Feeling 22 in France!

What better way to start the next year of your life in a foreign country! Birthday week kicked off with a 5:45 am wakeup call to prendre le bus with the students to go to school. I even managed to sleep (I think) for a bit on the hour and a half ride up. I arrived at school and learned I would be observing some more classes this week – one of my profs joked that I could do my All About Me powerpoint in my sleep and that was pretty accurate. Mondays are a rough and early start but apparently, the teachers like to make sweets on Sunday and bring them in! Pas mal!

looks like a Bob Ross painting

Not going to sugar coat it, the first night in the internat or boarding school was a little lonely. I hung out in my internet-less room and had dinner alone in the teacher’s lounge. Things turned around when my “roommate” aka another professor who stayed over Monday night came back and we ended up talking for about an hour about food, differences in France, places to travel too … très sympa !

  

Raving about the ravioli // Ex-couscous the food puns!

Caught a ride down the next day with a French professor (if that’s not intimidating when trying to speak French after a day of speaking in English in classes I don’t know what is!). and was about to hop on the tram home when it seemed a little too quiet. La grève !  The strike! I had forgotten there was a transportation and school strike and only about 6 bus lines were running, none of which were headed in the direction of my apartment, of course. So I trekked home with my winter-mountain clothes and joked about it with the housemates before crashing early.

Wednesday and Thursday were spent trying to convince different banks to give me an appointment ASAP. Turns out when you say it is très urgent the soonest they can help you is a week. Again, gotta love French bureaucracy.

we were Russian around all week! (jk this church is 5 min from our apt)

Friday rolled around and Melissa and I woke up and went for a birthday run (and then grabbed a pain au chocolat) on the way back because pourquoi pas. Then I taught for a little bit before Katie and I headed to the beach for a birthday beer. We met back up with Melissa for a kir and planned the evening. Katie’s professor had invited her to a wine tasting so we tagged along and tant mieux! There was some good wine and cheese but the star was truffle ham! I want to go back and eat about 2 kilos worth of it! Katie went with her prof to dinner and Melissa, our friend Abby and I headed back to the Old Town to find some cheap eats. We stumbled upon a strange Italian street food place with calzones? But French? Anyways it was good and we got to practice our Grazis! We ended up at Fenocchio (love of my life!) and I finally got my pistache ice cream before we went to a bar in the Old Town called Wayne’s. The live music was good and we ended up chatting with a British guy on vacation.

    

Cass-Is this real life? // Birthday run on the beach ended with a photoshoot thanks to a stranger

     

Pist-ask me how good this day way! // Jambon + fromage + foccacia = italian heaven 

The next morning Melissa and I headed to the beach for our assistant de langue beach picnic! We posted on Facebook and quite a few assistants showed up which was fun. Who can complain when there’s wine, cheese, snacks and even a little birthday cake! We went out that night to a tapas bar with a group of assistants.

   

Birthdays are the perfect excuse for a pique-nique! // 6 bottles of wines is an accomplishment

   

Merci beacoup to these lovely ladies for making birthday weekend the best! 

Currently I’m back at Le Lycée de la Montagne, chilling in the Teacher’s Lounge after dinner with two Euro-volunteers from Germany and Italy who are here for the year at the school too. Had my first classes today and it was wild trying to match schedules with profs, students and myself and I have some things to switch around demain. Besides that, this week will be spent relaxing and working before 2 weeks of vacation! It feels like we just got here and we’re already going on break. I mean no complaints … il faut profiter !

     

Din-donnez moi all the food! // Internat views!

À toute à l'heure, 

Lele xx

Orienting myself ...

... aka Monday was our first "official" day of orientation! Les filles de Châteauneuf woke up nice and early and managed to get halfway to the rectorat (French school board building) without morning coffee. Our second bus was a little late but we managed to get to the rectorat and hand in most of our forms and sign in without too much trouble.

The rest of the morning was mostly presentations by various school officials on the paperwork we need to fill out and some information about French schooling. We also took a super fun group picture (which they managed to print in 30 minutes to give each of us a copy*)
*Side note - French bureaucracy is très fou but somehow they can successfully & quickly print a photo

Lunch was some hors d'œuvres and some good desserts! Then we split into groups to talk about French high schools and how we should teach - my head teacher actually led the session! Fun surprise for me, apparently I was supposed to bring my First-Day-Presentation to introduce myself to orientation so I had to present myself and a video I found on Google Drive to the other assistants. Not super ideal ...

