In exactly three weeks I will be arriving in Paris. I cannot believe how quickly summer has passed. This whole trip finally started feeling real after receiving my visa in the mail last week. I guess I better start thinking about what I am going to pack!
I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is Meg and in three weeks, I will be moving to Lyon, France for roughly nine months to teach English in three different primary schools through TAPIF (teaching assistant program in France). As I will only be working around 12 hours per week, I will have plenty of time to explore and experience all that Lyon (and parts of France) has to offer me. I am equal parts frightened, overwhelmed, and unbelievably excited to begin my adventure.
The main worry that I have right now is figuring out where I am going to live. As of now, I have a roommate (another teacher from the UK) and we are attempting to find an apartment in Lyon. After sending countless emails, we have received few replies save for one diligent scammer who tried to trick us out of a couple hundred euros. Thankfully we didn’t fall for his hoax but it definitely made me lose some faith in dealing with people online. You have to be extremely careful and double check everything. If I hadn’t done a google image search of the pictures he sent us, we never would have found multiple listings in different countries with the exact same photos on different sites. All of the people I’ve known who have done this program have told me that it is nearly impossible to find housing before I arrive in Lyon. So as difficult as it is for me to let go and just wait to search once I get there, it looks like thats what I am going to have to do.
So as my departure date of September 15th rapidly approaches I really don’t have that much left to do! Except for that herculean task of packing my life into two suitcases…yeah I should start thinking about that.
Until next time!