After graduation in the spring (woohoo! Congrats to the class of 2010) I moved back to Tennessee for a while, went to Bonnaroo for the 4th summer in a row (always a treat, though thinly disguised as a trippy, dirty nightmare in classic boondock fashion), and then moved to New Orleans for the summer.
NOLA was the perfect place to set myself up for a year in France; I had beignets and café au lait from Café du Monde, heard Cajun poetry (and a well-heeled 'yat accent while I was at it), and heard Americans (real ones! With real American accents!) correctly pronounce French street names. I also, for the first time in my life, was NOT the only one celebrating Bastille Day--one of my beau's professors threw a Fête de la Bastille and we arrived...
in costume. (Check out my modern translation of a French Revolution-era ladies' hat and powdered wig; it's a fedora with a red metal mailbox on it, complete with letters from Talleyrand, Ben Franklin, and Sophocles, all perched atop a mop. Viva la Revolution!)
Now that I'm back from the Big Easy, I'm contemplating packing my bags: I leave for France on September 28, flying into Paris, then take a train from Paris to Strasbourg where I'll meet a former French exchange student and her parents so they can accompany me to Nevers. I've been assigned to the Inspection Académique de la Nièvre, which is a fancy way of saying I'll be living in the rustic, rural, breathtaking countryside of the Bourgogne (Burgundy) region around Dijon.
Later this week my mom and I are going to Atlanta to visit the Consulate so I can validate my work visa; really, though, the Consulate is just a necessary formality that so happens to fall during a mid-week mother-daughter excursion full of limousine escorts, organic produce, and the Body exhibit. Sounds fun :) I'll certainly keep you posted.
