No Longer Homeless

I got my arrêté de nomination!!!!! Even though I already knew I will be teaching in 2 schools in Nantes from emailing someone, it was still very exciting! It's now confirmed: I will be teaching at Lycée Polyvalent Monge La Chauvinière and Collège Le Breil in Nantes proper. Oh, I forgot the best news...

I have housing!!!!!

According to my arrêté de nomination, the high school I will be teaching at has a room for me for 85 euros (around $120) a month!!! I really lucked out! Now while everyone else will be stressing out about finding a place to live when they get to France, I will get to relax and focus on finding a bank and getting settled in. I don't know much about the room except that it is part of the school. Either they have a special room reserved for assistants, or it'll be a dorm-like setting with the students who go there and live at the school. Either way, I'm glad not to be homeless. Though I did want to live in Centre Ville so that I would be in walking distance of everything, cheap housing is winning out right now. I would be lucky to get an apartment for under 350 euros (around $500) a month so my room at the school is looking very nice right about now. Plus I am just a short bus/tram ride away from downtown. No complaints here!

Hopefully good luck keeps coming my way!

I'm Going Back to Nantes!!

Well July is more than halfway over and I still have not received my work contract. I did, however, email someone from the Rectorat de Nantes and found out I will be teaching in Nantes proper!! I was so happy and relieved to find out that I won't be stranded in the middle of the nowhere. I will be teaching at a lycée (high school) and collège (junior high) really close to the Université de Nantes.I am beyond excited!

Hopefully my work contract will come soon since my visa appointment is August 16th! Also, my work contract will most likely tell me whether or not I have housing at one of my schools. If not, I want to start looking at possible apartments and maybe figuring out a roommate situation with other assistants. If I do have housing at one of my schools, I still may want to find an apartment so that I can be in centre ville, but at least I would have somewhere to stay as soon as I arrive.

Here is a map of Nantes and my schools:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=216695735696671489283.0004a85f9d12da4cbe1bb&msa=0&ll=47.224931,-1.501007&spn=0.125206,0.338173

Here are some pictures from last time I was in Nantes!

Still Waiting

Approximately 2.5 months left until I am in France!

This is my third week teaching summer school and with having to plan and teach two 2.5 hour classes each day, all I can think about is going to France in the Fall. I'm definitely looking forward to my 12 hours a week schedule after all these hours in summer school.

Unfortunately, I still have no idea what city/town I'll be teaching in. Assistants in most other academies have begun getting their work contracts, but no one in Nantes so far. A few people have gotten letters or email saying what city they're in. Not me. I am getting so anxious! It's really all I can think about, especially at school. I've even been having nightmares about being placed in the middle of nowhere. I just want to know!! The good news is I'll definitely find out by August 15th. The bad news is that's still over a month away. I will just have to try to be patient! It's difficult when so many other people are finding out, but I know I will eventually. 

Paperwork and Logistics, Oh La La!

I am have now arrived at the "pain in the butt" part of preparing to go to France next year. I had heard the paperwork was annoying, but I can definitely tell that I will be staying quite busy the next few months. TAPIF assistants received directions to fill out 4 copies of a form that our academies will use to get us work contracts so that we can legally work in France. Once the work contracts are sent to us over the summer, we will be able to apply for long-stay visas so that we can legally work and live in France for up to 12 months. The part that is annoying about all this is that they recommend that we book a visa appointment with the consulate soon and it is supposed to be at least a month before we plan on leaving so that we ensure our visas arrive before we are set to leave. However, you can't get a visa without the work contract and I have NO idea when they will send me the work contract. Apparently it is sometime between June and August. I'm just going to have to book mine for earlyish August and hope my contract arrives before then.

Also, since we don't know when the visas will arrive, the program recommends that we refrain from buying plane tickets until we at least have the work contracts. I know that is probably the safe thing to do, but it made me nervous waiting so long to buy it when the prices could go up a ton. Therefore, I ignored the recommendation of the program and went ahead and bought my tickets. I will be leaving for France September 26th and returning December 17th for Christmas break. Since we are supposed to start teaching October 1st, I'm not terribly worried about the visa not coming in time. I think the date I picked is late enough in September that it won't be a problem. There is also a lot I need to do when I get there (find a place to live, open a bank account, etc.) so I want to make sure I have a few days to settle in before I begin work. It definitely feels good to have at least one thing all figured out! A lot of other assistants seem to be buying their plane tickets now as well so I do not foresee any issues.

For anyone who plans on visiting me next year, here are the breaks I have:

1. October 22 - November 2
2. December 17 - January 3 (I will be coming home for Christmas)
3. February 11 - February 26
4. April 7 - April 22
5. April 30 (my last day) -

There are some of the places I want to visit:

• Ireland
• Scotland
• Spain
• Portugal
• Morocco
• Egypt
• Many places in France!!!

If you plan on visiting, start thinking about when you might like to come and where you might like to go.

I'm Back!

Since I will soon be going to France again, I thought I'd start getting in the habit of blogging so that my friends can see what I'm up to in the land of crepes, chateaux, and strikes. No, I am not going until October... but you can't blame me for being excited and starting a few [read: 6] months ahead.

Some of my more loyal followers may realize this isn't the same blog I had last time. Though I would have liked to continue where I left off after I studied abroad, I somehow got locked out of my account so c'est impossible.

I just got accepted to be a teaching assistant in France, which means that I will spend 12 hours a week, for 7 months, teaching English lessons to French high school students. Admittedly, 12 hours a week does not seem like much, but it will give me plenty of time to explore the town and travel a lot. I will be teaching in the Académie de Nantes, which is where I studied abroad. French académies are very large, however, so I will not necessarily be teaching in the city of Nantes. French school districts cover large regions and there are many positions in smaller cities and towns in the region. I will not find out exactly what town I'll be in until this summer, so I could really be anywhere in the district. I've heard horror stories of assistants getting placed in tiny rural towns in the middle of nowhere with no form of transportation and no other assistants. I'd prefer being in a city, but I do think being placed in a smaller town would make the experience more authentic. I wouldn't mind it as long as there is at least one more assistant and decent transportation. No matter what, I will still be in France! 

I also discovered that this 7 month period includes many different breaks. There is a 2 week break at the end of October, 2 weeks for Christmas, 2 weeks around February, and 2 weeks in April! Plan your visits accordingly.