Review [Issue 79] Going Abroad With Tanki

[Flexoo 6,980]

 

 

Hello there potential new traveler, or perhaps an experienced globetrotter. I am coming back at you with another extraordinaire article, this time concerning the experience of going abroad, savoring different culture and meeting new people. How is this related to Tanki? Well, it's about me and my experiences and I am a Tanki player. If that ain't sufficient enough vindication, take this as a review of one's experience abroad and how it affects a life of former Tanki Online addict. It might be interesting if you have the same ambitions or plans in the future.

 

With that being said, I will backtrack to the very beginning of my story. I am from a relatively small country in the Central Europe where the opportunities do not wait behind every corner. I had to settle for a job I did not really like for some time, but left it because I could not imagine myself doing it any longer. Naturally, staying jobless is unimaginable unless you want to follow the rules of street live, so I got to find a new direction in my life. That's when my sis came to the play. She, living in France for a couple of years now, started to constantly mention the possibility of me joining her in the work in our weekly Skype calls. She and her partner run a restaurant along with couple of smaller pizzerias there and this year they decided to change their staff members after a rather disturbing last season, when my sis literally had to slap the sense into one of the arrogant employees.

 

I took her offer with grain of salt as I interpreted her words only as a joke. Only later I found out that she was dead serious and purchased me a plane ticket. There was nothing much to think about after that. It was just a normal second cook position in a kitchen, but I did not have to worry about the housing or food, and I would make much more money than being a manager in my home country. There was only one minor problem. My entire French vocabulary and knowledge consisted of "Oui", "No", "baguette", and a one line from the collaborated song of Christina Aguillera, Pink, Lil Kim and Mia called Lady Marmelade which is not exactly useful in everyday conversations (if you know the lyrics, you will understand). But my sis reassured me that practically everyone speaks English there so couple of months later I packed my pyjamas, slippers and got off on a new journey.

 

The first shock I experienced was directly after landing on French ground. I was instructed to take only few necessary pieces of summer clothing as a carry-on on the plane, so as soon as I stepped out, the blowing winds and low temeratures punched me into the face. I marched in the front shaking while the other passengers were steadily leaving the plane, unaffected by the weather. When I was finally picked up by my sibling, we set on a long road to new destination that I will call home for next several months.

 

 

Astonishing Lac de Serre-Ponçon, a place near which my new residence is located.

After a long three hours in the car we finally arrived at the place. As you can see from the picture above, the panorama of the lake and mountains is magnificent. Unfortunately, I did not have much time to enjoy it as right from the next day I had to endure the working routine of new job. First days were underwhelmingly boring. The season was just about to start so despite the fact I had to stay in the kitchen there wasn't much to do other than trying to converse with the natives. It was at this moment I found out that devil has an infinite number of liars and that one of them is my sister. When she told me everyone here speaks English I was expecting much more than the basics. But in the end, I guess I should not have trusted the judgement of a person who has no problem using "don't" and "was" in one sentence.

 

Some time later, my boss finished the preparations of my room, and by room I mean caravan, lending me everything from small fridge (that does not function till this day) to the smallest of knickknacks like toothbrush. He even provided a computer, which he described as super powerful and useful. I was pretty thankful for taking care of me so much until I opened this junk and learned it still runs the ancient XP. Neverthless, it works more or less, so it's better than nothing.

 

Soon the workload picked up a tempo and influenced my Tanki Online career to a huge extent. I found myself with so little time at disposal that I was barely able to focus on my Administration responsibilities and I was seriously considering calling it quits. I was barely able to scrapp up few hours or minutes a day to check what my team is doing. It is only thanks to my fellow admin, V'tando, that I am still here as he was the one who persuaded me to wait a bit and see how will things turn out in the upcoming months.

 

In June, new and much needed colleagues poured into the restaurant as the number of guests increased with every day. First of 'em was a teen girl who was introduced to me as a fluent English speaker. I was excited since there wasn't really anyone whose English would resonate with mine. Although, this was far from truth. She did live in Canada for some time, but in the city of Quebec which has a sizeable French speaking population. The conversations with her looked something like this; "Where is aaa.... *makes a hand gesture that is probably depicting the bottle opener* for aaaa.... *points at the bottle*?" I don't know what she was fluent at, but it definitely was not English. This might come around as ignorant since I should be the one trying to speak French, but I was and still am lightning years from getting to at least a conversational level, so having someone to speak the language I already know was very important to me. To be entirely honest, I feel that spending time here takes me away from digging into basics of French grammar and vocabulary.

