Countdown

Shall I start the countdown? Really, I should have begun yesterday because it's now less than a month before I leave for France. I have the job (of course!), the plane tickets, the visa, and some cash in the bank to support myself until my salary kicks in.

I do not, however, have a place to live yet. There is a great website that shows available rentals all over France and I've shopped around some there. The woman who is in charge of this program recommends that we wait to obtain housing in order to make a better decision. My main concern is location: I'll be working in a fairly small town and I'd like to have access to other (bigger) cities -- especially Clermont-Ferrand, where I have a few friends studying abroad -- but I don't want to deal with a long commute to work. My other hope for housing is that I might be able to find a family willing to let me stay in their home so I can be so much more immersed in French culture and language. Although I wasn't as close with my Spanish host family as I would have liked, it was a great experience living with them, eating Spanish food at every meal, speaking only Spanish, and getting such a close look at a part of Spanish culture that is hidden from the casual tourist.

potential races in France

When I was living in Spain, I ran the Maratón Popular de Valencia and I'm already planning to go to Paris for the Paris Marathon in April. Still, I'm interested in running some shorter races this fall in France and after a particularly good 20 mile run today, I was feeling inspired to research fall races. I happened upon a couple that occur during vacances de la Toussaint.

The Marathon de Gatine has a 2 person marathon relay race which would be fun if I can convince a friend to run the other half. The Marathon de Provence Luberon holds a half-marathon and a 10k race in addition to the marathon. The best part is that first prize is 10 bottles of wine for the 10k, 21 bottles for the half, and 42 for the full. Oh, and every half marathon runner gets a bottle and the full marathon runners get two. How would anyone get 10 bottles of wine home, let alone 21 or 42? I'd imagine the winners make quite a few friends at the post-race party.

No worries about the visa

I just checked on my visa "mistake". According to the French Consulate, for long stays they will issue a 3 month visa that will allow entry. Once I am in France, I need to apply for a carte de sejour that will extend my legal stay for the rest of the nine months. I am very relieved to find out I will not be deported.

Christmas in Belfast

I just got back from a wonderful evening of coffee and conversation with one of my best high school friends, Sandra, who is leaving for Belfast, Northern Ireland (by way of Chicago) on Monday. She's going to be spending a year thereworking as a volunteer through her church.

We both studied abroad as undergrads and now we'll both be living in Europe this next year so our conversation was a colorful mixture of reminiscing and imagining our next year, which now includes Christmas in Belfast! I'll be traveling with Mark over winter break, and Sandra's boyfriend and his brother will also be there so we are going to have a fun little Christmas together.

The rest of my tentative itinerary for winter break starts with meeting Mark in Paris, then taking trains to Brussels and Amsterdam before flying to Belfast. From Belfast we'll fly to Bratislava, then Prague, Munich, and Bern, ending at my apartment. A couple days later Mark will fly out of Paris. I am super excited for this; I hope this doesn't mean that I was mistakenly given coffee with caffeine.

I do have a small (?) problem, however. I received my passport with my French visa in the mail today. Of course I looked at it, admiring the official seal and sparkly security features before noticing that it is valid only from September through December. I checked my copies of the application where I correctly noted that I was planning a 9-month stay. The application also required proof of a return flight, which indicates a 9-month stay. I'm not sure how the error occurred, but I am dreading calling the consulate Monday to try to fix this. Not only was it expensive to send my passport, but I am afraid that it will be complicated to change or replace the incorrect visa.

Important dates

• Cheer on the Kalamazoo College XC team at their first meet: 10 September
• Quad Cities Marathon (Moline, IL): 25 September
• Arrive in France: 28 September
• First day of work: 1 October
• All Saints' holiday: 22 October - 3 November
• Christmas vacation: 17 December - 3 January
• Winter vacation: 18 February - 6 March
• Paris Marathon: 9 April
• Spring vacation: 22 April - 9 March
• Last day of work: 30 June
• Arrival back in USA: 3 July

Half of summer gone

I have an extra long summer because I do not leave for France until the last week of September, which is especially great because last summer was pretty stressful. Although I loved my internship it was a 40 hour per week commitment in addition to writing my senior thesis and training for my last cross country season.

This summer is a lot more relaxing. I am working about 25 hours a week waiting tables, which is both frustrating and fascinating and I could talk about it for several hours. I'll wait until I've quit working there to ramble about the job to a potentially wide audience, however.

Just for my own sake I'm going to list some of the summer's highlights (so far!) because there is nothing like a lazy, aimless summer.

• Seeing old friends from high school: Mark, Phil, Mike, Sandra (and meeting her boyfriend Matt), Maria, Tony, Kristy, Jenni, Chelsea, Megan, Alison
• Allison's graduation party in Ann Arbor and a fun visit to Kalamazoo
• Camping in Traverse City, exploring the Sleeping Bear Lakeshore, and running a 15k PR
• Seeing the Clarks in Akron and drinking the first beer I actually enjoyed
• Lots of running: Two 71-mile weeks and a 75 miles week, two four-mile PRs (25:43 and 25:38), a 15k PR (1:05:51) and a 10k PR (42:14, and I confess, it was my first 10k so it had to be a PR), and wins at the Camelback Four-Miler and the Lenawee Hospice 10k.
• Introducting Kashmir to Abigail

the first post!

Unfortunately this first post is going to be quite boring. I plan to use this site to write about my life in France as a T.A. this year. Currently, however, I am still in Ohio waiting tables for the summer and my French adventure will not begin for about eight weeks. The upside to this boring post is that anything I write in the future will be fascinating in comparison.