Three days in Paris...

Today is my second day in Paris, and I am having a great time re-acquainting myself with the city!

Yesterday, after having slept past my alarm and gotten a full 10 hours of sleep (thanks to jet-lag) I was ready to get out and explore! I took the metro to see le Tour Eiffel (of course, I can’t not go see it!) and then walked around the area a bit until I met my friend Christina for lunch. I studied abroad with Christina in 2009, and she’s living here while attending school. I can’t wait to come to Paris periodically to visit her once I get all settled in Rouen!

After lunch, I met up with a fellow Rouen assistant Caroline for some ice cream at Le Berthillion, and we wandered around for a couple of hours and then headed to Saint-Lazare to get our cartes 12-25. A carte 12-25, indicating that one is under 26 years old, can get you train discounts for all trains within France. So, while it would normally cost €25-30 for a train from Paris to Rouen (or the other way around), it will only cost me anywhere from €7 to €12! Yay! While the card itself costs €49, it will more than pay for itself with a few round trips Rouen-Paris, as well as for farther destinations (Bordeaux? Alsace? I am open to recommendations J).

After this, we met up with yet another Rouen assistant and Caroline’s friend of a few years Adam, and their friend Celine (a France native). We had a café at a local…café, and then searched for a good restaurant for dinner. We chose one on Rue Mouffetard, where they served lots of raclette (melted cheese poured on any number of sides); it was a prix-fixe meal, which usually means you get entrée + plat + dessert (equivalent of appetizer + entrée + dessert) for a set price. Our meals were delicious and so rich and filling. I wish I had taken photos! I’ll have to remember for next time. We also shared a delicious bottle of rosé wine suggested to us by our Grecian waiter. We had ordered red, but he insisted that the rosé was wonderful. I usually don’t like pink wines, but it actually was quite good, and was a refreshing accompaniment to our otherwise heavy meals. That didn’t stop me from ordering crème brulée for my dessert option, though ;)

Today is my last day in Paris before I head to Rouen, and I have a lot of paperwork/preparing to do. I have to start looking for banks, as I have heard various pros and cons about all of them. I am also going to seriously start looking for apartments and emailing owners and possible roommates. I have decided to live in Rouen instead of Ebleuf, where I’ll actually be teaching, as it is a bigger city with more to offer. I feel like I might become bored in Elbeuf! What is more, when I mentioned Elbeuf to Celine, Caroline and Adam’s friend, she not so subtly implied that living there would be a regretful decision. Rouen it is!

This whole time, it has been in the back of my mind that in a couple weeks time, I’ll be teaching young French students! I have so much preparation and bureaucracy to deal with that I have not thought too much about what it will be like to be a young teacher (well, assistant) in a foreign country. I don’t want to speculate too much, as every classroom is different, so I will just have to wait and see! Either way, it will be an adventure.

I am also so interested to see how a smaller city differs from Paris. It has, for the most part, been my sole view of France and the French, which is like basing your idea of America and Americans off of New York City and it’s inhabitants!

I’ll try my best to keep you posted on my France adventures, although I’m not sure what my internet situation will be once I leave my Paris hostel. Hopefully it’s not too painful of a process!

A bientôt!

Greetings from Paris...

I have arrived safe and sound in my hostel, and sadly, am ready for a nap! I might do just that and refresh myself before I go find dinner somewhere :)

It's all very overwhelming in the moment, and I can't believe I'm really here. I have a few days before I leave for Rouen, which will hopefully give me some time to figure out my housing situation.

A bientôt!
Hannah

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!

Happy Summer!

It's officially the first day of summer, although I feel as if it's already flying by!


I am living with my friend Erica and her family for the summer, and working on their orchard. It's amazing to be able to spend every day outside, and a vast improvement from the waitressing I'd been doing for so long. I actually look forward to work every day now!


As I've been quite relaxed and relatively carefree this summer, I had a bit of a reality check yesterday. Around 7pm, while reading on the porch, I suddenly thought "I'm leaving in three months from today!!!"


My gut reaction was nervousness, but not a bad kind. The kind that comes from not yet knowing where I'll be teaching (or living, for that matter), not having received my paperwork in the mail yet (though I'm not supposed to get it until later next month), and just the general feeling of not being physically prepared. Mentally, however, I feel I am prepared. 


I am so excited to get back to France, and this time, have a lot of time to really experience it. I have started making a list of things I want to accomplish while I am there, and I feel that I'll find so many opportunities that I can't even imagine right now. 

For now, though, I am going to try to make the summer last and enjoy every minute. It is one of the first summers where I don't have to work 24/7 on weekends and it's amazing to be able to have fun with friends and family. 


Here's to a long and leisurely 3 months :) and an amazing upcoming year!

To-do Lists

I love making lists, and to-do lists are my favorite. I don't often end up doing every single thing on each day's list, but that's okay. I almost like making them more than I like crossing the items off; finishing everything is just a bonus!


So, I decided to make a list for things I want to do in France. I've been abroad before, and I remember how easy it is to just let time pass and not take advantage of every single day. Some of the things on my list include: 

• Become a regular at a café, even if I go just to have a café and read or work on my (eek!) lesson plans. It seems like a nice thing to do!

A café I had in Florence last summer. Yum!

• Keep a journal, as well as of course update my blog. It's amazing how quickly memories fade, but equally amazing how much reading about them can make any day seem like it was just yesterday, and more details come flooding back as a result
• Buy postcards, write on them, and actually send them. I have so many postcards that I've never written on, and several times, I've even written to specific people but never addressed and sent them. How lazy can you get?! I am going to make sure I have addresses on hand so I can actually use postcards for their intended purpose

I have several more, but that's the gist of it. Is there anything you think you'd have to, or really want to do if you were spending an extended time abroad?

