Month: May 2021

Preparing to leave France

On By notyouravggiraffeIn France, TAPIFLeave a comment

As TAPIF wraps up, it can get increasingly stressful to try and itemize all the things you need to do before you return to your home country. While it’s not nearly as arduous as it is when you arrive in France, there’s still a decent number of things that need to get done, especially if you aren’t planning on returning to France. Since I’ve done this process twice, I thought I’d write up a little about what you should be thinking about as your contract ends, and what things you should be sure to do.

Housing

If your landlord (or whoever is in charge of your living situation) wasn’t aware of your departure date when you started living there, be sure to let them know ASAP once you’ve sorted it out. I’m not super familiar with the process of leaving French apartments, but I know when I lived in a foyer (FJT), I had to give 10 days’ notice. Living at my lycée required less notice because I wasn’t on an official lease, but I still had to set up an état des lieux before I left. I believe in a “normal” situation, you need to give a month’s notice, which will most likely require a “préavis de départ.” Be sure to talk to the person in charge of your living situation as soon as you have an idea of when you want to leave to know the steps you’ll need to take. You’ll also need to send a letter to EDF if you pay for electricity through them, and any other utilities that you pay for on a monthly basis to cancel those payments.

If you benefitted from CAF during your time in France (even if you’re still waiting on a decision), you need to let them know that you will be leaving France. There are a couple of ways to do this. If you already have access to the website and can view your profile, you’ll want to go to “déclarer un changement de situation” and from there, you can modify your address. The website allows you to put in the date when you’re leaving, so you can do that at any point before departure, just make sure to do it before the next month’s payment is deposited if that would be a month when you wouldn’t have lived there. You can also send a lettre de résiliation to your local CAF office if you can’t get into the online system. It’s very important you don’t get transferred any money for housing if you’re no longer living there as they can (and will) ask for it back!

Cell Phone

If you bought a SIM card while in France, you’ll want to cancel that if you don’t plan on returning to France. If you’re planning on renewing, and have a plan through Free, you can switch your forfait to a 2€ monthly plan while you’re away to keep the number active without breaking the bank. If you’re planning on leaving permanently, though, you’ll want to go through the résiliation process. If you purchased a SIM through Free, you’ll need to send a lettre de résiliation to their office in Paris. You can typically pick up the template letter from a local Free store and fill it in that way, although you can write your own. You must send the letter recommandée (certified). This is recommended so you can track it and be reassured it arrived since they will have to sign for it, and you’ll then have proof they received it if they don’t cancel your plan. Typically, they will cancel your plan 10 days after they receive the letter. If you went with any other provider, be sure to check with them what their process is. I used CIC Mobile for my second time as an assistant, and while their process for cancellation was vaguely similar to Free, they cancelled the plan seven days after receipt, and I had to include a motif for why I was asking them to cancel. I have heard some horror stories of assistants sending in a cancellation letter for Free and having their plan be cancelled on the day Free received it, though, so always good to double check dates before you send off a letter of cancellation.

If you’re like me, and also have a WiFi box, be sure to also confirm what the cancellation process for that will be. For CIC Mobile, I had to send a lettre de résiliation, and the same seven day cancellation period applied, however, they also sent me a tracking sticker via email that I had to use to post the WiFi box back to them (at my own expense, using a box that I had to provide myself, but luckily I’d kept the box it came in so that might come in handy for you). Very much a hassle, and extra thing I had to deal with before I left. I believe the process is similar for other providers in that you will almost always have to post the WiFi box back somewhere rather than just dropping it back off where you got it. It’s never a bad idea to be proactive and double check what these processes look like in advance so that you can have a proper vision of what your timing needs to look like to ensure everything is cancelled before you leave. It did take around two weeks after the tracked service told me the company had received my WiFi box until I got a vague confirmation from my mobile provider that it had been received.

