Here's what I do know: 1) For seven months in France, I'll be teaching English conversation to middle school and/or high school kids. 2) I'll be somewhere in the Nantes académie, which is one of the 24 French school districts and loosley corresponds to the Pays de la Loire region, a map of which you can find here.
The French bureaucracy is conducting its first test of my patience. It may be late August before I can point to a particular spot on that map and decidedly say, "this is the city/town in which I will gain ten pounds on butter and sugar crêpes." Or it may be tomorrow. It's absolute torture. I would humiliate myself at an American Idol audition for that precious letter. Perhaps the postal workers in Nantes are on strike. Or the school administrators have decided they are overworked and underpaid. Who do they think they are? No one is allowed on strike until I am paying French taxes and can join in on the "protest" (vacation).
The waiting is playing tricks with my head (ME : WAITING :: PARIS HILTON : JAIL). Once freed from this Sadistic purgatory (de Sade was French, naturally), I will post pretty pictures of my pretty town and rave about how perfectly picturesque my life in France will be. I'll spare you the alliteration, though.
So, here's hoping I get my letter some time in July. *Sprinkles anti-jinx dust*
2 comments:
Americans are just too impatient. You want what when? Hahaha. I don't know if this is a common thing overseas in general, but I know that when I was in China we often didn't know things at the last minute. The American teachers nagged and nagged and whined and whined. One of the first things they told us was TIC. This is China (duh American!!! is the part they forgot to add to the phrase). Just laugh at the frustration or else cry.
Hey Marquita! I am laughing at it. I know it works this way in France, having lived there before. Just haiving some fun at their expense. By the way, I'm in Philly today! But leave tomorrow for NYC.
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