Life Update #6: Settling into France (one month update!)

Bonjour!

As I’m writing this, it has been almost a month since I arrived in France to begin my third consecutive year abroad (but my first year as a lectrice d’anglais). So much has happened in this past month– from finding a place to live to dealing with French administration, I can’t believe how I got through it unscathed, let alone so smoothly (really!).

Here’s a recap of what has happened so far, bullet-point style:

• Landed in Paris after a smooth flight (we also landed earlier than expected, which was a plus!). Spent one night in a hostel, which interestingly was the first time that I’d ever stayed in a hostel in Paris. It had a bar-restaurant for guests, so I had a few drinks and made friends with other hostel-goers to unwind after a long day of travel. I also reactivated my French phone number and explored Canal Saint-Martin the following morning, despite the pouring rain (still gorgeous!).

• Took the direct train the following morning to the Lyon region, where one of my colleagues picked me up and let me stay in her home while I looked for housing. Really kind of her to offer me her place to stay, as there was no way I could’ve afforded to pay for the hotels in town. Got acquainted with her family and had a few meals with them, too.

• While looking for a place to live, I also took time to visit the city in which I would be working, since I’d never been to it before. Met up with other lecteurs in town (I believe there are 4 or 5 of us, although we teach on different campuses), getting lunch in centre ville and acquainted with each other.

• Did some hikes with my colleagues, one to a medieval village and the other to the countryside. Compared with the flat fields of Upper Normandy, there are lush, green hills here to see for miles and miles, which are utterly beautiful. The Lyon region isn’t too far from a regional park, along with the Alps, so it certainly makes for some great scenery!

• Ah, apartment hunting…probably the most stressful part since arriving in France, although looking back, it wasn’t that bad. It took me a bit over a week to find a place and to move in, and so far, I’m pretty happy with it. I’m in a colocation (roommate situation) with three other French girls, who are clean, respectful, and incredibly nice. I speak French with them, which helps me practice the language otherwise. I have my own room and shower/sink, but I have to share the toilet and kitchen. Took about a week to get Internet, which was a *slight* inconvenience, but it could’ve been worse compared with last year’s situation (post here). The flat’s located in the city center, and although I have to commute to work (tram and bus), at least I’m living in an area with plenty of supermarkets, boulangeries, and things to do. Rent is about 40€ over my intended budget, but I plan to apply for CAF, since a bit of extra pocket money would be much-appreciated.

• Attended a “Welcome Day” for new teachers, administration, and staff who work at the university: we also got a three-course lunch, which involved *a lot* of wine (in French style!). While not exactly a stage/formation that I was accustomed to as an assistante, I got to meet a lot of other people and learn a bit more about the university as a whole.

• Went out to an “International Exchange” meetup in town the Friday night after moving in earlier that week. It was my first time checking out the nightlife and, since it’s a university town, it had a good number of options for bars, even a few clubs. Met other lecteurs, along with locals and students (thankfully, none are mine!) and we had a good time hanging out in the Irish pub (always for expats, of course…) before hitting a night club afterwards (which I hadn’t done since Poland in April). It was fun, but exhausting, as I returned home around 3:30 am.

• Started teaching! First day was a bit of a scramble figuring out technology (since I taught using Powerpoint), but otherwise, it went surprisingly well. I’m assigned to teach 12 hours a week this semester, which is the same amount of hours for an assistante. I had the impression that I would be working more hours, so I was surprised that my hours are few. Plus, I only work three days a week, so I can’t complain!

Seriously, everything has gone so well so far– too well, I would emphasize. Granted, I’m very blessed to have had good experiences as an assistante these past two years, so when it came to becoming a lectrice, I had expectations that it would be a challenge, especially with finding housing on my own to dealing with OFII and teaching independently. However, it hasn’t been the case so far, and I believe that it boils down to having such a great responsable (lecteur supervisor) who has been so on-top of helping me figure out how to process visa paperwork over the summer and how to get settled into the new university job once I arrived– considering that I’ve been hearing of other lecteurs who haven’t been given much help and are basically on their own, I’m extremely fortunate to be in this situation.

On the other hand, I suppose that, having dealt with French administration previously as an assistante has made me accustomed to the frustration and stress associated with it– after all, what can you do about it? Same goes for teaching: while I have my own students this year, i.e. not “sharing” them with colleagues, need to teach/test/grade them, I am grateful for having gone through those two years as an assistante– learning from my successes and mistakes. At least for the moment, I feel more comfortable presenting on the podium, knowing how to plan lessons for an entire semester (nine weeks this time around) to teach to classes with as many as 36 students(!), and keeping things under control. I’m sure that there will be some rough days, but as long as the good ones outnumber the not-so-good, that’s all that matters.

At the risk of this post going on for too long, I’ll end it here and say that I’m really happy how things are going for my first year as a lectrice. There’s still so much to be done with processing paperwork (OFII, medical visit, CAF…), but taking it step-by-step is the way to go. I’ll keep you updated on what’s to come soon! À bientôt.

 

— Rebecca