pardon, pardon, pardon

Salut!

Ok I'm finally sitting down and writing a real post about my first adventures in France! I'm gonna try to not make it too long by saying EVERY single detail... so we'll see how this goes.

On Saturday, check-in and security went really smoothly. Even though I'm pretty sure all my bags (including my carry on) were somewhat overweight, I didn't have to pay anything extra and security was really quick. I met up with the group of the assistants at the gate. We chatted and it seems like I'm the only one who has never even been to Europe. I was pretty scared about all, but I was glad to know that they could all help me out with anything. The plane ride to Iceland was about 5 1/2 hours long and there was a lot of turbulence... not really comforting for flying for the first time in 11 years, right? I watched some movies and tv shows and tried to fall asleep, but I could sleep for about one hour before we landed. Our plane was delayed by an hour, but once we took off on our 3 hour flight for Paris, I finally fell asleep for the whole plane ride.

When I woke up, I looked out the window and couldn't believe that I was FINALLY in France. Two other girls, Kristin and Madeleine, and I were going to stay in the same hostel, so we stuck together since we didn't really know where we were going to go. Now, the trip from the airport to hostel was absolutely HORRIBLE. Again, not exactly a great experience for my first time in Paris. As for my luggage situation, I ended up bringing a large duffel and a huge suitcase. My plan was to just put the duffel on top of the suitcase and roll it around. It seemed simple enough because I thought that it'd be better if I had a free hand. Of course, I didn't think of how much arm muscle I didn't have and how heavy 100 lbs really is.

After the baggage claim, we had to take a train/shuttle to the Roissy train station that's part of the aiport. It wasn't too bad since it mostly empty, but it was hard enough trying to get all that on the esclator without it falling over on me and making me fall. We were a group of 7 girls, with at least 2 bags each, so we trying to help each other out. Then, we had to take the RER train into Paris. Once we got on (after struggling to lift all our bags since you have to step up onto the train), we figured it'd be ok since the cars were mostly empty. We clearly didn't think about how many stops the train would take between the airport and Gare du Nord (a train station in Paris, close to our hostel), so it got crowded and we were all worried that someone would end up taking our luggage. But honestly, who would have wanted to go through the trouble to lift them all? It was super crowded when we had to get off the train, but luckily nice French men who were waiting to get on helped us take our luggage off. We were so grateful because the platform was also just crowded in general. As we were trying to exit the station, we find out that the elevator is broken and that it's 4 (big) flights of stairs up to the street. As a group, we decide that one person needs to stay with all the luggage and we would take turns lifting one of suitcases at a time. Once again, some French men helped us carry all of them up the stairs.

Then, Kristin, Madeleine and I ventured out to find our hostel. The directions on the hostel's website said it was a short walk from Gare du Nord, but I guess we didn't take our grandes valises into account when we decided to walk. We also got lost a couple of times. I seriously cannot describe how difficult it was to push (it was easier than pulling) 100 lbs. around the streets of Paris. People who walked by were probably thinking "Oh those poor American girls with their huge American-sized luggage..." According to Madeleine's phone, the walk was supposed to take 11 minutes. We took at least an hour. And we had to take a break to sit on the side of the streets and drink water. Enough said.

Finally, we got settled into the hostel, fixed ourselves up and ventured out into Montmartre. We weren't too far from Moulin Rouge and we ended up eating at Café de 2 Moulins (the one from Amélie) and headed over to the latin quarter and Notre Dame. Of course, we were too tired to do anything else, so we headed back to the hostel and decided to call it a night. I could not sleep at night. I kept tossing and turning and I just keep hearing noises on the street.

Me, Kristin, & Madeleine au Café des 2 Moulins

Notre Dame

On Monday, we had breakfast at the hostel and then ventured to the Champs Elysées. Of course, I was singing the song in my head. We walked around into some of the stores, discovered Monoprix (which will probably be my new Target, if I can find one in Béthune) and made it down to L'Arc de Triomphe.

 L'Arc de Triomphe

Champs Elysées 

After deciding that we wanted to see as much as possible, we walked over to La Tour Eiffel and ate a baguette (sandwich!) on the grass in front of it. Afterwards, we headed over the 5e arrondissement to try and visit Kristin's old host family. The dad was so nice and let us for a delicious tasse de café. We then headed over to Les Jardins des Luxembourg before heading back to the hostel to rest.

