My last trip was amazing. It was great to travel without the thought of having to go back to work and knowing that I would be home soon.
Now I have been home for 3 weeks, though it feels like much longer. And in these 3 weeks I have been asked the whole, "How was France?" question many times. And I usually just give the answer everybody expects and say that it was awesome, or great, or amazing although I am happy to be home now blah blah blah. But really the answer is much more complicated than that.
Yes, I loved living in Europe and being able to travel so much, I loved being able to walk to the boulangerie and buy a warm baguette with a pain au chocolat, and being understood when I spoke French. I loved that I saw a castle on my way to work every week, and I love that I made friends from all over the world. But if you ever listened to the conversations I had with these friends, you would hear us complaining most of the time. About our job, the students, about the bank, and pretty much about France in general.
The job was okay, but I think having some sort of teaching experience would have made it so much better. Not knowing what I was doing was stressful for me.
Really, it seems like living and working abroad for a year is all very exciting, which it is at times. However I only worked 12 hours a week, if that, and the rest of the time I was mostly just in my apartment watching netflix and eating nachos made with strange cheeses.
My dad also died back in November while I was in France, which was a big reason why I couldn't fully enjoy my time there. I came home for a couple weeks, but decided that I should finish out my contract. Coming back to France after that and leaving all my family again was extremely hard though, and I really was just counting down the days until I came back home. I tried to make the best of it, kept busy and traveled as much as I could, but I still desparately just wanted to be back with my family. I don't know that if that hadn't happened how much more fun I would have had though, since my other assistant friends were also counting down the days at the end.
Really, I think this whole program is all luck. What city you are placed in, your schools, if housing is provided, your teachers, other assistants, etc. You just have to work with what is given to you, and I think I did that the best I could in Saumur.
Overall, it was definitely a great experience.
