Care for some culture with that?
So I've been hired as a tour guide in Paris, which is awesome. Because of the weird system where I have to give 2.5€ to the company for each person on my tour, out of the 170€ I made, I'd normally have only kept about 50, but that's still pretty cool. I didn't try out for this job for the money, but to be able to get out of the flat more often and to see and re-see all the fantastic sights Paris has to offer.
Yesterday, I led my very first group through the streets of the capital, and it was amazing. I had 46 people (gasp!) to take care of, which is really scary when you look back as you walk and you see them trailing along behind you like a pack of lost sheep, and you're like... "please don't let me lose one of them!" and it's really frightening to see this whole group of people just following you blindly and expecting you to know everything.
Thankfully, I do know my stuff, and I was able to answer the questions I was asked. It all went very well, and at the end I was largely tipped. Of course, when there's a big group, half the group discreetly runs off while the other half's crowding to tip you, so only about 23 people out of the 46 gave me something, but they were the best: only three or four gave me coins (never less than 2€) and the rest was stuffing 5€ and 10€ notes into my hands! And they were telling me how they'd had a great time and how amazing the tour had been! So I was blushing to my ears and very very satisfied, and I just got the confirmation that I'm not doing this for cash. I'm doing this to walk around an amazing city and hear tourists tell me they've enjoyed the three hours spent learning about it and listening to me telling them the stories of Paris.
Yesterday, I led my very first group through the streets of the capital, and it was amazing. I had 46 people (gasp!) to take care of, which is really scary when you look back as you walk and you see them trailing along behind you like a pack of lost sheep, and you're like... "please don't let me lose one of them!" and it's really frightening to see this whole group of people just following you blindly and expecting you to know everything.
Thankfully, I do know my stuff, and I was able to answer the questions I was asked. It all went very well, and at the end I was largely tipped. Of course, when there's a big group, half the group discreetly runs off while the other half's crowding to tip you, so only about 23 people out of the 46 gave me something, but they were the best: only three or four gave me coins (never less than 2€) and the rest was stuffing 5€ and 10€ notes into my hands! And they were telling me how they'd had a great time and how amazing the tour had been! So I was blushing to my ears and very very satisfied, and I just got the confirmation that I'm not doing this for cash. I'm doing this to walk around an amazing city and hear tourists tell me they've enjoyed the three hours spent learning about it and listening to me telling them the stories of Paris.