Preparing to leave France

On May 21, 2021May 21, 2021 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 May 15, 2021May 15, 2021 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!

The Final TAPIF Month

On April 30, 2021April 30, 2021 By notyouravggiraffeIn France, TAPIFLeave a comment

As April comes to a close, so does my time in France as a language assistant. Unfortunately, the academie de Dijon does not allow for contract extensions (some academies will allow assistants to extend into May/June), so April 30 was my final day as an English assistant in my two schools in Dijon! I’ll write up an overall review of my time as an assistant this past year, but for the moment, I’m going to focus on what April was like, given it was not entirely how I had anticipated it to look.

The School Situation

If you’ve been following my journey as a language assistant (no pressure to have been doing so), you’ll know that things were looking a bit dicey for schools at the end of March. On the 30th of March, Macron gave a speech, which was pretty indicative of some form of confinement coming our way (Macron doesn’t speak to say just *anything*). That prediction came true as a nationwide confinement was imposed, in addition to the 19h curfew already in place. This confinement is less strict than the one from November, which itself was less strict than the one from spring 2020. As Macron has put it, confinement doesn’t have “one definition” so we’re obviously viewing all the different forms a confinement can take. ANYWAY. This confinement restricts you to within 10km of your house, but you don’t need an attestation to move about within those 10km. Travel outside of those 10km, and your region in France, is prohibited except for strict reasons. Non essential stores are also closed again. The confinement within itself wasn’t shocking given the way numbers were trending, and the overall situation in France. What was surprising, however, was what Macron decided to do in relation to schools. In addition to the confinement, he announced that schools would be closed for a minimum of three weeks. The way that played out was as follows. Students went to school for the two days following the announcement to finish out the week. The next week (April 5-9) was online school for everyone, followed by two weeks of vacances. Where the April holidays are usually staggered between the zones so that the whole country isn’t on break at the same time, they’ve decided this year that everyone would have the same two weeks off at the same time. This will be followed by primary schools reopening the last week of April, and secondary schools the first week of May.

With the announcement of schools closing came a definite feeling of mixed emotions. On the one hand, I was glad the government finally made a decision to close them because it’s indisputable that there were cases coming from those environments. However, there was also a feeling of sadness because working in secondary schools meant that my last day of work in my schools in person was going to be April 2, instead of the 30th, which is a pretty big difference. This meant that I luckily got to have *some* closure with my middle school classes, but none with my high school classes as I had seen them before the announcement was made. It was definitely difficult to wrap my head around going into work on April 1/2 and seeing those as my last days when prior to the announcement, I had been planning to have twelve more days of work. It was certainly abrupt, and I believe I can speak for many assistants in saying that it wasn’t how we had expected our year to be wrapping up, unfortunately.

I did get the pleasure of doing a virtual class though in the week the schools were shut down before les vacances. It was a short one, luckily, but I will say that I give major props to teachers and students who have been doing this for months. It’s hard to be speaking into your camera without actually seeing your students’ faces or getting any visual feedback (for my class, none of the students turned their cameras on, which wasn’t a massive issue, but I can imagine it being more difficult in some subjects than others). There’s also a lot of awkward silences after asking a question while you wait for someone to either turn their microphone on or to put something in the chat, while you awkwardly smile at the camera hoping someone will say something. The class I was leading was chill, and only half an hour so it wasn’t a super painful experience, but I do get why so many people aren’t fans of the virtual method of teaching.

Discovering new places

Of course my final month in Dijon wouldn’t be complete without at least trying to discover some final new places. With the confinement in place, and schools closed, I had ample time on my hands (frankly too much, if you ask me). The weekend after schools closed, I decided to walk by my middle school to take one last picture of it, and decided to take a long way home. In doing so, I discovered the Parc du Château de Pouilly. It’s a pretty small park, and the château isn’t a castle by any means, but it’s certainly an old structure with fancy gates leading into the park. It’s another one of those small insights into what life was like in Dijon way back when, and how much old architecture has survived in France.

Château de Pouilly in Dijon, France — Château de Pouilly

I also went for a decent walk (mostly uphill) to the neighboring city (within the 10km radius, don’t worry) of Fontaine-lès-Dijon. There’s the beautiful Basilique Saint-Bernard at the top of a steep climb that gives you a sweeping view of Dijon (although with so many trees in the way that there was no good photo opportunity, unfortunately). There’s plenty of forest surrounding it to make for a beautiful descent back into the city, and you can walk along vineyards/sweeping fields of grass as well. It’s very picturesque, and dare I say quaint. It had a totally different feel from my wanders around Dijon, despite the fact that I was only a 30 minute walk away from where I live!

Fontaine-lès-Dijon, France — Almost feels like I could start singing “little town, it’s a quiet village” from Beauty and the Beast!

The Pandemic Situation in France

I would be remiss to not do a final update on the pandemic situation in France, given that it’s my last month here. I’ve already touched on the confinement, but even with that, the situation on the whole hasn’t vastly improved over the month of April. Despite this, the government has assured the French that the third wave peak has already happened, and that since things are ameliorating, the lockdown will be removed on 3 May. The curfew will remain in place for the time being, but travel between regions can recommence then. This seems completely nonsensical to me given that daily case numbers still aren’t good, and ICUs are at over 100% capacity. I’m not sure that this will be changed vastly in the 12 days between the government announcing the easing of lockdown and it happening. One step forward, two steps back.

That announcement also confirmed that schools would be reopening in the timeframe the government had provided when the confinement was announced. High schools will remain on the hybrid model, and 8/9th grade classes in the worst affected regions will be at 50% capacity. In theory, students and teachers should also be getting access to self tests through the government, which (if implemented) will hopefully help catch cases at schools. All students over 15 will be allotted one test weekly, while teachers will have the right to two a week, or ten a month. This government has made several promises to schools and teachers in the past that it hasn’t managed to keep, so I’m dubious if this will happen, but I’m crossing my fingers it does to help make schools reopening a little more safe.

Another baffling item was Macron going on CBS and sharing with the American public that his plan was to reopen French borders to vaccinated Americans by summer, without breathing a word of it to the French (borders reopening was addressed on 29 April with France’s roadmap to reopening, but Macron spoke to CBS in mid April). I completely understand that travel is a big boost to many countries’ economies, and that opening borders is something they want to happen, but I struggle to see how Macron can be talking about that when things aren’t even open within France, yet. Restaurants, bars, and tourist destinations have been closed since November, with no official reopening date (the goal is 19 May, but that was a recent announcement), and yet they’re making promises to allows tourists into the country. I’m all for allowing it once France is in a situation where it’s safe and makes sense to do that, but I fear they might open the borders too early for the tourists (as reference, they’ve given 9 June as the target date for opening the borders, take that how you will). Given France’s track record with handling the last couple months, little seems to surprise me about how they handle things now. It unfortunately feels like the confinement was just a way to “calm the public” a little since people were getting tense about rising cases, but that the government wasn’t committed enough to it to see it through to numbers being good enough to reopen. It’s interesting (and not in a good way) how the parameters used to determine the situation as being “good” keep changing as the pandemic evolves. The numbers needed to come out of confinement now are way higher than they were in November/December, and even more so than the first confinement.

As I mentioned, there’s now a quasi roadmap with plans through the end of June for reopening things. I’m not even going to go that much into it because it’s confusing to say the least (one example being that when museums/cinemas/theatres etc can reopen with a max capacity of 800 inside, you still aren’t allowed to have gatherings with over 10 people). A lot of it relies on la situation sanitaire being “good enough” to reach each target, but of course, there’s nothing published on what that actually means. It’ll be interesting to follow what happens in the coming weeks and how France handles it.

Getting ready to leave

In true French fashion, not even leaving the country permanently is an easy thing to do. Having to cancel my phone plan, WiFi plan, and bank account are of course, bureaucratic endeavors that involve sending letters (tracked and certified) to complete the mission. My WiFi box is giving me the biggest hassle as I have to mail it back to my phone provider, as opposed to being able to return it to the bank, since they gave it to me in the first place (what I naively assumed I’d be able to do). I had to send a lettre recommandée to my provider so that they could cancel the service – seven days after receipt – and then wait for them to mail me (which ended up being an email instead) back a tracking sticker so I could return the box. Heaven forbid it be easy! Not only that, but heaven forbid it be straightforward… My major gripe with French admin is that a lot of the info you get told is either wrong, or just subjective. As a fun example, I was told that my WiFi would be cancelled seven days after they received my cancellation letter. Instead, they’ve canceled it four days after they received it so now I have fun WiFi less times for longer than I anticipated. My list of things to do before I leave is almost as long as the list I had before I left for France, but the major difference being if some of the cancellations don’t go through, I’ll continue being charged for them. My biggest word of advice for anyone needing to cancel services in France is to be proactive about knowing the myriad of steps it’ll take to accomplish your goal, because it’s guaranteed to be anything but easy. Packing is also a whole endeavor, and I’m dreading the journey to the airport (there aren’t any direct trains from Dijon to CDG). Wish me luck that I can get everything packed and keep it from going overweight!

Young woman, masked, in Lucy and Yak dungarees in the sunshine in Dijon, France — Enjoying the sun in my final days in France

I’m sure I’ve said it before, but it does feel very weird to think that I’ve been in France for seven months, and that my time here is coming to a close. In some ways, it makes absolute sense that that much time has passed, but in others, it feels like it went much quicker than when I was an assistant in Angers (although perhaps my memory of that is distorted now). Part of me wishes I could stay in France longer, but between the pandemic situation here, and the fact that I will get vaccinated more quickly in the US, I know that it’s time to go back. All good things come to an end, right? This year wasn’t what I had planned, nor did it play out the way I would have dreamt it to go, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not thankful for it nonetheless. I’m glad I got to experience being an assistant again, and to live in another French city. Despite the fact that France isn’t where I see myself long term (a fact that I sometimes struggle to understand myself), I won’t complain to have spent seven months here, and gotten another opportunity to indulge the part of me that longs to be abroad. I wish I had more to write about my final month in France, but between confinement, and schools being closed, it’s been a low-key, fairly uneventful month. In retrospect, that’s probably not the worst thing given the stress of my impending international travel, but it is certainly a different feeling to how I felt when things wrapped up in 2019. A plus!

March: the month of Covid scares and TikTok

On March 28, 2021March 28, 2021 By notyouravggiraffeIn TAPIF2 Comments

The penultimate month of my contract in Dijon, and ironically, the only month with no time off due to breaks. I had hoped that this month would be more interesting to write about, and it indeed has been the case (although not necessarily for the right reasons). The time on my contract is steadily running out, which brings about questions about what’s next (please don’t ask, but if you want some insight, I wrote a post for Queen Mary about how study abroad has directed my potential future path, which you can read here), but instead of focusing on that, let’s dive into Miriam in Dijon: March edition!

