So here we are! Exactly a year after I first set up my blog and I am just about to set off for my final year abroad placement! That is pretty hard to believe really as the time has flown by so quickly! It is incredible how much my mindset has changed in terms of living abroad because I am actually quite emotional about the fact that the end of this incredibly adventurous year is well and truly in sight now. However, before I continue, I thought that I would remind you very briefly of what I have done during each section of the year and where I have been lucky enough to live/work. If you are new to reading my blog then this should hopefully give you an insight into my language journey so far.
I started my year abroad on 29th June 2014 in the city of Cannes where I studied French in a language school. I also stayed with a French family which gave me a fantastic insight into the culture and country that I would be living in for quite some time afterwards. I was in Cannes for one month before heading off to the city of Grenoble in the Rhone-Alpes region of France. I spent four months working as a receptionist in a hostel there which was the perfect way to improve my French and to gain valuable life experience. I found the placement in Grenoble extremely challenging but am very glad that I did it as I gained a lot from it and learnt to conquer the dreaded feeling of long term homesickness that the vast majority of year abroaders experience at some point. After spending two weeks at home in the UK for Christmas, I went to the Spanish city of Sevilla for six months. I started off working as an English teacher in a language school but my contract unfortunately unexpectedly terminated after three weeks leaving me without work or accommodation (you will be pleased to hear that I found a comfortable hostel to live in temporarily). However, I was extremely lucky as I managed to find another work placement in a housing company in Sevilla only two weeks after my contract at the school fell through. I feel incredibly blessed for the way that my semester in Spain turned out as I ended up working in a company in which all of my colleagues were Spanish, I was completely immersed in the language, and I felt completely happy and at home. For this reason, although I know I would have enjoyed working in the school, I feel that this unexpected opportunity to work for Roommates Sevilla for five months was a real blessing as I had the most wonderful time and met people who really gave me the best Spanish experience that I could have possible hoped for.
So after all of these adventures you are probably wondering where on earth I could be off to next! I am in fact going to return to the language school in Cannes where I studied last summer but this time I am going to do a teaching internship there. I am leaving the UK on Sunday and will spend the first week having French classes in order to get back into French mode after my six months in Spain. I will then spend one month assisting and teaching French classes for children, teenagers, and adults. I feel very privileged to have this opportunity because it will be the first time that I have taught one of my foreign languages. I am also very passionate about teaching as I love working with people and seeing them progress with something that they are passionate about. I am also looking forward to visiting the parts of the Cote D'Azur that I did not manage to visit last summer so there will be plenty of photos on the 'Photos-Cannes/Cote D'Azur' page of my blog :)
Anyway, I am going to leave this post here now as I think that it sums up what I have done so far and how I will be finishing off my year abroad. I hope that you have enjoyed reading my blog so far and that you will continue to follow my exciting and sometimes chaotic adventures a l'etranger! I will try to write posts weekly and will add photos as much as possible! But for now thank you for your interest in my blog and I hope that you will continue to enjoy reading it. I will see you in France!
A bientot!
No comments:
Post a Comment