I don't think that I ever imagined that I'd write another entry on this blog... yet here I am, preparing once again to leave for Paris! Funny how similar I feel now as to when I was preparing to leave for Paris the first time - nervous, excited, anxious, and generally overwhelmed.
I am planning to fly out of Charlotte on Monday morning. I'll be flying standby on Delta, so this means an obligatory connection in Atlanta. Hopefully I will then catch an afternoon flight to Paris so that I arrive in France early Tuesday morning.
I'll have Tuesday and Wednesday to recover from jetlag, take care of some basics (cell phone, hairdryer, bank account, etc), and then Thursday I have my first meeting with the English teacher who I will be working with at the high school where I'll be a teaching assistant. Friday is the general meeting for all teaching assistants. Thankfully, the orientation for my master's program isn't until October 25, so I have a while to settle in with my teaching job before I have to worry about being a student myself.
Unlike the last time I left for Paris, all of the arrangements and logistics are left up to me. There's no group flight, no one to meet me at the airport, no one to make sure I get from the airport to where I'm staying, no one to help make sure customs goes smoothly. This both thrills and terrifies me, and I think is an accurate microcosm for the experience I'm about to embark upon. It will be truly a French experience in that I must learn to se débrouiller: a fantastic French phrase meaning 'to figure things out for oneself.' There is a lot left to do, a lot that is unknown, but that is all part of the adventure, I suppose...!
Hopefully the next entry will come to you from la belle France. A bientôt !
No comments:
Post a Comment