Covid Scares

I suppose I should be grateful I made it until March without having any “scares,” but that’s as far as it went. In the penultimate week of the month, one of the classes at my middle school had to close due to having too many cases of Covid. I interacted with this class a week before they closed, and therefore found out on a Saturday that I was considered a cas contact, and needed to go get tested. I was able to get tested due to the fact that it had been seven days since I interacted with that class, and you have to wait that amount of time before getting tested anyway as a cas contact. Ensue the panic of trying to find a lab open on Saturdays, and one that would turn around results quick enough to know before I had to teach on Monday. Getting tested itself was a pretty straightforward experience. I showed up at the lab, gave them my Carte Vitale, explained why I needed to be tested (the lab where I went only required an appointment if you were presenting symptoms), and then I went into a separate little van thing outside in the parking lot to have my nose swabbed. Let me tell you, the French take no prisoners with the nasal swab. It’s a fun little burning sensation, and then immediately my eye (singular because only the eye on the side where they swabbed seemed to react) started crying, which of course I couldn’t stop because it was going under my mask. Fun times. I was in and out in under ten minutes and got my results seven hours after I had it taken. They were negative, thankfully, but I truly could’ve done without the stress the whole ordeal caused. Interestingly, that day was actually the first time where I genuinely had a thought about wanting to just go home. Obviously I knew it was a risk coming to France to work in schools, and is something I think about every day as I get ready to go to my classes, but it took on an additional level of “real” that day. Ironically, for all the snail’s pace of French bureaucracy, they’ve miraculously seemed to avoid that when it comes to getting your Covid test results back (and I’m not complaining about that).

It’s truly frustrating that the French government won’t close schools and has essentially left it up to individual institutions on what to close and when. If a class has a certain number of positive cases, the whole class will be sent home for at least a week, and then are told to test after that. Starting the weekend of March 27, the government has asked that classes close with one positive case, but who knows if that’ll actually happen. There has been no data released in relation to how many of the weekly cases come from schools, which at best is an oversight, and at worst is an attempt to cover up data that would go against current restrictions (who knows with this government). At midnight on March 20, sixteen départements went into confinement due to having high rates of incidence in comparison with the rest of the country, and three more joined the following week. The problems with this? Firstly, schools are remaining open, even in those départements. Secondly, unlike the other two confinements France has had, people living in those départements can walk around during the day within a 10km radius of their houses, which is very much the opposite of the 1km radius with which the other two confinements came. Essentially, the only thing that has locked down are non essential businesses, but this confinement is in name only, not in action.

For the whole country, France also pushed the curfew back to 19h, which on one hand means that people have a little bit more time between the end of the work day and the start of curfew, but on the other hand seems counterintuitive. It’s very much a hand wavy way of saying they’ve done something when they really haven’t, because the “confinement” (and I use that term loosely) is essentially “do whatever you want but be back by 19h, you just can’t travel outside your region.” The government is recommending work from home 4/5 days of the week as a decent percentage of current cases are coming from work environments. Schools, however? No word about them other than to “keep doing the same thing.” Ostensibly Macron will be speaking on the 31st of March, but there’s been no indication of what that will entail (I’ll report back). It’s absolutely frustrating and I feel so bad for teachers having to deal with this all. I know that I have the privilege to be able to leave France, and get out of the school environment at the end of next month. The teachers with whom I work don’t have that luxury, and they’re no closer to getting vaccinated than they were when the campaign started (Macron has said that he wants teachers to be eligible by mid-April, but I’m not sure if they’re progressing fast enough for that to happen. Unfortunately, timing wise, I’d be unable to take advantage of that if it were to be the case, but if they did do that, it would be better for teachers than where they currently stand – although five months in to make teachers eligible isn’t a great look either).

TikToks

I put this in the title, but you might be asking yourself why. Ever since everything shut down in March 2020, I’m not ashamed to admit that I’ve been using TikTok as a distraction app, and I do in fact enjoy it. I’ve kept that up in France mainly as a way to pass the time when I’m not working. It’s a coping method of sorts. I won’t pretend to truly understand how things work on the app, but in early March of this year, I made a video to the Agatha theme song from WandaVision “criticizing” the French government that somehow took off, and since then, my niche has become making videos about what’s happening in France (mainly expelling my frustrations about the absurdities of the French government). It’s somewhat reassuring to get comments from people who have similar thoughts to me, and I enjoy the fact that it’s essentially a lighthearted way to deal with everything. I’m not sure what I’ll do once my time in France is over, though! For the time being, I’m definitely enjoying using it to get out the many frustrations of the past few months, and if other people enjoy that too, I’m not going to complain. The things we do for internet fame (just kidding).

Passover in France

The end of March also brought with it Passover, which is a pretty difficult holiday to observe in the land of pastries and baguettes. As I wasn’t sure where to go to buy matzah, I reached out to the local synagogue for help in finding it and found out that there is no place in Dijon to purchase any Kosher for Passover food. They were kind enough to supply me with two boxes of Matzah, for which I am eternally grateful given that I wouldn’t have been able to find any otherwise! I, of course, also had to splurge and buy a jar of Skippy peanut butter for my matzah needs. It’s not something I make a habit of purchasing as it’s more expensive than what I’m used to at home (it’s hard to justify anything more expensive than the JIF Costco sized jars), but it’s worth it for the eight days of unleavened bread consumption. Unfortunately due to the pandemic, there will again be no seder this year to attend, but hopefully this will be the last year for which this is the case.

I’m always thrilled to have some peanut butter!

Exploring New Places

In my quest to explore more of Dijon before I have to leave, I have tried on nice weekends to venture beyond my usual walks (we had a long stretch of cold weather and rain, which when coupled together do not make for ideal excursion weather). This month, I went out to Lac Kir, which is about 45 minutes away from the lycée. The lac is a big lake, and you can walk around the whole thing. There’s a playground for kids, tennis courts, mini golf, volleyball courts, and even a little beach complete with actual sand! It was well worth the trek out to see this very nature oriented space on the outskirts of Dijon, and to get to see another park space here.

Young woman stands masked in front of a railing with Lac Kir in the background in Dijon, France — Lac Kir in the background – I promise, I’m smiling under the mask!

Panorama of Lac Kir with some of Dijon Plage visible in Dijon, France — Panorama of Lac Kir with some of Dijon Plage visible

Visiting the Dentist

Since it’s been over a year since my last dental visit, I figured I should try and be seen in France before I go back to the US, considering I no longer have dental insurance in the states (love the way that works). I went to see the same dentist who did my retainer back in January, and getting your teeth “cleaned” in France is very different from the experience in the US. For one, they call it a “check-up” (perhaps cleaning is a separate appointment, who knows), and they don’t give you sunglasses! I was in the chair for maybe ten minutes, which was the dentist running the mirror over my mouth to check for cavities, and then doing what’s called détartrage, which is basic cleaning between the teeth with that utensil that makes very high pitched noises. That was it! No scraping, or flossing, or any of the other fancy things the hygienists do during cleanings in the states. Maybe I screwed up and didn’t ask for the right thing, or maybe that’s just how it’s done here, or maybe even there are Covid protocols in place of which I wasn’t made aware, but that was what I had done. My “cleaning” was 43,10€, and I received 30,36€ in reimbursements four days later! About the same price as what I would’ve paid under my insurance in the US, but still cheaper than uninsured dental visits. Talk about rapidity on the reimbursement front, though. I fully was expecting it to take a while, but clearly, getting the Carte Vitale works wonders (in France you pay for everything upfront, and then are reimbursed 70% using sécu – you can get the remaining 30% reimbursed with a mutuelle if you choose to purchase one). I’ll be honest in that (even if the fault’s my own), I still don’t necessarily feel confident in the status of my teeth after that quick check up, so I might end up visiting one in the US anyway if I can swing it.

That’s been my March! Exciting and eventful in some ways, and yet still managing to remain relatively low-key in others. It’s really hard to believe that I’ve only got one more month left on my contract, and two of those weeks will be spent on break. It doesn’t necessarily feel like it’s been as many months as it’s been, and it’s certainly difficult to wrap my head around the fact that I’ve been in France since the end of September. It’s a little disheartening for the situation pandemic wise to be essentially the same as what it was when I arrived, and it does make me a little sad to know that I won’t be leaving France better than it was when I arrived. I’m still working on departure details, but unless things miraculously change in the coming weeks, there won’t be any travel for me post contract. In the meantime, I’m trying to make the most of my remaining time, and with the weather picking up, it’s easier to do that (although that does mean more people are out and about as well). Daffodils are firmly blooming everywhere, the sun is shining, and spring has certainly sprung. I hope that the nice weather continues throughout the rest of my time in Dijon!

Daffodils in the jardin de l'arquebuse in Dijon, France — Daffodils are in bloom which means it’s spring!

Budget and Schedules: TAPIF in Dijon

On March 20, 2021March 20, 2021 By notyouravggiraffeIn France, TAPIFLeave a comment

I know when I was first accepted into TAPIF, I had a lot of questions about what it might look like once I got to France. My biggest questions were about finding housing (especially housing that was affordable on the assistant salary), and what my schedule would look like. There’s no one answer for that question, as budget and schedules will look different for every assistant, but I figured I’d contributed to the wealth of literature out there with my own experience, in case it might be of some assistance!

Budget for TAPIF in Dijon

I’ll admit, the salary for TAPIF is less than ideal. It hasn’t changed in years, which is a reflection of the lack of pay raises for teachers in general, and it also doesn’t really reflect how much things cost now. Moreover, the estimate you’re given is just that as some academies tax differently than others (heaven forbid things work in a universal manner). You receive your salary once a month, at the end of the month. I’ve mentioned in other posts that the first month will only be 70% of your salary, and in order to receive October’s salary at the end of October, you usually need to submit your bank details by the 10/15th of October. Starting in December, your pay will be normal with no adjustments from that point. With my transportation reimbursement, I received 800€ a month, meaning my pay before the reimbursement was 785€. Be sure when looking at the salary for your budget to use the net value, as tax rates are higher in France, resulting in a decent difference between your brut (gross) salary, and your net salary.