Wednesday, I was en route to my (second) bank appointment when my head teacher called and said she could pick me up and take me to school! So I hurried back home, quickly finished my potato, spinach, and goat cheese quiche and threw my clothes in a bag to meet her and 2 other teachers. I spent the night at her house in a small village south of school and helped her make a tarte tatin and pizza for dinner.

tarte me up!

The next morning was my (second) first day of high school! And let me tell you, it felt a little bit like the first, first day. The windy mountain roads got even skinnier and even windier as we got to school and I even peeped the last fort on the Maginot Line during WWII - which wasn't actually used. We pulled up to school - Lycée de la Montagne and I was promptly left to introduce myself to the doorman and secretaries!

school route! don't look down!

I observed various classes during the day and one student even asked a teacher if I was a new student - felt a little like one tbh. I even presented my First-Day-Presentation (which I remembered to bring with me - you only make that mistake once!!) and did a chart on different stereotypes and/or clichés of France and the States. I was super wiped once the day was over but I carpooled back with some other teachers and we spoke French and English on the 1h30 drive back down to Nice.

Some highs were that the staff and teachers all seem very nice and they complimented my French and accent which was a boost! Lows are that high school students are (still) super intimidating and it's all new and a little nervewracking. I'm still en train de open a bank account so hopefully that falls into place soon and I can get paid!

(as they said many times at school) Ciao Ciao!
Xx,
Lele

it's going to be a NICE year !

Salut à tous!

If you’re reading this, I am no longer homeless in Nice. And can breathe a (huge) sigh of relief. But I’ll back up a little and fill you all in on mes aventures these past few days….

So I packed 2 days before I left for the airport, and then ended up repacking (and breaking down - not gonna lie) about 4 different times during the two days after trying to get my bags to fit the weight limit and amount of two separate flights. But I ended up making things work, or so I thought!

I left for the airport on Sunday morning after a last iced Pumpkin coffee run (L) and grabbed lunch with my chauffeurs – sorry, grandparents before they dropped me off at Portland Jetport.

Flight #1: Portland à JFK

Airport time: 2.5 hours

Flight time: 1 hour

Total travels: 6.5 hours

Highlights: The lady at the Jetblue counter let me through even though my bag was 1 pound overweight!

Flight #2: JFK à Oslo

Airport time: 8 hours

Flight time: 6 hours

Total travels: 20.5 hours

Highlights: After spending an hour or two outside of customs repacking my bags, they were still both overweight. Protip: if you look like you have been crying/will cry at any moment, the people at the counter will just let you go! Got a free glass of wine with dinner which made up for the fact that the plane was delayed and managed to get a little sleep. PSA don't watch Eat, Pray, Love - you will cry on the plane and feel a strong emotional connection to Julia Roberts. 

shotgunned my coffee because the flight attendants forgot about my meal

Flight #3: Oslo à Nice

Airport time: 5 hours

Flight time: 3 hours

Total travels: 28.5 hours

Highlights: Not much, the sun was setting right as we descended into Nice and truthfully it was the first time I felt excited about this adventure!

Peep the Alps(???)

Collected mes valises [my bags] from the claim (turns out they were the last ones out and also my nail polish exploded, ruining my duffel bag) and was picked up by a family friend, who drove me to his apartment where he let me crash the first few days. Super lucky! Had a tarte and some bread and wine for dinner and promptly fell asleep (until 3 am – gotta love jet lag!)

Day 1

The next morning, I met some of the other assistants to try to find an apartment. We met at (the gorgeous) Place Massena and grabbed un café to get to know each other before we saw the first apartment.

rendez-vous by the "naked man statue"

We bussed it over to Apartment #1 which was like a 5-minute walk from the ocean. The colors were astounding! The apartment was really nice and completely re-done on the inside. We wandered around the neighborhood and bought French SIM cards – I, of course bought the wrong size for my phone … and then we stopped for some lunch. The pizza was great and the woman who ran the shop gave us a free drink with flavored syrups and water. We decided to walk along the Promenade des Anglais since we didn’t have any other plans and the weather was gorgeous.

      

so close to Italy - on a mission to eat all the pizza/pasta!

Went back to my temporary apartment and had a nice dinner in front of an old Disney movie which was perfect after my first full day! Life still feels confusing and not real that we live here for the next 7 months.

Day 2

Met up with a friend from yesterday to see about what we would need to open a bank account and was promptly denied at the first bank because I was American. Apparently, there is some foreign banking act that prohibited me but the cherry on top was when the banker (in French) said “You can thank your president”. I do every day buddy, why do you think I left?? It was also confusing because I had previously had an account at that bank when I studied in Paris 2 years ago.

