In the beginning...Hello my fellow hivers! How to present myself...well, let's see🤔 My name is Kathy or katou.kanga and I'm a 52 year old totally bilingual English/French, American born in Illinois near Chicago and raised in the South of Wisconsin. Can you say cheesehead and Green Bay Packers? Well I left that at home in the capital, Madison, Wisconsin where I graduated with my measly BA in French in 1991. But by then, I'd already lived my first adventure or should I say misadventure abroad in Aix-en-Provence, France from 1989-1990. The adventure that took me all the way to Casablanca, Morocco to marry my first boyfriend Kamal😳 Yeah, I'll admit that I went a little bonkers that year but I was young, foolish, abroad, and in love. A very dangerous combination for a 20 year old back in those days. I'd had a very hectic childhood and when a few smooth years would set in, I'd find myself needing that hectic back (yeah, kind of sado-maso but not in any extreme lol). The adventure was what I loved and I left the states with a thirst for learning about new people, new cultures, new languages. I wasn't going to let the fact that I had no money stop me lol😂 Though sometimes I wish I had and would. I'd already worked my way through college and left with grants and loans to help me in my junior-year-abroad debacle. But because I'm worse than curious George and always get drawn into the most impossible situations, I ended up starving the year through. Of course, one could say losing 30 lbs in the year is great, it's still a little too fast and will not stay lost. I'd already starved during my hectic childhood so I paid it no mind and kept a stiff upper lip as I've always learned to do.
Back in the U.S.... Divorce came along as I'd chosen an alcoholic with the violence that that can entail. I managed to get my degree with decent grades in spite of the pushing, shoving, screaming, chokeholds, and smacks but can honestly say it had nothing to do with religion and all to do with alcohol. He was funny, gorgeous, and could make me laugh, but had trouble adapting to American life so into the bottle he'd go and out came the monster.
Back in France...6 years later after having gone back to the U.S. to finish my degree, going through boring job, (yeah, I worked at Sears lol😂), to other boring jobs from an insurance company to temp jobs, and never getting to use the French I'd learned (nor the Spanish, Swedish, and Arabic I'd also studied), I finally decided to go back to my South of France where I felt my heart laid. So, I set money aside (yeah, a measly $1000 not including my plane ticket lol) and signed up for some classes at the University of Provence. I'd already gone the year before as a tourist to check out my options and unfortunately met and fell in love with the terror of terrors, Michaël 👹 But that's another story in itself. Went back to Marseille this time, ended up thrown out in the streets by my bipolar Mickey. And that's where I met Philou, my second husband and best friend. Together for five years then we split up and divorced and then I found a permanent job in Aix-en-Provence. No children as he'd later refused to have any, I worked in several appart'hôtels in Aix as a receptionist which was an extremely hard, demanding, and stressful job, but I did have a lot of satisfaction in helping people vacationing in Aix as well as students and workers staying with us long term. It really gave me that opportunity to not only become completely bilingual English/French, but to flip flop between Spanish and my meager Italian. After a very short training period I literally taught myself night auditing as I started out at night, day reception, as well as business contracts, billing, light accounting (yuck! I hate math😝), reservations entry, assistant work and billing as well as management tasks, translation, and what I loved the most was training (I partly created the trainer's manual). This should've got me a promotion one would think but no, I'd have had to agree to move all over France and by then creeping into my fourties, I just didn't have the strength for that. I worked on the same contract for two different companies for twelve long years just to be harassed into leaving by a bipolar director and two girls with NPD (Narcissistic Personality Disorder), one, the first receptionist and the other, the new directrice and daughter of the millionaires who owned the second hotel where I'd worked. Because of a loss of revenue due to the terrorist attack in Nice, France, on Independance Day July 14th, 2016, they decided to hire two full-time and one part-time employee with youth contracts. Three employees for my pay as they not only pay their young workers half of the minimum wage, but the government helps them pay the benefits reducing the rate the employer pays. So they harassed me heavily as is the motto in Aix.
The new job...I went through two years of unemployment of which the last I decided to go back to teaching English as a second language as a freelancer. This is the first label the French put on my forehead so I said why not? They are famous for labelling people and this label didn't seem to be so bad. Unfortunately, difficult to make it full time without my driver's licence, expired in the states and so expensive to pass in France, and no car to boot.
Things about me...I love music as I studied music for thirteen years as a soprano with two years in the UW Concert Choir directed by the charismatic as well as world renowned Dr Robert Fountain. These were also incredible memories from my college years and times I'll never forget. I spent eight years squeaking through a clarinet and two years piano. So my music tastes vary from classical to opera to jazz to pop, alternative, a little techno (Daft Punk is my favorite), and latino styles as well. I started writing when I was around ten. I wrote poetry which helped me express myself and get through my shitty childhood. I got my first teaching job at Concordia Language Villages in Minnesota where I taught French to young Americans at various camping sites all named Lake in the Woods (Lac du Bois) in each respective language as there were nine taught at that time. I taught with music, theatre, games, sports, danses, and yes, even dressed in a toga!😂😂 I love to cook and can make quiches, taboulé, American goolash, lasagnes, pizza, hachis parmentier, gratin de pommes dauphinoise, meat loaf, and my own pancake recipe from scratch with real maple syrup😋 I love travelling even though I'm a travel jinx, and have permanently lived in two countries of which 26 years spent in the U.S. and 26 years spent in France. I've been to England twice, through Spain six times, to Morocco three times for two months altogether. Then I calmed down a bit, as working in France never gave me the time nor money to later travel. And now I'm in Mexico where I've been to Mexico City and have just now taken a room in Morelia.
Why I left France... Covid restrictions and the French government literally trying to throw me out in the streets and a wish to move closer to my mother. There is no more freedom in Europe! It's dipping into Communism. My body my choice!! So I took the next plane to Mexico, originally to meet up with some Freedom lovers in Mexico that I'd met through Telegram as well as Matrix. So far no good. One dumped me in Mexico City for no sex reasons🤮 And the second one met here in Morelia is a posh snob whose only interest is in her investors and her properties bought more than likely with her British inheritances smh. My goal was to bring my mother down here to take care of her, but she passed away right before I left😭😭😭
Conclusion...Now after looking long and hard for a room before my money runs out. Although nobody will rent to an unwealthy American. Even for $70 Usd/month!😲 I finally found something not quite what I wanted and a little expensive for no services at all (only water, gas, and maybe electricity). No wifi, no use of a kitchen, no sheets, no nothing😕 Just a roof and a bed. But, no complaining! That's life! Chin up! I've finally found something and near some nature😁 I still have a lot to give in life. I have passion, experience, a love for people and all of God's creatures. My lifelong adventures have brought me and taught me a genuine instinct of survival and a savoir vivre and savoir faire to help others in all of their endeavors. I just have a horrible time of helping myself and have the jinx of travel, money, and love. Some think it's because of choices. But one doesn't choose who one loves nor who and if you're loved back. And all bad apples are red and juicy in the beginning in order to tempt Eve. And money, well I'm like my mother living month to month just by the hair off my ass. Money runs away from me just as my brother snaps his fingers and it falls into his lap😏 I knew so many in the South of France who were very wealthy because of their inheritances, dumb as a box of rocks, but kiss-assy successful. Have known as well really smart people, very little inheritance or abandoned, hard workers but less butt licky with no money nor success. It's not what's important to me. I'm all about helping others, but watch it, I do have my limits! I'm soft and gooey, hard and crunchy at the same time like good caramel taffy or nuggatine. Un bon calisson😎