Expenditures

I lucked out in Dijon when it comes to housing and rent. I live at the lycée where I work, which means that my rent is very affordable. I pay 90€ a month, which includes my water, electricity, and heat. It’s not a luxurious space, and doesn’t really have a kitchen area, but it’s worth it for the money I save. I want to point out that rent this low, and rent including all those utilities is very rare outside of living at your school. I found nothing lower than 300€ a month in Dijon when I was initially unhappy with my living situation and looking to move elsewhere. I know that my monthly expenditures are lower than the average assistant because my rent is so low, for which I am eternally grateful. [As a quick comparison, my rent in Angers at a FJT was 468€ a month before CAF.] My living situation was also eligible for CAF (housing assistance, which I’ll touch on in a bit), so I saved even more money in the months where I qualified for that assistance. Living at your school is typically only an option at the secondary level, but is always worth inquiring about once you get your school placements. I am responsible for purchasing my own food, so I make a weekly trip to Carrefour, as well as my own laundry, which involves a trip to a laverie. The latter wasn’t something I had budgeted for as when I lived in a foyer in Angers, the laundry was heavily subsidized, and added to my rent at the end of the month. I have to pay for my laundry in cash immediately when I do it in Dijon, and it is not nearly as cheap as it was in Angers. The laverie where I go has five washers and three drum sizes. The bigger the drum, the more expensive the cycle. I use the 10kg washer, and to run a wash cycle, and a 12 minute dry (which isn’t enough for heavier items, but is fine for most of my clothes), it costs 9,50€ from start to finish. I do my laundry every other week to cut down on costs, and am lucky to have my linens (sheets + duvet cover) laundered and provided by the school where I live.

I mentioned a transport reimbursement earlier, and I am eligible for this as I work in another school to which I can take public transport. If you opt to live at your school where you also work, and are only contracted in that school, you are unfortunately not eligible for the transport reimbursement. If you need a travel subscription for work, you can get 50% reimbursed, which is added to your paycheck every month. You have to purchase either a weekly or a monthly subscription, and then of course submit paperwork for it every month, but it’s pretty efficient as a system. The monthly plan for 18-25 year olds in Dijon costs 30€, so with the reimbursement, I only pay 15€ a month.

In addition to rent, laundry, groceries, and transport, there’s also your monthly phone bill. Before you leave for France, make sure your phone is unlocked (you can check with your provider at home if this is the case, and if not, what you need to do to make it so). Once your phone is unlocked, you can easily swap out the SIM card with one in France, meaning you don’t need to get yourself a whole new phone. I initially started with a Free Mobile plan, which was 19,99€ a month for 100GB of data, unlimited texts, and unlimited minutes. I had chosen this plan because my accommodation at the lycée didn’t have internet so I wanted as much as possible. When I opened my bank account, however, my bank had a promotion for cell plans, with a six month plan identical to the one I had with Free for only 4,99€ a month. Since those six months would cover my remaining time in France, it seemed like a no brainer, so after one month, I switched over to the plan provided by my bank to save some money. In my first month living in France, I realized that 100GB was unfortunately not enough for me to stream Netflix, do the work I needed to do for school, and surf social media. Due to living at my school, I wasn’t able to get an internet box from Free, or any other mobile provider, but once again, my bank swooped in to save the day! They had a wifi box plan for 29,99€ a month that comes with 300GB of internet, and can be used on multiple devices. It’s worked perfectly, and it just plugs into my extension cord, so there were little issues with setting it up. Between my phone and wifi plan, I haven’t run out of data, and it’s been a pretty good system.

In case it’s hard to visualize my monthly expenditures from that huge block of text (apologies), here they are written out in a handy table format! I have only included the guaranteed costs I incur every month, and haven’t added casual expenditures like travel (of which I did little this time around), treats at the boulangerie, pharmacy visits, or any other small expenditures during the month.

EXPENDITURE	WEEKLY	MONTHLY
Rent		90€
Groceries	~40€	~160€
Laundry	9,50€ (x2)	20€
Phone		4,99€
WiFi		29,99€
Transport		15€ (with 50% reimbursement)

TOTAL		319,98€

Monthly expenditures in Dijon

Income

In addition to the ~800€ salary I received as part of my job, I was able to find some tutoring opportunities for some additional pocket money. If you are on a visa to be an assistant, it’s important to note that you cannot officially hold any other employment, but many assistants do work like tutoring under the table. We were told at orientation that as long as there’s no paper trail and they can’t prove that you’re doing it, you should be fine (and note that you can’t advertise your services at your school. Other teachers can do it for you, but you yourself can’t). Through teachers at my collège, I was connected with two opportunities to tutor weekly. Through those two weekly one hour sessions, I was able to earn a little bit of money (we’re not talking big amounts here) to help justify some pastry expenditures.

My collège also offered me the opportunity to work some extra hours between November and January. That was a process that required approval from the rectorat, and some additional paperwork, but I was able to earn some additional money in those few months by working extra hours. This is, unfortunately, not an option for non EU citizens as the visa restricts your hours, but can potentially be an option for those who are allowed to work more than 12 hours a week (there are some visas that will allow this, but not the specific visa given to assistants).

As an EU citizen, I am extremely lucky to benefit from the prime d’activité. This is aid for EU citizens aged 18-25 to help support themselves. If you are an EU citizen, you can apply for this after you have worked in France for three months (if you start in October, you are eligible in January). This aid is through CAF so you must already have an account through that system, but even if you are receiving CAF, you have to apply for the prime separately. You will provide your monthly income for October – December, which will determine the monthly aid you receive January – March. You can continue to fill in your ressources trimestrielles every three months for as long as you have income in France for the three previous months. You must file every three months to continue to receive the aid, and it is paid to you at the same time as housing assistance (if you qualify for that).

Speaking of CAF, let’s get into that! As soon as you have a permanent living situation, start your application for housing assistance through CAF. The first step is getting a numero allocataire, which will of course, come to you by post. If you have a CAF account already and have switched départements, you will need to go in and change your address in the system, which will send you a new numero allocataire (naturally, you can’t have one number for the whole country). Once you have a numero allocataire, and your passcode, you can log in and start filling out a dossier for the housing assistance. The reason to do this ASAP is that the aid you receive is based off the date you submit your dossier, not the date you moved into your housing. Even if it takes several months to receive your first payment (and believe me, it most likely will), you will be back paid from the date you submitted. The amount of aid you receive is based off a combination of your income, your rent, and the amount of money you earned in the last two years. If you haven’t earned anything in France in that time, you can put 0€ as income because let’s face it, they can’t check. If you’re a renewing assistant, or have income in France for whatever reason in that time, you must declare it. You can keep track of your dossier on your CAF account online, and that is also where they will alert you if any documents are missing. Once you’re approved, you don’t need to do anything else until you leave France. I was initially eligible for housing assistance (for the months of November and December, I received 68€/month in assistance towards my rent), but because of my slightly unique situation in having had an account before with a massive time gap in it, I had to declare my situation from back home during the year and a half I wasn’t in France. My income disqualified me from housing assistance, but luckily, I’m in a situation to not need it as much this year. For a timeline of my CAF journey this year, I applied in November 2020, and received my first payment in February 2021. Every département works on their own timeline so some will be more backlogged than others.

Schedule for TAPIF in Dijon

What your schedule as a teaching assistant will look like is going to vary based on so many things. Some schools are more willing to work with you to have an “ideal” schedule, where others will have less flexibility due to how the classes are scheduled. While you do only work 12 hours a week, that is purely the amount of hours you spend in front of a class. That is not the number of hours you’ll spend in the school during the week. Many schools will do their best to ensure you don’t have horrendously long gaps between classes, but sometimes it can’t be helped. You can talk to your prof ref/conseillier(e) pedagogique to see if they can accommodate certain things in your schedule (i.e. a preference for no early mornings, or not five days a week), but at the end of the day, you can’t dictate your schedule. It’s sometimes just crossing your fingers and hoping it’s not too inconvenient. I had no say in my schedule, although my prof refs did do their best to make it workable. Since I work in two schools, I know there were initially some issues with deciding what days I would work at each school to ensure that they both got the hours they had been allotted with the English assistant.

My schedule at the lycée varies from week to week because they have A weeks and B weeks (I’m not even addressing the never ending changes in relation to hybrid models). I still work my given six hours, but how that looks varies slightly based on the week. My collège schedule never changes from week to week (barring class cancellations). Since I live at my lycée, I can usually spend downtime in my room, but when I have it at the collège, I’ll spend it in the Salle des profs. I work Monday/Tuesday at my lycée, and Thursday/Friday at my collège with no classes Wednesday. Side note: the last time I was an assistant in Angers, I also only had Wednesday off, and my schedule was far less forgiving in terms of breaks because my commute was so long to my schools. As such, I spent all day on my work days at my primary schools, which is quite different to my experience this time around in Dijon. Compared to when I worked at the primary level, I also have later days this year, due to the fact that secondary schedules go later in the day, and that is when some of the English classes I have been assigned to assist are. Here’s what my schedule looks like on paper!

That’s what my schedule and expenditures have looked like this year as an assistant in Dijon! Some things are a bit different this year given the pandemic, but I thought it still might be useful to see it mapped out (hopefully for at least one person!). I’ve saved some money by not traveling during the breaks (which wasn’t the case when I was an assistant in Angers), but I do want to point out that every assistants’ budget AND schedule will be unique to their combination of living situation, city, schooling level, and in how many schools they work. There’s no way to predict exactly how things will pan out, but getting in contact with previous assistants in your academie, and later on with the previous assistant for your schools (if there was one), is a great way to start mapping things out. I found my living situation in Angers through a previous assistant, and this year’s through my prof ref, but speaking with previous assistants is a great way to get first hand information about your schools, and the city where you’ve been placed!

The shortest month in Dijon

On February 28, 2021February 28, 2021 By notyouravggiraffeIn France, TAPIF1 Comment

The shortest month of the year has come and gone! It feels like I was just typing up my January recap and yet, here I am again (hope you aren’t tired of me yet). I’m not sure that it’s really been an eventful enough month to truly warrant a blog post, but I’ll give it my best attempt. My apologies for the brevity of this particular post – On y go!