Went to a few more banks to see and made an appointment for next week. Then we went back to her hostel to do more apartment research and made 3 meetings for that day and one for the next – two of them stood us up – c’est la vie! Apartment #2 was a little further away from the town and beach but completely redone (in Ikea no less) and also close to one girl’s school! The landlord asked how long we all had known each other and we all laughed when we realized it has been a day! He thinks we’ll get along well though J

The rest of the day was spent drinking and eating, see attached photo! Don’t know why I didn’t get on that French beer trend last time – Kronenburg and Panaché have been refreshing and needed these past few days. And walking – 21,000 steps and 10.5 miles! Oh and two separate people asked if I was Spanish or South American (the trend continues) …

letting the good times Aperol in Nice

Day 3

Apartment #3 was the meeting spot in the morning – right on the Promenade des Anglais, but the apartment was in a half basement, so there wasn’t as much light and views. It also wasn’t redone but we weren’t saying no mainly because you could cross the street and be at the beach!

We went to a café to talk things over, and ended up finding a yummy falafel place with cheap coffee and beer (huge bonus)! We heard back from Apartment #2 that he had dropped the guarantor charges and also told us we could move in ASAP since the other two had to find a new AirBnb. We thought it over and decided yes! Turns out he isn’t completely done with the apartment but he is letting us stay rent free until we start the lease on the 1^st !

it's not L'as du Falafel but chick(pea) this out!

After schlepping my suitcases in an Uber (where the driver had been to Culver City and told me my English was good – huge win!) I made it to my new apartment!

     

Rue Châteauneuf!

Unpacked and ordered Uber Eats where we had our first French taco experience – fries + chicken/beef + béchamel sauce all wrapped up. We grabbed a bottle of wine from the store and toasted to no longer searching!

Taco 'bout the size of these !

Days 4 & 5:

First morning in the new apartment! Slept pretty well and even managed to have some coffee in the morning before we set out to grocery shop and house shop! We grabbed some stuff and came back for a little impromptu bread/cheese/avocado lunch! And of course ... rosé

the puns are so cheesy already

Then, we headed back out to get more food and items for the apartment at Monoprix! We all were exhausted when we came back so it was a nice night in making dinner (chicken & salad & potatoes for moi).

Saturday, the filles de Rue Chateauneuf all slept in before heading to Jean-Medecin for a little shopping. Then, we (finally) hit the beach! Such nice weather and blue skies – I couldn’t have been happier. We had a nice walk back home (with lots of stops for photographs of the buildings). Then we met with our landlord who brought the housing contracts (and joked that we had to do homework by filling them out). I will say it is nice to feel like I am settled enough here that I can make jokes (and understand them) in French. We had dinner and listened to music on our Smart Mirror (our landlord is the coolest and the cutest) before heading to bed.

     

Feeling super lucky that I have a place to stay, my roommates are super cool and love food as much as I do, and that there hasn’t really been too much culture shock, especially compared with last time! On the downside I have been walking so much, I already have a blister - but hey, that's to be expected

Your favorite niçoise is quite exhausted and looking forward to a good first Sunday with some house decorating and crêpes for dinner before orientation on Monday.

Bises pour tous,

Leah xx

The (visa) Struggle is Real

Coucou tout le monde ! Hello everyone -


In a classic scene from my life movie - I took a small journey to get my visa and (as always) hit a few bumps in the road.

My first visa experience when I studied abroad in Paris was much worse (phone dying because it was negative degrees plus windchill, calling my mom in a panic and having her track me and direct me to the consulate while I hid my phone in my hood to keep it warm ... ). So when I heard I would only have to drive 5 hours to Boston, I was pretty pumped. Youpi !
I left at 5:00 am, just as the sun was starting to peek through the Maine trees and I ended up on a bridge in Boston traffic a few hours (and a bunch of songs) later. I found parking pretty easily and took the elevator up to the 18th floor of the new outsourced visa office. I ended up being a little early for my appointment but it was ok as I was brought to the office a few minutes early.

That's definitely when my good luck ran out. I was in a small office with one tiny rotating fan in the 90 degree heat. (A very big change from the freezing temps of last visit - quelle ironie!). About 45 minutes later my name was called and I handed the official my folder with 4 copies of every single document I thought they would or could ask for. Everything was being checked off smoothly until he asked if I had any other passport photos. Apparently, the biometric scanner wouldn't accept my photos so I got some very choppy directions to the nearest post office to take some new ones. Luckily it was only a 10 minute walk away through (the very cute) Kendall Square. I basically ran into the post office and kind of shouted (sorry @the super nice post office lady who helped me) and asked if they took passport photos.

