Settling in in Saint Mar sur Mer

After a wild first week in France, things finally started settling down. I found a place to live (hooray!), visited my schools for the first time, and met a ton of my ridiculously adorable students.

We'll start at the beginning. I found a place to live! I'm renting a room from a directrice (basically a principal - except sometimes they actually teach classes) of one of the other elementary schools in the area. My bedroom is in the house she grew up in, and she and her husband (and incredibly adorable cat) live right next door in a smaller house.  Sometimes her family comes to visit, as does a wonderful pastry chef that I'll get back to later, but otherwise it's just me and my friend Ashley in this big old house. When we're here, our lives consist mostly of eating the cheapest food we can find (#mysalaryiszero) and watching random Netflix movies (we literally use a randomizer). French Netflix is wild and we've already found some absolutely terrible movies.
The downside of this house is that it's in Saint Marc sur Mer, which is west of Saint-Nazaire and farther from work. The commute to each of my schools is like an hour (one way), if I don't stand at the wrong bus stop for twenty minutes (yeah, that happened). The upside? It's like a ten minute walk to this beautiful beach:

In other news, I started my job (finally). During the first week of October, I started orientation, which consists of completing a bunch of paperwork and learning how to teach English as a second language. I also went to visit the three elementary schools where I'll be working. They were short visits; I basically just introduced myself and met some of the staff. 

This past week was my first week of observation. I spent several hours at each of the schools, going from class to class and taking notes about the students and teachers. Everyone has been so kind and welcoming. The teachers are so sweet, and the students are amazing. At my final school I had a posse following me around during their afternoon recreation. They know I'll only speak to them in English, but I do a lot of gesturing and pointing and they're all so incredibly curious about what I might be saying. Plus I teach them how to say things like "cell phone" and "motorcycle," which is apparently the coolest. 

I was only supposed to be observing, but I was sitting in on a gym class and the teachers would only take half the class at a time, so I quickly became surrounded by the others. We introduced ourselves, counted, and played "point to something that is...[insert color here]." I absolutely adore these children and this job, and I haven't technically even started teaching. 

Not a lot else is new here. 

Saint-Nazaire - The City of Rain, Submarines, and Nowhere to Live

Well I've been in France for about four days now, and I figure it's time to update you on my French adventure.

I was placed in a town called Saint-Nazaire, which is on the west coast of France where the Loire river (or, simply "La Loire") meets the Atlantic Ocean (technically the Bay of Biscay but that's getting rather specific). Anyway, since most people don't actually know where in France the Loire river meets the Atlantic Ocean, here's a nice picture: 

Before I get into my job (which I really don't know much about yet), I'd like to tell you about the lovely coastal town of Saint-Nazaire. As soon as I was placed here, I googled the city and got some very...intriguing...results. When you search "Saint Nazaire France visit," the first article is titled, "15 Best Things to Do in Saint-Nazaire (France)." Click it and the first sentence is as follows: "Located on the Loire estuary, Saint-Nazaire makes no apologies for not being the prettiest city in France." Sounds...appealing? The #1 thing to do? Visit the submarine base/U-boat pens built by Germans to house their U-boats during WWII. Cool if you like WWII history or submarines I guess. Let's move on to article #2, from Brittany Tourism. Intro sentence: "While it's not one of France's most attractive cities, St-Nazaire makes a fascinating destination for boat and plane enthusiasts as well as fans of World War II history." Honestly both these articles make Saint-Nazaire seem amazing if you like learning about WWII, but rather uninteresting for anyone looking to experience the beauty and culture of France.

Here are those websites if you're curious:

https://www.thecrazytourist.com/15-best-things-saint-nazaire-france/

and 

https://www.brittanytourism.com/destinations/the-10-destinations/brittany-loire-ocean/saint-nazaire/

I arrived in Saint-Nazaire on Monday night, greeted by darkness and pouring rain. As I struggled to get my two suitcases up the stairs for the umpteenth time that day, I was startled to hear a stranger call my name. My conseilleur pédagogique, who is the person assigned to help me get situated in France, saw me on the stairs and came to my rescue. To be fair, I knew she was coming to pick me up, but seeing someone there just to help me was truly a sight for sore (and very weary) eyes. She picked up one of my suitcases and drove me to my AirBnB where I'll be staying for a couple weeks until I find permanent housing. I'm staying in the home of an absolutely lovely older couple. I actually have their entire second floor, with my own bathroom and bedroom. They've been really amazing and are totally available to answer any questions I have. Plus the space is beautiful and only a 20-ish minute walk from the center of town. 

The next morning (Tuesday) I slept in before making my way through my neighborhood to a park, where I met an assistant I've been talking to for the last couple of weeks. We decided after messaging each other for a bit that it would be amazing to find housing in Saint-Nazaire together (we seriously have so much in common it's ridiculous - plus we would both save money so why not?). 

