I'M HERE

Hello et bonjour tout le monde,

I am in France and what a journey this has been so far. Twenty-five hours of travel is BEAUCOUP, like a lot. The first flight was fine. I was excited then; full of ambition and drive and was all set to go. When I got to Toronto, the plot did a bit of a 180 and I quickly became alone and really shaky and every time that I thought about me being 4000 km away from home, my pulse quickened. The 5 hour layover didn't help. I did a lot of wander and only started to tear up from being so overwhelmed two times..

Things got a bit better on my flight to Paris from Toronto. I had a window seat and sat next to a young couple who were off on their honeymoon to the City of Love. They both slept the entire flight so needless to say, I didn't go to the bathroom once (I hate bugging people while their sleeping). I slept maybe two hours and then we finally landed just outside of Paris. I was feeling antsy about going through customs, even though I've got nothing to be antsy about, but we all sluggishly headed towards the gate and passed through immigration with no problems. The guy who checked my passport and visa winked at me; I instantly thought, "Welcome to France" haha..

The the plot thickens and I was on my own again. After gathering my luggage I walked a really long walk to to the train station, which just so happened to be on the other end of the airport.. carrying about 80 pounds of my belongings. I walked up to a kiosk to print my ticket and a worker approached me to lend a hand.. probably because I looked like I was struggling - as I was. At this point, I was tired, hungry, and very thirsty, basically lacking all of the basic necessities (lol), and then thanks the guy and headed straight for a restaurant on the other side of the station of which I had passed earlier.

Yay! Food! ....aaaaannnndddd Wifi!!! The next hour passed pretty quickly as I ate and used the internet. I decided to go for a walk to get some fresh air as I was feeling a bit lightheaded. On my way back inside, I noticed a girl who had been on my flight, sitting alone with a huuuuuge bag and she appeared to be crying. Me, being alone and knowing I still had 3 hours until my train would come, walked up to her and introduced myself. She had just missed her train and had never travelled alone before. She was delighted to see me, as she recognized me walking around the station a bit earlier and noticed my new mustard coloured scarf (thank you, Sara). We chatted for the next 2 hours and then went to check to see which track our train was coming down and at what time. We almost missed our train because we were standing on the wrong track, then decided to double check. Good thing I did.

We managed to be on the same train car and scurried our way on with ALL of our luggage and found some seats. I passed out (sleep, mother, don't worry) due to exhaustion and woke up at my stop. Then I had to transfer to another train and finally, I made it to Tours.

Mme Rouzier, the lovely lady who is all of the elementary school assistant's contact person, met me at the train station and welcomed me with a kiss on each cheek. My roommate, Katie from the UK, and another assistant met us there as well. The four of us climbed into Mme's car and we made it to my new home in the southern part of Tours.

My landlords were here upon my arrival and they've got to be the Frenchiest people I've yet to met. Pascal and Marie-Francoise, enough said. They were so kind as I used my broken French to say hello and we did all of the paper signing. I was exhausted so I quickly unpacked my things and had a bit of a nap. That evening, I Skyped my best friend from back at home and battled a huge mosquito type bug that few in (as there are not any screens on the windows), and then went to sleep.

Yesterday I woke up hungrier than ever because I hardly ate the day before but then realized I had no food.... So I stole two apples from my roomie and then headed straight for the nearest supermarket. On my way back from the store it started pouring and guess who was caught without an umbrella!? Me. 15 minutes later I reached "home" drenched, exhausted and hungry. I ate some toast with Nutella and drank so OJ and then to bed it was for a nap. I awoke to the sun shining through my window and decided I'd go check out the beautiful small lake situated about eight blocks from my apartment. It was stunningly beautiful so I sat on a bench and watched the sun go down. After I returned home, I Facetimed my parents and then went to bed.

Today I slept until 1pm and then met up with one of the Canadian assistants named Ariel at the train station down town as we needed to book a train to Orleans, France (our region's capital) for orientation on Tuesday. We then walked around Old Tours for just over and hour and then I caught the tram back home. It was nice to connect with a fellow Canadian.

