Wednesday, September 21, 2011

l'Heure est arrivée!



Tuesday September 20, 2011

I am sitting in terminal 8 in JFK airport, and I can hardly believe that my time has come to fly to Paris!

I have had the most amazing summer – better than any in recent memory. I had a job I enjoyed, I saw my friends often (or lived with them ;) ) and had a great time in general. While I’m sad for this part of my year to be ending, I am also ready for my next big adventure.

I will arrive in Paris around 10:30a.m, ready to begin a new day, and hopefully having slept on my 7.5-hour flight! I am so grateful that I have been to Paris before and therefore know my way around the city quite well. It is leading to much less arrival anxiety. Once I arrive, I spend three nights in a hostel in Paris and then head on to Rouen, where I spend four nights at yet another hostel, and spend time trying to find an apartment and working on the mountain of paperwork that I have to get through!

The assistants’ orientation is October 3, so I have some time to get down to business before I am thrust before a class of expecting, hopefully well-behaved and interested, French elementary students. It’s hard to believe that it’s all so soon!

I was telling my friend Erica the other day that whenever I thought about my quickly approaching trip to France, I would feel such a range of emotions that it was hard to even feel one emotion at once; It’s a mixture of excitement, apprehension, anxiety, wonderment, disbelief, and sometimes even calm. The proportions of each emotion would change from time to time, but very quickly! Right now, the sensation of calm is taking over – but something tells me it’s more the feeling of “calm before the storm”! I have prepared as much as possible, and it’s out of my hands for the next 12 hours. All I can hope for now is a safe flight and an easy journey to my hostel (and a successful check-in, as I have not heard back after my reservation confirmation request…).

I hope some of you who are reading this  (assuming you’ve made it this far down) will have the chance to visit me in good old France.  Once I nail down a place to live, that is!

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