To avoid boring you to death, I'll sum up the last few days quickly. Here's what we did:

1. Walked down the main roads and into countless immobiliers (basically real estate agencies) in Saint-Nazaire asking for furnished 2-room apartments. Apparently that's not really a thing, because we got a bunch of "you're crazy" looks and lots of "sorry we don't have any."

2. Found an amazing apartment in a perfect location and then realized it was a total scam and "Bernard" probably just wanted to steal our money.

3. Went back to the same immobiliers (and any other random ones we missed on day one), asking for unfurnished apartments or furnished studios (since furnished apartments don't exist?) and got countless more "sorry no"s, as well as quite a few, "yeah housing in St-Nazaire is difficult/complicated"s (preceded by a no). Yeah, we noticed. 

4. Found some one-bedroom apartments on a website that is basically the French equivalent of Craigslist, before realizing that they were ridiculously expensive and totally out of our budget.

5. Toured a two-bedroom unfurnished apartment near the city center that's honestly pretty terrible. The kitchen has a sink (literally - that's the kitchen), the bathroom has a (tiny) sink and a (tiny) square shower stall, and the bedrooms are completely empty with no closets. It's amazing how our standards have changed in just a few days. We went from hoping for a completely furnished apartment to likely seeming rather desperate to get this empty box claiming to be an apartment. We even filled out a dossier for the propriétaire (owner). 

6. Went to the same coffee shop twice, were recognized the second time, and told the barista we just moved here and "we'll probably be here a lot." So we're basically already regulars and are quickly becoming the token Americans in this town. We've already been asked if we do English lessons on the side. Sure? 

To be honest, Saint-Nazaire really isn't that ugly. It has rained a TON (and I mean a TON), but apparently that's the reality here. Most people don't even try to put up umbrellas because it's so windy that the rain basically comes down sideways. The other day I used my umbrella on my way back to my AirBnb and still got home soaking wet. The rain, however, makes the sun a welcome surprise and sunny days are really pretty lovely. There are palm trees (which I definitely wasn't expecting) and beaches that are likely rather beautiful in the summer. There are some amazing parks for kids, and the main road has lots of cute shops and cafés. I'll upload photos later. Everyone so far has been really nice, even the realtors who we've bothered multiple times in just a few days. We've walked down the same main roads so many times I don't need a map to get around that area or back to my temporary lodging anymore. 

The last few days have been VERY, VERY stressful. It seems like we've been running in circles (probably because we have been, literally) with no apparent progress. We still don't have housing and it's been really frustrating. We did, however, have some conversations today that seem to indicate positive changes, so hopefully I'll have an update on that soon. 

For now, I'm just happy to have a friend to go through this whole ordeal with. We can't comprehend how anyone could do any of this alone and it's been amazing to have each other. We can switch off being the one to ask another immobilier if they have any apartments available. When it's all over, and we're all settled with a roof over our heads, this will have been a week that strengthened our French language skills, tested (and improved) our perseverance, and convinced us that we can get through any challenge France throws at us.

I'll update you soon. 

A bientôt,

Allie

Ready or Nantes, Here I Come!

TL;DR: I'm going to live in France again!

When I was a senior in high school, I had a life plan. I was going to major in elementary education and French, and I would teach either at a French immersion school in Minnesota, or teach English at an elementary school in France. I was certain I had my whole life figured out.

Needless to say, a lot has changed since then. I won't bore you with the details, but I'll catch you up a bit. I graduated from the University of St Thomas in December with degrees in political science and French. The plan is to go to law and/or grad school at some point. But as you probably know, I like detours.

While I was at St. Thomas, I learned about a program called TAPIF (a very fancy acronym for the not-so-fancy title of "Teaching Assistant Program in France"). Each year around 1200 - 1600 (I couldn't actually find specifics - except that this year it's 1520 and it used to be less) Americans teach English in schools across France (and its overseas territories) from October 1st to April 30th. About 3000 young people from other countries are also part of the program, teaching their native languages to French students, too. I think it's a brilliant idea, and I'm not sure why the closest U.S. equivalent is only in higher education.

In early April I got the e-mail I had been hoping for - I was accepted! From October 2019 - April 2020 I'll be teaching English at an elementary school in the Nantes school district. My life and plans may have changed a whole lot in the past few years, but I still get a chance to fulfill my dream of teaching in France. Basically I could be anywhere in the Nantes region, and I won't know any more details until later this summer. In case you're curious about the general region I'll be in, I found this map of France's school districts. Nantes (pronounced like naant - no s - here's a vid: pronunciation) is the purplish one in the northwest.

That's all I know for now, but I'll post an update when I have more info!

Allie