SarahDo you ever blink and six months have gone by? The last time I posted, I still had half of my Teaching Assistant contract left. Now, I’m back in Canada and six weeks into my first post-TAPIF position.
What’s happened in 2018 so far?
Lots of Travel
In addition to checking out nearby French cities (and Luxembourg!) with friends, I spent a week in the mountains for a Bac Blanc practice retreat assisting terminals and went to London with some collegiens. Winter break adventures featured Heidelberg, Dresden, Prague and Budapest. Finally, Easter break was a chance to solo-trip Barcelona and meet up with my parents in England.
Teaching
A few sample topics: pronunciation, weather, McCarthyism, travel vocabulary, giving directions, Canadian art. This depended a lot on the teacher I was working with, their preferences (though some tended towards “whatever you think”), and the level of the students. My students were aged 11-17, and I generally had half the class at a time (~12 students).
Not so much writing
Something creative in me went into hibernation. I didn’t feel inspired to blog, journal, create, or even read much. The one time I tried to earnestly practice the piano, I accidentally smashed my phone screen. It sounds strange, but my only real expressive outlet for a while (outside lesson planning) was Instagram. I don’t know if this was linked to feeling down or having trouble putting experiences into words, though I definitely still “did life” with people in person and via long-distance communication.
On the plus side I watched more Netflix this year than ever before? Ok, so not an actual plus side, as this was one of my anti-goals. That said, I often watched with audio and/or subtitles in a target language, which helped me feel like staring at a screen was a bit more justified. And sometimes when local trains end by 9pm you just want to appreciate a narrative and feel a bit less lonely.
Misc. Living French Life
Pastries, French pottery class with the sweetest ladies, grooving to the SNCF theme song (well, maybe the remix) and navigating that famous French administrative bureaucracy.
Even More Travel
After my contract I hit the road – literally less than 15 minutes after moving out and teaching my last class, don’t try this at home folks – and began a train journey to Italy. A friend from home and I checked out Paris, Milan, Cinque Terre (ahh so lovely), and Florence. Once school duties called him back home, I spent a couple days in Bologna and a night in Zurich, which I love but definitely couldn’t afford for too long. PS: major shout-out to the friends that kept my bags those two weeks. Lastly, I went to a multilingual Mennonite conference in France and spent some time with friends in Germany. At each stop, I lightened my load a little bit (anyone want pasta sauce? Antibacterial spray? Canadian-themed coasters?), until finally totally repacking in Paris the night before leaving to avoid overweight charges… Successfully, whew. Even the belongings from a small dwelling can be surprisingly heavy.
Home for a few days
With my bank account and travel-enthusiast soul ready for a break, I flew back into Toronto to see family and move to the next stop.
Next chapter
My current home is back in my university city, Waterloo, Ontario! I am a conference and events coordinator for one of the university colleges there. It’s never a dull moment at work and it’s been incredible catching up with loved ones, so I’m happy for now. I’m reading more and can also sneak in some domestic/local-ish travel on long weekends. What will happen next? Stay tuned.
