Monday, July 11, 2011

patience? what's that?

i said in an earlier post that my placement for this new awesome job of mine will be in lille, france..ish. lille, just an hour from paris by tgv, is right on the border of belgium and is closer to london than charlotte is from boone. (does anyone want to buy me a rail pass?) i used that ish because i have no clue where exactly i'll be living/teaching. when we were first accepted into this program, we were assigned to an 'académie.' these académie's are basically school districts. large school districts that practically cover an entire region of france. my region: nord pas de calais. which is big.

after we were accepted to the program, we were told to wait. wait to hear from our schools and wait to receive our official work contracts. when will we find out all of this very important information? WHO KNOWS. my sweet little sister, who is doing the same exact program (just in a different part of the country), found out approximately a month ago the schools where she will be teaching and the city where she will be living. i, however, have heard NOTHING. not a peep. i'm hoping it's because my school is SO awesome and they don't want everyone else who was placed in the 'académie de lille' to be so jealous of my placement that they're waiting until the last possible moment to contact me.

unfortunately i need to do important things like go get my visa, which i can't do until i have my official contract. i also have to make an appointment to get this visa, which should be made about a month or so in advance. ahhhh i'm stressed just thinking about all of this. i did had a dream the other night that they gave me a vespa for having to wait so long to find out where i'll be living..which is very very unlikely, but would be the bomb.com and would make all of this stress worth it.

i've been avoiding reading paperwork, looking for apartments, planning my life, etc., mostly because the excitement might just be too much. don't get me wrong, i am so excited for this, but it all seems so fake right now. i don't feel like i'm moving anywhere. i'm practically in limbo, and for those of you who haven't seen the cartoon version of anastasia..rasputin spent some time there, and he didn't even seem to like it and he was terrrrrrrrrible. i can say the words "i'm moving to france in september" but in my head it has started to sound like "blah blah blah blah blah blah."

so keep all your little fingers crossed for me..i would really like to find out where i'm placed so when i say "i'm moving to france in september" it sounds more like "HSKSGLEWYYIUSWGJKGS***!!!!!!!!"

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

the little things

paperwork. apparently moving to a different country isn't as easy as just hopping on a plane. who knew? well, i did, but that's because i'm not a moron. i knew this process would be tedious, repetitive, and would take forever (and ever.) what is getting to me is the nuances i've let slip from my mind. the little things that are i know are different here in the states than they are in europe. for instance... date of birth: month/day/year? no. not there. in europe it's day/month/year. phone number: country code first. +1. it only took me 3 tries to get my first set of forms right..not too shabby, right?

those are the easiest of the differences...i don't even want to talk about the metric system. just kidding, i do. i have been to canada a few times so the kilometer is not a foreign concept to me. i was also a huge fan of the card game 'milles bornes' as a kid. however, when it comes to conversions i tend to use "ish-es". for instance: 100kph = 65mph...ish. i also wish we used celsius. it makes so much more sense. who's idiot idea was it to make 32 degrees the mark for freezing in fahrenheit? why 32? i'm used to it, but that doesn't mean it's not dumb. 75 fahrenheit is the practically the perfect temperature. 75 celsius would do more than just melt your face off.

i've never been much for reading directions. i for some reason prefer to learn from my mistakes instead of taking the time to read the instructions first. when assembling things i put things where it looks like they go (manuals are always confusing.) circle circle square square. easy enough? yes, it usually is easy enough and we played games like these as toddlers. there is a reason i don't like taking direction. i'm usually smarter than things. good example: my gps. i only ever really need it when i'm in a different city...most of the time. i know better than it does that 1-77 is never the fastest way to get to raleigh or greensboro. i also know better than it does that i can cut through parking lots to save myself 20 whole seconds. another sign i'd like to wear around my neck: i'm always right. well, maybe not always, but a large majority of the time, i'm right and everyone else is wrong (and stupid)...

i suppose now that i'm 24 (and a half) i should consider taking direction and following rules, but that doesn't seem fun. i'm going to have to quit being so stubborn sometime though. i'll start practicing...tomorrow.