Flash forward another half hour and my photos were approved, and my fingerprints were taken (again!) and I had a receipt for a submitted long-stay visa! (And again, in classic Leah fashion I decided to move my car to a different parking lot because it was cheaper -- and ended up paying two-times the parking fees). I blame it on my stressed visa brain and the heat and the excitement of being in a town with more than 2,000 people.

The rest of my day was lovely! The second I walked out of my appointment I decided I needed une bière ASAP - because it was so hot and I was so happy to be done. So I walked into Boston and met my friend for lunch in the Finance District. She actually was another student when I studied abroad in Paris and we had the same host family! The rest of my day was spent wandering (and sweating) to the waterfront and then sitting by the river and watching the sailboats and windsurfers. Then it was off to Boston Logan to pick up my sister and road-trip back to Maine (after getting caught in a crazy storm - nothing like some more excitement after a long 20 - hour day.

Comme d'habitude / As per usual - enjoy a picture of my view!

Merci for following on and reading (Je vous promets / I promise the blog posts will get more interesting once I actually leave!) I'm sure there will be a fun post about the struggles of finding an apartment/opening a bank account/getting a French phone number - things to look forward too!


Bises et bières pour tous (Kisses and beers for all),

Xx,

Lele

Pre-departure Panic

Bonjour! We're t-minus 90 (!!!) days until my flight to Nice and believe me when I say its been quite the ride!

So to update le monde (the world) I got my placement for my actual school in mid-June ...

~ I'll side note here and add some information about the TAPIF program. I applied after Winter Break and heard back in the spring that I was accepted! The program is through the French Education Department and I'll be the language assistant to a middle/high school for 12-15 hours a week. You get to pick your top 3 regions to be placed in and I was super lucky to get my top pick! The only region I didn't get to when I was abroad was the South of France, so it seemed like a great place to spend 7 months. The program doesn't aid with housing or anything like that so I'll be doing the whole adulting thing solo, but in a foreign country and language! ~

[its gonna be a NICE 8 months *the puns start early*]

I knew I was going to be in the Nice region, but it was unclear where. I was hoping (and expecting tbh) to be placed in a town on the water ... but when the email with my arrete de nomination came and I frantically googled the name of the town and high school, I found myself staring at a Google Maps image of a small village (800 people total!) tucked away in a valley, surrounded by the Alps, and an extensive bus trip to the nearest airport or city. So definitely not a town on the beach. *cue the freaking out and numerous hours googling*

little town, it's a quiet village ... 
(also are you kidding me with this view??)

It's always good to take a step back (and a breath or two) and more importantly - text your friends and fam. Everyone made a veeeery good point that no matter where I am placed, I am still living in France and can travel! So I looked at the school again and stumbled upon the website which had some very inviting photos of a cute school with picturesque mountain views. Everyone is joking that I am basically Belle from Beauty and the Beast (no complaints - she's my favorite princess). I even emailed the head teacher after I got my arrete and she emailed back super quick with some great info about the school and town and answered my (slightly neurotic) questions. Turns out she's originally from California too. Small world! She also gave me the email of the last English language assistant from the school to contact. The past assistant was super helpful and very nice to answer my email and she even gave me the email of her friend from California who was also an assistant last year! So I reached out to him as well and he also was more than happy to answer my questions (and also told me that French people seem to love Californians!)  After all this good info, I'm definitely feeling better and more prepared for this wild adventure. I also reached out to our family friend's uncle who lives there and he was also super helpful!

The next step was to book a flight and since Norweigan Air was having a sale (and I just got my new credit card) I decided to book one! My mom and I found out on a travel website that prices are cheaper if you book in Norweigan, so we had a small adventure translating and buying tickets in a different language that neither of us spoke - but it ended up being worth the hassle since I saved money.

I booked my visa appointment today so I'm all ready to try the new visa system and pretty excited since you don't have to go to the consulate in your jurisdiction akaI don't have to change my residence to Maine or shell out money for a flight back home to LA aka I'll gladly take the 5 hour drive to Boston. Things are looking up!

