Friday, March 21, 2008

The Date is Set

Chris turned in his acceptance packet to the French Embassy, so it is official...we are moving to France on October 1, 2008!

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

The Details Arrived (Les détails sont arrivés)

Chris received his information pack (which was only an extended letter from the French Embassy) detailing the invasion, I mean fellowship.


We are going to move to Marseille in early October 2008 and live there for 9 months. They gave us a list of websites to check for housing, told him his stipend (which unfortunately doesn't give extra money to spouses), and he does get his round trip air fare paid.


Now that we have some details, we can get started on our To Do list here. First we have to speak to our landlord. Our lease is up at the end of May, and we have to see if we can (A) go on a month to month until the end of September, or (B) find someone to sublet. I would prefer option A since imagining someone sleeping in our bed and using our stuff kind of creeps me out (although that is what we will be doing in France).


I got the French Rosetta Stone program, and bought the book "French in 10 minutes a day". Every day I spend some time learning the language. I can now say cat, dog, horse, man, woman, boy, girl, car, and my favorites, "get up" and "little eggs" (both of which I said this morning when dragging Chris out of bed for breakfast). Oreo is not quite sure what to think of the French words being thrown around, but he will have to get to use to it if he's going with us.


Speaking of language, today while riding in a cab home, I was called a "gringa Americana" by the driver because I didn't speak Spanish. Terrible when you can't even speak the native tongue to your cab driver. I wonder if I will miss that when we leave the Bronx?

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Marseille France, Here We Come!

Friday night, Chris received an email from the French embassy stating that he has received the Château Briand fellowship. I called him on my way home from the office, and he said "You need to stop and pick something up on the way home." I thought he meant dinner, but then he said "Stop by a bookstore and pick up a French language book. We are going to France!"


I couldn't believe it! We were waiting to hear about the Fulbright in April, and hadn't even thought about the possibility of Chris receiving this prestigious award. He was told by his mentor that it was a long shot...so we put it in the back of our minds. Now he finds out that he was 1 in 15 people to receive this grant!


We are waiting for the information packet to let us know more about the details. So far, we are pretty sure that it will require Chris to live in France for 9 months, beginning this Fall. Of course, I'm going with him! We would most likely be living in Marseille, France. He would have that time to work on his dissertation using the archives there.


We are both excited and nervous about this adventure. I'm sure it will be an amazing experience, but there are a lot of things to take care of before we go. It's also weird to think that I will be giving up my career here in NYC. Maybe I will write a book while in France, or study aromatherapy. Or maybe just get pregnant and relax on the beach (just kidding Mom). :)


The next step is to wait for the info packet and go from there.