Bank

If you’re leaving France for good, you’ll probably want to close your bank account. Again, this process will look different depending on your bank, and where you’re located, so it’s a good idea to confirm what your bank’s process is. When I lived in Angers and had Credit Mutuel, they allowed me to close the account by emailing my conseillier through the app. Since I wanted the remaining money in my account transferred to my US account, I also had to provide them with the information for my US bank, but it was a fairly painless process. In Dijon, on the other hand, with CIC, the closing process is more formal. I have to send a lettre recommandée to the bank requesting my account be closed, including the bank information of where I’d like the money to be transferred. In both instances, I closed my account from abroad, so this shouldn’t be a problem if you’re waiting on CAF money or any sécu reimbursements, but again, do check with your bank first to confirm this won’t be an issue. If you’re waiting on any money, definitely keep your account open until you receive those funds. CAF and sécu reimbursements can take time, and you won’t receive them in the bank account associated with them is closed by the time they’re deposited. Some assistants also use Wise to transfer the funds in their French bank account to their home accounts, but you need to set this up before you leave France as occasionally your French bank needs to get involved with the process. Some banks will also require you to return your bank card when you close the account, but not all will have this requirement.

Small bank closing tip: If you’re able to close your account via an app, be sure to have the money transferred *before* you request for the account to be closed. I once made the mistake of requesting the account be closed, and then doing the transfer, which meant that while I waited for the money to be transferred, I had no access to my account to ensure it had gone through. It’ll minimize at least some of the stress of the process!

Packing

Obviously to go home, you need to put all the things you brought back in the suitcases and take them home! If you’ve acquired a lot of things, or don’t want to carry everything home with you, you can look into SendMyBag as a way to ship some things home ahead of you. Pricing is based on weight and size, but I’ve heard good reviews from other assistants who have used this service.

I’m a big fan of lists, so I like to write out a list of things I’ve acquired during my time abroad, just so I can gauge how much extra weight/items I have compared to what I had packed on my way over. I’m also a big fan of a general to do list that covers all the things I need to do before I leave (including the things I’ve already mentioned, as well as some others), so I can check them off as I accomplish them. That way I can also itemize smaller things like recycling bottles or returning any borrowed school material and ensure those get checked off as well.

While there are some smaller things to keep in mind in preparation for your departure (potentially booking train tickets, and what not), these are the big ones that impact assistants at the end of their contracts! Let me know if I missed anything and good luck finishing out your time in France (since I’m assuming that’s why you read this post)!

Reflecting on TAPIF: Round Deux

On By notyouravggiraffeIn France, TAPIFLeave a comment

Having to isolate for seven days after returning to the US has meant that I’ve had a lot of time on my hands, and while watching Netflix is entertaining, it does lose its appeal after a certain number of hours (I’m not going to divulge how many, though). What my spare time has given me the opportunity to do, on the other hand, is look back on the past seven months of being a language assistant, and compare my two experiences in France. It’s not entirely hit me that I’m back in the US, although I’m sure much of that is due to the fact that I’ve only seen the four walls of my room since coming back from the airport, but nevertheless, I am. While being a language assistant in the ’20-’21 school year wasn’t at all like what I had experienced in ’18-’19, that doesn’t mean that I didn’t take things away from it, or enjoy it.

When I decided to apply for TAPIF a second time, I had done so on a whim, and mostly as a plan Z in case I couldn’t find another way to go back abroad with a new job. I had completely forgotten about it as the months went by, even to the extent that I was applying for (and ultimately landed one, only for it be later cancelled) jobs in the UK. As the pandemic slowly became something that wasn’t going to disappear in a matter of three weeks (how naive we were), I remembered that I had put in an application for TAPIF, and it started inching up the letters of the alphabet in my contingency plans. When I received my acceptance in June, it became a more serious proposition, and one that I was fully entertaining.

I was accepted to the academie de Dijon, which had been my second choice for academies on my application (which was already a better start than the first time I’d been an assistant, where the academie in which I was placed wasn’t any of my three choices). I was placed in two schools at the secondary level in the city of Dijon itself, which was the most wonderful news for me. One of the big “fears” of the assignment process is that you receive your academie placement months before your city placement, and while I’m sure I would’ve made the most of any placement, I won’t lie that I was thrilled to be in Dijon proper. Despite having done a two week “tour de France” during my last séjour in France, I hadn’t visited Dijon or Bourgogne before, and I was excited about being placed in a new region in France, one that I could hopefully explore and get to know, even if other travel was limited. I was also thrilled about getting to work at the secondary level both because that is what I had initially wanted, but also because it would be a new experience for me in comparison to my first round as an assistant. I was able to reach out to my two prof referents, and received fairly quick responses, which was a beautiful sign for me that communication wouldn’t be horrific during my time in Dijon (and luckily, it wasn’t). My prof ref at the lycée where I was assigned helped me secure one of the rooms reserved for assistants in the internat, and was overall very helpful before my arrival.

