I am mostly packed, prepared, ready and rearing to go....and yet...deep down it has not yet CLICKED...
I've been spending a lot of time w my bf of nearly 4 years lately,overnighting etc...and although we discuss how we're going to cope with the 6 hour time difference among other issues....it still hasn't fully sunken in that I will be in a foreign country, miles away from home for the first time in EVER and for 8 months! Hec the last time I was on my own was in 2008 when I went to Guadeloupe on a university class trip for 3 weeks and even by then I was ready to come home!!!! Yet I want to live in FRANCE for 8 MONTHS? Pffttt this can't be really happening....I'm having a long, languid dream...*PINCH* ok no dream! Well hey God has His plans for me, who am I to freak out and question the Big man's will? Anyways I suppose it's time I really grow up and mature like a fine cheese or wine (fitting french simile)lol. No more being spoilt and baybied up as is at home...Time to smell the coffee, baguette or more specifically to Lille....the dog poop(which I've been forewarned about.) I can't be 23-soon-to-be-24 and afraid to be on my own....1st time for everything!
Anywhooz I know it won't be smooth sailing once I arrive...life has a funny way of trying to get you drunk by throwing lemons at you to make tequilla with....so I have no illusions! Nonetheless I plan to make the most out of this experience for myself and for my STUDENTS most importantly!!! I want them to profit from my presence and have the best time learning EVER with me teaching them....
however...please permit me to include a couple items on my wish/hope list:
WISH/HOPELIST
- *my room in the house is bigger than my current one at home and nice&clean, not shabby&dingy
- *my sleep patterns are not jacked up from jet lag/being alone and somewhere different
- *my fellow roomates are cool,friendly,nice people sans the pyscho behaviour seen on those lifetime movie commercials
- *the weather is not constantly dreary & depressing...i need my daily dose of vit D via the sun :(
- *my teaching schedule begins from 10am and not when school starts at...ugh 8am...and ends earlier than the 4:30 hour when school ends....
- *i have nice, not too miserable high school students who are WILLING to learn and not wishing the day to end so they can get back to their social lives/smoking/making out/eating frogs' legs
- *there's a nearby gym and yoga classes (gotta get fit for carnival 2013 back home in Trinidad as I'm missing out 2012...also need to burn off all the creme brules and croque monsieurs pastries! lol)
- *I can figure out this train/bus/metro transport thing....i am VERY directionally challenged so hopefully I don't end up in Spain!
- *I can make my 800 euro/month salary work and perhaps even have extra at the end of it!
- *I remember that preservative in english is not preservatif in french,....which actually means CONDOM
^^ There, that's not too bad is it? I think my wishes/hopes are quite realistic for a little island chic like myself! lol
So it's actually happening!! The whole france thing!! Time to really brush up on my degree as I haven't been practising my french since I graduated a year ago....well orally at least...sadly my written is 100000 times better than my spoken...though I do grate out a pretty decent sounding 'rrrrrr' (as in CRAvat/MERde/VRAIment) without hawking spit on the person I'm talking to lol.
De toute facon, a+!!! Next time I write will be the weekend before I'm gone!!! xx bisous :)
Hi! I just came over to your blog from A Taste of Garlic. I actually work in Roubaix too, as a professor at a business school. I live in Tourcoing which is the next town over with my hubby and our little baby. I don't know where you'll be living (I hope not IN Roubaix..!) but if you look me up when you get here I'd be glad to show you around/give you some American company!
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way! I'm getting all the anxious anticipations but the reality of me leaving for a country across the sea for 7 months away from all the people I know, is not sinking in well...I'm still at the FREAKING OUT stage, which shall pass I hope in less than 2 weeks...AAH! 10 more days...freaking out again. This is nothing compared to when I went over to Quebec for 5 weeks, and just like you, I was SO ready to go home even though it was the greatest experience of my life.
ReplyDeleteI was thrilled to see your comment about God b/c I have no doubt in my heart that this is happening because He planned it, and I know it's ALL His idea because when I first heard about this opportunity, the last thing I wanted to be was a teacher :P Half a year later I switched majors. The Lord works in freakish mysterious ways, but I'm pretty pumped because I know this trip to France will bring about great change and though it terrifies me it also excites me. I'm 20 but I feel like everything in the past 20 years was just preparation for this and it's just the beginning.
PS: preservatives....lol.