School

Teaching has remained in person this month (and looks to do so for the foreseeable future). Due to my holiday schedule, I only taught for two weeks this month, and both weeks looked very different from each other. Before the break, my lycée was operating on a hybrid model that saw 50% of secondes and premieres at school, and 100% of terminales each week on a rotating basis. This meant that when I’d work with small groups, I’d have maybe six-seven students with me, and classes weren’t ever bigger than 15 students when I was working with the full class. After the break, my lycée decided to switch up what the hybrid model looks like. Instead of having half classes, two of the three grade levels are at school in full numbers, while one grade remains home each week. The number of students in the building is the same as before, but the number of students in each classroom is now back up to what it was before the hybrid model became a thing. I’ll admit, I’m not massively a fan of going back to having 12-15 students in a room now, or full classrooms of 20-30 students when I don’t have a small group. That logic does seem counterintuitive in respect to being able to keep distancing in place, to me. It also means my schedule changes almost every week because instead of working with six classes a week, I now either work with two, four, or six, depending on which grade is at home that week. It certainly means I have to put in more work to remember what classes I have each week!

One of the new pandemic related regulations for schools is related to the kind of masks you’re allowed to wear in the building. They now have to be “categorie 1,” and my collège specifically is not allowing any cloth or homemade masks in schools for either students or teachers starting on March 1. I personally find that the blue surgical masks don’t fit properly on my face, so that’s a *thing* I’m going to have to tackle in the coming weeks. The reasoning behind this is that the surgical masks (and categorie 1 masks in general) protect better against the variants, which are unfortunately becoming the majority of cases in France.

Kind of adjacent to the school, but I got my CAF approved this month. CAF is housing assistance (it’s technically not just that, but for assistant purposes, we just call it CAF), and after applying in early November, I was finally approved in early February. It’s a long process, hence why assistants are recommended to apply ASAP! It’s a whole long story, but I’m just glad it got sorted. I, unfortunately, made too much in 2020 to qualify for housing aid in 2021, but luckily my rent is super affordable at the school so I can’t complain. As an EU citizen, I luckily apply for additional aid (called prime d’activité), and I will continue to receive that. With that approved, I don’t have any more French bureaucracy really to wade through, which is absolutely a welcome thing!

Living in France tip: As soon as you have your living situation sorted, apply for the “allocations familiale” though CAF! You’ll first need to make an account to get a numéro allocataire (which of course, is sent by mail), but then you can submit a dossier for housing assistance. Payments are retroactive from the date they receive your dossier, so even if you’re missing documents, get that submitted ASAP. You won’t start receiving payments until all documents are accounted for, but you will still receive aid based off of your initial date of submission. Note that CAF is a slow moving machine at the best of times, and it can take a couple to a few months to start receiving aid. The amount of aid you receive is dependent on how much you earned in the last two years, as well as your current rent (and potentially your income but it’s too complicated for me to suss out).

Les Vacances

Another two weeks off? I hear you ask… indeed, there is a two week break in February! Unlike the November or December break, though, these two weeks are staggered depending on the zone where you teach. I’m in Zone A, which drew the short straw this year for being the first in the break rotation. As such, we got the February break first, and will also get the first April break (which means I’ll have a few days to work before the end of my contract as opposed to Zone B/C where the break runs through the end of the language assistant contract). It is what it is, as they say.

My break was very low-key, mainly because I didn’t go anywhere. Although travel within France wasn’t restricted (outside of France the restrictions vary depending on where you’re traveling and where in France you’re coming from), it didn’t really feel worth it for me to travel because a lot of the tourist attractions are closed. Not to mention, my département was finally looking somewhat “good” numbers wise, and I wanted to try to keep it that way (wishful thinking). I wish I had some exciting travels to write about, but alas, the furthest journey I took was to head into centre ville to try and find a new pair of jeans (which was not a successful venture, I might add). While I was there, though, I did discover the jardin de l’Arquebuse, which is a lovely horticultural garden right in centre ville!

Young woman standing in the Garden de L'Arquebuse in Dijon, France — Jardin de L’Arquebuse

The weather in Dijon has also gotten nicer this month! We entered February with pretty cold weather, and the first week of break was spent entirely in temperatures below freezing. We got some snow (although much didn’t stick), and it was just overall unpleasant to be outside! It finally picked up and at the end of the second week of break we had sunshine and temperatures at least twice what they were the week before! I don’t mind wearing a scarf and bundling up, but it is endlessly more pleasant to be able to go outside without tens of layers. The quick change in weather is probably indicative of climate change, but sometimes my brain really only has the capacity to deal with one earth ending issue a day. February ended with mostly sunny days and a hopeful feeling that spring is in the air (despite some still pretty cold temperatures).

Snow covered Jardin Japonais in Dijon, France — Jardin Japonais complete with frozen pond and remaining dusting of snow

The sun certainly helped on those below freezing days!

Another weird weather phenomenon? In the first week of break, I woke up to orange skies, which after the summer in the PNW immediately made me question where the nearest forest was in case it was on fire. It was a weird sight to see but apparently it was dust from the Sahara that made its way through Southern France! The official Twitter account for Dijon had to inform everyone that it was a natural phenomenon, and not to phone emergency services, ironically, but that was something I certainly couldn’t have predicted to happen.

I spent the bulk of my time off eating pastries, trying to cautiously plan my next steps, watching shows on my computer (my current ones are Veep and Ghosts, but I am open to any and all suggestions), and embroidery to pass the time. It wasn’t the ideal break that you dream of when you hear you’re getting two weeks off in France, but this whole experience isn’t quite what I would’ve dreamt it to be (both in good and bad ways).

La Pandémie en France

Decided to give a French title a go this time around! The pandemic doesn’t really seem to be improving much in France, and it’s unfortunate given that France keeps edging towards being the country with the worst numbers in Europe. Although ICU capacity remains, on the whole, not too full (of course, this varies by region), the daily case number averages around 25,000. It’s baffling to me that the government is just…okay with those numbers because the rate of incidence isn’t through the roof, or because numbers aren’t “as bad” as they were before the November confinement. I was glad to see the rate of incidence dropping in my département (we’ve seen a drop of over 100/100,000 in the past month), but the same can’t be said for other regions, and even mine started having an uptick again at the end of the month. Alpes-Maritime, where Nice is located, as well as the city of Dunkirk, had to implement weekend lockdowns at the end of the month because they had such a surge in cases and a distressingly high rate of incidence. There are a handful of departements that are really not doing well incidence wise because of the variants, and I’m not sure how the government isn’t concerned that it won’t spread to the rest of France. Supposedly they’re under a “reinforced watch” now to see what happens, but they truly are doing everything they can to avoid another lockdown, despite there being not much more they can do to avoid one. The 18h curfew will be in place (it looks like) at least until the April break for Zone A, but of course, things could change between now and then, especially since with the current increase in rate of incidence across France, it seems the curfew is no longer as effective as it once might have been. I’m not going to lie, I’m honestly disappointed in how France is navigating this part of the pandemic considering they handled the first wave “smartly.” I can’t figure out what numbers they’re using to dictate their decisions, but it’s definitely concerning that things are going to get much worse before they get better at this rate.

In terms of vaccinations, France isn’t doing much better. At their current rate of vaccination, I saw that there’s an estimate that it’ll take around four years to vaccinate every citizen. This is definitely supported by the fact that they started vaccinating the over 75s in late December, and are looking at finishing that phase by end of March/mid April. The next phase will be 65-75 year olds, so the average citizen is almost certainly looking at the end of the year, not the summer that was promised by Macron a few weeks ago. Even more disheartening is that teachers are still considered “general population” despite the education minister insisting that nothing change with the way schools are operated, even in regions where cases are soaring. Ironically, it looks like I’ll be able to be vaccinated quicker by returning to the US after the end of my contract, than in France.

That’s really been the past 28 days of February, I’m afraid. It’s hard to believe that I only have two more months left of working when it genuinely feels like I only arrived in France a few weeks ago? (I know, how terribly cliché of me). I know this kind of experience goes by quickly in general, and I’m sure the lack of sense of time that has emerged due to the pandemic probably isn’t helping things! I only have seven weeks left of work, which is mind boggling. Next month is the first (and only) month where I will work the full month with no breaks, so be prepared for four weeks’ worth of updates… or at least, I hope I have a decent amount!

Young woman stands taking a photo in a mirror that says "Vous n'êtes jamais complètement habillé(e) sans un sourire" in the Toison d'Or mall, Dijon, France — You’re never fully dressed without a smile… and a mask!

New Year, Same Miriam in Dijon?

On January 30, 2021January 30, 2021 By notyouravggiraffeIn France, TAPIF1 Comment

It’s officially 2021, and I’m struggling to comprehend that another month has passed. I know that people say that time has no meaning now (in our Covid world), but I genuinely believe it to be true a lot of days. Proof of that is that I didn’t start writing this post until the last week of the month because somehow, it hadn’t clicked in my brain that it was the end of the month. My brain did click though, so fear not, as I am here with my monthly update of all things going on in the life of Miriam in Dijon! I thought I’d go back to my “the good, the bad, and the pandemic,” format for this month given that in the final category (at least), I have a lot to say. I’m afraid this isn’t my most interesting month, but I hope it’s not too dull to read about.

The Good of January 2021

Although this wasn’t a year of massive New Year’s celebrations, France did have an online ringing in DJ sesh, which I watched as the clock struck midnight. I had a couple of days off before I resumed teaching on January 4th. It was very much straight back into it, and the adjustment from having two weeks off to being back on a “normal” schedule is always a fun one. Nevertheless, I did it, and January has been a pretty good month for teaching! I’ve started up with a new class at the lycée, and since they’re working on The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, I’m getting to infuse some theatre into their class by having them act out certain scenes (given that I found the script online). It’s not a theatre class by any means, but it’s nice to get to use theatre as a teaching tool, and also partake in it (by osmosis), given that theatres will be closed for the foreseeable future. My middle school classes are also going fairly well, and it’ll be interesting to see what other fun lessons I get to cook up in the coming weeks.

Young woman stands in a classroom in France wearing a "Portland Blazers" sweater, and mask, posing — My timed classroom photo du mois

In December, I wrote about my struggles with sécu, and I’m happy to announce that I was able to tie a bow around my problems with them! When school started back up, and I was able to get access to my mail (one negative of living at the school during breaks is not having access to any mail), I was THRILLED to see a letter from sécu. I finally received my permanent social security number!! After essentially two years (granted that part of that time I was out of the country), I am finally legit. Of course they sent me a letter asking for a photocopy of my visa, which is not something I have (France seems to have issues with dual citizens when the place of birth is in the US but you’re applying as an EU citizen), but I was able to get that sorted. I had to call sécu but I got a very lovely human on the other end who was very understanding, and helped me gain access to my Ameli account. From there, I was able to order my Carte Vitale, and two weeks later, I had the beautiful green card that means I’m official and can easily do anything medical related. Absolute elation when I saw that envelope – it was such a hassle to get this flimsy card, but I have it now. Who says you never have victories with French bureaucracy? (Probably me, but at least not today).

