please make it be tomorrow night

Against my better judgement, I picked up a shift at work today. I figure every little bit helps. I have to be in downtown Chi at 11:00 am tomorrow to get my visa. I was planning on getting all of my paperwork in order this morning, going to get my extra passport pictures taken this afternoon, and going to see a play this evening. Instead, I worked this morning/afternoon, got home, showered, got my pictures taken in Peru, drove back to Pton, started printing off my forms to fill out, lost our internet connection because of a storm, went to the play, came home. And now its 10:45, and I am just now starting to fill out my forms, and I have to make a zillion copies of each one. So of course now I'm updating this thing instead of filling out my forms. I know it will be worth it, but I AM SO SICK OF FILLING OUT STUPID STINKING FORMS (en français, bien sûr). At least the Cubs won.

I will not be setting a record for swimming across the Atlantic with two suitcases and a backpack...this time

I am now the proud owner of a plane ticket, thanks to an extremely generous Christmas gift from mon père. MERCI MERCI MERCI MERCI BEAUCOUP Daddio!!!!! On the 30th I have to be at the Consulate in Chicago at 11am to get my visa. I leave in two months. Eek! But I WILL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS!!!! I'm super excited because I love Christmas, and I can't imagine not spending it with my amazing family.

Aaron is helping me with the camera and computer issue Thanks Aaron! And I wish I could have gone to visit you on Sunday. :( Stupid work.

I keep getting asked what I will do if the Cubs make it to the World Series. Hmm, not sure. I think mlb.com has a subscription offer, making the games available online. I'm not sure if that is good for post season games, but it's definitely something I need to be looking in to, because (and I know I've said this every year since I learned how to speak, but this is the year) the Cubs are going ALL the way this year. Of course I'll be watching the games in the middle of the night, but you gotta do what you gotta do. I've always said I'm going to name my firstborn after whatever manager gets the Cubs a World Series victory. And since I don't want kids, by firstborn I mean friend for Wrigley and Ivy (my cats) in the form of a puppy. Hopefully I'll be getting Sweet Lou next summer after I return. But now I'm going to go focus my attention fully on the last inning and a half of the Cubs game, in hopes that they will not be helping Randy Johnson improve his record to 13-0 against the Cubs.

Thanks Google images! and other stuff

I have been asked by many people where Bordeaux is located. No worries, until a few months ago, I didn't know either. So here's a map of France.




















There is a gentleman who has recently become a regular bar customer at the place I where I work. This evening he told me that I should really consider getting married before I leave. Riiiiiiight. Because starting a new job, in a new country, with no place live isn't scary enough, let's throw a husband into the mix. I'm not sure I want one of those when I'm not starting a new job, in a new country, and have a place to live.


Here's why I am hopefully living in Bordeaux, not Cenon (where my schools are).



These are pictures of Bordeaux that come up when one Googles "Bordeaux"

This is one of the first pictures that comes up when one Googles "Cenon"

Yes, that is a car on fire.

No procrastinating here

Everyone has been telling me I need to start a blog when I go to France. So for the first time in my life, I'm doing something not last minute. Mom, are you proud of me? I started this over two months early.

This blog (which I'll probably largely ignore for the next 9 weeks, unless I get my own computer...fingers crossed for the pink laptop) is really one of the only things I've done to prepare for my trip. I've been in contact with the head of the English department at one of the two schools where I'll be teaching. I am still waiting for my brand spankin' new passport, which will hopefully arrive next week, and then I can go to the French consulate in Chicago to get my visa, after getting my third set of passport pictures taken (one for the job application, one for the passport renewal form, one for the visa application). The people at the Walgreens photo department are going to know me by name. Other than that, I don't have a place to live. I don't know if I will have insurance with this program (But I'm looking into that, Dad) I don't know what to do with my car. I don't have a place to live. I haven't bought my place ticket yet. I don't know what to do with my cell phone. I don't own a camera. I don't have a place to live. Do people still need voltage adapters? I don't have a place to live. What the heck am I going to do with a room full of 11 year olds for twelve hours a week? Sooooo...yeah. I'm on top of things.

I guess before I do much else with this blog I should tell what I'm doing to the three people I haven't already explained all this to (hmm...probably not supposed to end a sentence in a preposition, but I'm not an English teacher for another couple of months...over, with, in, for). I'm going to France this fall to be an English teaching assistant. It's a program though the French ministry of Education. There are assistants from the US, Mexico, Australia, UK, Germany (I think) and I'm sure I'm missing some other countries. But basically we assist the teachers of our native language with their French students. There are assitants in every grade from elementary school to university job training. I was placed in two collèges, which in France is like middle school (11-15 year olds). My schools are in Cenon, which is right outside of Bordeaux. I am responsible for finding my own housing. I want to live in Bordeax because I've heard Cenon is a little ghetto. Both schools I'm at are low income, with some discipline problems. I tried googling Cenon to find pictures of it, and the only pictures I found were pictures of cars on fire during riots. I am leaving in mid September and I'll be back sometime in May or June, depending on who wants to come visit me and go cool places and see cool things during May.

Umm...that's all I've got. I leave in 9 weeks. So in the meantime my life will consist of working to earn and save as much money as possible since once I'm over there I won't get paid until November, gulp, and its really hard to earn money working at a restaurant that no one eats at from May until October, filling out a whole lot of paperwork, and losing as much weight as possible so I won't be the fat american, and this is a run on sentence, but again, I'm not an English teacher yet, so it's all good.