Wow, that was a thorough description of my last few days.. I promise to keep the details to a bit more of a minimum next week. Haha. I just want to give you all a good setting description at the beginning.

Tomorrow I have a quick meeting with Mme Rouzier and other fellow primary school assistants and then we are off to our individual schools to observe and meet our co-teachers and student. I am pretty nervous but really excited. Then tomorrow evening, Katie (my roommate) and I are going to go back to the supermarket to get some more food and laundry detergent.. Woohoo. ;)

I miss ya'll back at home so much and I hope you enjoyed reading this entry.

I think what I will do is post every Sunday. Nice to keep things in a routine.

Lots of love,
Sam

One Week Until Takeoff

These last few months have flown by so quickly and, oh my goodness, I cannot believe that I start my journey in one week.

These last two months have been a lot of me stressing out as there has been many things that I've needed to do prior to this voyage. Although they say, there must be a little rain before a beautiful rainbow shines through.

I had to fly to Toronto to move forward with my visa application back at the beginning of September. It was a great little getaway. I stayed with a friend of whom I met at Explore in Nova Scotia last summer and she toured me around all of the nice sites of Toronto (I was especially attracted to the Harbour Front). I met a girl while I was waiting to meet with the French consulate who is doing the exact same Teacher's Assistant in the exact same city as me! We had to laugh because we realized we were going to be friends this year, even though we has only met for about a minute or so. Small world. The next night after the visa meeting I stayed with my Gimli friend, April, who is actually from Kitchener, Ontario. We spent the night at her dad's home in Milton and hiked the Niagara Escarpment! Beautiful view of the big city from up there!

This might be a good time to write about the city I've been placed in. Tours, France - population of about 140,000 people, full of beautifully lush greens and gardens, a promenade along the Loire River, and is situated an hour and 15 minutes southwest of Paris. An hour and 15 minutes southwest of PARIS; pinch me.  In the garden of the ancient Palais des Archevêques (now Musée des Beaux-Arts), there is a large cedar tree that was planted by Napoleon! This place is full of history and is known for having the purest form of French in all of France. There's so much to look forward to.

About a week ago, I was still visa-less, still homeless, still unsure of what school I will be working at and feeling a little lost. But things have come together. I will be renting a room in a 4 bedroom apartment, with a shared kitchen and living space and my visa finally came in the mail. My educational contact person in Tours has been a huge help and has offered to meet me at the train station when I arrive and take me to my new home. 

As my time here is winding down, I'm starting to realize how much I am going to miss my family and friends and just the normal everyday life in good old MB. I am pretty content with all of the different aspects of my life these days so it's difficult to just put everything to a bit of a halt. I'm desiring adventure right now though, so this obviously couldn't be more perfect. And hey, I know that the people back at home will still be there when I return. Seven months isn't even that long to begin with.. (so I am telling myself to keep me sane haha..)! 

Bon Voyage party is at Assinaboine Park is this Saturday with all of my loved ones. I know it will be a beautiful evening. 

I think that's all I've got to say this time 'round.

The next time I post will be in France. Crazy stuff. 

Love pour toujours,

Sam

Friends & Thoughts

I thought I would just briefly update you. I've "met" some people who will also be living and working as TAs in the Orleans-Tours region via Facebook. That's why I have written it as "met" as I actually haven't really met them. We've basically just have found each other from the main page on Facebook, "Assistants de langue en France".

So far there are nine of us, which to me, is absolutely wonderful, as that is eight more people that I would have known in the first place. They literally come from all corners of the world, including, Russia, Uruguay, France, Ireland, Canada, and France (just to name a few off the top of my head). We've created a group on Facebook where we've been posting about our home towns, and basically just getting to know each other. The one girl from Canada has been the person I've been talking to the most (it's comforting knowing someone from your own country) and she is really nice and only a year older than I am. It's weird to think that most likely, these people will be my friends while I am overseas. It's really neat putting a name to a face, as well.

Other than that, my anxiety has been acting up a little bit more here and there, and I think it has a bit to do with this grand adventure coming my way in just a few short months. I mean, my mind often has a million things running through it so it's safe to say that I am, indeed, slightly an anxious person as it is, but I know it's a bit more prominent right now, due to a few very new and very different life experiences that I will be having to face once I get to France.

