Tuesday morning I get a call from the work agency, they want to know if I'm free this week, in the afternoon I go there and come out with a four-day job in Zara.
Wednesday: 8h50 - it is the first day of "soldes", the store is ready to open earlier than usual. Inside, the team is making nervous jokes, some early shoppers are already waiting behind the doors. I will be working in the cabins today - distributing little
numbers and taking back the unwanted articles.
Everyone's really nice (except for the shoppaholics maybe) even though I'm a newbie and don't really know what to do. I find it hard to believe: me, working in Zara?! Me, working!!!
18h00 - my workday ends, I am completely tired and my legs hurt, but no time to stop and wine, I have some moving to do. I run home and pack my stuff, then take the bike and go looking for a supermarket with caddies. Riding a bike and pushing a caddy at the same time is quite a sport to do, but no time for walking.
20h00 Cath (my new post-strike friend) arrives and I make three tours between the caddy and my room (which is on the fourth floor) to get everything downstairs. It starts raining so we decide to take the tram. Today I'm moving most of my stuff to Mélanie's place - in a cool little apartment, not far from the centre and the train station.
Thursday: my last moments in the Gallia dormitory (I hope to come back!), I pack my last and most important things and say goodbye, bonnes vacances!
Moving for the second time, this time to Valentine's place because Mélanie can host me only from July. Her tiny apartment is right under the roof which makes that most of the rooms are triangular. And she has a stinky rat that is feeling lonely and needs taking care of. She herself isn't there so I eat her pancakes (otherwise they would go bad, I can't let good food go to waste, can I!), listen to her music (Louse Attaque!) and water her plants. Otherwise I'm too tired to do anything else, all those shopping people at work just take all my energy.
Friday: I'm starting to get to know my new temporary colleagues, they are funny and nice. And I'm wondering if Zara hires only beautiful and stylish people and only gay guys. Which is a shame (for me and all the girls in the world I mean) because those guys are damn great. This is just another proof of the theory about all the good men. Sigh...
I finish at 16h and buy myself a frozen pizza just because I'm so hungry after standing up and folding clothes all day and because I now have an oven to bake it! In the evening we go to the cinema with Mél to see "Paris je t'aime", which consists of many short films by different directors and the subject is meeting in Paris. So we see very different interpretations and styles and actors (Elijah Wood and Natalie Portman for example). Romantic, tragic, funny, thrilling, sad, freaky, fictional, etc...
Saturday: My last and longest day at work, but this time I am in the Traf section, which is a collection for the young and stylish and is probably the most peaceful (if you can say that at a sales period) part of the store. It makes me want to try things on, makes me want even more to be working full-time with the beautiful people. This time everyone makes an effort to finish early because it's the football night. And to celebrate my re-started vacations and also to relax after the long work, we go out for a beer with some of my (now ex-) colleagues. Afterwards I speed to the place where a mass of people are watching foot on a giant screen.
You should see what happens every time France wins (and I hope this was the last!!!). Streets and bars are full of happy people, screaming things like "allez les bleux" or just "yeaaah", roads are full of beeping cars, bleu-blanc-rouges waving everywhere. And that until at least 3AM...
I find it quite overexaggerated and slightly disturbing, but never mind that. I take some beer with Michelle, Manu and Roman by the river and then go to sleep.
Sunday: another moving, this time for real. Luckily Mélanie lives only some 200m from Valentine. This is my relaxing and watching tv.ee day. Good to do nothing and worry about nothing for a change.
Monday: taking care of some paperwork and job-issues and then I let myself give in a little and become that obsessed shopping person that I encountered in thousands in Zara. I just had to try on some Traf clothes to imagine what I would look like as a stiili-inimene (fashion person). Pheew, now it's done and I can be in peace. The rest of the day I spend downloading and watching movies ("Nu pagadi!"), eating and getting fat...
I hope that soon my routine will be changed again, but until then I enjoy my trankilou period. I also hope that someday I could become a real Zara team member, I wouldn't mind at all, in spite the aching feet and ill-mannered customers (oh yes, I have so much more respect for the number-giving and folding people from now on!)...
