Titre de Séjour...
I am finally legal to stay in France...
Last wedsday me and my fellow Canadian Jeremy went to Beauvais ( The capital of the Picardie region, where all the administrative work are handled) to get our definitive "Titre de Séjour".
We woke up early for the trip, 5.30AM, to catch the earliest train to Beauvais. The original plan was to take the train to Creil, and change the train to Beauvais. However, mais be because none of us got enough sleep last night, we boarded a dirct train to Paris that came 2min early. It wasn't too too bad since we can take a train from Paris to Beauvais as well, just not as direct.
At Gare du Nord something unusual had happened. We were waiting for the train by the heating host in the gare, then suddenly a Asian lady came up to me and showed a piece of paper in my face. The paper was a photocopy of a tourist map, roughly indicating the cities of which she wanted to go. I was confused at first what she wanted. I tried to speak french and english to her but from the blanked look in her eyes I knew she understood none of it. I only had one more option left, chinese. She was surprised to see that I spoke chinese and then started to tell me that she was really lost and she wanted to go to Vienna in Austria, and she looked at me and I was the only asian other than her in the gare so she just asked for help. After knowing exactly where she wanted to go I was able to get the information from the ticket booth and explain to her what to do.
The next scene was kinda comical. She then wanted me to buy a phone card for her. We went to the Tabac store in the gare and I ordered a phone card. Without hesitation, she pulled out a stack of 100 euro bills out of her pocket (They are light green apparently, I had never even seen them before) , and asked me "Are these euros? Can I use them here?" Boy, lady, at least know the currancy before you leave.
On the train to Beauvais Jeremy was telling this was the moments where knowing multiple languages shines through. Even if you dont really use it often after you have learn it, it will still be useful and help you out from time to time. I guess he has a point.
The day was relatively smooth, we got our titre de sejour after about 5hours of medical exam. On the way back to Compiègne, exact the same thing happened. There was another chinese lady who was lost and wanted to go to Paris! Jeremy just started to crack up after I started talking in chinese with that lady.
Lesson of the day: Learn as much as u can, u never know how it will help you out, or how you would be able to help others.
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