Je cherche un petit appartement français.

Things I've learned in the past two days:

• French apartment hunting is a LOT harder than I thought.
• My French is a little better than I thought!
• You have to have a French bank account to rent a French apartment through an agency.
• You can't have a French bank account until you have an address in France. Oh là là.
• People in France don't check their email.
• People in France just discovered lean cuisines.

Well, these past couple days have been interesting! I found the perfect little apartment in the perfect location and it's actually within my budget! It even has that thing where you have to buzz people in at the door, complete with a winding staircase (both secret requirements of mine)! BUT, it's for rent through an agency, which I didn't think would be a huge deal. Well, I was wrong. It is a huge issue because my parents cannot sign as my guarantors because they don't have a French bank account! So the only way that I've discovered so far to get an apartment through an agency here if you're not a French citizen is to prove that you have enough money in your FRENCH bank account (mine doesn't exist yet) to pay off the rent for the ENTIRE year, which is completely absurd. So I've got an appointment tomorrow to open my French account which I've heard is a royal pain - wish me luck, and then hopefully it might work. I'm using the address of the couple I'm staying with temporarily. Hopefully the people at the bank won't be mean to me! Also, literally no one on French craigslist - leboncoin.fr answers their emails/calls. I must've made at least 15 calls today and only got one response. So I have a real estate agency that I can't rent from and a web site where no one answers your inquiries! C'est difficile! But, it will all work out. Just stressful right now. I always joked that I would be homeless on the condition that I could do it in France. Well... be careful what you wish for??

Also, going to my school tomorrow to introduce myself! I'm a little bit nervous, but I'll just have to show those lycéens who's boss. Found out tonight I'm not supposed to speak any French with the students, so that'll be a nice break, but I'm getting so used to it now I'm afraid it'll just slip out! On verra.

Bonne nuit tout le monde!

Alors, on mange.

Bonjour tout le monde!

This has been a crazy week and I feel I've kind of neglected my blogging obligations, but alas, wifi is scarce in France and French keyboards are frustrating because the keys are all mixed up (using one right now, hopefully my patience lasts)!

Spent five days in Paris hanging with two other girls doing the assistantship in my region. We also met up with one of the girl's friends from New Jersey who now lives in Paris with her boyfriend. We went to the catacombs, Notre Dame, and my favorite place in Paris, Luxembourg Gardens. Pictures to follow when I have my own internet!

Friday I took the train from Paris to Tours with what really did end up being 150 lbs of luggage - I was exagerrating before when I said I thought it would weigh that much! Luckily people were really nice and helped me and I made it with all my things in tact. I must've looked pretty pitiful. I was greeted in Tours by two English teachers at my school - one whom I've been in contact with all summer, a very nice British lady named Janet, and the other lady who I've been staying with since I got to Tours - Frédérique, a French woman who speaks English with an impeccable British accent! She plays the steel drums and lives in a fantastic house with her cat and Jean-Marc, her partner. Très French.They are extremely nice and have been taking very good care of me since I got here. Jean-Marc reminds me a lot of my dad, so that should help when the homesickness kicks in! Even though Frédérique speaks English, we have been conversing in mostly French. Il faut pratiquer! They are very social and I've already gone to two parties with them, one in Amboise. One thing I've learned about French parties is that they eat and drink constantly: It's literally like an all-day feast! I've been brave thus far and even tried pâté and andouillette. If you don't know what it is, spare yourself and don't look it up! Did I mention I was the only non-French person at said parties? Oh la la. Talk about being the center of attention! Also I forgot you have to "faire la bise" with literally EVERYONE when you arrive and leave! It's kinda time consuming!

