Let's start at the very beginning....

I have thought about starting this blog since January but just finally got around to it. Of course with everything going on (working as a long term substitute, instructing 2 color guards, performing with Interplay, etc), I had no time to sit down and start documenting what I hope will be the most rewarding year of my life. So to get things started, I will explain how I got here - the TAPIF application process, the acceptance and what I will be doing while I am in France. Hold your intense yawns of boredom until the end.

TAPIF application
So many people who may be reading this know how I have been offered an amazing opportunity to be an English teaching assistant in France for the next school year and the details of the program. If you already know about the program, feel free to scroll down to get to the good stuff. To be an English teaching assistant in France, there are a couple ways to get there. You can apply to get a Fulbright grant or even take classes and get certified to teach English in France - as for me, I applied through the Teaching Assistant Program in France, which will forever be known as TAPIF in this blog. Get comfortable with the acronym. It is basically a program offered by the French government which allows young people who have knowledge of French (translation: you don't have to be a linguistic master) to come and help teach English to French students, from elementary to high school level. So basically, if you know French, are 20-30 years old, would love to have a 12 hr work week teaching, and want to live in France/travel for year and get paid to do it - you should do this program! To learn more specifics, you can follow the link above (the site is all in English so I suggest you check it out!)

Anyway, my experience with applying. Well... as I stated earlier, I am incredibly busy person. The application became available online in October of 2012 and had to be completed and turned in by January 15, 2013. When I looked at the application at the beginning of November, I thought I would get through it in no time and subsequently filled out my personal information and saved the rest for later (as well as asked my wonderful professors/colleagues for their recommendations, I don't have enough thanks to them!) At the end of December, I realized I hadn't worked on it and spent a few days of my break finishing it up. I had finished it.... but didn't really feel ready to turn it in. So I waited once again. Three days before the deadline, I opened up my application once again and realized I had made one of the most obvious mistakes in this process: I had written entirely* in English. Clearly, my procrastination made me gloss over this fact. So, I spent a long night re-doing my application so every bit of information I gave was in French.** The next night, after rereading it a thousand times and adding last minute edits, I did something very unlike me: I clicked submit. Normally, I ALWAYS wait until the deadline day to submit any type of application but for some reason I just felt like it was the right time.

I was wrong. After submitting, it gave me the option of printing my application and I obliged. Looking at my paper application, I realized I had 2 major problems: 1. All of the edits I had done that night had not saved. Grammar, spelling, accents: gone. 2. My transcript was not showing up. At all. As in, I had NO documented proof that I graduated college nor studied abroad. I was beside myself, freaking out and running around my house trying to figure out what had happened. Well, 1. I forgot to save the edits. Good one, Becca. And 2. I had saved my transcript in PDF format when it was supposed to be a jpeg. I thought I had lost all hope in my dream and what I had saved all my money for. Through much searching, I found two e-mails and contacted them about my transcript issue. I was hoping they would let me resubmit my application, even though it says on bold print everywhere that this is not allowed. They got back to me right away, explaining that they would probably be able to still see the transcript but that they would e-mail me if they couldn't and I could send another copy. Hallelujah! I was so relieved... until I realized I still had to wait 3 months to know if I got in.

How I looked when I was freaking out. A lot of this.

And a bit of this.

And my relief first looked like this.

Then the anxious waiting began, complete with massive amounts of junk food.

My acceptance
So after three months of waiting, April finally came. I'm pretty sure from April 1 until April 3, I must have checked my e-mail and refreshed it around 500 times. However, while I was at work on April 3, I looked at my phone and got the e-mail I had been waiting for - I had been accepted into the program! I was officially moving to France and not even just that, in the region that was my first choice, the Aix-Marseille academie! (more information on this in a later post) I was all alone at work and couldn't help let out a scream and maybe started dancing around the office. Just maybe. 

I am honestly so entirely grateful for this experience and it hasn't even begun yet. Dealing with all of the preparations (posts to follow) right now just makes me more anxious for September. With this, I am so excited to share this experience as much as I can through this blog. I know I can be wordy, whiny, and truly exaggerative at times but I hope that France and Europe through my lens can bring some part of my experience to everyone that reads it. On y va France - I know you will be a very good place to start.***

*Ok, when I say entirely, I am exaggerating. Of course I wrote my personal statement in French, because of the explicit directions.

**Found out after the fact that this isn't entirely necessary, but it does look great to application reviewers.

***Interplay friends: see what I did there?