Oops, I moved to France

So, I moved to France. I’ve been here about a month and I’m my surroundings are slowly but surely starting to feel normal. You’re probably wondering how I ended up here and the logistics of everything, but I’ll get to that later.

First of all, I’m living in northeastern France in what is known as the Lorraine region (you know, where quiche comes from). My town is called Longwy and has about 14,000 people. The nearest “big” city is Metz (about 100,000 people, which is about a 45 minute drive away. Longwy is nestled on the border of two other countries: Belgium and Luxembourg. Both are about ten minutes away by car. The photos throughout this post are all of Longwy.

Longwy has a military fortress dating back to the 1600s.

Moving to a different country is akin to being soaked with freezing cold water. Or, reverting back to childhood when you didn’t know how to do anything. The language barrier has been a little daunting.

To be honest, it has been an emotional roller coaster. I had instant regret the first couple days, which was replaced by excitement, then by more anxiety. Now I oscillate wildly between homesickness and happiness — this will likely continue until I return to the U.S. in 7 months.

That brings me to what I’m actually doing here. I am a TAPIF-er, which stands for Teaching Assistant Program in France. The program is part of the French government and brings people of all different nationalities to work part-time in French schools to share the language and culture of their home country.

A mural in Longwy Bas.

I’m an assistante de langue, which means I will be giving lessons and speaking to the students in English.

Now, you may be wondering why I chose to completely uproot my life and leave behind my lovely boyfriend, family and friends to talk about America to French teenagers. All excellent questions.

I’ve been aware of TAPIF since college. I minored in French and had several classmates do the program after graduation. I distinctly remember reading an article about three or four of my peers who were doing the program in the fall of 2020, immediately after the chaos of the pandemic. At the time, I wasn’t interested in participating myself, but it definitely planted a seed.

Fast forward a couple years later and my life looked completely different. I moved across the country, from Ohio to Washington, and started a new career path. While there, I thought a lot about wanting to go back to Europe, either for a longer backpacking trip or to live. It was a life goal of mine and I decided to apply for TAPIF, just for the heck of it. I was kind of skeptical that I would get accepted but I had to try.

I reached out to two of my former French teachers who were very supportive and agreed to be my references. A few months after submitting my application, I was surprised to find an acceptance email in my inbox. After a couple days of deliberation, I accepted the offer.

While it was scary – and I can attest that this is the scariest thing I’ve ever done – I didn’t want to look back at the moment in my life years later and regret not taking the opportunity.

While sharing the news of my move, I was often asked if I spoke French. My answer was always some variation of “Yes, kind of.” I’m nowhere near fluent but you do need to have an intermediate level of French and write a personal essay in the language to apply to TAPIF.

Since my arrival, I’ve realized my French is really not where I would like it to be. That has been one of the hardest parts about living here.

Longwy is on a hill so it has some lovely views.

Another difficulty has been relying on public transport. I haven’t had to take a public bus since my first two years of college. Now, at 26, I find myself living in a small town where the buses only run until 7:30 p.m. The town is technically walkable, but it’s also on a giant hill which can make those walks less enjoyable.

Something that’s really annoyed me is my inability to buy a yoga mat. It seems as if the bus doesn’t go all the way to the sporting goods store. From my dorm, I would have to walk to the bus stop, take a bus, walk another 16 minutes to get to the store, then repeat the process in reverse to go home. It’s made me realize how spoiled I was in America where I could drive anywhere at any time of the day or night.

ANYWAY, since being here I’ve definitely experienced quite a bit of imposter syndrome, feelings that I’m not qualified or capable of doing this. But I think that’s normal for any big life change, and I’m looking forward to the personal growth and language skills I’ll gain during my time here. I hope you get some enjoyment from my stories as well!