oh how time flies

finally received my placement a few weeks ago. almost threw up when my sister told me it came in the mail. i will be teaching in two different middle schools. one in armentieres, and one in perenchies. because my computer doesn't have accent symbols the names look weird, but they sound really nice when you say them in french. the greatest part about my placement is that the towns are both so close to lille, i can live there! living in lille is going to be so convenient and there will be so much to do. i don't have any idea how exactly i'm going to go about finding an apt that fits my miniscule budget, but hopefully it won't be too hard. i also can't decide if i want to live with a host family, other assistants, or try to find a place with french people my age. they all have their perks, i just have to find out which one i think will be the perkiest.

the days are flying by like nothing i've ever experienced before. i swear last time i looked at my calendar it was still july. but no, it's actually september. i've had my appointment to apply for my visa, i've booked my plane ticket (and by i booked, i mean my dad worked his airline magic and did it for me..thanks dad!) and i've booked my hostel for my first two nights in lille. after those first two nights i'll be staying at a high school next to the middle school where i'm teaching in armentieres until i find a permanent home. which will be interesting because i have no idea what said living situation is going to be like. my sister and i are leaving charlotte on september 21st and arriving in paris the morning of the 22nd.  we're going to spend a few nights in paris doing everything you can possibly think of to do there. i haven't been to france since the 7th grade and only spent half a day in paris. needless to say there are so many monuments and museums to visit, cafe's to sit in, baguettes to eat, etc. so so much to do. i'll be leaving for lille the morning of the 26th. i'm excited to take trains again. haven't done that since my trip to italy the summer after my senior year of high school.

really this whole experience is going to be incredible. someone i know keeps telling me it will be the time of my life. they're right. but it's gut wrenching and i keep getting sick to my stomach when i think about leaving in less than a month. 

bad news: i found out when i leave i have to get rid of my cell phone number. such a pain. on the bright side, now i have a new 'fake' number to give out to people when i come back to the states.

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***!!!!!!!!"

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.

biggest, bestest news

so, for those of you who aren't familiar with my current situation, i'll catch you up to speed. i graduated from appalachian state in may 2009 with a degree in french and a minor in political science. the day before i was supposed to move home to charlotte after my lease on my apartment was up in boone, i decided to stay. 3 of my best friends were moving into a house and their 4th roommate bailed on them. i had no real job lined up, so i figured, why not? we moved into a piece of crap house and i got a job in a restaurant (and then got another job in a restaurant.) needless to say my parents were less than thrilled. so there i was in boone...waiting tables, waiting tables, and waiting more tables. i had a rocky relationship (understatement) and when my dad called and told me my old job was hiring full time, i couldn't say no. i gave both of my jobs two weeks notice, quit one completely and kept one so i could come up weekends and work still to pay the rent on the aforementioned piece of crap house until the end of july when i would move back to charlotte permanently dundundunnnnnnnnn.

i started back at the doctors office in april 2010. to say i like my job would be like saying the sky is green. a french major working at a doctors office as a receptionist. makes sense, right? and i wear scrubs, which is generally nice, and i like pijamas as much as the next person, but, for some reason everyone seems to think i'm a nurse when i wear said scrubs. want to know how i passed biology? my professor was about 85 and my sorority held faculty appreciation dinners once a year and because that was the class i was struggling with the most, i invited him (this is when he first started to love me.) i went to study groups, test reviews, and was in every 8am class (for those of you that know me, know how pleasant i am in the morning and how much i love to wake up early. (in case you missed it, this is called sarcasm.)) i'm pretty sure he pitied me, so i squeaked by and he didn't fail me...such a nice old man.

most days i wish i could wear a sign around my neck to inform people i have zero medical training and i don't want to see their rashes or hear their sob story about how they were gardening and got poison ivy. don't people know what poison ivy looks like? it has three leaves. now you know. avoid it. i apply hand sanitizer more than any normal person, and have the worlds nicest phone voice. i have come to enjoy the small things at work: when drug reps bring us food, when we get to leave on time, and most of all, when i can get a good nap in on my lunch break, you know, the usual. the best part about my job: i don't work on fridays.

so now for the good stuff. i'm moving to france. in 5 short months. this is easily the best thing that's ever happened to me. i did win 7 dollars in the lottery the other week, but france still comes out on top. i got a job through a program called TAPIF (teaching assistant program in france.) i'll be teaching english to middle school and/or high school age students somewhere near lille. lille is in the northeast, about an hour (by train) from paris, 30 minutes from brussels, and 2 hours from london. my first choice was to be in nice on the mediterranean, so i could be at the beach all the time (sounds nice, huh?) but lille was my second choice and so i'm so excited about where i was placed. i'll be in france, so as long as there's wine, cheese, baguettes and people speaking french all around me, i'll be happy.i am a tad nervous about teaching kids who are most likely my size, but we'll just have to see how that goes....