01 September 2009

Pre-Departure: Bureaucracy at its finest

It still may be a bit premature to frequently update a blog for a trip for which I have not yet left, but as long as I have some free time (and believe me, I have PLENTY), I might as well keep updating about trip preparation.

I have finally had my first encounter with French bureaucracy:

The next step in trip preparation is to contact my corespondent at the school at which I will be teaching. Preferably this should happen via e-mail. Problem? I have no idea how to find contact information for my school or for a specific person at said school for that matter. With some help from Ryan, I emailed the académie of Versailles to ask for a contact person. Four days later a woman emails me the snail mail address for some sort of administration building in my region. Really? I have two weeks until departure and I am supposed to send a letter in the mail to ask for the new contact information for my actual coorespondent?

I love it!

Okay, so it's not the craziest thing in the world (though it would be extremely simple to fix this confusion by creating a directory of contact information--including email addresses-- or by providing contact information on the assistant's contract, but c'est la vie... right?), but it's precicely the type of issue I have been warned about, and I'm excited to recall more of these adventures once I actually arrive in the country.

13 days!

2 comments:

  1. haha, I feel your pain. I haven't received any sort of information for my contact person, either. My arrêté had a general email address for my school which I sent a message to, but I haven't heard anything back yet. Is it so wrong that I would like to know where I should go and who to ask for on October 1? haha Especially considering I'm arriving in 2 weeks, any type of response would be nice!

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  2. very nice story. I'm soooo jealous. But I will see you both soon.

    Love, Cindy

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