So on Friday morning I received an e-mail from the Académie de Dijon. This was at once delightful and disappointing: They have my arrêté de nomination, they know I exist, they have a job for me, they want me to come. But I can’t have the arrêté yet, because it needs to be stamped. How long will this take? They can’t send it to me “dans l’immédiat.”

The other problem with the e-mail is that, after being excited about teaching in a primary school all summer long, even buying kids’ books and stickers and recordings of kids’ songs, they have put me in a lycée. Sigh. This, even after special lady friend at the embassy told me that she had moved my placement (from Grenoble to Dijon) rather than Joe’s, “because it’s just so much easier to move someone who has a primary school contract.” I thought that part of my contract, at least, would stay the same. So now I have been cheated of two months of time in France, since the lycée contract ends April 30 rather than June 30. And cheated of time with cute French children, who are too young to be too cool for school. Alas.

But really it’s okay, because the point is to speak French and live in France. And, crossyourfingersknockonwood, that is still going to happen.

So now it’s time to feel excited about teaching in Lycée J.M. Boivin in Chevigny-Saint-Sauveur, a small suburb of Dijon.

Posted in France, best-laid plans, teaching by rachel