First Days in Chambery

I'm finally back in France and it feels great! Sort of... I happened to get a really bad cold mid-flight and I'm still dealing with that, but French medicine can do wonders so I'm hoping for a quick recovery. The worst part about not feeling well is that I couldn't breathe or taste when I first arrived, and I still can't intermittently... for example on my way to dinner tonight.

That nonsense aside, I spent a lot of the day today exploring the city by myself, which was really fun. It's not a huge place; but me being, well, me, I got lost at least a dozen times and re-traced my steps in about half of those instances. I bought a towel, which was SUPER expensive, and a card to convert my cell phone into a  French pay-as-you-go phone, but I still have to go to an Algerian store and have someone "debloquer" it; that's the French way of saying that it needs to be unlocked for use with a French SIM card. I still haven't opened a bank account or gotten a bus pass yet, but I have big plans for doing that tomorrow.

I am thus far really pleased with my foyer (kind of like a dorm/apartment/hostel) and I can see one of the coolest parts of the nearby mountain from my bedroom window. Even more importantly, I have my own bathroom! I haven't talked to anyone here yet because I still can't get two words out without whoever I'm talking to realizing that I'm American and my French is super rusty, but I imagine I'll get to that in time. So far as the lady who runs the joint knows, I'm the only American here, and I think the only native English speaker. It's a little intimidating, but I think it's also a great help because I feel as though in less than two days I've covered as much ground as I did in a week during my study abroad three years ago.

I have a place to live!

My contact person in France is kind of a superhero... or at least to me he is. He found me a place to live! I can either stay there short term (a week) or long term (the duration of my contract) and I will have a room waiting for me when I get to France on the 28th! He's even picking me up from the train station, which is a huge weight off of my shoulders, believe me. It's not that it's difficult to figure out public transportation in France, per se, but problems naturally arise after some 18 hours of traveling by air and train and while carrying three heavy bags onto buses.

Here is a link for my new lodgings. It's called "La Clairiere" (there is an accent over the first "e" which I can't for the life of me figure out). It's what's called a "foyer", something like a cross between a hostel and a dorm. I hope that things work out here because I would like to be able to meet people quickly and of about the same age as myself, and it's close to the Universite de Savoie (again, an accent over the "e" in universite, but I don't know how to do that yet). I'll be in a tiny 10m squared room, but my sincere hope is to not be in that room very often. I also get two meals a day for something like two euro per meal if I try their dining option, which I plan to do.


A lot of stress has been relieved already, and I'm looking forward to leaving even more than yesterday! If only I could get the focus to write my statements of purpose I'd be doing great...

Less than a week to go...

I didn't actually end up being all that productive last week, what with getting caught in tornadoes and celebrating my birthday and all, so I have to make up for that lack of drive this week. My bags are nearly packed, and I think I managed to take only one checked and two carry-on bags; a feat for which I am immensely proud. I talked to one of the Psych professors at OU about applying to graduate school and I need to start researching faculty, reading research articles, and start my statement of purpose soon. Mostly, though, I'm just excited and ready to leave!

Speaking of leaving, I still don't technically have a place to go once I get into my city. I am waiting to hear back from my contact person from my school district and the other American assistants in my city, but if I haven't gotten any word by tomorrow I'm going to look into hostels and / or hotels. I'm not all that worried about finding a place for just a few days, or even finding a long-term place, when I get there. The beauty of traveling in France, if my last experience is at all representative, is that it is very easy to find affordable lodging at the last minute.

I will be getting rid of my American cell phone once I find the time to replace it with a French one, so don't expect to receive a response from my number as of... let's just go ahead and say Monday.

Back to work now... tons of stuff to do before I'm ready!

But here is a picture from the Jersey Shore birthday shuffle :

Update

This week I'm babysitting and finally decided to get my life together, so I'm correcting my CV, writing my statement of purpose, and starting to read up on medical judgment and decision making for grad school applications. To get ready for France (I leave in two weeks!) I'm looking for a French bank, looking more thoroughly at apartments in France, and checking out where I can stay for the first week or so while I check out the apartments in person. I don't really want to get into a lease without seeing a place first since I'm going to be living there for so long, and it shouldn't be too difficult to find a hostel or other place to crash while I look at places.


Also, birthday this Sunday!  A full weekend is planned, including a HUGE dinner. Hopefully there will be pictures to post later.

FIRST POST

Ok, so I started this blog a little early so that I could give an introduction of what I'm going to be writing about for anyone who doesn't know all the intimate details.. I also might post some things about applying to grad school which is turning out to be almost as laborious a process as it was getting all of my visa materials ready in about two days.

I'm working in a city in France for the French government teaching English as an "assistant d'une langue vivante" for an academic school year. I don't really know a whole lot more than that, because all of the information given so far has been centered around just making sure that the assistant(e)s know where to be and when.

But I'll be in Chambéry on September 28th, and in Grenoble from October 1-3rd for my orientation, or "stage" in French. There I'll hopefully find out what I'm actually doing this school year more specifically than just teaching 6-11 year olds in one, two, or three elementary schools. I'll also hopefully (fingers crossed) have a place to live by that point.

My contract runs from the orientation on October 1st all the way until June 30th, but since my visa doesn't expire until next September that leaves some leeway for me to travel through the country in July if I have enough money. I'd love to be there for Bastille Day, just to see what it's like.

Like I said, I'll be teaching in Chambéry, France, a city I'd never heard of before being assigned to work there for 9 months. According to the not-extensive, mostly wikipedia research that I've done (I may have graduated from college, but I still use the shortcuts of any masterful, lazy undergrad) it seems like a pretty cool place. It's nestled in between two ranges of the Alps and is apparently well known for its natural beauty. Close to some of the world's best ski resorts and crystal-clear lakes, it is situated about an hour's train ride from both Switzerland and Italy.

I can't wait to take some pictures of the locale to share, but I guess I'll have to be patient for just a little bit longer.