Bienvenue

Hello all,

I guess the best thing about starting a blog before a long stay abroad is it reduces the need for the infamous group email. Although I don't want to abandon emails totally, my good pal Megan recommended that I do a blog instead so people can read about my life at their leisure ( and don't feel the need to read or respond to my ramblings whenever I feel like sending them out).

First things first: the details of my trip. For the next 8 months I'll be living in France, teaching English to high school students in St. Brieuc, Brittany. St. Brieuc is a town of about 46,000 right on the English Channel. The whole region of Brittany is pretty interesting because the people are Celtic and so there are a lot of ties between Brittany and other Celtic areas (Ireland, Wales etc.) That relationship also explains the title of my blog: Breton is the traditional Celtic language of the area. The title is a play on La Vie en Rose (life in pink), so mine is life in Breton. It's not strictly true since my life will hopefully be played out mostly in French and not in Breton. Breton's not related to French at all (its close to Welsh and Gaelic) and so, apart for a few phrases, my life will be la vie en français (or, more accurately, franglais). Breton sounds cooler though, so, voilà.

I'm heading to France on Sept. 13. 9 days from today. I'm flying to Paris with my friend Sophia who is also doing the teaching assistant program in another town in Brittany (Lannion) about 40 miles from St. Brieuc. We'll be staying in Paris with her family for several days before a little vacation in Rennes and St. Malo. After that, it's off to our towns. I'm so thankful that I'll have a buddy close by!

Although the principal at the highschool I'll be working at is currently ignoring my frantic emails, I do know that I have housing at the high school. It sounds like its a dorm room and there's no kitchen but there will be about 7 other assistants living there and I'll have a single AND we have a microwave to share so it sounds like a pretty good deal since its free.

Besides wondering when the principal of my school will acknowledge my existence, I'm not currently too worried about anything in particular, mostly just a general fear that I'll forget something important. Oh well, que sera, sera.

That's all for now! Maybe next time I write I'll actually be in France!