L'introduction

Bonjour tout le monde,


It's officially one month until my departure for France with the Teaching Assistants Program. I've decided to create a blog based on my experiences in France to keep in touch with all of you while I'm gone. I just received my Visa in the mail and am anxious to start my journey!


Here's a little background on what I'll be doing and how I got to where I am. By suggestion from one of my French professors at University of Wisconsin, I applied to the Teaching Assistant Program in France (TAPIF). The process was long and somewhat tedious (I would like to thank my brilliant friend Ross for helping me with scanning/cropping and calming my technologically illiterate nerves during the process!) but in late April, I found out I had been accepted into the program and placed in the Académie de Créteil, which borders Paris. I will be assisting in teaching high school level Economics and History for 12 hours a week at Lycée Camille Claudel in Pontault Combault. I will be teaching in English and I'll be bringing plenty of Chicago/Badger pride with me. I doubt I'll be able to persuade the French lycéens of the power of squeaky cheese curds and American football, but I hope by the end of the year, my students will have a little more knowledge of American culture and customs and realize that we're not half bad. Or at least associate Chicago with something other than Al Capone.


It was recommended to me by my lycée's contact to live in Paris, which I could not be more excited about! I'm hoping to stay for the entire year, through next September, and I'm looking forward to having visitors and introducing them to the city of lights, a city that I immediately fell in love with, and I'm hoping they will too. If you have an interest in visiting during my stretch in France, feel free to contact me and I'll do anything I can to help you out!


In this and subsequent posts I will also be introducing a "French Word (or Phrase) of the Day" in accordance with the theme of the post so you all can pick up a few words of French!


FWOTD: Lycée (n.): High School.
                  Synonym: Secondaire
                  Variation- Lycéen (n.): high school student.