Frédérique, or Fred as everyone calls her, showed me around the town yesterday morning to help me get situated. Tours is absolutely picturesque. It's in the Loire valley between the Loire (clearly) and the Cher rivers. Let's hope it doesn't flood though! I'm hoping to get an apartment in "le Vieux Tours" (the old Tours) where the buildings date back centuries. This is the liveliest part of town, the downtown area near the market (I'm obsessed with French markets) and also where everyone goes when they "go out." This brings me to my next challenge, apartment hunting. Tomorrow is my first real day of apartment hunting since I had quite a bit going on this weekend, so this should be interesting! I'm going at it solo since Fred's working tomorrow, and people here don't really speak English so this should be a serious test for my French. Wish me luck!

Things are kind of crazy right now, but I love it here so far and cannot wait to get settled in! Somedays I do wake up just wanting to speak English though. Oh well, c'est la vie!

Ma vie en France

Hello all,

Since I told many of you I would blog about my move to France, I am going to attempt to keep my word.

For those of you who don't know, I am moving to Tours, France for the upcoming school year to serve as an English teaching assistant in a local high school. The school is a "technical" high school (I'm thinking junior college-like) so instead of normal high school age, the kids are 15-20 years old. Yikes. I just turned 22 in July! Hopefully they won't eat me alive. I'm going with a program called TAPIF (Teaching Assistant Program in France) that takes about 1,500 Americans every year to do the exact same thing as me, so I definitely am not alone! My teaching contract ends April 30th and my visa expires on June 17, 2012, so even though I'll probably teach over there for two years (they kick you out of the program after that), I will definitely be home in Georgia for about 3-4 months next summer, but I'm not coming home for the holidays or anything before that, barring any major catastrophes.

I fly out of Atlanta this Saturday night at 8:35 (officially tomorrow since it's after midnight!!!) and will arrive in Paris around 11:35 am their time, 5:35 am Atlanta time. I am planning on spending 5 days hanging out & recovering from jet lag in Paris in a youth hostel called Young & Happy. Really. It's located in the Latin Quarter, so not far at all from Notre Dame - a fantastic area of Paris! I'm planning on meeting up with a few other TAPIF participants placed in my region when I get there, so it'll be nice to see some friendly faces! Getting around when I first get there should be really interesting because I'm taking two suitcases AND a carry-on. And I refuse to take a cab from the airport because it costs 50 euros. I am just crossing my fingers that I can somehow acquire superhuman strength before Saturday because it's probably going to end up being about 150 lbs of luggage. Ugh. Pray for escalators EVERYWHERE. But I'll manage and it will be so worth it!

After hanging out in Paris, I'm heading to Tours via train on Friday the 23rd. When I first get there I'll be staying with another English teacher at my school who is kind enough to keep me while I look for somewhere to live. I'm hoping to find an apartment downtown that will work with my modest salary, but September is supposedly the hardest month to find an apartment in France because that's when all the students go back to school, and they beat me to it. They've been back for about two weeks, but I'm sure I'll find something! And October 3rd is officially my first day of my teaching contract. As far as I understand, we have about a week of orientation and then we are thrown into the classroom. Luckily since I'm a teaching assistant, I'm not going to have as much responsibility as the actual teacher, which is good since I have no teaching experience. I'm usually going to be working with another teacher in the classroom, so I won't have to worry about discipline too much hopefully. My plan for the next nine months is to just have as much fun as possible while gaining some teaching experience and deciding whether or not it's something I want to pursue when I come back to the U.S. for good in a couple of years, which I hope it is, because there are not a ton of things I can do with my bachelor's in French, though I did love it. And of course, travel is of the utmost importance. A few countries on the list are Germany, Italy, Ireland, and Spain. I'm thinking celebrating my Bavarian heritage during Germany's Oktoberfest sounds like a fantastic idea. It's going to be a whirlwind adventure, for sure. I am starting to get really nervous, but I really cannot imagine myself doing anything different with this time after college and I can hardly wait to see what awaits me over the next year.

As far as staying in touch, my American cell phone won't work over there, so facebook or skype are really the best ways to go! No idea when I'll have internet access again, but hopefully à bientôt, mes amis!