La Tour Eiffel

Jardins des Luxembourg

We then headed out into the neighborhood around hostel on a search for food (I had a crêpe du fromage), a suitcase for me, and a converter for Madeleine. In Monoprix, a suitcase was 60 euros, but I found one in a store on the street for 25. It was perfect because it was big enough and I definitely was not going to try to push 100 lbs. around AGAIN. Afterwards, we headed back to the Notre Dame area to just sit and chill and then decided to walk to Le Louvre. On the way there, we literally ran into one of Kristin's French friends that she knew in New York and his friends. We decided to walk to the Louvre together, chatting in French, with some English every now and then. By the time we decided to go back to the hostel, the metro was closed, so we had to catch a bus.

Point Zero in (center of the city) front of Notre Dame

Le Louvre

Tuesday morning, Kristin and I woke up super exhausted. I think our bodies were finally telling us that they couldn't handle this constant movement without enough sleep. After checking out, Kristin and I decided to take a taxi to Gare du Nord and wait around there until our trains arrived to take us to our respective towns.

I finally arrived in Béthune at 18h15 and was greeted by two teachers that I'll be working with. I'm staying with one of them right now in her house until I can move into my studio on Friday. They then took me to a restaurant in the centre-ville (dowtown) with other English teachers. They seriously do take a long time with meals here in France.. almost 3 hours! The teachers were talking about the grève (strike) of teachers that day and other things in general. I was able to understand a good amount, but I was just trying to keep in listening and understanding since they do talk significantly faster and I was just really tired.

Like I mentioned in my last post, I was really excited when the told me that my accent was pretty good and they were surprised at how much I could comprehend compared to past assistants when they first arrived.

So basically, I'm speaking French all the time now. In Paris, Kristin, Madeleine and I would speak in English to each other, but to others, French. The teachers only talk to me in French (with some English if they need to explain something I don't understand). So, I'm really hoping that my French will improve within the next 7 months. I wonder if I should record myself talking in French now and see how it improves....

Anyways, today is my resting day. I got a decent amount of sleep and I've showered and am now writing this SUPER LONG blog post. I will probably venture out soon into Béthune and see what's around (if I can find my way around). Tomorrow, I will go into the school to do some administrative things and hopefully open my bank account. Friday, I'll move into my studio and then Monday I'll officially start (with observations first)!

Bises!

France, j'arrive!

Just wanted to write a quick post to update!

I arrived in Paris Sunday afternoon and stayed in a hostel there until today. I got to see some sights and have a few adventures, but now I am finally in Béthune... my home for the next seven months!

I will post more about Paris later, but I had dinner with some English teachers tonight from the school and they said they were surprised by my French accent. They said it's "très bon" and are glad and a little surprised that I can understand them so well (for the most part... they still talk pretty fast, so sometimes it's hard to catch on). Hearing that actually made me really happy. It's nice to know that some French don't think I sound (completely) American.

I have so much to update about Paris, but I will probably update tomorrow during my resting day. I need some sleep... I seriously haven't been able to sleep well in days!

Bises!

(PS. The time post is still in Eastern Standard Time.... just FYI. In case anyone cares :P)

l'art de la bise

Someone in the Assistants group on facebook posted this and I thought that it was so cute! The video is in French, but there is an English translation in the youtube description. According to this video, they give 4 bises/bisous in Lille.

Packing is stressful.

I realized that I'm nearing the single digits in my countdown, so I decided that I really needed to get a move on with cleaning and packing.

How in the world am I going to fit my life into 2 suitcases? Luckily IcelandAir allows two checked baggages, so there's a little help. Today was round 2 of going through my clothes and taking out things that I really don't need. Hopefully it helps a bit. I'm actually just concerned about lugging all my luggage onto the train. I'm debating on whether or not to stay in Paris for a couple of days before I head to Béthune. The only thing that's holding me back from definitely staying in Paris is all my luggage and wanting to get to settled into my studio right away. The teacher I've been in contact with says that it'd be better for me to arrive on a weekday, since the person who's in charge of the studios will be around then.

In addition, I'm trying to figure out what exactly/how much to put into my carry-on. Should I use my backpack or a rolling duffel? The rolling duffel would be useful for when I travel around Europe for short vacations, so I want to take it. But the backpack is something that I can put on my back and so I could perhaps have a free hand when roaming around the airport/train station. Or do I just stuff my backpack in my suitcase or maybe use it as extra checked baggage if needed? My planned baggage right now is a large suitcase and a large duffel (that I can probably stick on top of the suitcase when rolling it around) plus a carryon.

Any advice, tips, etc. on this would be very, very helpful. I haven't traveled in 11 years!

In my dream the other night, I was in France and my French sucked.