Another exciting thing this month is that it’s snowed not once, but three times! Granted, it’s not been enough snow to cancel school, or to really allow for much fun in the snow, but it’s been enough to have a slight winter wonderland feel! I particularly enjoyed the Sunday where I woke up to snow and could observe it from my window. I wasn’t so much a fan of having to walk back from my middle school on a Thursday while it came down, though! The irony is that so many of my teachers and students told me that it rarely, if ever, snows in Dijon and here we are with four days of snow in my time here. I’m glad it happened though because there was a two week period where the temperature barely even got above freezing! If it’s going to be that cold and NOT snow – what’s the point??

Young woman in a Scripps sweatshirt stands in the snow, kicking it into the air for the photo — Couldn’t resist enjoying the snow, even though it was only 10am!

Another good thing of this month? My discovery of the app “Too Good to Go.” It’s an app to help reduce food waste, and you can reserve “magic bags” in different eateries around town for reduced prices! You never know entirely what you’re going to get – and my kitchen set up limits me to essentially boulangeries and small eateries – but it’s a fun culinary adventure nonetheless. I’ve gotten some very good pastries out of it.

Finally, because I decided I wanted to make this year even more different than the first time I did TAPIF (ignoring the obvious massive difference), I applied to be an assistant ambassador. This wasn’t a position that existed the last time I was an assistant, but it seemed in line with my international educational goals, so I gave it a go. I was selected, and now partake in monthly meetings with the other 20 ambassadors to discuss ways to share the program through social media (both the official pages and our own personal pages), as well as ways to promote the assistant program to people in France, and our home countries. It’s certainly a new experience, and I’m excited to see how it plays out over the next couple of months!

Announcement for assistant-ambassadeur through France Education International

The Bad of January 2021

I’ll admit there haven’t been loads of “bad” things this month, but no period of time is complete without its ups and downs. Unfortunately, for all the joy I might have had entering 2021, I promptly had some issues when the morning of January 1, I broke my retainer that I’ve had for eight years. Cue instant stress. Not only was I now having to deal with orthodonture in France, but of course I broke my retainer during a holiday weekend so I had to wait three days before I could call places. Logically I knew that nothing bad would befall my teeth in those three days, but sometimes, logic does not prevail. Needless to say, I was able to eventually sort it out (check out my blog post about visiting the orthodontist here), and I emerged on the other side with a fixed retainer. Hopefully, I won’t have to endure that stress again anytime soon.

The Pandemic in January 2021

As much as we all wished for it, the pandemic didn’t disappear the second the clocks struck midnight. Throughout the month of January, case numbers in France have been steadily increasing, and when the month started, the country was on curfew from 20H-6H. Within a week or so, my department reached a high enough level of incidence to be moved to a 18H curfew, about which I have very mixed feelings. Ultimately, the entire country moved to a 18H curfew, so now we all can’t be outside the house, except for very specific reasons, from 18H-6H. On paper, it seems like a fine idea, but in reality, it means that everyone is on public transport and out running errands right until the curfew, since grocery and other stores must close at 18H. I think it’s honestly counterintuitive to the purpose of curfews, but I guess the numbers will ultimately provide any clarity on it all. It seems (to me at least) that another confinement is around the corner, especially with the new variants. While the prospect of that isn’t thrilling, I’d actually prefer confinement to the curfew, if only because of the stress of only having 12 hours to do everything you need to do in a day. My favorite theory currently is that in following Disney Paris announcements, you’ll know the dates of the next confinement… they’re not set to open until April. Not sure if this is good or bad, but take that for what you will.

If there is another confinement, the question becomes whether schools will remain open. France has been adamant on keeping schools open despite confinements, but it’s unclear if that will remain the case if faced with another confinement. With the February breaks coming up, it’s possible that a confinement would attempt to line up with those dates, but given that the breaks are staggered between three zones in France, schools would only be closed for two weeks of however long a confinement would last. My issue with schools remaining open is that the French government continues to insist that education is a priority, but refuses to acknowledge teachers or education personnel as priorities. This is super evident in France’s vaccination program. While they’ve gotten the ball rolling a bit better than initially, the minister for education has explicitly stated that teachers will not be vaccinated sooner than the spring, which is when the general public is eligible to be vaccinated. I don’t understand the logic in saying that education must remain in person, but refusing to help teachers remain safe.

If schools close, how will I take my masked bathroom selfies to show off my cute masks?

I also will never understand the blatant ignoring of middle schools when the government discusses protocols for schools. There’s the hybrid model in high schools, and timed lunches for primary students, but time and time again, middle schools are forgotten. Invariably, this means that middle schools will have Covid cases. The hallways during passing periods at my middle school are as crowded as if there weren’t a pandemic going on right now. Classrooms are full, and there’s no way to distance students when there are 35 students and 35 desks. I won’t pretend to be a virus expert, but it makes no sense to me to implement essentially no sanitary protocols in middle schools and then go all *surprised Pikachu* when kids are constantly testing positive or cas contacts. The government has implemented an attempt to give teachers/students better accessibility to tests, though as part of an initiative to test around 300,000 students and teachers a week. The nurse at my high school was supposed to administer tests every Friday afternoon (from 12:30-16:00), via appointment only. I signed up for one as a precaution for the Friday before break, only to find out a week before that it was cancelled due to lack of sign ups. Turns out my lycée has now cancelled their slots for testing. My guess is that was due to the fact that tests weren’t at convenient times for teachers, and therefore they couldn’t actually take advantage of it. Feels very hand wavy to seemingly have this available but then cancel it. I could still go to another school somewhere else in the city, but at that point, it’s more convenient for me to just go to a lab nearby.

The French government has also now recommended not using cloth masks anymore, which I know is now being recommended in other countries, but comes right on the heels of schools distributing new “regulated” single layer cloth masks to all teachers. It’s frustrating from an environmental (and financial) perspective as well since surgical masks, or N95s, aren’t reusable. That being said, I do recognize why they’re being recommended, and will always follow recommendations for mask wearing, and anything else related to the pandemic.

As a final restriction implemented this month, France has closed its borders to all inbound and outbound travel outside the EU except for “motif impérieux.” This, along with closures of non essential stores, will go into effect at midnight on Sunday, January 31. It’s the government’s quasi last ditch attempt (in my opinion), to not have another confinement, but I’m not really sure that these two restrictions are going to actually help lower numbers. They’ve explicitly stated that the curfew is no longer helping in the same way that it was, and therefore is no longer efficient. I’m unsure what they think closing borders, but still allowing travel within France and the EU is going to do, especially given the new variants and the impending holidays associated with schools. It’s frustrating that so many governments around the world still seem to have not learned much from the last almost 12 months. I feel that if they do implement another confinement at some point that it will be too little too late at this point.

I’m afraid that’s really been my month… not terribly exciting really, but as the French say, c’est la vie! The February break for my zone is right around the corner (it starts the sixth of February), so in that regard, this month feels very stop and go considering the students (and I) only have six weeks of school before yet another break. I also wouldn’t say I’m looking forward to it since it’s not like I’ll really be able to do much during it! Either way, we continue on day by day, and we’ll see what the next weeks have in store – a plus!

Jardin Japonais in Dijon, France with snow — The Jardin Japonais on one of the days where it snowed

All I want for the holidays is… déconfinement?

On December 26, 2020December 27, 2020 By notyouravggiraffeIn France, TAPIF1 Comment

Welcome back to another installment of Miriam in Dijon (think I’ll keep that trend going, thanks Netflix)! It’s December, which means it’s the holidays, and I think with the year it’s been, little things like lights and decorations have been a great uplift of mood. I mentioned last month that the decorations in centre ville have been up for several weeks, but with the introduction of being able to leave the house within a radius of 20km, and then déconfinement, more people have been able to enjoy them. Unfortunately, when I say more people, I mean exactly that, because the main square (Place de la Libération) was rather crowded the night I went to see the lights in action. It’s unfortunate (in my mind, at least) that people seem to view the pandemic as an “all or nothing” situation in terms of how they act, but before I get too into my thoughts on that (and believe me, I have many), let’s dive into my third month in France, and the last month of 2020!

Christmas tree and decorations in Place de la Liberation, Dijon, France

Two Weeks of Teaching

It’s funny to mention it, but I’ve yet to actually work a full month as an English assistant, and won’t actually do so until March (which will be the only month where I work a full four weeks). Regardless, I did work two weeks in December, which were weeks filled with a true mish mosh of content, but mainly holiday themed lessons, especially for my collège students. That being said, it wasn’t two weeks of back to back holiday content, so I did get to have some variety (much different from my experience working in primary schools). While I did do a lot of “Christmas song Jeopardy” with many of my classes, especially the last week before break, some of my classes were still talking about Gothic Literature, or Freedom of Speech before the final week.

English Teaching Assistant standing in front of a whiteboard, with "Christmas Jeopardy" projected onto it — Back with some more self timed photos!

Unlike the last holiday season I spent in France, there have been no school holiday lunches or celebrations to mark the season. My collège did have a repas de Noel in the final week, but I did not join in as that didn’t sound like something I would be comfortable with given the pandemic – I was not the only member of staff who did not participate. The schools are decorated with Christmas trees, tinsel, and lights, which is a nice mood lifter, but is also a stark reminder of the double standard of laïcité in schools. If you’ve been following me since Angers, you’ll know I had difficulty with this in 2018, and 2020 is no different. Essentially, laïcité means no religion (or politics) in classrooms or at school. However, this rule is seemingly thrown out the window when it comes to Christmas. I was told I couldn’t put a window cling of a menorah on my window because it’s “religious” but that Christmas trees are considered “secular,” and therefore are allowed in schools. The irony is not lost on me, and it’s not worth an actual fight about it, but I do use it to insist that I will speak about Hanukkah if asked. I think it’s important to learn about what other people do during this time of year because we don’t all celebrate Christmas, regardless of how “non-religious” the French may think it is.

Regardless of all that, I still had a good two weeks with my students, even if by the end I was ready to never hear “All I Want For Christmas is You” again (which is practically a sin, I know, but when you hear the intro 30 times in an hour two times in a row in one day? It’s hard). Even with the students slowly losing focus and the will to be in school, I made it through (as did they), and successfully segued into the break.

The Pandemic in France

I wish I could go a blog post without mentioning the pandemic but alas, 2020 isn’t that kind to us (still holding out judgement on 2021). I figured this would also be a good way to update people who aren’t in France on what the situation looks like here, because I know that international coverage of the pandemic can be very hit or miss these days.

