Hi everyone... Patrick here. Never thought I would buy into all this "blogging" business, but alas, here i am. I figured this would be the best way for people to keep up with my adventures in France during my year as an Enlish teaching assistant. So the basics i guess will be a good place to start. I will be in the town of Moulins, France (moulins = windmills) which including the surrounding areas has a population of about 40,000. Pretty small, right, but I'm hoping the small-town atmosphere will help me in meeting a lot of people and also in avoiding english-speaking tourists. I will be living in a foyer d'étudiants which doesn't really translate into English very well. I guess you could describe it as a dormitory that isn't really associated with any specific school. Hopefully I will be living in close proximity with the other language assistants for Moulins which means people my age from Spain, England, Portugal, Germany, etc. etc. This should be pretty cool because we will all speak French amongst ourselves as a common language. As of right now I don't really know anything! My contact in France, Madame Lecole (ironic name, since L'école means school!) refuses to answer my e-mails with anything more than a 4 or 5 word answer. I know I will be teaching in up to 4 different primary schools with children ranging from age 9 to 11. Should be interesting since I have no formal training in teaching! And as the assistants from last year in Moulins have told me, I will not be a teaching assistant as my job description implies, but rather the full-blown English professor. They told me I would most likely be the only person in any of the schools who even speaks English! I'm working on packing my suitcase right now and trying to decide what on Earth I need to take with me while minimizing the amount of crap I'm gonna have to lug around two airports, a cab ride, and a train station. I don't even know if I'm going to be able to take up lodging immediately in the foyer d'étudiants or if I will need to stay in a hotel/hostel the first few nights! Tout va se montrer en deux jours... All will reveal it self in two days! I will post again upon my arrival where I am sure I will have adventures to tell from the 20 hour process of getting from Dudley, Georgia to Moulins, France.
2.5 hours Dudley - Atlanta
3 hours International check-in, security, etc.
9 hours Atlanta - Paris
2 hours layover in Paris
1 hour Paris - Clermont-Ferrand
1 hour layover in Clermont, cab-ride to train station
1 hour train from Clermont-Ferrand to Moulins
2 comments:
exciting! didn't know that you would be at multiple schools...should be interesting! bon voyage!
exciting! didn't know that you would be at multiple schools...should be interesting! bon voyage!
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