I have had 3 so far in my life. The first was working part-time at the weekends and holidays during school time, in a chocolate shop for a large confectionary in Britain called Thorntons (now this was a fun job!). Then, the summer before University, I worked for my Dad, along with my brother and his friend, inputing medical notes from paper form . This was 7 hours a day of sitting in front of a computer which wasn’t exactly . However, nothing is worse than my most recent summer job, the job I did just before coming to France- working as a house cleaner.

At the beginning of the summer, I desperately wanted a job in a cafe or restaurant, something that wouldn’t be too difficult or take up but would give me a good wage. , as it is every summer, all the students come back and are all doing the same thing, so in the end there is nothing left. I saw an advert in the local newspaper for a cleaning agency looking for students who would work the summer, with flexible hours, for above minimum wage. Now, I’m not going to lie, I wouldn’t say this was my as a child but I wanted the money so I went for the job. I ended up getting the job and worked 5 days a week, cleaning 2-3 houses a day.

Sometimes the job would be a 4 hour clean, sometimes it would be 2 hours, it really did on the of the house and how much detail the customer wanted you do go into. I cleaned these houses on my own, lifting a basket of up and down stairs, hauling a huge hoover around everywhere and soaking myself with the mop and bucket which was not fun. I was regularly critiqued on my ‘mopping’ technique and would be told to clean a window again because there was a finger mark in the corner. But the most mortifying part of the job was that a pinafore to clean and I had to clean a family’s home whose daughter went to my school. Bearing in mind I was Head Girl at my school, it was knowing that this girl had seen me go from making speeches to 1200 students in assemblies, to scrubbing the insides of cupboards for a measly wage. All I kept thinking of was how much money I’d be earning and that it wasn’t for ever.

One of the things that really was the judgemental attitude that some people gave me, thinking that because I was working as a cleaner, I was presumed to be thick and have no life . The second they found out that I was actually studying at University and to go and live in France for the year, their attitude towards me . I didn’t like how people me just on the job that I was doing. Other than the money, I did really enjoy going to old people’s houses and cleaning for them because I loved speaking with them, making them a cup of tea, helping them with things because I kept thinking that they might not have any other that day and that when I get to that age, that someone would take the time and effort to come and speak to me and care for me, even if it was just for .