Final Thoughts- Things I Will/Won’t Miss About Being an English Assistant

As my time in France has come to a close, I’ve started looking back on the last 8 months of my life, reliving, rehashing, remembering, and reminiscing. As any stay in France is bound to unfold, I’ve had a large portion of amazing memories and experiences, a dash of utterly ridiculous encounters with the French way of life, and a few helpings of cultural exchange that have left me with a new perspective in many cases. As I’ve pondered the time passed, I’ve compiled a list of things I will and won’t miss from my time in France. The following are the won’ts, followed by the wills of the Assistant experience:

Won’t Miss-

-The school administration. Self-explanatory, especially if you have ever taught in or worked with a school.

-Navigating through grève days on my way to work. The French national sport is, of course, going on strike. Having worked in a town that was a train ride away from Montpellier, figuring out which trains I would have to take, arriving at the train station and finding out they were cancelled anyways, and dodging ticket-takers while riding without a ticket is something I won’t miss, but also won’t look back on without laughing.

-Seeing the “Ass Anglais” label on my cubby in the teacher’s lounge. This one might require a little explanation. My official title while in France is “English Assistant” or in French, “Assistant Anglais.” The day I received my cubby from the school secretary, he decided to use the abbreviated version, which may not be the friendliest thing to greet a native English speaker each morning.

Will Miss-

-Eating lunch in Les Jardins de la Fontaine. Up the avenue from my school is a large garden with a natural spring that dates back to the time of the Roman occupation. There are stone ruins that cover the entire park, as well as trees, flowers, and paths to follow all around. If I ever had a long lunch and it was nice out, I would bring my food up to the garden, eat it while people watching, and sometimes take a nap on one of the benches.

-The kids. Whether for the ridiculous things they say (see “Lessons from Scattergories” post) or for the unexpected, awesome things they do (baking me desserts “because it was Thanksgiving yesterday” or staying up all night to watch the Superbowl because I taught them the rules to American football), the kids I taught this year were great. With the number of students I worked with, sometimes up to 15 alone with me, I rarely ever had trouble with them.

-Traveling. Being able to travel to another country, see a different culture, and experience a different way of life all at a moment's notice is one of the most exciting parts about having lived abroad for the year. No matter how much I saw, there was always something else out there to see and I definitely can't wait to make my next trip.

-Meeting people from all over. No matter what new nationalities I came across, meeting people from around the world never got old. Talking with them and finding out how similar we actually all were was great, and I'm sure I've made lasting friendships with some great people from around the globe.

That just about wraps up My Year in the Merde. I hope everyone reading this will someday have their own experience in the merde, be it in France, another foreign country, or even right here in the United States. Traveling can be some of the best, or at the very least most memorable times, so never stop exploring because as Russell so wisely declared in Up, "Adventure is out there."

Final Travels

So it seems that moving home from a foreign country, moving to a new city, and starting a job all take some amount of time. As such, I've completely neglected posting my last few entries. Shameful, I know. Without further ado, here are the highlights of my final travels during April break and the month of May:

-The Paris Marathon, as seen by the previous post, was a total success. Katrina and I finished under our goal time of 4 hours, and got to celebrate with Mom and Dad who were finishing up their visit to me in France the next day. It was great to have the whole family together, albeit on another continent.

-For April break, Katrina, who stayed for 2 weeks following the marathon, and I planned to visit Belgium, Amsterdam and London. In Belgium, we traveled to Brussels (not our favorite, but easiest for traveling purposes), Bruge (tiny and touristy, but charming with delicious chocolate and beautiful sights), and Ghent (larger university with great medieval sights including a castle in the center of the city). Amsterdam was unique from every other place I've visited. It's architecture, layout amongst the many canals, attractions, and variety of inhabitants make it a nice change from many other European cities. A favorite of ours was definitely the Anne Frank House- a must see for anyone visiting or passing through Amsterdam.

-As I said, we also planned to go to London. The Icelandic volcano had other plans. What with the eruption of the volcano whose name no one can pronounce and the ensuing ash cloud, our flight to Gatwick was canceled and tickets on the Eurostar were going for about $350 one way. Preferring not to bankrupt ourselves, we decided to return to Paris and spend the remaining 4 days where we had started off (I know, how unfortunate for us). Once we returned to Paris, we made our rounds of some of the sights more off the beaten path, the best of which was visiting the Rue Mouffetard for the best crêpes you'll ever have. Period.

-Once my contract ended in April, Darcy (aka Darce Dawg) and I planned an adventure around Scotland as our last big trip before leaving France. Flying from Marseille, we visited Edinburgh, Inverness, the Isle of Skye, and Glasgow. Edinburgh was definitely my favorite of the cities we visited, with its well-preserved and far-reaching history around every turn, beautiful sights like the Edinburgh Castle and Arthur's Seat, and delicious food (haggis and whiskey, anyone?) The Isle of Skye was possibly the most beautiful place I've ever scene and definitely made for some adventures as Darcy and I drove our rental car around the island seeing all the peaks, valleys, ruins, and towns there were to see. We even got to drive alongside Loch Ness on our way to the island, although Nessie was MIA that day. The day of driving on the left side of the road almost came to a close without any major incidents...almost. (It's not my fault roads on Skye are one lane for two way traffic.) Overall, Scotland was without a doubt one of my favorite places I traveled to during the entire year.