Thinking aloud

So, it's nearing the end of my year in Marseille. I have just 3 weeks left until everything I brought with me last September, everything I've collected over the year has to some how be packed into a suitcase to be taken back to the UK. Thinking back to September 14th last year when I arrived in Marseille seems a lifetime ago but at the same time the year has gone by really quickly. Too quickly infact. It's difficult to come and live abroad and be asked to make a life in a foreign country when you know that at the end of the year you're going to have to leave it all behind. We have the option, as language assistants, of renewing our contracts for next year. Another year in the sun of Marseille, another year of speaking French, of working in a Lycée. Tempting eh? I've asked to renew my contract. To come back next year. I'm not actually fussed whether it's the same Lycée, whether it's even a Lycée, just as long as it's in Marseille. The Académie of Aix-Marseille is huge and when you apply for a placement you apply to the Académie and then they place you within the Académie. Even if you specify Marseille there's no guarantee they'll place you there. I should hear by the end of June whether they'll have me again next year (I'm 99.9% confidient they will) but as to where they'll put me I'm not so sure. My lycée have asked to have me back again so hopefully, fingers crossed... I know I had problems with my Lycée - students not turning up, teachers forgetting me, not telling me when they wouldn't be needing me etc, but since all that got sorted out I enjoyed working at the Lycée. I know the staff, I know the students. I liked my job. A lot. But as the French say 'laisse faire le destin'. Watch this space...

It does however leave things a little complicated. The Académie d'Aix-Marseille are notorious for their bad organisation skills and bad administration. So although I'm supposed to hear by the end of June whether they'll have me again and where they'd like to put me there's no guarantee that I will do. If it's anything like the administrative nightmare from last year where they placed me in 2 primary schools (which a part of me wishes I'd have accepted...) and then realised they'd made a mistake and put me in a Lycée then well... At least I found out during June I had been placed in 2 primary schools... So maybe if they don't mess it up again this year I will hear in June. It would be wonderful to hear before June 15th (when I go home) because then I could leave some of my things here rather than carting everything back to the UK only to bring it all back again. I also need to find out by the end of June because of telling the uni about housing for next year on campus. Because I didn't think I'd have time to find somewhere to live in Brighton I applied for on campus accommodation. I have until the end of June to decide whether I want it or not and if I decided no would still get my deposit back. I have no desire whatsoever to live on campus, never did do, it was just a safety net to avoid being homeless! Then there is renewing the contract on my appartment. It isn't a problem the landlord said he'd be quite happy for me to stay another year. I can't renew it though until I have my attestation (document which tells me which school I'm in) because although I'm confident they'll place me somewhere I need to know where that somewhere would be. But to be honest if it wasn't in Marseille I think I'd reject it. I don't want to go anywhere else in the Académie. I know Marseille. I don't want to start completely from scratch again! The people will change - ie they'd be a new influx of assistants. None of my close friends in Marseille are staying although I think a couple of the Americans are. But Angéline would still be here. My private students would still be here and I would have more time because I'd have no uni work to do so I could get more private students, maybe even work in a language school here teaching English. I have Les Restos du Coeur, my french classes which I've only just started and the people I've met there. I could enroll at Aix to follow classes there. Something that Aimée did and seemed to get an awful lot out of and something I'd like to do. So there would be the familiar - the same appartment, same city, a few familiar faces and activities, and the new - new assistants, maybe a new school, new activities like classes at Aix.

But whilst I'm sat here dreaming about how I might be lucky enough to stay in this beautiful city for another year I have to realise that a lot is still to be decided. Even if I do get to stay there's no guarantee I'd be placed in Marseille. And if I wasn't I wouldn't accept the post I don't think. It's all very far from sorted, very far from sure.

But as the French say 'laisse faire le destin' and in the meantime make the most of the 3 weeks that I have left in Marseille.

Et voilà, un petit peu de ce qui se passe dans ma tete en ce moment...