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i had convinced myself that my application to teach in france had been lost somewhere in the catacombs of the french embassy, since it had been 4 months & my application fee hadn't been cashed. but to my surprise, i woke up on tuesday morning to find an e-mail stating that i had been accepted to the "district" of lille. i had just been telling punchy on monday how i wouldn't know what to do if i got the job, because i had already accepted my fate as a poor grad student in mankato. we all know that it took me about 2 seconds to chose moving to france (grad school = deferred).

lille is basically the best place to be in france (if you ask me), & it was my first choice. by train, it's an hour from paris, an hour & a half from london, 30 minutes from brussels & a couple of hours from amsterdam. you basically get the convenience of paris without its expense. & it's the 4th largest city in france, with a huge college-aged population. it is a city with a ton of history (just look at that picture. amazing.) & it will be great to explore. it is perfect for me.

french girls definitely do not wear hoodies & jeans, so it looks like between now & october when i leave, i'll have to learn how to actually dress myself. uh oh.