip. So how do you think a person like me would react to such an off-hand comment?

Well, I started remembering how pleasant I found Paris to be all THREE times I found myself there in 2010. Walking around aimlessly, enjoying the urban and park spaces, la Marais, le quartier latin, buying fabric at the foot of Montmartre near Abesses....

The FOOD......
The WINE..........

The chance to practice my French, to really experience this city that I've only had little tastes of, to meet up with old friends.....

Then I remembered that I'm planning my own European trip and how much I think it will cost me (about $1500 in transportation, including the overseas flight and getting between cities). Wow, that's a big chunk to spend on my little addiction. So wouldn't it be AMAZING to work, in Paris, during the week then fly to say Vienna for the weekend. Then fly to, say, Munich for a long weekend to hang out with a Taizé friend, then maybe take a long weekend and actuall GO TO Taizeé??? Or zip over to Geneva to see another Taizé friend, or down to Antibes to see some teaching friends and soak up the sun? With a home base and an income, all of these things are possible for just a little bit of money....

..... but my judge, he was only joking about Paris. So you see? It's just cruel to suggest such a thing to a travel-addicted but slightly impoverished clerk like myself. Both saddled with my love of exploring foreign places and a pressing amount of student debt while attempting to live off a modest State salary. So cruel, so heartless, so not funny...... I've decided it should be considered a terrible social faux pas to dangle a fantastic [and even worse, FREE] trip in front of a travel-obsessed person who is currently unable to travel due to various realities of life. My realities: my life and money, and the fact that if I bought my own ticket and showed up at my judge's Paris apartment with a bag in hand he might feel a smidge put out.

So I need to stop planning this thing that won't happen on anyone's dime but my own. I need to focus on my work, getting a permanent job for next year, and saving for my own European trip, where I'll do all of the above things, but on my own time and on my own dime.

Alors, Paris, jusqu'a la prochaine fois.....