Monday, January 12, 2009

The Breadwinner of our Family!

Good news! Jason had his first day of work in France today. He officially began a "stage" or internship with a local architecture firm working twenty hours a week for the next six months.

We're really excited for Jason, although we're slightly wistful to let go of our relaxed and easy-going schedule. This will be a great opportunity to get some practical experience with a firm, delve into French, and start working on IDP hours. (IDP stands for Internship Development Program--a requirement for architects before becoming licensed.)

Sadly, Jason isn't getting paid much for the experience... It's not customary to pay architecture interns in France, but even if it were, he can't legally work with a visitor's visa. It is legal, however, for the firm to reimburse Jason for his monthly metro pass.

We've done some quick calculations and figured out the following:
20 hours a week times four weeks equals about 80 hours a month. Divide that by 45 euros a month, and Jason's earning slightly more than 50 centimes per hour. Factoring in the current exchange rate, we can round that off to a generous 75 cents. Given the fabulously low price of bread here (it's about the only thing that's cheap), Jason is undoubtedly...THE BREADWINNER OF OUR FAMILY!

Congrats, honey. We love you.

5 comments:

Ben said...

Hooray for meager income! I'm being a lab rat :)

Justin said...

Congrats on the new position! I'm jealous of J-man's new familial status of Breadwinner. I suck any and all income we get and throw it directly into the bottomless pit known as "tuition". I guess that makes me the Breadloser... On second thought, I prefer Breadsquanderer.

Jackie said...

Ha! How funny! Can you say now that you were making more as a teenager? :) Still it seems like an invaluable opportunity! Good luck!

Crys said...

Let them eat bread :)

Chou said...

Woot!!! Now to find some bacon . . .