My accent was so American and I did not sound like I had been studying French for 11 years. A few nights ago, I had a dream where I was finally teaching, but my students were so difficult and it was frustrating. I swear, most of my dreams would cause anxiety attacks in real life.

So in exactly 2 weeks I'll be in France! I'm super excited and also a bit nervous. This has all seemed so surreal. When I first found out that I had been accepted into the program, I was so excited, but a small part of me was afraid that somehow it might fall through or that I might get an e-mail that said "Oops, just kidding... we didn't mean to send this to you!" I received my arrête (contract) in July, which was physical proof that this was really going to happen, but it still felt surreal to me. I have friends who said that I didn't seem excited enough when I found out in April and who sometimes seem more excited than me. Honestly, I don't think it'll really kick in until I get on that plane... or until I step into France.

All that's really left to do is buy a few essentials and pack. Well, and get some traveler's checks. I'm such a pack rat so this is going to take a while.  Even when I pack for a weekend out of town, I pack too much. I always tell myself that I might need that particular shirt or I might decide to wear another pair of shoes instead. Once I think I'm "fully packed," I will probably go through everything and take things that I really don't need. Also, I have to keep telling myself that I'll buy things while abroad, so I'm going to need room coming back (whenever that is!).

I know this isn't really super interesting yet... but just wait! 13 more days until I finally get on that plane!

20

So I'm finally starting this blog as an attempt to document the next chapter of my life. To be honest, I had put off making one simply because I couldn't think of a name that was clever enough. "Faim en France" was a random thought in the car from my sister, Margie, on the way back from the dentist a few weeks ago. I knew it was perfect with the alliteration and faim. Avoir faim literally means to have hunger, j'ai faim means "I'm hungry." Perfect for Tubs right? (Tubs is a nickname that originated in high school as Tub O'... long story)

Anyways...

In 20 days, I'll be getting on a plane to Europe, and more specifically, France, for the very first time! In April, I found out that I will be an assistant teacher in the English language at high school in Béthune, France, thanks to a program called TAPIF (Teaching Assistant Program in France). I told people that I would be in Lille-- technically I'm in the Académie de Lille (which I suppose you could compare to a county). Béthune is about 40 km (~25 mi) southwest of the city of Lille, in northern France, close to the Belgian border.

I have a passport, a contract, a visa, a translated birth certificate, and now I have a plane ticket! I'll actually be flying from Dulles to Paris with 20 other assistants that will also be in the Académie de Lille. I'm really excited because 1) I'll get to meet other assistants, which is good since I'll actually be living in a small town with not many other assistants and 2) I have not been out of the country, let alone on a plane, in 11 years. This will be the first time I'm travelling by myself, sans ma famille. I'm super excited, but also slightly nervous.

Going to France is the experience that I've yearned for, for such a long time. Ever since high school, I had been constantly changing my mind about my future, my career, basically what I wanted to do in life. Last year, going into my fourth and final year at UVA, there was only one thing that I was sure of concerning life after graduation. I knew that I wanted to go to France. After all, I have been studying French for about half my life (since middle school) and I did get a degree in it. When I had heard about this teaching program in France, I knew that I wanted to apply. I knew that it was the one thing I wanted to do post-graduation and it's perfect because it's only for a year (technically 7 months). Teaching in France would help improve my language skills (and get closer to fluency-- one of my life goals) and it would help me figure out if teaching really is for me.

I'm lucky that my school is providing housing-- I just have to pay utilities each month! This is such a relief knowing that there will be a place that I can stay right where I get there. Since I don't have to pay rent every month, I can save money and perhaps travel more! This will be my first time in Europe, so I will definitely want to see as much as I can.

Now here I am... 3 weeks away from being in France, 20 days away from getting on a plane.  I have almost everything I need... I'm pretty sure I'll have to go through all my stuff multiple times and take out things that I don't really need. I feel as if my French is rusty, especially since I'm not taking French classes and speaking and writing in French almost everyday. I am trying to watch the French news online daily, listen to songs in French (thanks to Spotify) and learn some slang, courtesy of Merde! The REAL French You Were Never Taught at School. If anybody wants to have a conversation in French with me, please do! Even if it's just in e-mail/chats/etc.

I plan on spending the next few weeks eating American and Filipino food-- basically eating stuff that I can't get on a regular basis in Europe, or food that just isn't the same over there. However, I am very excited to finally immerse myself in the French culture and try the French cuisine, eat pastries and just... live. So tchin tchin (cheers) to the next chapter of la vie de Nicole!