I have been home now since the 7th of July and truly enjoying the summer weather and time with my family and friends. As always, its rather odd returning to “normal life” after an amazing experience abroad. I often tell people that each time I come back I feel like I have to recouperate from the intensity that comes from life abroad and reconcile the new person I’ve become as a result of my experiences there and then integrate them with my life here. This time is especially unique because of the other changes going on, such as Mom’s diagnosis with breast cancer and the fact that I’ll be moving to Nancy, France in three short weeks for the next year! People keep asking me about my next trip and so I wanted to let everyone know what its all about, and that I will be updating my blog from there!
I’ll be leaving on September 7th for Paris and then heading directly to Nancy, France where I’ll be working under professors to teach English classes. I have English majors in first, second and third year, European Studies Master’s students in first year, and one year English Diploma students. Right now, the classes seem like the easy part of this endeavour. When I arrive I have to find an apartment, set up a bank account and my paycheck things and basically deal with the pain-in-butt that is the French bureacracy…ahhhh, the joys of travelling…and all of this must be done before I receive my first paycheck at the end of September and hopefully before my classes start.
Here’s Nancy’s location. “The metropolitan area of Nancy had a population of 410,509 inhabitants at the 1999 census, 103,602 of whom lived in the city of Nancy proper.” So, it sounds like a decent sized city but not too big. Below is the center of town called Place Stanislas:
All in all, I’m really looking forward to this experience and I want to invite everyone who wants to take advantage of the fact that I’ll have an apartment or a little studio that will have its doors open to you! Please, come and I would love to show you around my new city and if I have time, travel around with you, too!
