Plane Ticket!

Welcome to this blog:

The next year of my life will be spent in France with, I'm sure, as many Euro-Afro-Middle Eastern-Asian excursions as I can afford. Read on if you're interested.

I plan for this to comprise a sort of journal of my experiences, any interesting, funny, or strange things that I encounter, and a bit of commentary on the bigger picture. (Although which bigger picture is not something I've quite put my finger on yet.)

Another goal is to keep the number of "I"s to a minimum, as it can grow tiring. Buuut, this may prove difficult, so bear with me!

Bill Sehnert, my boss at Peer Power, recommended that I start a blog to document the year, and, more importantly, to provide my kids insight into life abroad. Hopefully, some of the Lester kids will have a chance to read it.

Anywho, allons enfants & mes amis!

So, I received my "arrête de nomination" on July 9 and had only 6 days (including the weekend) to get my contract mailed back to Nântes. As you can see, France is already trying to make my experience as exciting as possible.

I will be teaching (or assisting, not really sure yet) at the primary school in Angers, France. The name of the school is école élémentaire publique JULES VERNE, which makes me inordinately excited. I am, however, terrified at the prospect of teaching small, screaming French children who may not understand a word I say. Or they could love me. Either one.

The big news: I bought a plane ticket! Having a plane ticket makes the whole prospect much more concrete. Also, it makes it scary. I will leave September 23 and fly from Memphis to Minneapolis on Northwest. Then I will fly IcelandAir to Reykjavik, Iceland and, finally, arrive in Paris on the 24th. It will be a very long day.

Up next, trying to acquire a Visa... which will be either $135 or free. Both prices are listed on the website. Yay, clarity! The best part about this will be the road trip with my mom.

*Finally, I need to credit Kev and Dev (or maybe just Dev) with naming this blog. They said, "Al Abroad is kind of like All Abroad." Actually, that is not a direct quote.