Planning and Preparing and Daydreaming....

Happy Monday,
So things are really coming along... sort of. I gave my notice at work last week and feel really good about that. They were so supportive and wonderful about it. I feel better having everything in the open and continue to enjoy my days here at Yahoo! My last day is Wed. Sept. 20.
I sent an email to my contact at Lycee Guisth'au Nantes but have yet to hear back; I imagine it could be a while since they are probably on vacation. Right now my main concern is the housing situation. I don't have anything worked out yet and am hoping that it will be possible to live at the school. Since I finally have my arrêté, I will go to the San Francisco consulate next Monday and apply for my long-stay visa. This visa will be good for 3 months while I apply (more paperwork!) for my CDS (carte de sejour).
Pokey has been on my mind. There is no doubt that I will miss her. I even had a dream last week that she flew on the "people" plane with me and I was waiting in line to go through customs with her. I wish she could come with me even though I know she will have fun with my Mom and Ehmie taking care of her.
Josh and Marina (Jeffrey's brother and his wife) have booked their flight and rented an apartment in Florence for the months of Feb. and March. I am planning and hoping on visiting them during my 2 week vacation from Feb. 10-26 It will be great to get to see the city from someone who knows it well. Plus it will be so nice to see people from home. I am really looking forward to my first trip to Italy!
Other than that, there's not much to report. I do a good amount of research through the assistant's website http://www.assistantsinfrance.com/forums/index.php. There is an assistant who will be working for the 2006-2007 year who has created a website that is quite impressive. Here's the link if you care to explore. http://www.ielanguages.com/assistant.html

My arrêté arrived yesterday!

Good Morning Everyone!

So, it finally arrived; I received my arrêté(official contract) yesterday. I have been placed in a school that is actually in Nantes (not something guaranteed since up until yesterday I only knew that I was in the Nantes Academie which could have had me in a very small town outside the city). I have been assigned to 6 hours in the middle school and 6 in the high school. I think that is great because I will get to meet a variety of students. Lycee Guisth' au Nantes is an all girls school. The building was constructed in 1829. You can check out their website at http://ecole.orange.fr/lycee.guisthau/ . Now I can finally move on with the process and apply for my visa. Wish me luck.

~Elizabeth

Test

Hello Everyone,
So I was trying to think of the best way to keep everyone updated on my time in France, and I thought I'd give blogger a try. Hopefully it will be an easy way for you to check in, at your convenience. Of course, I would still love to receive personal emails.

~Elizabeth