On December 15th, France officially came out of lockdown, even though the numbers were nowhere near where the government had said they needed to be in order for confinement to be removed. In lockdown’s place, we now have a curfew every evening from 20h to 6h, and if you need to do anything during those hours, you need an attestation. Outside of the curfew, however, attestations are no longer needed. The curfew was not in place on Christmas Eve, for better or for worse, but will remain in place for New Year’s Eve. You could have six adults at your house to celebrate Christmas under the new guidelines. Personally, I don’t think France should’ve come out of lockdown, considering numbers plateaued, and were trending slightly upwards by the time lockdown was removed. Perhaps this is because my region is currently the worst affected in France, and the rate of incidence in my département is already at what it was when I arrived at the end of September, but really I think it’s just because I’m not sure how they expect numbers to go down when they were already trending upwards, and are now encouraging travel and get togethers. I understand that Christmas is important to many families, but after seeing what happened in the US post Thanksgiving, I’m not thrilled about France’s prospects in the coming weeks. It’s hard to look at numbers increasing and understand the logic in opening things, especially before a two week holiday for students, when people will travel (which is allowed). Not to mention I still see way too many people not wearing masks properly, or at all, when outside, so I’m hesitant to think the next few weeks will look fab. Maybe I’m a Scrooge, or a pessimist, but I find it a little hard to be optimistic about it right now, unfortunately.

In line with things being a bit of a mess with France’s handling of the pandemic, on the Wednesday of the last week of school, the government announced that high school and middle school students had the option to stay home for Thursday and Friday before the break. I find this particularly telling, and found that in my middle school (which is the school where I work on Thursday/Friday), that it was very much a mixed bag. Most students were present on Thursday, but one of my teachers was speculating this was down to the big holiday lunch more than anything. There were more absences on Friday, but not the amount I would’ve anticipated to see if a similar option was made available in the US. Either way, it seems a backhanded way to admit that perhaps schools aren’t as safe as they’ve been proclaiming them to be, and I’ll be interested to see what happens with schools if (and really it’s trending towards when) another lockdown happens.

On the vaccination front, France is starting vaccinations in EHPADs (old people homes) on Sunday 27 December in Paris, and my region (Bourgogne-Franche Comté). Their current roll out plan doesn’t see the average citizen getting vaccinated until at least fall 2021, but it’s at least a start.

Spending the Holidays in Dijon

Due to the current health situation, travel for the holidays obviously isn’t the best idea. Even under normal circumstances (what even is normal anymore), I wouldn’t have gone back to the US for the break, but my parents most likely would have come over to Europe. Even if they didn’t, I would have been off exploring other countries to pass the time, rather than planning for two weeks holed away in my room. With the increase in cases (and an ever increasing R rate), I made the decision that staying in Dijon would be for the best, and have tried to make the most of it.

Christmas tree in Place de la Liberation, Dijon, France — Centre ville by day

Before the actual break began, I went into centre ville to see the lights after dark, and I’ll admit, it was a very pretty sight to see. Something about lights and decorations make me smile, even if I wasn’t a fan of how many other people were there to share that feeling with me at the same time. In addition to the big Christmas tree being lit up, there are several lit up trees in front of the Palais des Ducs, and a light projection display on the façade of the palace, and on one of the nearby churches. It’s not quite the ambiance that Angers had, but I don’t think I can truly compare given that I wasn’t in Angers during a pandemic, and much of the holiday festivities, like Christmas markets, have been cancelled this year.

Young woman stands in front of a lit up Christmas tree in Place de la Liberation, Dijon, France — Centre ville by night

I’m not going to lie, spending two weeks alone in a small room is not ideal. It’s not great fun, either. I kept telling myself that I was fine with it, and that I’m fine living alone, but when I got back from work on Friday, the 18^th, I was suddenly hit with the realization that I would be having no social interaction for the next two weeks, and that there wouldn’t be much for me to do, given the current situation and rising numbers. It’s hard to justify doing something just to do it, when it involves public transport, or being indoors (like shopping more than just the one time a week I usually go). I know I’m on the more paranoid side of things, but I’ve made it this far without getting sick, and given that my region is actively the worst (our rate of incidence is now back above 200/100,000), I’m not keen on putting myself at more risk than necessary. Sometimes I wonder when I’ll feel comfortable just doing things again. I feel horrid when my teachers invite me over to their houses, and I can’t confidently commit because of all the variables involved with going over to others’ homes. It’s hard not to feel like you’re being ridiculous sometimes.

I’ve tried to go on daily walks to get some fresh air, and to just get myself out of my small room. I discovered a lovely park near the mall that was such a calm, peaceful walk. It even had goats, sheep, and chickens! It’s nice to “spice up” my walking trails, since for a while there, I was only doing the same one since it was within 1km of where I live. I’m trying to take advantage of being able to roam, given that (in my mind at least), there’s a strong chance for another lockdown come January. I’ve also been doing some embroidery, and reading to pass the time when I’m not binging something online. I can’t say I’m having the most exciting days, but I know that I wouldn’t necessarily enjoy myself if I was traveling somewhere right now. I buy myself lots of pains au chocolat when I can, and purchased myself a slice of buche de noel for Christmas Eve, along with a Galette des Rois for myself, just so I could have a crown.

The rain has also made a return, which makes going out slightly more … wet, but I’m a PNW gal, so I can handle it! I keep seeing the little snow icon in my weather app, but I think it’s unlikely that it’ll happen considering that the weather doesn’t get *that* cold during the day, at least.

French Bureaucracy Troubles

I bet you thought I had sorted all my issues once I got the PIN for my bank card, but the troubles did not end there! Being a language assistant, we have the right to sécu, the social security/health insurance French people have. In order to be put in the system though, you have to apply for it. Once you apply, you’re issued a temporary number, followed by your Carte Vitale, which is in essence your social security, and health insurance, card. Last time I was an assistant, I never received a temporary number, despite numerous calls to the sécu office. Since I didn’t anticipate coming back, I didn’t make much of it and just left it. When I came back to Dijon, I obviously had to start the process again, given that I wasn’t in the system… or so I thought. Turns out, I *had* somehow made it into the system (lord only knows when) and when I sent in another application in October, they registered it, and sent my info to Angers, because that’s the last address on file. Even though there was a new address in the new application. Cue a long 45 minute phone call where I’m told I have to resubmit everything with a typed out letter stating I changed addresses in order for it to be put in the system, and registered that I moved… despite the paperwork saying I’ve moved. This country, I swear. Luckily, I have a lovely secretary at school who has been very helpful, and was more than willing to send off my paperwork for a third time. Fingers crossed I’ll have some documentation in January!

A 2020 Recap

Seeing as it’s the last month of the year, I thought I’d be remiss not to mention a little bit about some highlights of the year. My year did start out strong with NBA games aplenty, and being cast in my favorite Shakespeare play (a production which, unfortunately, has not come to fruition). I had plans all laid out for where I was going to go next, but we all know how best laid plans worked out this year… If you had asked me at the start of 2020 if I would be doing TAPIF again, I would’ve said probably not, and yet, here we are. I’m choosing to view my coming to France as a door opening, even if it wasn’t the first door I wanted to open.

That’s been my December! It’s hard to believe that another year has come and gone, especially when I feel like I have very little to report back as accomplishments for the past 12 months. I obviously don’t know what January is going to look like, let alone what my next steps will be after TAPIF (which is a can of worms I’m working very hard to keep closed, and at the back of the shelf). It’ll be a new experience to ring in the New Year alone (and possibly a lonely one), but hopefully this year will be a one off. I’m looking cautiously at 2021, but I imagine most of us are at this point. All I can do is continue with this adventure one day at a time!

See you in January, and (weirdly) in 2021! Bonne année et meilleurs vœux!

Reflection of the Palais des Ducs in an ornament from the Christmas Tree in Place de la Liberation, Dijon, France — Reflecting on 2020 and hoping 2021 shines bright(er)!

November update: a month in confinement

On November 29, 2020November 29, 2020 By notyouravggiraffeIn TAPIF2 Comments

Miriam in Dijon: November edition! It’s hard to believe that I’ve been in France for two months, and that even though not much has happened, I’ve still managed to occupy my time in such a way that it’s almost surprising that it’s been two months. Since one of my new year’s resolutions for 2020 (hah, jokes) was to write more, I want to keep that goal up by writing at least a monthly update of my experience doing TAPIF this time around, even if there’s not a ton of exciting things to report. As such, I present to you my recap of November!

Welcome to month two in France – a month entirely spent in confinement. On the evening of October 29th, the entire country went into “lockdown lite,” meaning you’re only allowed to leave your house for essential activities, an hour long walk within 1km of your house (this was extended to three hours within 20km on the 28th of November), or work if your job cannot be done from home, for at least four weeks. Unlike the confinement in the spring, schools remained open, which meant that I still got to go to work! Because of this, my days were relatively the same as what they were before confinement, only minus potential weekend excursions to centre ville (which I was able to do at the end of the month to see the holiday decorations around town because of the increase to 20km).

For people not living in France, you might’ve heard about the attestations needed to leave the house. Personally, I feel like people outside France make a bigger deal of this than it actually is, and it’s not an arduous task to do it. The attestation is either a piece of paper, or a QR code on your phone, that outlines why you’re outside of the house. There’s a handy Covid app that the French government wants everyone to download where you can do your attestation in five seconds on your phone (the app also notifies you if you’ve been in contact with someone who tested positive). There are spot checks randomly in France, and you will be fined if you don’t have one filled out, or if you are breaking the terms of the attestation. You have to fill out a new one every time you leave the house, but with the Covid app, it’s super easy to generate a new one whenever you need to go grocery shopping, or want to go for a walk. Luckily, I don’t have to do one every time I go to work because I have a *separate* (this is France, of course), attestation specifically for work that lasts until the end of confinement.

With the confinement elephant out of the room, I can move on to my actual November update! I wish that I had loads of interesting travel tales or exciting things I’ve discovered about Dijon, but rather, my days have been fairly repetitive. Most days are me going to work and coming back to my room, trying to be productive, and utterly failing (finding motivation in general is hard, but throw in the uncertainty of a pandemic and… big oof). On days where I don’t work, I go grocery shopping, do my laundry, or go for a walk to the jardin japonais which is within a 1km radius of where I live. It does make for less than exciting weeks, but there is something reassuring to the known, repetitive schedule. Luckily for me, boulangeries are considered essential, and remain open during confinement (how French). This means that I can go buy a baguette every other day (a full baguette lasts me two days, even if day two means that it isn’t the freshest), and sometimes even treat myself to a pain au chocolat. There are at least seven boulangeries within the 1km radius of where I live, so I’m not lost for choice.

