Well - Holy Crap. I'm going to France!

What a roller coaster of a year. I'm not huge on blogs, but I figured this was the best way to keep everyone informed of all the details leading up to my trip, and also all the stuff I do and find while I'm there. I'm so excited, scared, and just... joyful at the same time! Here is a list of what the next few months hold for me, and some details about the program.


I'll be making a healthy sum, (no), of 745€ per month. So after paying rent and stuff, I'll have enough to basically buy bread every four days. Fun! At least I'll be able to go to place like this for free:

During the month of July, I'll receive my contract (arrêté) with the school in Lille, which will give me specifics on where I'm actually going to be teaching. Once that happens, I'll need to contact the French consulate in the US to get my visa. The cool thing is is that I get to apply for a teacher's visa, not a student one like most people my age going to France. I'm trying to find exactly what the difference is between the two is - but for now I know that I don't have to pay for a teacher's visa, I can stay longer in France before I have to come home, I can WORK, which you can't do with just a student or long-term stay visa, and d.) I can tell people I have a teacher's visa, which they will think is cool. For most of August, I'll need to be looking for a place to live - the French government doesn't help out at all with finding a place or providing you with any living arrangements, which... imho, is pretty cool actually. It means I'll be going over there and being completely on my own, and have to like... move in with French people. I am so intimidated, but, I duno... dgf right?

So, I've been spending the last 24 hours just... thinking about this entire thing. I still am just telling myself every hour or so "whoa, I'm going to France." And it finally hit me tonight as I was reading through the wikitravel page on Lille how amazing this entire trip is going to be. It just has modes of transportation, places to eat, things to see, http://wikitravel.org/en/Lille, it has places where u can get cheap beer and food... 800€ a month isn't sounding AS bad anymore. Just, just listen to this:

Le Flams (8 rue du Pas, near "La Grand PLace"). From 11.90€ for the "all you can eat" flammekueche menu (Alsacian speciality. Crème fraîche, onions, and bacon on a thin crust of dough)

I'll be honest - I have no idea what Alsacian food is, what fraîche is, but I like onions, and bacon, and thin crusts of dough. I just... I cannot wait to go. Paris is an hour away on the speed train, LONDON - LONDON is an hour away on the speed train. Bejing cannot be more than two and a half hours away by the speed train.* So, there you have it. I'll be leaving toward the end of August, and updating my progress here as things happen.

Yay!






Useless French Vocab Word of the Post:
la fenêtre - window


*wait - there's a speedtrain between Lille and Bej.... oh wait - I see what he did there.