It's Official!

I got my arrêté de nomination (work contract) in the mail yesterday! So now I can certainly say that I will be working at two middle schools in Saumur. And...they have an apartment for me! With a bedroom, a kitchen, a living room, and a bathroom! That means that I won't have to worry about finding one once I get there, and usually when you stay at the schools it is much cheaper, which means more money for traveling! So now I need to mail in a paper accepting the job, and sometime soon I should probably email my contact person to find out more about the apartment and ask other questions that I need to think of.

In other news, I am back home in the US. My last couple days in France were fantastic! Our drive up to Normandy was so beautiful, and so was the town that we stayed in.

Parc Asterix was also a lot of fun, pretty much your standard amusement park. We went on all of the roller coasters and a couple of the water rides, not all of them though because it was a bit chilly. The next day we went to a cute little town called Verneuil (top and bottom right pictures) because we needed some internet, then we walked through the town which was lovely. Afterwards before going back to the house we stopped by a chateau (top left). It was closed so we couldn't go in or anything, but it was still beautiful. So then we ate dinner and relaxed a bit before leaving at 1am for the airport. It was quite a long day. But overall my two flights went really well. All until when we were landing in DC and a boy near me started throwing up. Glad it was at the end though. Yuck.

It is nice to be home now, but after getting my work contract I am all giddy thinking about next year :)

France Part II

Hellooo, sorry it's been a while since I've posted anything. I've got lots to tell though!

So in my last post I had said that we were going on a road trip to the South of France and that I was super excited for it. Well, the day before we were supposed to leave the car wouldn't start, and it turned out that it needed a new alternator or something (I'm not a car person) and so it was taken to the shop. By the time we got it back, the people who were supposed to host us in Marseilles couldn't do it anymore, so we decided to just cancel the trip. I was pretty disappointed, but it all turned out okay :)

We couldn't do a whole lot since we didn't have a car, but last Tuesday we went to a little town on the coast called Pornic. It was raining so we couldn't do a whole lot there, but walking around was nice. And we got some delicious ice cream!

That following Friday, we went to this place called Le Puy du Fou. It is kind of hard to explain, but it is sort of like an amusement park place, but just with a bunch of shows. If you've ever been to a Rennaissance Festival, it is kind of like that but throughout all of history. There were little "towns" from different centuries and shows going along with it. Overall a cool day.

Then this past Monday we went back into Nantes. There I bought my carte 12-27, which is a discount train card. It costs 50 euros but it's definitely worth it. I also put a little bit of money on my old cell phone, it won't last until I come back but this way I won't lose my phone number and it will still be active when I come back in September.

Tuesday we went to a place called Planète Sauvage, which is sort of like a zoo, but you drive through it and can get super up close and even feed the animals! It was really cool.

So one of my boyfriend's best friend's mom works for the Académie in the language department, so he went out on a limb and asked her if she could find out where I was placed, and she did! She told him that I would be at two collèges (middle schools) in a town called Saumur. So Wednesday we went there!

It is a super cute city, not that big but not too small either. It is only like a 10 minute train ride from Angers which is the second largest city in the region. The night before we left we were looking on leboncoin.fr at apartments there, and actually set up a meeting to look at one! Just so that I would have an idea of what I could get for my money. We looked at a studio which was really small, but only 200 euros, which was awesome. the guy who was showing it to us showed us an actual apartment that was right next store and was much bigger, with a bedroom, a living room, and a full kitchen for just 320 euros, which is in my budget! The apartment was right next to the train station, and not quite in centre-ville, but it was super close to one of my schools. So that was good too look at. After looking at the apartment we just walked around the city for a bit until it started pouring rain, then we decided to go back to the car and eat a lunch we packed before driving to Angers. We didn't really walk around that much because we were both tired, so we just drove around a bit, also a cool city. The drive over there was awesome too because we were following the Loire and driving through adorable little towns.

Besides those trips, other things that I did was eat enormous amounts, learned how to play French billiards, went to a pool spa thing, went bowling (tied for first place), went to the movies, and went to some other soirées. Also made my visa appointment for August 5th. Hopefully I'll get my work contract by then!

So now I have 3 days left. Tomorrow we leave to go up to Normandie, and from there we are going to Parc Astérix on Monday, and then on Tuesday we will relax a bit before leaving around 1am to go to the airport since I have to be there around 4am for my 6am flight.

I'm sad to be leaving, but at the same time I am excited to go and spend some time at home. Plus I know I'll be back in a couple months!

France Part I

So I am back in France! I arrived last Thursday, after no sleep on the flight, but luckily everything went well. I had an hour layover in Copenhagen, which I was a bit nervous about before in case my flight would be late or something, but all went well. Then once I got to Paris I just had to make my way to gare de Lyon where I would wait 2 hours for my train to Dijon! Unfortunately, with the lack of sleep, I couldn't feel all the excitement I knew I had for returning to Dijon. It had changed a bit since I was there a year ago, but at the same time it was just the same. There is a tramway now, which is pretty cool, and one of the streets is now a pedestrian street, also cool. That night my boyfriend took me to an adorable little restaurant that served all of the region's specialties, and was quite delicious, and then we walked around a bit. The next day I met up with a friend from school who was studying abroad there and we walked around some more while we shared stories. 

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Then I met back up with my boyfriend and his roommates at one of my favorite coffee places for some food and coffee. Then we drove 9-10 hours back to where my boyfriend calls home, along with his best friend. I got some much needed sleep on the way, but I was still able to see some of the beautiful countryside 

Then the next few days consisted of family lunches and soirées with his friends. On Tuesday we went into Nantes and walked around a lot. We went up to the top of one of the big towers there and got to see the whole city from above, which was obviously beautiful. It's funny to think about how by this time next year I could know this city better than I knew Dijon, (if I am lucky enough to be placed near it). 

Then yesterday we  drove to an adorable little town called Pornichet. It is right on the coast so we got to go to the beach for a few hours. Now I can say that I have seen the Atlantic from both sides! Later we went out for dinner and ate some delicious moules-frites with some crêpes for dessert. 

Overall it's been lovely so far. Always a little frustrating though when I can't quite express everything that I would like to. I am sure it will get easier the more I practice though. 

Monday we leave for our eight day road trip! We are going to Bordeaux, Toulouse, Marseille, and then some other small towns on the way back. We'll be staying with some friends and family on the way down to Marseille, and then on the way back we will be camping! I am super excited!