So, I'm moving to France next week...

!!!!!  My departure date is drawing near, so I figured it's about time to start a blog.

Background, for those of you who don't know me:
I'm from Dallas, TX and just turned 24. In college I majored in French and Psychology, and got my Master's in Teaching as well. While I was in college I spent a summer interning at a primary school in London and a semester "studying" abroad in Grenoble. Note the quotation marks...I didn't study much but traveled a ton and had the time of my life. I spent the 09-10 year teaching high school French in the Dallas area (shoutout to my IHS kids). I love my students and teaching, but I wasn't happy with other parts of my job and started feeling restless. On New Year's Day, out of nowhere I randomly decided to apply for the TAPIF program. I was accepted in early April, told my school and students I wasn't coming back the next year, and now here I am!

I was assigned to a lycee (high school) and a college (middle school) in Strasbourg, which was my first choice area. I haven't really heard anything negative about Strasbourg--it's beautiful, it's full of students, the EU Parliament is there, it has amazing Christmas markets....what's not to love? I'll put up pictures when I'm actually there, but you should google it right now...it's awesome. PLUS it's basically smack in the middle of Europe, so I'm looking forward to traveling all over during school breaks. My job seems pretty sweet too...I'll be an English teaching assistant, so not even a real teacher. That could get frustrating since I'm used to having my own classes, but it's okay since I'll only be working 12 hours a week (!!!) with 8 weeks or so of vacation in 7 months (!!!). I have been in contact with the former assistant at my schools and he had a not-so-great experience, but he has been awesome about answering all of my questions and helping with everything I need. The teachers I will be working with in France also seem really nice, so I hope the students will be cool, too. I am definitely a little nervous about teaching French kids.

So yeah, 1 week! I am so excited and happy to be going. I have been keeping busy shopping and packing and hanging out with the people (and dog) I love. I also spend wayyyy too much time on facebook and an online forum for assistants, in addition to lurking on other assistants' blogs :) I can't wait to move into my apartment and meet the other assistants from my town---everyone seems really cool and fun. I'll post again soon...feel free to leave comments (you don't have to be a member or anything) or follow me, or whatever you do with blogs. :)