October 10, 2007

Settling In

It boggles my mind that I've only been here in France for three weeks, as of today. It certainly feels longer. The nine months I spent back at home in Olympia between graduating from Western and coming here to France FLEW by. I had a routine, I had fast and easy access to most anything I needed, I had France to look forward to. It's an incredible change of pace to be here in a country where lunch breaks are two hours long, where Sundays are reserved almost solely for long, lazy meals with family and friends, where things get done when they get done - not neccessarily according to what might have been scheduled. It's refreshing and stifling at the same time.
Besides adjusting to cultural differences, the magnitude of change and the new things I've experienced also contribute to making three weeks feel like twice that. In three weeks I've :
- spent five days in Paris
- spent three days in a hostel
- moved into a new house
- met a ton of wonderful teachers and administrators
- adjusted to living with some great new roommates
- spent time aquainting myself with Quimper
- experienced three + years of teacher training crammed into a two day workshop
- travelled all over town to visit each of the four elementary schools I'm teaching in
- visited an adorable town on the sea called Concarneau with nine other language assitants from around the area
- waded in the Atlantic ocean
- taught my first day of classes
- been bombarded with more French than I thought possible

I can only imagine what the next nine months will bring!

Oh - I hope to post pictures soon, I don't have internet access at home, so it might take me a while to get around to it, but I'll do my best.

1 comment:

Laurel said...

It sounds so exciting!