And the countdown begins!

Less than one month before I leave for France! Three and a half weeks to be exact. I know, it's crazy. Luckily I feel like I'm pretty on top of all my preparations for the year. Besides the whole birth certificate translation, which I happen to still be avoiding, I have almost everything else I am going to need. I got my passport back in just 8 days, with the visa inside (it appears that the passport photo I had given them was to their liking, since that is the photo they used, and I guess they still had my fingerprints from my last visit). Also my visa doesn't expire until the middle of June so I'll be able to travel around and stuff after my contract ends! I also got my apostille (if you're curious as to how to say it, like I was, it's ah-post-eel) on my birth certificate, for $5. I bought a new rain/winter jacket to get me through the wet winter I am expecting, along with some cardigans for extra layering. I wish there was more I could do though, because just waiting around is hard.

This week though, my boyfriend's sister and her friend are visiting DC and staying with me during their stay, so that is cool and I'll get a chance to practice some more French before the big move.

I also joined the gym with my mom for this last month home, so I can get in shape before all the cheese and baguettes.

It's starting to hit me though that soon I am going to be leaving for 8-9 months, and won't see my friends or family until next May or June. So I'm basically trying to spend as much time as I can with my family and my friends.

Time to make the most of these last three and a half weeks!

Visa Visa Visa

So on Monday I went into DC with my mom for my visa appointment. We got to DC like an hour early, so we walked around a little bit, then my mom waited in the car while I went to the appointment. I was supposed to go at 12:15, but they took me at 11:45 when I got there. I handed the guy all of my forms and stuff, then he gave me a number and then I waited for someone else to call me up. Then I signed some papers, then sat down again, and then the last guy called me up and told me my folder is complete and that I should get my visa in the mail in 2-3 weeks. Pretty easy. Except on the section referring to teaching assistants on the website for the DC consulate, they said nothing about filling out the OFII form. I had heard of other assistants needing it so I printed it out and filled it out anyways. Good thing, since they asked for it. Also, I am a bit concerned because they didn't take my picture there or take my fingerprints, which I thought they always did. But I'm thinking that maybe they still have it on file since I studied abroad so recently. Oh well, guess I'll have to wait and see and hope it all goes well!

I have also been in contact with last year's assistant for my schools and she has been super helpful. Apparently Saumur doesn't have much of a young crowd and she hung out in Angers a lot of the time and was mostly friends with the assistants there. I've talked to the other English assistant for Saumur this year and she seems nice, so I hope she will live in Saumur, because apparently last year the other assistant lived in Angers.

Also, I realized that I've never really talked about where I'll be in relation to the rest of France. Soo here it is!

Nantes, Angers, and Saumur. And you can see Paris up there on the top right. It looks like Paris is about 3 hours by train, maybe a little less.

 I looked at my itinerary for my flight again, and I realized that I am flying into Orly and not Charles De Gaulle. Glad I didn't buy a train ticket from there ha. Good thing is I think there is a shuttle bus that goes from the airport to Montparnasse which is the other train station that will take me to Saumur

I am also trying to decide what kind of luggage I want to bring. I have one of those big backpacking backpacks already that holds 40L. And today I just bought a smaller normal sized backpack. That covers a carry-on and a personal item, so that just leaves my big checked bag. I'm not sure if I want to bring a big suitcase or a big duffle bag. A duffle bag might be lighter, but a suitcase might hold more. I think I'll have to wait until I know how much I'll actually be bringing before I can decide. I have also bought a luggage scale and another plug converter, which I am waiting to get in the mail, and today I bought a travel towel. The travel towel is super thin and really light, which is good, and it will be useful for when I am staying in hostels and if I don't have towels or something when I first get to my apartment.

Still need to get the apostille on my birth certificate and maybe get it translated, but everything is slowly becoming more and more real!

Updates!

