Someone please tell me how it's already December. I don't understand how time can simultaneously crawl and fly but that's exactly what it feels like right now. I have been here for a measly three weeks but November 8th feels like it was ages ago. Perhaps it's because each day here is chock-full of new excitement and adventure even when I do nothing but troll the internet. Yeah, I spent four hours looking at stuff online... FRENCH STUFF. You know, research.
The first major thing I need to find is an apartment that Jason and I can both live in. The Residence Hippocrate is fine for just me, but we tried to fit into one dorm room bed when I was at Temple for Institute and it just didn't work. I'm a grown ass woman! I should be sleeping in a grown as woman sized bed! The trouble with finding an apartment is tri-fold in our case:
1) We'd really prefer something furnished. Since we're only here for a year or two, it would be a lot of stuff to have to buy only to turn around and sell moments later. (There is an IKEA here but still. Furnishing a whole place all at once ain't cheap.)
2) We want to live somewhere near downtown but not spend a fortune on rent and also be close to work/school. This is physically impossible because his job and my school are both located in the west and downtown is all the way east. It takes at least 50 minutes to get from downtown to Pessac and that's if you're staying right on the tram line with no transfers. Holy commute, Batman.
3) We do not have a French guarantor to tell a future landlord that we're good for the rent every month. I think this is completely unnecessary if Jason can prove that he has a job and a contract for a given amount of time but this is not how it works in France. Ugh!
I have a few leads on some places, thanks to Jason's future colleague, Steve, so I guess I have some visits to make in January.
I have also spent a lot of time looking for ways to stay in the country once my classes are done. I like Esarc Evolution just fine but as Mylène said, it won't be enough for me if I am planning to stay here for a while. It's also way too expensive to try and take classes with them for two years. I have been investigating the University of Bordeaux 3, which holds the Department of French as a Foreign Language. Apparently, lots of people from Esarc transfer there once they get their language skills up and I am hoping to do the same. It's about 1/3 the cost of a private center like Esarc and they offer not just language courses, but literature and foreign language instruction pedagogy classes, too. That sounds right up my alley. Unfortunately the website is not exactly the easiest thing to understand and I think I need to just write an email to them and get some answers.
There is also this French teaching assistantship program offered by the French government that I think would be really cool. It's a paid position and is very much in the vein of my career aspirations, but I would have to spend half the summer back in the US getting a work visa. It's also not guaranteed that I would be placed in Bordeaux since it's a national program. Even if I did get placed in this area, I could be out somewhere in the sticks and without a car, that would be pretty tough to do.
Confession: I have been planning our wedding. But it's not pathetic anymore because I'm engaged for really real now! For the moment, it's all completely hypothetical since we have no idea where we'll be or what we'll be doing a year or two from now and it's really tough to try to plan an event in a place where neither of you will be living. Between theknot.com and Pinterest and weddingawker, I have a ton of ideas about things I think would be really awesome and fun but I haven't really consulted my other half on any of it. When I did, he had no opinions, so I guess I'll keep living the fantasy for a while longer.
I suppose blogging takes up a bit of time, as does checking Facebook to see what's happening in the world back home. I found a site where I can stream movies with French dubbing for free and I watched Mulan the other night. Watching movies you've seen a million times is actually a really good way to learn new words. I have decided to better myself in other ways since I have the time now: I want to get more flexible so I am starting a stretching routine. Promises splits in 30 days! I don't know if that's possible but I'm going to try. I had a push-up routine I was doing a long time ago and I want to get back into because no matter how strong I look, I still can't do that many push-ups for some reason. And I am reading a lot. I wish a had a Kindle or a Nook so I could have endless books at my disposal without all the bulk and hassel of getting them here. You can't buy any new books overseas due to copyright laws but I could load up on 50 or so when I'm home and that would easily last until my next visit back to the States.
All this research might have to take a back seat, though, because I am starting work next week. I meet both of my families on Tuesday so hopefully that will go well and I'll be making some cash money. I am slightly concerned about my Wednesday commute since I am supposed to make a 45 minutes trip in half an hour but we'll see. Might need to wear some running shorts under my outfit...
What I need to be looking for is Christmas gifts. Why am I so terrible at gift giving??? Looks like I know what I'm doing tomorrow! There's certainly nothing else to do around here on a Sunday except play on the internet.
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