Carrying a baguette home in the sunshine in Dijon, France — Baguettes somehow always make the day a little bit better

Teaching During Confinement

Like I said, I’m still going to work since schools are still open. One of the big changes for education during the confinement is that the mask requirement was extended to primary schools with students from six and up needing to wear a mask in class – before confinement, the minimum age was 11. Since I work in both a high school and a middle school, I’ve been able to see how government restrictions have (or haven’t) changed the way things are done. In my lycée, the school is now on a hybrid model. This means that every week, the students present at the school varies in order to minimize the number of students present on any given day. The terminales (seniors) are always here, but the premieres (juniors) and secondes (sophomores) are at the school at a 50% capacity each week. Initially, the high schools changed schedules around so that instead of students moving from class to class during passing period, it was the teachers instead, but that only lasted about a week before the hybrid model was put in place. My schedule at the high school, luckily, hasn’t changed much, but instead of having alternating A weeks and B weeks, we now do two of each letter week to ensure that all students get to have that schedule before moving to the next week. It also means that in classes where I worked with half the class while half remained with the teacher, that I’ve had to modify my lesson plans as I either now work in tandem with the teacher, or only have a quarter of a class with me at a time. This scheduling and hybrid model will be in place at least through the 20th of January.

My collège (middle school), is a little different. Since the government’s stance is that high schools have more students, their restrictions and advice for limiting contact between students was only extended to the high schools in the country. As such, my middle school is still at 100% attendance, with students moving between classes, and mingling as much as they would’ve done pre-Covid. The classrooms are usually full, which means little to no distancing between students, and passing periods is a sea of children. From discussions with some of the teachers I work with (and even some of the students), they aren’t a fan of the current model, and some would even prefer schools to shut down entirely. Both of my schools have had cases, and even more students who are cas contacts (this is defined as someone who interacted with/was within 1 meter of someone who was positive for at least 5 minutes, and usually without a mask). Luckily, in both my schools, I have some classes where I work alone, in my own room. As such, I can make sure a window is open, and have fewer students with me.

Young woman in Lucy and Yak dungarees posing in an empty French classroom, wearing a mask — Having my own classroom makes me feel very official (but not so official as to not take a cheeky self timed photo)

The Good From the Month of November

I didn’t quite want to replicate my “good, the bad, and the pandemic” format from October, but I do still want to touch on the good things that have happened this month. Even though it’s been confinement, and my freedom to explore has been severely limited, that doesn’t mean I haven’t been able to make the most of my (stuck at home) situation.

As some good news, I finally got my PIN for my bank card! It turns out, I had written my address “wrong,” because I hadn’t included the name of the school where I live in the address. As such, the person delivering the mail didn’t see my name on the mailbox, and didn’t deliver the letter. After fixing that little error, my PIN came quickly and I can finally use my French card. It’s very much a relief and has made my life so much easier this month.

France tip: As soon as you move into wherever you’ll be living in France, put your name on the mailbox. If your name isn’t on the mailbox, the facteur won’t deliver any mail addressed to you! If you live at your school, be sure to include the name of your school in your address (there’s usually a space for a complement de voie when you input in addresses) between your name and the street address to be sure you’ll receive post!

In terms of my living situation, I have settled more into my school provided housing in the last month (part of that being due to the fact that it’s where I’ve spent most of my time, if I’m honest). I’ve put up some personal photos, fairy lights, and embroidery I’ve done (with more on the way), to make the space my own. While it’s still crowded, and contains minimal storage, as Tim Gunn would say (or a variation on what he would say), I’m “mak[ing] it work.” Not to mention that other flats that I’ve looked at or found are the same size as my current living situation, but around three times the price, without considering utilities. I’m not going to lie that my rent price is a big reason for my staying put, even if it’s not an ideal living situation.

My teachers have also been really lovely. I’m very appreciative of the level of communication I have from all of my teachers, and their willingness to answer my questions. They’ve all regularly checked in on me and how I’m doing in confinement, and with my classes. My collège, in particular, has really been looking out for me. Since the beginning, my prof ref has been looking into ways to get me more hours at the school as a way to increase my monthly salary. I knew that this was a possibility, but with everything going on, didn’t expect it to go much further than a brief conversation. True to her word, my prof ref asked about it, and my school was completely onboard with the idea! Since this is France, I had to complete a dossier in order to file the request, but once it was approved, I was able to add additional hours to my schedule, which means an increase in pay as well. The new teachers I’ll be working with kept asking me if adding morning hours was okay with me, and asking if it fit in my schedule, which I found funny considering I have nothing on my schedule other than work at the moment – it’s not as if I could go do things if I had the time! I’m not sure how much additional earnings I’ll be making each month, but something is better than nothing, right? I’ll admit that it does make for long days (I went from working just three hours an afternoon to suddenly starting work at 9:20 and going to 17:20 two days a week), but again, I’ve got nothing else to do, and I get to work with a larger variety of students now.

Another good thing has been my ability to go to the boulangerie all the time. I know I’ve already mentioned it, but I truly relish buying myself a baguette every other day and having that quintessential French food item with my dinners. I feel very French walking down the sidewalk carrying a baguette from a boulangerie – it’s also a great excuse to get some steps in and to go out into the world for a bit given the current restrictions.

Other Observations

Even though my exploration of Dijon has been limited for most of the month to a 1km radius from the school where I live, and the walk to and from the mall where the grocery store is located, I’ve gotten very familiar with the surroundings. One thing on my walks that I noticed (when it was warmer), is that I got much warmer when walking than I feel I normally do. I could walk to the grocery store in late October without a coat because I felt fine (which is very abnormal for my “always cold” self). At first, I attributed it to the fact that I’m wearing a mask when I walk, and that could be contributing a little to me feeling the way that I was, temperature wise. Obviously it’s just something I’ll have to live with but I couldn’t figure it out for the life of me! Not sure if this is the reason, but every time I check my weather app, the humidity is sitting between 80-100%, which is unlike the PNW on SO many levels. I’m not sure *why* Dijon is that humid, considering there are no bodies of water anywhere near the city, but it’s constantly telling me it’s that humid! Even with copious amount of googling, I’ve been unable to find any reasons as to why it’s so humid here, so if anybody has any experience with humidity in Dijon, I am all ears!

The temperatures have also started to drop in Dijon, so we are edging slowly but surely into winter territory. It’s luckily been very sunny most days, and it hasn’t rained in at least a month (knock on wood it stays that way), so at least I’m only dealing with cold on its own. The fact that I will sometimes be walking back from work after the sun has set (which is depressingly early now), means that sometimes I’ve over bundled for my afternoon walk, but I’m dressed perfectly for the evening. Coming from the US, where all you do is dress for the short walk from your car to wherever you’re going, it’s definitely a different mindset when you get dressed every morning here.

The decorations for the holidays are also starting to appear, and with all the stress of 2020, it’s a welcome sight to see all the lights and shimmering decorations up in places. I’ll save most of my photos regarding that for December, but everywhere, from the mall, to the streets of centre-ville, have little splashes of the holidays, which in my mind, is a great pick-me-up, even if just for a second.

Christmas tree and gingerbread men at La Toison d’Or - mall in Dijon, France — A fun center piece at the mall to lift the spirits before grocery shopping

Even as restrictions ease slightly in France, there is still very much a pandemic going on, and numbers aren’t in a place to go into déconfinement, yet. My region (Bourgogne-Franche Comté), is doing the worst numbers wise in the country currently – something that started post lockdown – although my département (Côte-d’Or), is at the lower end of the nine départements in the region. It definitely frustrates me to still see people either not wearing a mask properly (I see a lot of noses, even with some students in my schools), or not wearing one at all. I’m hoping the numbers continue to drop, but I’m still very hesitant about it all.

I’m afraid that’s really been my November! Other than the increased stress of being abroad during the election (I had to give several lessons about it, while waiting for results which was fun), this month was fairly lowkey. I’m still discovering new things about my neck of the woods (for instance, when I was told explicitly by my prof ref that I was going to the wrong boulangerie and to go to another one), and getting into a routine for every day. It’s sometimes weird to think that I’m in France currently, and that this is my life for the next couple of months. It’s definitely been a different experience to what TAPIF was like for me in Angers (for more than just the obvious, pandemic reason), and most of the differences have been positive. I’m interested to see how this experience continues to roll out over the next couple weeks before the holiday break, and into the new year!

See you for an update in December! À plus!

Miriam in Dijon: a month into TAPIF

On October 23, 2020October 23, 2020 By notyouravggiraffeIn France, TAPIFLeave a comment

I couldn’t resist poking a little fun with the title, considering the popularity of Emily in Paris (yes, I’ve watched it, and yes, I have a lot of thoughts). If Netflix wants to commission a show about what it’s actually like living in France, I’m definitely available 😉

I’ve been in France for a month now, so thought it was high time to start writing about my experience at the moment, especially since I’m already seeing so many differences between my current experience, and the one I had two years ago in Angers. We’re currently in the two week Toussaint break (I know, having two weeks off after barely working for two weeks seems unreal, but it’s like this every year), but it’s nice to have a somewhat introductory period before the “real” work begins at la rentrée. I figured I’d take advantage of my downtime, and write a little.

For so many reasons, I knew that coming to France this year wasn’t going to be a walk in the park, but as I’ve mentioned before, this month has definitely been tougher than I expected it to be. I’m sure I’m a bit biased because everything went *so* smoothly in Angers, that anything even the slightest bit off from that path would seem rough, but my experiences so far in comparison to Angers could not be more different from each other, and for more than just the obvious reasons. Without further ado, I present to you my first month in France with “the good, the bad, and the pandemic.”

A young woman stands in Place Francois Rude in Dijon with arms outstretched

The Good

Even though I’m struggling with a lot in Dijon, that doesn’t mean that there haven’t been good things about my month in France so far. Even though the housing provided for me by my lycée is very basic, I’ve been making it my own, and am appreciative of having my own space during a time when I’m not sure I’d feel comfortable sharing with others. I’ll admit that I wasn’t thrilled initially, but after that feeling of being completely overwhelmed by everything wore off, I’m less in a “I must leave now” kind of mood when it comes to my living accommodation. I’m sure part of it was that housing was *so* smooth and easy in Angers, and I didn’t have quite that experience moving into school housing in Dijon, or even looking for alternative options. I have my own bathroom, fridge, and microwave, and although I do have hot plates for cooking, they’re a bit too high for me to reach safely (being short always has some drawbacks). That being said, I can eat in the school cantine four nights a week for dinner because there are students who board at the school during the week. I’ve yet to take advantage of it because my French bank card still isn’t properly set up (more on that later), but hopefully I’ll be able to do that after the break.