Getting to work at the secondary level this time around really changed my view on the assistant program. Where in primary I had been used to creating repetitive lessons on colors, animals, and basic things like that (which is no insult to the content they learn at that age, they are younger than the students I had this year), in secondary, I was able to create lessons on comparing stereotypes between the French and Americans, Gothic literature, freedom of speech, and even do some Shakespeare analysis. Every week brought something entirely new, sometimes even things I had to research in order to prepare for a lesson, but I enjoyed having to actually work to create content, rather than what at times felt like phoning it in with the younger levels. Now don’t get me wrong, working with older students didn’t inherently mean that their English levels were phenomenal, but having the freedom to work with smaller groups on my own meant that I could tailor the level of English I was using for various groups, or feel comfortable inserting some French if need be to help move the class in the right direction. Both of my schools had international sections, which I’m sure helped with the variety of content I was able to curate as well.

One of the biggest disappointments for me of being an assistant during Covid was that I didn’t get to have the same interactions with the students that I loved having when I worked as an assistant last time. By the end of my contract, I knew very few of their names, unfortunately (unlike last time where I knew them all), and I never got to see more of their faces than what wasn’t covered by a mask. My schedule was such that I saw my classes once a week, and once the hybrid model started kicking in, I saw some classes once every other week, and some once a month. Not exactly a schedule for getting to know students, at least at my lycée. I had a bit more luck at the collège, but even then, I wouldn’t say it was as fulfilling in that regard as my experience as an assistant was the last time around.

The (somewhat) elephant in the room about working in France during Covid might be the travel aspect. Let’s be honest, a big incentive for many assistants in coming to France is the opportunity to have eight weeks paid holiday (yes, I did say eight) during the seven month contract during which they can galavant all over the country, or even Europe if they so choose. Although we did still have eight weeks of vacances this year, only six of them were spent out of confinement. That being said, I only did one day trip the entire time I was there, which part of me sometimes regrets, but most of the time, I don’t regret making the decision to keep myself as safe as I could, even if it meant less adventuring and occasionally, more boredom. The day trip I took was to Beaune, and I think between that city and Dijon, I did get a Burgundian experience, even if it was a little limited. I was truly impressed by les hospices and their tiled rooftops, and I enjoyed my day outing, despite the fact that it was the only one I took. I did leave Dijon with some mustard, and nonnettes, so I had some Burgundian food experiences as well, or at least, as much as could be had with restaurants closed.

Tiled roofs in Beaune, France
Tiled Roofs in Beaune

Even though I had many frustrations with the pandemic situation in France, and the way that it was handled by the French government (a statement I wouldn’t have thought I’d be uttering when I boarded the plane to leave the US), I’m glad I took the leap to be a language assistant again. It certainly wasn’t in my plans for this year, but I think it’s important not to discount the unexpected, and the benefits it can have. I’m not coming out of my year in Dijon with the same interpersonal experiences that I had in Angers, nor the amount of photos for my scrapbook, but I can’t say I didn’t grow or learn new things during my seven months. I got super familiar with Dijon, and visited almost all of the parks in the city. I climbed the tour Philippe le Bon before it had to close, and got to revel in the Burgundian tiled roofs from above. I walked the parcours de la chouette several times, and used the confinements to my advantage in exploring where I was living. I’m not sure I would’ve done all those things to quite the same extent if there hadn’t been a pandemic (for better or for worse). Even with the pandemic, I was very lucky with my school placements, and the teachers I worked with in both of them. Despite the headaches caused my constant Covid concerns, dealing with CAF and sécu (which are both always a joy), and the myriad of other bureaucratic nightmares that happen in France, I know that many of those frustrations will just be blips in my memories from France. I can focus on discovering the best pain au chocolate I’ve ever had at a local boulangerie, countless walks through the Japanese Garden, one of my classes enthusiastically singing along to Horrible Histories, or even the fun games I’d come up with for one of the kids I tutored. Those are more valuable to me than the hardships (although I’m not discounting them, either).

From confinements to curfews, my last year as an assistant couldn’t have been more different from the first time I was an assistant, but in some ways, I’m glad the differences were so stark (although, I would’ve been happy without one of the major differences being a global pandemic). Getting to experience such different contracts as a language assistant has made me feel more confident in my ability to take on living abroad, conquering French bureaucracy, and in my ability to navigate difficult situations independently. I’m grateful to have been able to call two different French cities home for a time, and to have seen multiple facets of the French education system. Despite the fact that I will not be a language assistant again, or the fact that I probably won’t be returning to live in France anytime soon, I think my time(s) in France have been well worth it, and are beyond more than just a few bullet points on my CV.

