One week..

A week from right now I will be on a plane headed for Paris. I have some VERY mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I love France and I am excited to return and live like a Parisian for seven months and to see my French friends. On the other hand, leaving Dave has got me all kinds of emotional. In reality, I'm doing this for us so that I can get a job, and eventually get medical benefits for both of us. However, after getting used to living together for a little while another separation seems devastating. I'm sure once I get there I will snap back into "long distance mode", but right now the idea of it makes me want to throw up a little. We do have plans for when we can talk, and we are doing a running program right now so we are going to keep doing the same workouts to stay connected that way. It's the little things that keep you sane when you're apart, honestly.

In other news, I got this e-mail today (you can skip it, it's more for informational purposes):

Dear Assistants,

I hope you are all getting excited to begin your year teaching in France! I have some information for you about your orientation "stages" and a couple of other quick notes!
The CIEP has compiled lists of the regional orientation sessions for primary school and secondary school assistants. Most Académies are included in these lists, but some are still working out the final details for orientation and have not sent us their orientation information yet. If this is the case for your Académie, you can expect to receive more information about your orientation soon from your Académie. If you don't get more details by October 1st, your school or contact person should be able to give you more information once you arrive in France.

For primary school assistants (écoles élementaires):
http://www.ciep.fr/assistantetr/docs/stages-d-accueil-academies-premier-degre.pdf

For secondary school assistants (collèges et lycées):
http://www.ciep.fr/assistantetr/docs/stages-d-accueil-academies-second-degre.pdf
You are expected to report to your school, circonscription, or orientation "stage" on October 1, 2010. If your Académie's orientation is later than October 1, you are still expected to go to your school or circonscription on the first to introduce yourself. You will hopefully be able to reach your contact person or school before you leave to arrange a time and place to meet for the first day, but if you cannot get in touch with them, you should still plan on going on October 1 to the address listed on your arrêté. If for some reason you are unable to be there on this date, you MUST contact your school and académie to ask if that will be a problem. I cannot give you permission to arrive late. Most schools are understanding as long as you inform them of any delays.
Logistical and Teaching Resources: We updated our program website this summer to include some useful links for current assistants. Hopefully these links will come in handy if you ever have questions about logistics (if you can't find the Assistant Handbook for instance!) or teaching ideas. Our site for current assistants is still a work in progress, so please let us know if you have anything to add that you think might be useful to others! The CIEP's assistant website also has a lot of good information, including the PDFs with up-to-date orientation details, as well as the "Carnet de route" and "Guide de l'assistant de langue":

TAPIF site for current assistants
www.frenchculture.org/spip.php?rubrique640&tout=ok

CIEP site for assistants
www.ciep.fr/assistantetr/index.php
Finally, please remember to e-mail me at assistant.washington-amba@diplomatie.gouv.fr if you change your e-mail address this year. We would like to be able to contact you with important information during the year! Please also feel free to contact me by e-mail if you have questions or encounter any problems while in France. I will always do my best to help you find answers or to at least point you in the right direction, however it is important to remember that in many situations, your school and académie contacts will be in the best position to help you. Even if you don’t have a question or problem, feel free to send a quick e-mail just to let us know how you are doing! Hearing from current assistants helps us keep up-to-date with what is going on with the program in France and also helps us improve the program for future years.

I want to emphasize that the weeks prior to your departure and your first few weeks in France will be challenging, but wonderful. Many of you will essentially be entering the “real world” this year, and this world will be French. You will be faced with new challenges that you may not have had to deal with yet on your own and you will have to do this all in French! I wish all of you the best of luck with your transition to life in France.

Bon courage et bon voyage!

Carolyn COLLINS
Educational Affairs Program Officer
Teaching Assistant Program in France
Embassy of France
4101 Reservoir Road
Washington, D.C. 20007

www.frenchculture.org/assistantshipprogram

I have been trying really hard to get in touch with my school, but to no avail. I e-mailed the only contact e-mail listed on their website on September 1st, when school started and they updated the site. They don't list the teachers and their e-mail addresses like ALL of the school websites I've seen in the U.S. They just list the name of the headmaster, no e-mail. I haven't gotten a response from that yet. I tried e-mailing another agency listed on there for recruiting students to that school but it bounced back. I have tried sending a fax to the number listed three separate times from three separate fax machines but the number is busy. Not sure if they even have the machine on. I REALLY don't want to have to call, because I have a hard enough time understanding people on the phone in English, let alone in French. Plus when I get nervous and spit out some jibberish I don't want them to be like "This stupid American can't speak French! Let's all laugh at her collectively!" Non, merci. I even tried stalking the headmaster on Facebook. Nada. Le sigh. Oh well, I guess if worse comes to worse I can go in person when I arrive. That way at least I'll know where I'm going on October 1st.

Also, ever since TAPIF sent out the contact info for everyone in my region, I have been messaging with this girl, Maja. We have a strange amount of things in common. We are both vegetarian, we both worked in the library at our universities, Rugrats is our favorite Nicktoon, we both love Brian Kinney, etc. She seems very cool and right up my friend alley. I told her about how I had to find a place to stay until the shower is installed. She arrives September 20th, and will be staying at her mom's friend's apartment while the friend is out of town, and invited me to join her. I am so relieved. After arriving in Paris all alone last time, it makes me feel a lot more comfortable knowing someone will be waiting for me. She said she'd try to make her way back to Charles de Gaulle to meet me when I arrive the next day, and even make a sign with my name on it! That's a relief.

Proof that we were meant to be friends:

Me:

Maja:

The proof is in the pudding.

Wish me luck this week! It's going to be an emotional one.