So first of all, my plane ticket has been purchased! I got it through STA Travel, which is a pretty sweet site wiith some pretty sweet deals. I used it when I studied abroad too. I leave on September 21st, arrive in London on the 22nd and spend 3 hours there before flying to Paris. Then I am hoping to take a train straight from Charles De Gaule to Saumur (with one change of trains). I'll only have a little over an hour to get to it though, so I'm gonna hold off and buy that ticket when I get there I think. Otherwise I'll go through Paris to get to the Montparnasse train station and get a train from there. I'd much rather not have to deal with Paris though.

Second of all, I have secured the apartment at my school! It will be around 185 euros a month, not positive becaues the person who deals with the budget won't be back until September, but it's cheaper than other apartments, so that is good. The only bad part as of right now is that it doesn't have wifi, so I will most likely be buying some sort of livebox or something when I get there. But that is doable since the rent isn't too much. So far my contact person seems really nice and helpul. She gave me a bunch of information on the apartment, and offered to get me from the train station when I arrive! 

So then once I get there I'll have a little over a week to get a bank account set up and cell phone and all that good stuff. I have my cell phone from when I studied abroad that I will most likely use for the first few weeks, then I am thinking that I will try to use my cell phone from here, which means I will need to get it unlocked.

So next on my to-do list is my visa appointment in a couple of weeks. So I need to get all of that stuff in order. Meaning my work contract, passport photo, a long-stay application form, drivers license, OFII form, and copies of everything. 

I also need to get an apostille on my birth certificate, which I think is just a sticker which certifies it internationally. 

Thennn I need to make a decision about if I want to see if I can get my birth certificate translated here or if I want to wait until I get to France. 

It would also be a good idea to start brainstorming things that I can do in the classroom, since I have no ideas right now. 

In the meantime, I'm in Texas visiting my dad and my brother. Nothing too exciting, but its nice to not do anything since I have a feeling the next couple of months are going to get busy. 

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!

So much excitement, so little time!

Welp, I did it. College. I graduated yesterday and it was so surreal. It seemed as though I had been waiting and ready to graduate for so long and then all of a sudden it was over. I also had some of the most fun at college just during that last week there which makes graduating even harder, but I know that I'll have my friends forever so that keeps me smiling.

In other news, I am leaving for France in 3 days! That also doesn't seem real. Usually before a trip I do a ton of researching and start packing and planning weeks in advanced, but I wasn't able to do that this time with the end of school and finals and all the craziness of moving out, so it's kinda weird. I'm not too worried though. I guess after studying abroad and having to travel by myself a lot for that I have gotten used to it, but I still feel like I should be more stressed than I am. 

I'm so excited though because I will meet up with my boyfriend in Dijon!! There was a lot of construction going on when I lived there so it will be cool to see how it all looks now! I'll only be there for a night though, which is kind of sad, but the next day we will be driving to Nantes, where my boyfriend is from (and where I will be next year). I'm excited for the drive because I'll get to see a lot of the country this way. Then I am not sure what we will be doing, I guess relaxing a bit and seeing some of the region. The second or third week I am there we are planning to do a bit of a road trip down to Marseille, and we'll be stopping at a bunch of other cities on the way. I think this may be what I am most excited about because I have never been to Marseille or any of the cities we are stopping at. Also during the four weeks I am there, I will get some much needed practice in speaking French. I know I am a bit rusty so while I'm sure there will be a lot of stressful/uncomfortable/awkward conversations, it will all be good for me and helpful for when I go back in September.

I also have this crazy unrealistic hope that I will find out what city I will be teaching in next year while I'm there. I got a second email from TAPIF last week which gave us some information about work visas and what we will need to do for that (like make an appointment soon), and they told us that our académies (regions) are preparing our work contracts now and that we should hear about them in between June and August*. Then they gave us our American Assistant Handbook, which tells us everything we need to know about everything pretty much. So anyways, it would just be perfect if I found out where I would be teaching while I am in France this month so that I could maybe go see the city/surrounding cities and figure out where I might want to live. 

So yeah, everything is happening so fast, but I'm so excited and so happy about all of it.


*Not sure if I had explained this already, but I was assigned to the académie de Nantes. The académie is just a region in France, sort of like a state here, so when I get my work contract, they will tell me where and which schools exactly I will be teaching at. So it's pretty exciting.