I’ve thought about how I wanted to write my “end of TAPIF” post so many times over the last few weeks, and even sat down and halfway-wrote a few attempts. Nothing has felt quite right, so I’m going to ditch whatever fun structure I thought I could come up with, and just write about how I’m feeling as I wind down my time abroad. Stay tuned for some sort of expectations vs. reality recap to come in the near future!
I had one week of teaching left when I returned from vacances de printemps, and it was a little odd to say the least. It was a big exam week at my main lycée, so everything was off-kilter from classes not showing up to having two new classes and saying hi/bye within the hour. I was really, *really*, bummed when my last class of the week didn’t even show up due to a schedule confusion. But, I had a few last fun classes with some groups I did get to know really well throughout the year, and I’m glad I was able to say goodbye to them.
Since then, I’ve had a little over a week to myself til my flight home. Looking for jobs from another country has been tough, so I've been really reluctant to spend my latest paycheck on any more travels. It’s been gloomy and rainy as all get-out almost every single day, so I can’t say I’ve done much other than having some goodbye lunches with both groups of teachers, packing, and endlessly listening to podcasts to pass the time. I’m just really ready to get back home at this point, but feel guilty for not taking advantage of this free time in a more adventurous way. The thing with this job was that I already had so much time to wander around and take vacations that I feel content with what I’ve done, and now it’s time to move on.
TAPIF was a chance to live in another country, to work on improving a language I've studied for almost ten years, to meet new people, to experience a different culture, to share my own culture with my students, to have some time to explore new places, and most of all, to take a much-needed break from the American attitude of worshiping "busy". It definitely wasn't quite what I expected, but it was exactly what I needed in ways I hadn't anticipated. Forever grateful for this place, these people, and this experience. Au revoir for now, France.