Paris. France. September 4th.

I BOOKED MY FLIGHT!!!!!!!

I am unbelievably stoked right now.



I'll be flying from San Diego to Denver on August 7th so I can spend a bit of time with the fam before I leave for good, then on September 4th, I'll be flying from Denver to Paris - PARIS! I will be flying into Paris, France. That's in Europe. Like - across an entire ocean. Can you tell I've never been out of the country before? (No, Mexico doesn't count...)

My plans after that are as follows:
I believe I will try to spend September 4th in Paris, taking it in, being a tourist, eating a baguette, i will not, however, go see the eiffel tower. If I can find a cheap hostel to stay in, or if I know anyone there, I will stay for the night, then head up to Lille in the morning, where I will again, take in the city, go see where my school is, hopefully meet up with some other teachers, and try to learn what it means to be Lillois, and why the French think of their northern inhabitants as somewhat... different from the rest of the country. After failing at this for two weeks, and having a lot of fun in the process, I will head down to Bordeaux for the last week of September and stay with Amanda, speak French, drink wine, and talk a lot about what to expect during the next year of my life.

The actual job starts on October 1st, but I'm pretty sure a few days before we have some training or something - I really don't know yet.

According to the email chains that have been going around between all of us teachers, I am like.. one of the only people who has not gotten their contract in the mail yet... so I am waiting patiently for that - which will tell me the school I'm teaching at, give me a contact name, and allow me to try and plan where i will live.

More updates (hopefully!!) soon!

All The Kids In The Room Raise Your Hand!

So! I got an email this morning from Marjorie, our contact for the whole France thing, with the names and email addresses of everyone else going to my "academy", which apparently consists of a huge piece of land wherein I have no idea where I am going. There are about 35 of us, and I've been chatting through gmail with about 12 of them so far; none of them, so far, are actually in Lille like me, so the "academy" is a pretty wide area.

It's really nice to finally be able to talk with other people who have been in the same boat as me for the past several months. A lot of people have gotten their arrêté de nominations already, so they know exactly which part of the academy they'll be in, but a few others have emailed back and told me that they are with me doing the whole "impatiently-waiting" thing. I've been checking the mail every day hoping to get that little packet in the mail that will give me some peace of mind as and allow me to be able to find a place to live.

So - a small update, but a big one!

Seven Months

Well, there hasn't been much to post over the last two months. I got into France, and then I waited, waited and waited some more. Today I got the first piece of news regarding my trip that I had gotten since that initial letter, and it turns out, I have been assigned to a seven-month, secondary school contract, beginning on October 1. There were initially two types of contracts available, seven and ten-month, to primary school, secondary school, and college. I believe the people applying whose French was at a more senior level than mine were awarded the ten month contracts - and truthfully speaking, I do wish I had gotten one, but seven months is still good. I guess I can say with certainty now that I will be gone from about September to May, which is not the September - September I had originally planned, but, at least I'll be back in San Diego in time for the summer beaches :).

In regards to other aspects of my trip, I am still waiting (patiently) for my Arrêté de Nomination, which will provide me the actual school I am teaching in, and allow me to drive up to LA and get my teacher's visa, but that will arrive, hopefully, sometime in July. It's coming down to the point where this is really turning real. I am leaving the country, going where I know not a soul, teaching in a language I do not "know" - not like I know English... It's going to be a lot of fun, I truly hope, but I know that challenges will appear as well, and each day closer this gets the realer it gets too. This is crazy.

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.