Basically, I've never lived on my own, I've never has to look for a place to live on my own (especially being in a different language that I haven't completely developed), and I've never been so far away for such a long period of time. I will have to open up a bank account and cook, and manage my expenses and it's all a little nerve racking to say the least. I know that I am capable of learning and doing all of these things but for some reason right now it just seems a little scary. That's normal.

There's a quote (ahah if you know me well enough, you know how much I love a good quote) by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and she says, “If your dreams don't scare you, they are not big enough.” And goodness, if that is not the truth, then I don't know what is because this is exactly how I'm feeling. I've had aspirations of becoming a teacher, travelling and exploring since I can remember and now these things are coming true because I have had the courage to pursue them.

My parents, especially, are starting to realize that often enough, if there is something I really want in life, I will find a way to get it - and not in a spoil-ish kind of way. I truly will work for what I want. When I called my parents and told them about this idea, they weren't even necessarily shocked or hesitant or anything like that. I'm pretty sure my mom's response was something along the lines of, "But you won't be here to celebrate Christmas, or your birthday" haha. The support was there which made it even more possible.

Thanks for reading and I hope I'm not boring you to death with my rambles. :)

Love, love always,
Sam

Pourquoi et comment? (Why and how?)

So basically, here I am, all snuggled up in my bed after a long work day, creating my blog for when I jet off to France for seven months at the end of September... and it's only April. It's a very typical Sam thing to do - that is, plan for something that is happening 8 bajillion years before it actually happens. Well, I like to be prepared. PLUS, not only is it the end of April, but that means I will be leaving in practically exactly five months from now! I've never used Blogger before, but so far I am quite liking the layout options and what not.

Sidetracked - anyway, I thought considering this is my first post, I would explain to you how and why this whole taking a year off from school and traveling/living overseas for seven months as a Teacher's Assistant (TA) in an elementary school in France came about.

Back in early November, I received an email from my university (University of Winnipeg) essentially asking if I would be interested in applying to the France Embassy for a job as a TA from October 1st, 2013 - April 30th, 2014. Now why out of approximately 14,000 students would I have qualified to have been sent this specific email? Let me tell you a bit about myself, education wise. I have just completed my second year in the Faculty of Education and I've declared my major as French, and proceeding to go with Psychology as my minor. So, because I am an Education student majoring in French, I was chosen to apply. Makes sense, now doesn't it?

After I had read the email over a few times and clicked on the supporting documents, my mind started flooding with ideas of myself, being 20 years young, on my own, in a classroom filled with young French children, teaching and learning alongside them; I was convinced that THIS was something I NEEDED, not wanted, needed to do. This was a perfect time in my life to do something that would be so far out of my comfort zone. I was determined to land a position.

That same evening I started filling out the application form and emailed my French prof from the U of W and my French prof from Université Sainte-Anne in Nova Scotia (my prof from when I participated in the Explore program back in July 2012), asking them if they would be willing to be my two references for the position. By the next day I had heard back from both of them and all I had left to do was gather the necessary documents that would go along with the application (photocopy of passport, birth certificate, transcripts from school, etc). I remember the night I clicked "Send" from my email account. I pretty much thought to myself, "What have I done?"

Months went by, and the anticipation was killing me. A few weeks ago, I was out with some friends on a Friday night, and when I returned home, I decided to check my email (as I knew the acceptance email would hopefully be coming any time then). I signed on and BAM, there it was; "Congratulations Samantha! You have been selected and assigned to a posting for the Teaching Assistant position in the Orleans-Tours region of France!" !!!!!!!!!!!!! ****Insert happy dance here****

So, there you have it. My story of the why and the how. I may just post a few more times prior to my departure to France! I won't be broadcasting this blog probably until I am about to leave, so you won't actually get to read this until then anyway... but it will be nice for me to look back on this "before the adventure" process, as I have A LOT to do before then.

Hope I didn't ramble too much. This is all still rather new news for me and I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!

Love, love always,
Sam