My schools themselves have been lovely, and the whole process seems much more organized than it was when I was working in Angers. Perhaps it’s the fact that I’m working at the secondary level rather than primary, or perhaps it’s just the way things have played out this year compared to last time. Within a week of observing at the lycée, I was given my computer log in, copier codes, keys to classrooms (something I was never given last time), and I had submitted the necessary paperwork for my application to social security (the healthcare system in France), and transport reimbursement forms through the secretary at my school. The students I have are also all seemingly more excited about English than the primary kids I had in Angers (could be a factor of age), and I’m even getting to tackle some interesting subjects with them like political cartoons and their meanings, or even doing literary commentary on The Tempest to help the terminales (seniors) prepare for the oral commentary section of the BAC. I can definitely sense that I’ll be able to engage with the students on deeper material than I could with the primary students I had, and even though it’s slightly terrifying to have that much free reign during a class period (I’ve been told with many of my classes to do what I want with them), it’s exciting to know that I have so many possibilities of material to cover with them, and that they’re excited to speak the language.

I spend half of my time in the lycée and half of my time at a collège (middle school) about a 20 minute walk away. It’s interesting working with such a variety of levels (sixth to twelfth grade is a wide range of ages), but it’s also interesting to see how teaching English works for different classes. Sixth grade is when English classes start for all French students (anything before that in public school is not mandatory for the schools to implement), so I’m working with some students who are just beginning their journey with English, and some who have been working on it for almost six years. Both of my schools have an International section, and I work with classes in that section, but also classes outside of it, which can make for a cool glimpse into different spheres of French education. I’m very appreciative as well of all the teachers I’ve been assigned to work with as they are all very encouraging of helping me figure out what to do with the students, and very communicative about their goals of having a language assistant in their classroom.

The organization and positivity I get from my schools aren’t the only good things, I’ll admit. I’ve been able to do some exploring of Dijon itself over the past month, and I don’t think I’ll ever get over how cool it is to see old, half-timbered houses nestled in between modern buildings. A lot of Europe has the perfect blend of the old and the new, and Dijon definitely has that as well. You might say it’s Dijon-vu (sorry, I had to throw in a Dijon related pun somehow) to see that perfect blend of eras, but it’s hard to get over it when you come from the US. I obviously haven’t done everything there is to do in the city, but the things I have discovered have been super cool (for lack of a better word).

One of the better days I’ve had in Dijon was discovering the parcours de la chouette. This is a trail that goes through centre-ville, marked by little triangles on the ground with owls (a chouette is a kind of owl) that brings you to historic landmarks within the city. I bought a little booklet from the tourist office to give myself context of what I was looking at, and doing the whole pathway really brings you on a quasi journey through time. It’s called the parcours de la chouette because carved into the building of the Notre-Dame church (no, not the famous one), is a small sculpture of a chouette. You’re supposed to touch it when you go by for good luck! I found myself actually having fun trying to follow the owls on the ground and going on a scavenger hunt to find the next one when they seemingly disappeared. Part of the journey involves the Tour de Philippe de Bon, which is a tower you can climb (316 steps) to get a spectacular panoramic view of the city. It’s only 5€, but definitely worth the price of admission.

View from tour Philippe le bon in Dijon, France — A view worthy of a 316 step climb (mask only removed for photo purposes, and with insurance of nobody else around)

The Bad

As I’ve already said, it hasn’t been the smoothest of times adjusting to life in Dijon. Sometimes I wonder if my difficulties are stemming from the fact that everything seemed so much easier in Angers, but while I’m sure that’s part of it, I know it’s not the cause of every difficulty I’ve faced. Moving abroad is stressful enough without the added weight of a global health situation that you can’t forget is ongoing, and it was a big lifestyle change for me to go from being unemployed for six months to having a daily routine (in another country, no less). No experience is ever 100% positive, so I think it’s important to also touch on the less than fabulous things that happen when you move abroad (or do anything in life, really).

The main thing that’s been causing me problems this time around is my bank. Opening the account was painless and easy, but three weeks after getting my card, I still don’t have a PIN for it. This means, even after three weeks of having my card, I still can’t use it (in France, they mail you your PIN separately from your card). Every time I ask my bank why I don’t have it yet, they tell me they don’t know, and that it should’ve arrived by now. As such, I’m having to have them reorder it for me, and once again, hope it arrives through the mail. The one problem with this is since I live at my school, and we’re on les vacances, I won’t be getting mail during that time as there’s no one here other than myself and another assistant who also lives in the internat. I’m very grateful that I got a credit card over the summer with no foreign transaction fees as most businesses are asking for customers to use sans-contact methods of payment (France has contactless cards, but other than having to insert and then sign for everything, my card works just fine, thankfully). So although I have a French bank account set up, and have a card for it, I can’t actually use it, and who knows when I’ll be able to do so.

As much as I also really enjoy the classes with which I’ll be working, I am sad that I won’t be able to have the same “first-name” basis relationship I had with my students at the primary level. Although in some classes I work with half of the class at a time, or even the whole class at once, there are others where I see a group of six once between now and the December break at my lycée. I’ll probably be able to at least memorize the names of all of my middle school students (assuming that I can figure out who is who from just their eyes and hair – all of my students wear masks in the classroom), but that’ll be the case only for some of my high school level classes. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’ll just be a different experience with the students, and sometimes I miss the relationship I had with my students in Angers. That being said, it might be too early in the whole scheme of things to really be making any judgement calls on that particular aspect of things.

I figured I’d touch briefly on what makes my housing situation not the best, especially since having done the program before, I know how it’s not a guarantee to be offered school (and low cost) housing, so I do want to clarify that I’m immensely grateful for it, and I am super making do with what I have. Other than the hot plate situation being an unsafe one, the other issue for me is the lack of outlets in the space. There is ONE (1) outlet for the entire room where I live, and of course, it’s on the other side of the room from where my bed is! I brought an extension cord with me so that worked in my favor, but I still have a cord running through the center of my room (insert laughing emoji here). I know this is very much as 21st century problem, but here we are. There’s also the random thing that I can’t open my blinds for most of the day when school is in session because my window looks directly out onto the path the students walk to get into school. I live in the building where the students board, but luckily, I live on my own floor and only have to deal with the sound of the students entering and exiting in the evening and morning (they aren’t allowed in the building during the day).

Another bad thing? Spiders. I’m pretty positive I never saw a single spider in the entire time I lived in Angers, and yet, in Dijon, within four weeks I’ve dealt with three decently sized arachnids. I know, I shouldn’t be afraid of them, but I AM, and my room is not big enough to hide from them until they disappear. If anyone has any advice for ways to prevent spiders from entering your domicile, I am ALL EARS.

The Pandemic

I couldn’t go a blog post without mentioning this, unfortunately! It is absolutely a part of daily life in France, and especially in Dijon, considering it’s a metropole (and all of France is currently in an état d’urgence sanitaire). I find it fascinating how quickly my brain adapted from being in a situation where I only left the house for essential activities to one that involves leaving the house almost every day, but that also means that it’s super easy for your brain to forget what’s actually happening. Without everyone wearing masks in the street, it would be easy to go to centre-ville or the mall on a Saturday and think things were completely normal. I’ll be honest, I was massively disappointed in how many French people I see wearing their masks incorrectly, or just not wearing them at all. I also see so many French people dining en terrasse, and I know that’s a big part of French culture, but I know that I, personally, am still not comfortable doing that when it means removing your mask in close proximity to others, even when you’re outside. I know that a reconfinement is the last thing they want to have happen, but it seems like we’re inching closer and closer to that being a possibility as France’s numbers keep growing, and people seem to have taken a “let’s just live with it” mindset (this could be a gross generalization, I know, but is just what I’ve observed in Dijon). Coming from the US, it’s been super disheartening to see how the French government, and its citizens, are handling the current second wave, given that they did manage to have it under control by summer.

It’s also harder to justify going out for kicks and giggles when it’s technically not “safe” to do so, if that makes sense. Usually, I’d spend my free time going out and about, exploring Dijon, but as I’m trying to minimize my interactions with people that aren’t in my daily sphere of interactions, it does make that a little harder. This also extends to the breaks we get as teaching assistants. Usually, I’d be planning trips to other countries during my two weeks off, but given how quickly numbers and restrictions can change, that’s not really a feasible, or safe, course of action at the moment. Not to mention, even though I have enough masks, I’m always super aware of how many I have left before my next laundry day (I have to walk 15 minutes to the closest laverie, so I’m not doing laundry as often as I normally would do it). It can make the days where I don’t work a little longer and harder, if I’m honest, to have to weigh the risk of doing something versus staying indoors when I don’t absolutely have to be doing that activity. This has led me to go on walks in my neighborhood and discover where I’m living, but it’s not as interesting as everything in centre-ville (at least, to me).

For those of you who aren’t following what’s happening in France (which I understand, especially if you’re following what’s happening in the US), as of midnight on Friday, 23 October, 54 départements entered into having a couvre-feu, a curfew, that will last for at least the next six weeks. The département where I live is one of those 54. This means that between the hours of 21h (9pm) and 6h (6am), you aren’t allowed to be outside of your residence without an attestation. I figured it was coming for Dijon, but the step to make it for the whole département, and for so many of them, speaks volumes, unfortunately. It does feel like France is hurdling towards another lock down, but maybe these new restrictions will help minimize the chance of that happening.

Selfie from the top of the tour de Philippe de bon in Dijon — Are masked selfies going to become the next social media #trend?

That’s kind of what I’ve been up to and experiencing in the past month in France! It’s hard to think that I really haven’t been here that long, and yet, with everything that 2020 has thrown at us, it doesn’t seem that out of the ordinary for me (perhaps because I’ve been mentally planning on being in Europe in this time frame since April). I’m hoping to do some local day trips during the break, which I promise to write about if I go through with them (only if it is safe to do so), and really devote some time to planning class periods for my students, since I’m properly leading them this time around! I have a lot more free time than when I was in Angers due to the way I’m scheduled, so hopefully I’ll be able to update often (assuming I get up to interesting things), and keep this blog alive. For now, it’s back to the baguettes and being a flâneur (contrary to the belief spouted in Emily in Paris, this is not something that all French people are, and I am on les vacances, hence the flân-ing). À plus!