Unto Lyon!

Bonjour à tous !

It’s ‘back to school’ season- all the stores are full of classroom supplies, school buses are out and about in the mornings, and students everywhere are collectively groaning at their early alarms. For the first time in two decades, this August does not symbolize picking up and dusting off my identity as a student. Nope- no backpacks and textbooks for me. Well, kind of. Just because I’ll no longer be a student doesn’t mean I’m done in the classroom: my big, fancy, first-job-out-of-college is as a teacher! Again- well, kind of. Now might be a good time for a little update.

In April, I was offered a position as an assistante de langue, a language assistant, for TAPIF. The Teaching Assistant Program in France brings young Americans and Canadiens to France every year to teach English as part of the France Éducation International’s cohort of language teachers, and I am one of them! I lucked out, big time- I got into both my top region (the Académie de Lyon) and my top school choice (secondary school). My school placement is right smack dab in the center of Lyon, which means I get to live in the city. And a ton of my friends are doing the program, too, which is exciting. I graduated from college in May and spent two weeks in Spain (which I will write about) before heading to work at French camp for a second year in a row. Now, I’m back home, tackling my ever-growing To Do list as I prepare to leave for France in September. Now, with one month to go, I wish I could say that there was more done than left to do, but it feels like I’m adding more to the list for every task I cross off. (Is this the adult life?)

In just over two weeks, I will be arriving in Lyon for the first time. I’ll need to find a place to live (because, I have learned, it is impossible to do from the States) and learning the best ways to reach my school. I’ll find my neighborhood grocery store, my go-to pharmacy, and my new favorite place to get coffee. I’ll be picking out my ‘first day outfit,’ but this time, I’ll be at the other side of the classroom. It’s all incredibly exciting- and a little overwhelming. If I thought the application to the program was a lot of paperwork, it’s nothing compared to all the documentation I need to bring to France with me.

I’m not afraid, though. It’s a completely different experience from the last time I was going to France. When I was preparing for my study abroad program in Paris, I cried myself to sleep from fear in the week leading up to my departure. I was terrified of the unknown- yes, I was looking forward to it (and I had been for years), but when the unknown, scary thing is standing right in front of you, it the line between excitement and fear becomes incredibly thin. This time around, though, I’m not as nervous (I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous). I know what to expect when I arrive, and I can prepare for it. In fact, I’m looking forward to it. My last séjour in France taught me so much, and I love the person I was when I lived there.

I thought that I would be able to keep up with blogging my France adventures last spring- I really wanted to, as I was learning so much and wanted to share every second that I was in Paris. But it was too difficult to find time to sit down and write- when I wasn’t at my full-time internship, I was writing my thesis, at museums, traveling around the city, and spending time with my incredible friends. I’m going to try my best not to fall behind on writing about my adventures in Lyon- and across the world. The French school system magically has eight weeks of vacation during my contract, and I’m planning on crossing many, many countries off my bucket list (hello, Greece and Turkey!). I want to remember every moment. It’s not every day you get everything you had hoped for.

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Before I got accepted to TAPIF, I did a lot of research online (mostly wanting to know when people in past years heard back from the program so that I could stop feeling so anxious all the time) and found that quite a few people tracked their experiences with TAPIF. I figured I could do the same! At the end of my blog posts, I’ll include little update on the rare occasion that someone comes across the blog and wants to know more about TAPIF.

Here’s a quick rundown of everything I have done with TAPIF since April 2019:

April 9: I got my acceptance letter in the afternoon. I was informed of my region (Lyon) and my school level (secondary- middle or high school). I slept on it for a night before accepting the position (even though I had already had my heart set on it).

May 2: I received my confirmation email from the program on my acceptance of the position.

June 14: I received my arrêté de nomination (work contract) from my school, including the school’s address and the name of the teacher in the school who would be helping me get acclimated. Unfortunately, the work contract said that I would be teaching Spanish instead of English, but they sent me a corrected copy on June 25.

June 18: I had my FBI fingerprinting appointment. They said I would receive my results in three weeks, but I got them in an email as soon as I left the appointment (because I have never been arrested. Not a very hard search for the FBI).

First week of July: I made my visa appointment for the first week in August (I was working at camp and that was the best time for me).

First week in August: I had my visa appointment in Atlanta. The visa arrived just over a week later, even though they said it could take up to three weeks to get the visa.