 

But let me now freely transit to the arrival of to me the more interesting person. A certain nameless girl from Cyprus that spoke four languages including English. She was the butter to our toast. That's a very wierd analogy, so to put it clearly, she became that one friend who holds together the whole group. It was thanks to her that most of us found a way to each other, even despite the language barriers. She was that one super-active friend that needed to see every single monument, beach, mountain, city and literally anything that might be just slightly interesting.

 

 

Les Demoiselles Coiffées de Pontis, one of the first places I visited with my colleagues.

We finally reached the summer season and things got really hectic and crazy. Hundred people for lunch and than again on dinner took a toll on me. But we all had a good time and the staff were this time around far better, at least the boss said so, unlike the diners who were still thorn in the flesh. They say that customer is always right, but there are some you want to straight strangle to death. Like this guy who thought he had class when he popped up 5 Euros from his pocket and gave this celebrity smirk until the waiter informed him that the four coffies he ordered actually cost 8 Euros. Generally speaking, some of the people coming are, let's say, strange. For example, we found out special group that we humorously named "The Cafe and Kaka", in other words, people who come to a restaurant, order a coffee, pay for it and than go take a dump on a toilet.

 

But let me circle to the ending by saying that I truly enjoyed my stay here in France with everything it takes. I tasted the cuisine, even the dishes I looked through the fingers before like Grenouilles (frog legs) or Moules (true mussels). They are quite tasty if they are prepared by a hand of skilled chef. I've seen a number of beautiful places, and I can say that France has much to offer, not just in Riviera or Paris, but also in the inland. And lastly I met some great people, both French and alien. I also had to say that my experience with the natives was more than positive, and the rumors that French are super rude did not apply in my case. Most of them were really nice and tried to communicate in their broken English when they learnt I do not speak French. As for my TO career, well it suffered a lot since I lost most of my free time I once spent on Tanki and I did not play the game itself for good 4 months. But that's how life works and i got to deal with it.

 

So that's all to my long enough rant on going abroad. What are your experiences of being abroad? Are you going somewhere anytime soon or do you wish to visit and maybe stay in some particular country? Share your thoughts and experiences below! Thank you for reading.

[3dL 454]

Soon I will leave to USA , just I'm wait the visa and Good Luck with Freanch   :) .

Edited September 14, 2018 by Mafia_Buyer

[thunderousrailgunner 1,934]

Hope you have good time learning French and have a good life there, besides trying to play TO !

I plan to go abroad once i finish Uni and struggle with speaking chinese..I am ded for sure 

[Pythor 1,354]

@Flex, Enjoy your time in France. Consider yourself lucky to be out and about. I've still got a whole year left of high school stuck in Chicago

[GuidoFawkes 2,361]

WHAT!? you are here in France?? which province?

[Flexoo 6,980]

Provence Alpes.

[GuidoFawkes 2,361]

after I finish something in 2 weeks can i go and find you?

[Flexoo 6,980]

I won't be here from this week till the end of October. Besides, I guess I am too shy of a person.

[GuidoFawkes 2,361]

oh come on, this article was barely tanki related. at least if you meet me, your next one will be more tanki related because it will be about a tanki player meeting another tanki player

[thethiefofvictory 339]

oh come on, this article was barely tanki related. at least if you meet me, your next one will be more tanki related because it will be about a tanki player meeting another tanki player

there's no requirement saying everything in the newspaper has to be tanki related... as far as I know

[Flexoo 6,980]

oh come on, this article was barely tanki related. at least if you meet me, your next one will be more tanki related because it will be about a tanki player meeting another tanki player

I am sure that would be an interesting idea for an article, although I am not the one who would want to play the main act in it.

[GuidoFawkes 2,361]

I am sure that would be an interesting idea for an article, although I am not the one who would want to play the main act in it.

I'm just offering to let you have a complete experience of my country. so far you've been lucky only experienced people you happen to get along with. don't you want to experience those rumours you heard and learn how they came about?

[P.4.R.K.O.U.R 329]

Guido will make an excellent guide in my opinion.