Ultimately, I’m glad I went to France this year. It might not have been the globe trotting adventure I would’ve dreamed for a second round as an assistant, but through it all, I can say that I navigated living in France again, and during a pandemic no less. I got to flex my French muscles, enjoy countless Schweppes Agrum’, and add another abroad experience to my life, and I can’t complain about that. Like I did last time I wrote a review piece of my time as a language assistant, I can’t stress enough that every assistant’s experience will be different given all the variables that are in play during the seven month contract. There are countless ways for things to go smoothly and well, but there are equal opportunities for difficulties and stressors. From my two experiences, I can absolutely say that being an assistant is a worthwhile experience, especially if you’re wanting to spend some time in France, improve your French, or even just have an adventure abroad. It’s definitely not perfect all the time, and the pandemic did make some of the shortcomings of the program/job more evident, but I’ll advocate for anyone to give it a chance if they’ve got the interest in it!

Flying back to the US

On By notyouravggiraffeIn Travel1 Comment

As much I was ready to leave France, I’ll be honest that the idea of the actual travel itself was not appealing. Part of me definitely had some thoughts along the lines of “what if I just stayed?” but realistically, that wasn’t entirely an option. Obviously, the pandemic is still an issue, so that did feed into my experience (or as I like to call it, ordeal), and made some parts of it more complicated than others.

Prior to flying, I had to receive a negative Covid-19 test result within three days of my flight (in contrast to some countries that require 72 hours, the US has a blanket three calendar day requirement). Since my flight out was 6 May, I decided to get tested on 4 May – happy Star Wars day to me – in case anything happened to delay my flight. Getting tested was super easy, and I got my results six hours after I did the test. I was able to print them out, and they also showed up on my TousAntiCovid app, which I was able to use as proof to board my flight. I also had to print out an attestation from Delta which when signed, stated that I had received a negative result within three days. Both of these were checked, and the latter taken from me before I was allowed to board my flight to the US. They did not check the attestation you supposedly have to have to leave France, which is further proof that the border situation isn’t as “closed” as the government likes to say it is.

The morning of my departure started out very early as I had a 6:25 train out of Dijon. I probably woke up earlier than I needed to, but I find that sleep is something that evades me before travel under the best of circumstances, and this was certainly not the easiest travel adventure I’ve undergone. The train station wasn’t super busy that early in the morning, although it wasn’t entirely empty. My train pulled in on time, and it mercifully wasn’t crowded (contrary to the train I took to Dijon in September that was absolutely packed), which was good because you get a whopping four minutes to get on the train before it leaves. I arrived at Gare de Lyon in Paris at 8:09, so the train made good time. There aren’t any direct trains from Dijon to the airport, unfortunately, hence my having to go to a train station in Paris instead. I could’ve opted to take two trains going via Lyon to get to CDG completely via train, but the scheduling didn’t work well for the timing of my flight.

Due to the fact that I had three suitcases and a backpack, I opted to take a cab from the train station all the way to the airport. I had toyed around with the idea of taking the RER from Gare du Nord up to Paris, but ultimately wasn’t sure I could handle it. I had also thought about getting an uber, but the cab ended up being a cheaper option, so I went with that. I lucked out with traffic and made excellent time to the airport, about which I can’t complain.

The airport in Paris didn’t feel super busy when I arrived, which makes sense given that a lot of international travel is limited right now. I checked my bags, and then proceeded through security, which went pretty quickly given the few people there at that hour. Since I had so much time to kill, and access to the AirFrance lounge, I went there after clearing security to wait out the several hours until my flight departed. The lounge had a decent amount of food, both pre-wrapped and buffet style (although it was served to you), and ample places to sit, although annoyingly, not enough outlets! As I sat and waited, the lounge did fill up more and more, and by the time I left to head to my gate, it was substantially more crowded than it had been when I arrived.

"Bon voyage, have a good trip" written on the wall in the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris
Saying au revoir to Paris, and to France!

