New Adventures!

Bonjour tous!

As many of my friends and family have heard, I will be moving to Paris, France this fall!

Last year as I was finishing up my student teaching, I was unsure of what I wanted to do with my life. My French teacher from BYU-Idaho suggested I look into a program called TAPIF (Teaching Assistant Program in France). TAPIF hires foreign students or recent graduates to come teach students in their foreign tongue. Having always dreamed of living in France, I jumped on this opportunity and applied for a spot. On April 9, 2015 I received the best belated birthday present ever! I was accepted into the program in the Académie de Versailles. I could not believe it!! I was so excited. After that came the longest wait ever. I had to wait until my work contract (arrêté de nomination) came in the mail to know the city and school I would be living in. I started saving all the money I could. Bought a plane ticket to San Francisco for my VISA appointment and a plane ticket to France!

I made my VISA appointment at the French consulate in San Francisco for the beginning of August; thinking my contract would be there on time. It wasn't. Thankfully, the consulate was very understanding and told me to come to my appointment and send a PDF of the contract when it arrived. So off to San Francisco I went. I got to spend time with my sister, her husband, and my niece. It was a wonderful time. We ate at Panera, walked around San Anselmo, walked all over downtown SF, ate at the Cheesecake Factory on the 8th floor of the Macy's and I went to my appointment. The appointment itself only took about 10 min. They asked for my stuff and the dates and told me to email my contract when I got it. I joked with the worker that my contract would be in the mail box when I got home. While waiting at the airport I asked my old roommate Katie to check the mail for me (since I wanted to know if it was there). She texted back that it was!!! I could not wait to get home! I begged her to meet me at midnight at the McDonald's off the freeway. We met up and I opened my contract right there. I was so excited to find out I would be teaching at Lycée Pasteur in Neuilly-sur-Seine!! Neuilly is right outside of Paris. Who knew my joke with the consulate was actually the truth! I immediately called my mom and sent texts out to everyone who I promised I would tell when I found out. I wonder if my excitement was similar to that of a missionary opening their calling. I sent my contract off to the consulate first thing Monday morning and had my VISA that Saturday. What a blessing that was!

Lycée Pasteur 

According to my contact at the school Neuilly is a very "posh" and safe area. I will be teaching 17/18 year olds who are getting ready to take le bac (the baccalaureate exam that all students take before the graduate from Lycée). I will be focusing on: conversation, the idea progress, government (seats and forms of power), spaces and exchanges, and myths/heroes. I'm looking forward to teaching in France and experiencing their educational system first hand and taking that back here to the U.S. for my future students.

Now I am preparing for my move! I've been house hunting (I thought it was hard finding a place to live in UT from MN...this is harder). I've been trying to get everything else in order: car, phone, bills that will continue while I'm gone, and getting a blog started.

This blog is to help keep everyone up-to-date on my adventures in France. I will continue to make posts on Facebook and Instagram. However this will have more details and I will try to keep it updated with my life while over there! If you have any suggestions of places I should eat or visit. Please let me know!!

Last but not least my favorite words from this week: "By taking this leap of faith you will either find solid ground or learn how to fly."

Bisous!

Jenny