With the Easter holidays approaching, Yang Xile will return to China for vacation, while Yu Qingning and Lin Xiao will choose to stay in Paris.
Xiao Yu told Lin Xiao that a classmate said there was a part-time job that sounded quite interesting, and asked Lin Xiao if he was interested.
Lin Xiao asked Xiao Yu why she was thinking of working. Their families were well-off and didn't need to work part-time like ordinary international students.
Xiao Yu said excitedly, "Sister, this job is different. It's not like many students washing dishes in a restaurant. It's picking flowers at a farm in Nantes. How romantic!"
Lin Xiao became somewhat interested upon hearing this: "There's such a job?"
“Mmm,” Yu Qingning continued, “My senior said she went there for two years. She goes to pick flowers in the spring and grapes in the vineyards in the summer. Working in the mountains and fields is so beautiful!”
How much is the salary?
"60 euros a day, it's not much, but it includes food and accommodation. Shall we go and experience it together? It's a rare experience."
Lin Xiao was somewhat persuaded. The salary wasn't their biggest concern, but the idea of experiencing life, especially picking flowers in the flower fields of the French mountains, sounded incredibly romantic.
So the two of them, along with Xiaoyu's senior, signed up, and on the second day of their holiday, they arrived in Nantes with seven or eight other international students.
Nantes is a city in western France, not far from Paris, and surrounded by beautiful scenery.
The city is located on the lower reaches of the Loire River and has a typical temperate maritime climate. In 2013, Nantes received the European Commission's "European Green Capital Award," a testament to its beautiful environment.
The farm that Lin Xiao and her friends went to was located in the mountains on the outskirts of Nantes. It looked to be over a hundred years old. Although it was called a farm, it was more like a small castle.
The castle is surrounded by flower fields, covering the hillsides. Due to the unique topography of the mountains, with its significant slopes, mechanized harvesting is not feasible.
Therefore, every spring, farmers need a certain number of workers to manually harvest the flowers from large areas of the fields.
Among these workers are short-term workers from some Southern European countries, and also international students from various countries who work in France during their holidays.
Although Chinese students are sometimes physically weaker than some of the strong men in Southern European countries, they are hardworking and diligent by nature and rarely slack off, so they leave a very good impression on the farm owners.
Yu Qingning's senior had been working here for two consecutive years during Easter and Spring Break, and this time she brought even more classmates with her.
Lin Xiao and Xiao Yu were quite excited on their first day at the Nantes Farm, as this kind of working life was a completely new experience for them.
However, this excitement only lasted for one day. When they started working the next day, they found that it was completely different from what they had imagined.
Temperatures are already rising in April, so try to start your workday as early as possible.
The farm staff get up at 6 a.m. every day, have breakfast around 6 a.m., and then go down to the flower field to pick flowers at 7 a.m.
I take a one-hour lunch break and then work until 6 p.m., which is equivalent to working 10 hours a day.
The accommodations weren't bad; the farm had many rooms, with two or three workers sharing a room.
At 6 a.m., Lin Xiao was woken up by her alarm clock. She looked around at the unfamiliar surroundings with sleepy eyes and for a moment she was not sure where she was.
It took her a minute to come to her senses and remember that she had arrived at this farm in Nantes with a group of international students yesterday afternoon. So she hurriedly went to wake Xiaoyu, who was in the bed next to her.
Xiaoyu was also woken up by the alarm clock, but she felt sore all over and didn't have the strength to get out of bed, so she just stayed in bed.
"Ningning, get up quickly! Today is the first day of work, let's not be the last ones to arrive."
"Sister, I took the train and then the bus to get here yesterday. It was such a hassle, and my whole body aches."
Lin Xiao reminded her, "What should we do? We still have a whole day of work to do today."
After hearing Lin Xiao's words, Xiao Yu thought about this issue and even regretted agreeing to work with her senior.
Twenty minutes later, everyone finished washing up and started eating breakfast.
The meal included butter and croissants, various farm-grown jams and cheeses, and unlimited milk and coffee—a very generous spread.
After breakfast, the farm manager led everyone to the flower field to start working. The senior student was very familiar with the place and worked very quickly.
The other international students also had various part-time job experiences, so they were quite adept at doing the work.
Only Lin Xiao and Yu Qingning, two pampered young ladies, had always lived a life of luxury in China and had never done any housework. They were truly people who never lifted a finger.
They only started trying to cook and do housework after they arrived in France and began living independently, truly living a "down-to-earth" life. However, this was their first time doing odd jobs and manual labor, so they inevitably felt a little lost.
During lunch, Xiao Yu quietly said to Lin Xiao, "Sister, are we the slowest in terms of progress?"
Lin Xiao replied guiltily, "Yeah, I'm a little embarrassed, but I've tried my best. Look, my hands are almost blistered after just half a day."
Xiao Yu said, "Me too, I didn't expect it to be this tiring." Lin Xiao picked up Qing Ning's hand and examined it; sure enough, there was a red and swollen spot.
After eating and resting for less than half an hour, it was time to go back to the fields.
Between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., the temperature in the fields had already reached over 20 degrees Celsius. The sun was blazing, and everyone worked hard under the scorching sun.
The heat wasn't too bad; although it was sunny, the temperature was still bearable, unlike the sweltering heat when picking grapes.
What's uncomfortable is having to keep your head down and bend over, because the various flowers in this flower field are all relatively short, the tallest being just over a meter, and there aren't any very tall rose family flowers.
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