For the past six years or so, I've dedicated myself to my complete obsession of everything French. I'm not quite sure why or how it started, but I suddenly found myself interested in wine with dinner and creamy cheeses. I actually dedicated time everyday to my philosophy homework because, hey, isn't that all the French talk about: great philosophers and revolution while they sip espresso sweetened with sugar in rundown corner cafés in Paris near the Sorbonne? Hell, I even started learning the language! It quickly occurred to me that my greatest goal in life had become to try and become a native Française.
So, when my arrêté de nomination arrived in the mail in June, announcing that I would be teaching English to snot-nosed junior high kids and their know-it-all, hormonal older siblings in high school (kidding! I love kids really...) in some small, no-name town in the French Alps, I couldn't have been more thrilled! I finally had real, honest-to-God legitimate access to my dream of living and working in France. And here I thought I might never see France again…
Last Friday I went to the French Embassy in San Francisco to pick up my temporary worker's visa: a year-long passport to legal, legitimate living in France. My airline ticket is purchased, my depressing cubical job is quit, and a brand-new laptop has been bought to record the experience. I'm keeping this blog so that I have a way of recording my trials, pitfalls, pictures, and hopefully some happy memories in a form accessible from every corner internet café I might visit; I can update blog posts in between discussing Descartes and Camus... yeah, right. Please leave your comments so that I don't get lonely!
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It's been wonderful to see, first-hand, the excitement and enthusiasm for this dream. I can't wait for all the blog posts to come! From French press coffee to French cut shirts, from philosophy and politics to the language itself, you have shown me a deeper, clearer view into this region and culture. I want to thank you for that. You've come so far, and worked so hard to get to this opportunity of a lifetime, and to know that such a deserving person has arrived to this dream makes me very grateful to have seen this. It's been an honor and a privilege, especially to have been there with you near the Grant and Bush intersection outside the San Francisco French Embassy to have seen and felt your excitement. I love it. I look forward to hearing and reading about your adventures. I'm here to listen. I promise to continue the French edition of Rosetta Stone, Level 1. And I promise to offer to be a shoulder to lean on, over 5,000 miles away.
ReplyDeleteJe t'aime, mon amour.
Thank you :-)
ReplyDelete