Ugine, France not Oregon!
September 29 I traveled by train and by bus to the small town of Ugine. It is here that i will be teaching 12 hours a week in a high school of 850 students. Ugine has only over 7000 people, there is a post office, a grocery store, a church, a few bars and restaurants and thats about it. I have rented a room here at the school so now my life is quite similar to life in the dorms in Madison. One small room with a bed and desk, and a shared bathroom and kitchen down the hall. Most of the time i eat in the schools cafeteria which sounds bad but is actually quite good. I really enjoy the french way of eating. Its going to have to do for a while at least until i get some paper work down and my feet wet in this town. One really good thing about little towns is how friendly people are. The minute i say im from the states people open up and start talking about their travels there or ask me what it is like.
Over the weekend however i was pretty bored. Its been raining quite a bit and the temperature has been near 60 during the day, so cold for me. I slept a lot and started writing my memoire. Perhaps at some point i hope to have it published. I have meet some interesting people outside of the school like the two boys from Maillot (which is a island of the coast of madagascar so they speak french) and a very nice french girl in the laundro mat, Cecile, who has graciously invited me over for dinner this week. I hope i can find her house, she was super sweet!
The english teachers here are also really nice and lenient. I dont think at this point it will be difficult to work with them. Today (tues) was suppose to be my first day teaching but there is a strike at the school so i dont think ill start until thurs now. My schedule is great; i have no classes on Mon or Wed and on the other days have 3 classes a day. I will definately need to find something else to do.
For those of you still considering visiting, there really isnt anything of interest here except skiing and the snow doesnt come until late december. I am really close to Geneva or north western Italy however and you could swing by here if you are in the neighborhood. The closest airports are Lyon, Annecy, or Geneva. To take the train from Paris it costs a student about 60 USD, and double that if you are older than 26. My vacations this year are Oct 22 to Nov 3, Dec 17 to jan 4, Feb 18 to 26, and then April 22 until whenever (my contract is up april 30) and im scheduled to fly back to chicago the 3rd of May. I am considereing extending my ticket though and going to Senegal at the end of April for a few weeks. I spoke with my family there and they want me to visit and prices are much cheaper from france than from the states. If you would like to send snail mail to me; i have an address now which is (line 1) Tara Carolfi assistante d'anglais (line 2) s/c Lycee Rene Perrin (line 3) 41, Rue Rene Perrin (line 4) 73400 UGINE France
a bientot! (talk to you soon!)
Over the weekend however i was pretty bored. Its been raining quite a bit and the temperature has been near 60 during the day, so cold for me. I slept a lot and started writing my memoire. Perhaps at some point i hope to have it published. I have meet some interesting people outside of the school like the two boys from Maillot (which is a island of the coast of madagascar so they speak french) and a very nice french girl in the laundro mat, Cecile, who has graciously invited me over for dinner this week. I hope i can find her house, she was super sweet!
The english teachers here are also really nice and lenient. I dont think at this point it will be difficult to work with them. Today (tues) was suppose to be my first day teaching but there is a strike at the school so i dont think ill start until thurs now. My schedule is great; i have no classes on Mon or Wed and on the other days have 3 classes a day. I will definately need to find something else to do.
For those of you still considering visiting, there really isnt anything of interest here except skiing and the snow doesnt come until late december. I am really close to Geneva or north western Italy however and you could swing by here if you are in the neighborhood. The closest airports are Lyon, Annecy, or Geneva. To take the train from Paris it costs a student about 60 USD, and double that if you are older than 26. My vacations this year are Oct 22 to Nov 3, Dec 17 to jan 4, Feb 18 to 26, and then April 22 until whenever (my contract is up april 30) and im scheduled to fly back to chicago the 3rd of May. I am considereing extending my ticket though and going to Senegal at the end of April for a few weeks. I spoke with my family there and they want me to visit and prices are much cheaper from france than from the states. If you would like to send snail mail to me; i have an address now which is (line 1) Tara Carolfi assistante d'anglais (line 2) s/c Lycee Rene Perrin (line 3) 41, Rue Rene Perrin (line 4) 73400 UGINE France
a bientot! (talk to you soon!)
posted by Tara at 1:57 AM
1 Comments:
Tara, you are getting to do so many wonderful things!! And you once said something about you being lazy??? Heck no. It's times like now where your shining personality comes through. All you needed was to get out of the country. You truely are meant to be out-and-about seeing the world. I can tell from the way that you write that it makes you immensly happy! Your blog is awesome by the way. I love reading it.
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