On my list of things to do before my flight takes off ...
- continue making as much money as I can so I can travel around Europe again
- make it to the visa appt (hopefully without any drama like last time)
- research some apartments/roommates in Nice **
** Even though I'm going to be in the mountains for school, the head teacher said that last year the assistants commuted from Nice and lived at school for 3 days since there's more to do (and places to live!) in the city. As our family friend's uncle put it "[the village] is where you go to see the wildlife, not live the wild life"
- pack for 8 months into a suitcase under 32 kg and one carry on (#yikes)


Bisous from your fave assistante de langue to-be and follow along on the rest of mes aventures !
xx, Leah <3

~~~~~~

PS - shoutout to Amanda for being super pumped about the return of the blog! now you can check it and actually see something posted lol

I'm baaaaaaack !

... did ya miss me? <3 Never really ended this blog as things got crazy busy at the end of the semester but Paris treated me super well and I was so so sad to leave at the end of April and come back to the States. The summer flew by with my sister's graduation from high school and waitressing most weekends! Then back to Skidmore for senior year!

I applied for a TAPIF (Teaching Assistant Program In France) job after winter break where I could potentially teach English to French kids for a year and as per usual there were a few bumps in the road (missed the initial deadline, deadline got extended, letters of recommendation were taking too long, missed the deadline again ...) but thankfully everything managed to work out! After months of waiting, I heard back in April that I had gotten in and was placed in l'Académie de Nice, which was my first choice!! I thought about it and did some research and 4 days later decided to accept!

I'm on to my next adventure and will keep everyone posted about my actual school placement and pre-departure adventures (as I am sure there will be some)

Bises en retard,
Leah

PS - enjoy my aptly decorated graduation cap !

Pals came to Paris!

Bonjour again! It's been a while ... the fam has been here (and I'm pretty sure they are the only ones who read this)

But Saturday morning, the fam left and I headed off to Giverny to see some of Monet's flower gardens.

Mo' Monet, Mo' Problems

Saturday night we drank by the Seine (which we haven't actually done in a while) and then headed over to a rooftop bar, which was a super cool place to see Hotel de Ville (city hall) and the Eiffel Tower, in all her glory.

'twas lit 

Sunday was 75 and sunny so we met for a pique-nique to take advantage of the beautiful weather. I got pretty sunburnt but it was worth it.

Buttes Chaumant was blindé (crowded)

My next stop was to run over to meet my friend at her bus stop (she got in an hour early) but ended up waiting for her in the metro - which worked out perfectly (except for the mec throwing up on the platform). We dropped her stuff off at my homestay and then walked around Paris, down the Champs-Elysees, my fave bridge - Pont Alexandre III and then ended up at the Eiffel Tower for the sunset and some catching up.

Never gets old 

Dinner was at a classic French bar - a croque monsieur for her, some onion soup for me, and wine for les deux! 

The next morning we got up and went to Musée de l'Orangerie in the Tuileries before I had class. It was actually perfect timing because I got to see Monet's final paintings after just seeing the lilies in real life. Then I dropped her off at the Louvre while I ran to class.

tbt to 2 days before

Our other friend was also in Paris for the beginning of the week (amazing timing) and we all got an apéro before we went to Ober Momma for some good Italian food. Dessert was a classic - a crepe by the Notre-Dame aka the perfect way to end the night.

Tuesday, I had early class so I went with my roomie-for-the-week to get a croissant and coffee by my school. Luckily when I got to school, my class was cancelled so I showed my friend to the Catacombs and sat at a café and got some work done.

We met back up again for lunch (crepes, of course) and then I went to my last class of the day before meeting my friend after she hit up Musée Rodin. Then, another apéro before we headed to Le Marais to grab falafel when ..... our go-to fave (and also Lenny Kravitz's) falafel place was closed for Passover! So sadly, I had to cheat on my one true falafel love. But we went to grab some drinks and a crepe to end our chill Tuesday night.

Wine not?

Wednesday we snuck to a quick breakfast at HolyBelly before I dropped my friend off at the airport to head on to her next stop on her spring break trip! That night I got together one last time with my other friend (and her fam) at a cute little cafe for dinner.

HolyBelly aka Holy Crap

Little pillows of heaven aka you would Gno(cchi)t believe how good this was 

Thursday was Mojito Night at the Mazet and then some wine and Thai food by the Seine for a perfect night.

Thai-ed some Thai again

Friday we pique-niqued again and then had Mexican by the Canal for another fun night.

You can never have too much cheese 

Sadly our little streak had to end on the gray and gloomy Saturday. We were all feeling the weather but went to Angelina's for a pastry and chocolat chaud and then some ramen for dinner. But the night turned foul fast as we tried to drink by the Seine and were accosted by some mecs for a not-so-great end to the night.

Thank god for Sunday-recap sessions and Pret à Mangers being open on Easter Sunday. Even when all else fails, Paud is there through it all and I am super grateful. Also, shout out to the fam for taking me on a (virtual) Easter egg hunt and to pals who are there for me no matter which country they are in.

Thanks to M for sleeping on the floor and letting me drag you around Paris and to I for always beng down to grab drinks and food and balancing us with your fam!

Starting the countdown,
Bises Xxxx,
L