And we're blogging

Tom and I leave for France 3 weeks from today. How did we get here? Here being the state of "about to go to France for 10 months," not physically France since we're not there yet.

About a year and a half ago I was in my senior year of college, about to graduate, with no idea of really what to do next. I remember French Professor S mentioning the assistantship program, which she had participated in as a post-grad. When I probably should have been reading a text book, I started looking into this. I learned that English language assistants (or assistants d'anglais) taught in schools in France for 6-9 months. I thought that it probably wasn't for me since I didn't really want to teach and since I'm married to a mostly non-French speaking husband. I didn't want to drag him out of college for a year. And what would he do? So, as much as I wanted to go back to France for a significant amount of time, I realized it just wouldn't work out. But, I kept reading more about the program. Just for fun.

Being very interested in non-profits and service, I became an Americorps*VISTA at the Red Cross. This was a great experience in many ways, and maybe I'll write more about it later. Yet, the assistantship kept coming back to my mind. I frequently asked Tom what he thought about it, always getting the same answer: "Let's do it." But the practical side of me kept pushing it away again. Finally though, around October last year, I started obsessively checking the French Embassy website to see if the 2009-2010 application were up yet.

It was up in November.

I applied by the first deadline on December 1.

On April 6, my acceptance email came.

We leave in 3 weeks.

So what changed between my senior year and now? I still am far from convinced that I was born to be a teacher (especially for little kids). Tom is still in undergrad with a few years to go. Maybe I got the nerve to do it. I realized how much I wanted to go back. I was in France for only 6 weeks for my study abroad, and it simply wasn't long enough. And maybe teaching won't turn out to be a life-long career, but I'm still unsure of what to do with my life. Why not continue to figure things out in Paris? As for Tom, he will continue to be a student in Paris. Since taking classes is one of his favorite things (je plaisante), perhaps he'll tell you more about his plans for Paris.

We chose "nouveaux yeux" ("new eyes") for the title of the blog because we want more than a good experience out of our 10 months in France. We're not just going because we want to see new things or to delay getting "real jobs." We're going to immerse ourselves in another culture and language. We want to see life in new ways. We want to learn about people, including ourselves. We want to be observant, but we hope to be apart of something, and not simply be passive spectators.

Here is the plan for the blog. There will be at least 2 posts each week. I will write once in a while in French (and maybe Tom will too). We will share what we learn, see, and do. I hope that this provides useful, if not always insightful or interesting, information for others, especially young couples, going to France.

To conclude this first post I want to say that we don't have a lot of blogging experience. We happily welcome comments, suggestions, and questions.