My first flight was operated by AirFrance, and flew into Atlanta. There were under 50 people on the flight, which is somewhat indicative of the state of international travel (and the fact that non US citizens can’t currently gain entry to the US from abroad). I say somewhat because the gate next to my flight’s was a flight headed to Dubai and that flight was way more packed than mine. We were bussed to the airplane, and spent a while waiting in the bus for every person on the plane to be present since they seemingly didn’t want to run two busses. We did push back a little late, and our departure was delayed, but not sizably enough to be of concern. It was raining in Paris when we departed (almost as if France was crying for me), but then quickly accessed some sun once we climbed to higher altitude. They served us our first meal within an hour of take off (I’m not sure whether it was meant to be lunch or dinner if I’m honest, but I won’t say no to food), and then I hunkered down to try and get some sleep. I had been up for 10 hours already by the time my flight departed. The flight was pretty smooth, although we did climb to 40,000 feet at one point to avoid turbulence, and I felt that height on the descent. The flight attendants were all lovely, and at one point I had a decent length chat with one of them in the galley (I promise I kept checking to make sure I wasn’t distracting them or anything). I know that wouldn’t have been possible if there had been more people on my flight. We were served breakfast before we landed, and arrived in Atlanta 8.5 hours after leaving Paris. My one (personal) complaint about AirFrance was that their policy is you must wear a surgical mask on the flight, and cloth ones were not an option. I don’t mind those masks, but they are more irritating to my face so they aren’t my preferred mask if I can opt for a cloth one plus filter.

Young woman, masked, in a snapchat selfie with the Charles de Gaulle Paris Aéroport, France filter
Enjoy my stressed and masked face in preparation for flight one of two

The first step after deplaning was of course, customs, which is always stressful to me. It took about ten minutes to get through the queue, and then I was shocked as the border agent looked at my passport, scanned it, and let me go without any further questions. I would’ve thought, especially during a pandemic, they would’ve been more diligent in figuring out why people were traveling and from where they were coming. They didn’t seem fussed at all. I picked up my checked bags and then was questioned by an agent between there and the next security checkpoint about where I’d been, what I had in my bags, and all that. I got questioned there more than before, but no issues with letting me pass. Rechecked in my bags for my next flight, and proceeded through security, which also involved no checks to ensure I was actually catching another flight. Very odd if you ask me. That security line was the most stressed I’d been since I left Dijon, though. The pace at which everyone was moving was so quick, and they were asking you to not just remove liquids and electronics, but food as well, so I was having to take out a lot of contents, all while being hustled by the people behind me to get my stuff in the boxes quicker. I was glad to be out of that queue.

I had to change concourses to catch my next flight, but Atlanta has a tram system you can take to expedite the journey. As soon as I exited into the domestic terminals, I was shocked to see just how many people were in the airport. If it weren’t for people wearing masks, you wouldn’t have known there was a pandemic raging. I holed away in the Delta lounge for a little bit before going to the gate for the last leg of my journey. The flight to PDX ended up being delayed (apparently there’s a pattern with this particular flight), so we didn’t board on time, and subsequently didn’t depart on time. It was an absolutely full flight, and as they are no longer blocking middle seats, this meant that every seat was occupied. Luckily, the flight was uneventful other than some small bouts of turbulence towards the end. They dimmed the lights the whole time (the flight left after 8pm) and I was able to sleep for most of it, even if it was fitful because plane sleeping is never an entirely enjoyable experience. We finally touched down in Portland shortly after 10pm, and then I got to see the beloved PDX carpet again! The bags took a while to come out, but I finally emerged from the airport around 10:40pm, and I was glad for the fresh air, and the fact that I was on solid ground.

Feet on the carpet at the PDX airport
Not quite the carpet I know and love, but the carpet available in the baggage claim terminal

From start to finish, my ordeal took one train, two planes, and 28 hours, and yes, I wore a mask the entire time. The worst part about wearing a mask? My ears were pretty sore when I finally took it off, but other than that, it wasn’t annoying or uncomfortable in any way. I slept in it and everything. I’m definitely of the mind that if you can’t wear a mask properly for any given amount of time (yes, over the mouth AND nose), you shouldn’t be traveling. Other than sore arms from my baggage, and fatigue from jet lag + the whole travel experience, I’m feeling pretty alright. I’m now in isolation for seven days per CDC recommendations, and then will be able to emerge and get my first vaccine dose if all goes well! It’s going to be at least another four months until I’m on a plane again, and I sincerely hope things are a little better then, but I’m glad to be done with this last travel ordeal, that’s for sure.