Okay bedtime for me, I have a busy day tomorrow! I'm leaving Poughkeepsie for good and heading back to CT for the summer. I'm excited :) 

This is what I did while waiting for my car to be fixed for 3.5 hours today...

The information comes in irresistible tidbits for this program.

I applied in October 2010.  I found out in early April 2011 that I had been accepted. Then, I waited about two weeks for an email detailing my next steps, which turned out to be filling out some important paperwork, getting passport photos taken, and sending copies of my birth certificate and passport to Paris so I can be properly assigned to a school – with a 10-day notice to have it all in the mail! How very French of them ;)

A couple of weeks after this I emailed the woman in charge, Carolyn, to ask whether I would be teaching elementary school (école primaire), or école secondaire (which encompasses middle school and high school). Everybody in the TAPIF (Teaching Assistantship Program in France) Facebook group seemed to know what age they’d be teaching, so I couldn’t resist asking. I was not sure I had any preference and thought it best not to develop a preference when I could get assigned to any of the three levels.

Carolyn emailed me back about a week and a half later - I can only imagine how many emails she gets every day - saying that my contract was for 7 months in école primaire. I am really happy about this! As I said, I did not have a preference in the matter, but I think I secretly hoped that I’d be assigned to elementary school.  Young kids can be unruly and severely lacking in attention span, but I think the indifference of older students might bother me more.

Plus, high school students go on strike a lot.

(source: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/dec2008/demo-d19.shtml)

So the wait continues! I will find out between late June and (dread) late August where exactly in Rouen I will be teaching. It could be a more urban area and close to a train station (read: easy access to Paris J) or somewhere in the middle of nowhere! Until then I cannot make living arrangements in Rouen, nor can I get a visa, which requires proof of residence. I love planning and making careful decisions so this is a bit difficult for me, but I’ll consider it part of the adventure!

Before I applied to this program, I had never seriously considered becoming a teacher. I had thought about it only as a possible answer to that nagging, “what am I going to do with my life?” question running through the minds of most recent college graduates. I think this will be a great way to figure out if teaching would actually be something I would like to do. I feel like I might enjoy being a college French professor, but I’m not sure yet.

One thing that keeps me considering the latter career is a conversation I had with Mr. Bondurand, who was my European Cinema professor during my semester in Paris.  He was a brilliant man and fluent in many languages. After the interview portion of my final exam, which lasted 30 minutes instead of 15 because I blabber when I’m nervous, he said, “You know, you could be a French Professor”.  I don’t remember the context exactly but his words still stick with me. I regarded his opinion highly and those words had a huge impact on me. He saw (or heard) something in me that I did not, and I am so grateful for his confidence.

There he is, in the white shirt. Salut Mr. Bondurand!

For now I am stalking the TAPIF message boards and reading posts by past assistants, which has become somewhat of a new hobby.

Maybe the word “addiction” is more appropriate here?

The posts have information and first-hand experiences in dealing with every possible aspect of packing, travel, preparation, paperwork, teaching, French life, bureaucracy, etc… You can see how it’s easy to get caught up in reading about it all!

I have also been watching plenty of French films on my computer thanks to Netflix. I want to sound like a native by the time I arrive J It’s also a great excuse to watch lots of movies.

One thing that is certain about French citizens is that they love politics. I really, really do not love politics. I try to keep up on what is going on and read my share of news articles, but I lose interest so quickly. Especially since the online news sources I use (mainly www.newyorktimes.com and www.huffingtonpost.com) have great “Food” sections. I can’t help myself! I love what I love, and I love French and food, among other things.

That being said, I feel like I need to take a crash course in both French and American politics and brush up on current events before I leave for France. I can see it now, my  young students asking me, their American assistant, what I think of this or that new policy, and me having no clue what they are talking about.

It is not a far stretch. Eep. Let’s hope I can stay interested enough in some articles long enough to get a general idea of what’s going on in the world. I have, however, picked up no fewer than 6 novels relating to French life and culture, mostly written by Americans who have travelled in France. They are addicting! The list includes

“Lunch in Paris”, by Elizabeth Bard

“Why French Women Don’t Get Fat”, by Mireille Guiliano

“What French Women Know”, by Debra Ollivier

“A Moveable Feast”, by Ernest Hemmingway

“Sixty Million Frenchmen can’t be Wrong – Why We Love France but not the French”, by Jean-Benoit Nadeau

“A Year in Provence”, by Peter Mayle


Somebody stop me! Or at least deactivate my amazon.com account. 

That should keep me busy until I find out my placement! Or, at the rate I’m going, until I finish all those and then break down and read some political articles.

So I'm moving to France....

I can still barely beileve that those words are true! I found out in April that I was accepted to the TAPIF (Teaching Assistsantship Program in France) program, and I recently bought a ONE-WAY plane ticket to Paris that leaves on September 20. It's only one-way because I cannot buy a round trip with a return date past January 2012, and I'll be coming back in May 2012. We'll see if I buy a return ticket ;) hehe. Kidding!


I have been placed in Rouen, France, and my job will be helping a French teacher in an English class - so essentially, I will be an English teacher in an elementary school.

There I am!

Rouen is the capital city of Normandy. As you can see, Rouen itself is quite large. I do not find out where exactly in Rouen I will be teaching for another couple of months. The agony!


Here is a picture of the Rouen Cathedral, as painted by Monet:

I can't wait to explore another area of France, and hopefully more of Europe. I teach 12 hours per week, so I should have plenty of time (and hopefully money!) to travel!


Until then I am waiting patiently for my arrêté de nomination to tell me where my home will be from September 20, 2011 to May 2012!