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My name's Dalila, I'm 25 and I've been living in Paris for 2 years.
A little chat with Dalila, an Italian in Paris
Paris has always been my dream. Since I was a kid,
I always thought that I would have loved to live for 4-5 years here,
although the side I knew was the monument one
like Champs-Elysées and Tour Eiffel.
Now that I'm here I realize that the city you live every day
is, of course, completely different.
I've been quite lucky because I came here
with an old friend of mine
and I already had some french friends,
so I didn't feel lost at first
but Paris is also a place where you can meet a lot of people,
you have the chance to make new friends
coming from all over the world.
Job... I work in the reception of a hostel,
I like it very much although
I haven't been working there for a long time
so you're always more enthusiastic at first.
I live with a university friend, Simone,
that I've known for 4-5 years.
We made Uni together in Italy and
for some coincidences we both came to live in Paris.
We changed 2 houses and we get along very well,
there is an almost balanced division of tasks,
where he cooks... and I do nothing!
Paris is a city where everything works
and that offers a lot,
one of my favourite sides is cinema:
there are lots of cinema complexes and small cinemas
which screen essai movies,
and there are so many that if you feel like
watching a particular movie
you will find a cinema that screens it.
Green areas is also a great thing about Paris,
especially with nice weather,
which unfortunately doesn't happen a lot.
There are many initiatives,
like free museums the first sunday of every month,
free museums for young people,
cinema for 2 euros for a whole week end...
and another important aspect is transportation,
because it's a metropolis
but everything works perfectly
and moving around the city is very easy.
Negative aspects?
First of all the weather,
'cause it's a northern city,
so it rains, it's cold,
it rains, it's cold
sometimes it rains,
sometimes it's sunny but it's cold anyway!
It's an expensive, very expensive city,
but by living there you can find cheap places
for everything, clothes, books, nightlife...
There is always the big obstacle of
finding home:
the flats are very expensive, it's hard to find ads
and it's then very hard to rent.
Negative side: it's a big metropolis,
so it brings along all the bad sides of a huge city,
like traffic, noise and smog.
Italy...
coffee for sure,
first thing in the morning as I wake up.
Food, as we normally cook at home
and we're both italians,
we organize dinners with friends, homemade pesto...
eventually, being 2 Italians
we often listen to italian music
and watch italian movies.
I live at La Chapelle, north Paris,
in between 2 train stations, Gare du Nord and Gare de l'Est,
so I have all the train lines close to me,
very romantic (!)
and I live in the indian suburb,
actually tamil, which is south India and Sri Lanka.
It's very nice 'cause in the streets you can find
Indian (tamil) restaurants, supermarkets, books, movies,
and a couple of weeks ago there was Ganesh celebration
with dances, songs and parades in the streets.
I see my future
probably for some years still in Paris.
Sometimes I feel like changing city,
like Barcelona or Rome,
but I always figure myself saying goodbye to Paris
and I just can't make it.
The video was made in 2008. Dalila is still living in Paris,
she has changed job and house, but she hasn't left her beloved suburb.
concept and realization Sara Spinelli