I’ve still got about six weeks before I leave Houston, but I’m starting to wrap up travel plans. A while ago, I bought my plane ticket from IcelandAir with Minh by my side. I was so excited to find out that I could get a 4 day stopover in Reykjavik, but the flight left from JFK (New York City). A few weeks later, I bought tickets to NYC. That left me with a flight from Houston to NYC, NYC to Reykjavik, and Reykjavik to Paris. And today, I finally bought a train ticket from Paris to Nantes. This might sound like a huge mess to you, especially when a lot of people would prefer a nonstop flight. I like this, though. The long breaks between flights will ease me into the new environment and will also prevent any flights longer than 5 hours. My train ticket to Nantes was 31 euros – a bit more expensive than I was hoping for, but cheaper than it could have been. I’m planning on purchasing a discount card for people 12-25 so that I can take advantage of lower train prices like this one.
With all of my transportation expenses finally purchased, I still had to figure out where I’d be living. A lot of assistants arrive without a place to stay. I can’t afford to spend any nights in hotels. Besides that, the sooner you have a place to stay the sooner you can open a bank account, and the sooner you can get paid and get the government assistance for housing. You get the idea… I want a place to stay when I get there.
First thing I did was head to couchsurfing.com. The first guy I asked obliged, so I’ve got a place to stay when I arrive. (Note to self: tell him when I’m arriving). Thank you, hospitable couchsurfers! In the meantime, I’ve been trying to get in touch with my school contact and with M. Dupas. I was emailing and calling like there’s no tomorrow but to no avail. Finally, I got an email from them both on the same day; they had been on vacation. I sent in the deposit for the room in the church (300 euros plus $40 transfer fee = too much). Now, I’ve got a place to stay in the Temple Protestant.
After all these expenses, an update on my finances might be appropriate. In the bank: 850. Minimum needed: 1643. I’ve got about half of what I need, and just barely enough to pay for the 2 months of rent that I’ll need to pay by means other than credit card. So again, if you know anyone who’s interested in hiring a web designer or wants French Tutorials, tell me!
It’s funny, though. I’ll be tightly strapped for cash (aka poor) in France, but I’ll be living in the heart of Nantes. I’m right next to the University, a couple of blocks away from the Natural History Museum, and about half of a mile away from Le Chateau des Ducs de Bretagne. I think that the lawn of this chateau is where I’ll enjoy my daily lunch of bread and water. Financially, this is going to be rough. But holy crap, I think this will be awesome.
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« Preparing for Poverty in France | Making travel money without a job »
Now you’ll know how I feel flying all the way to the US with tons of stopovers! And yours is only half the way!
Hello, Mouse! Nice to see you here
Hey, you’re going to think i’m a complete stalker but i found you from the assistant forums (i’m teaching in the Nantes academie too). And i was just wondering how you brought your ticket from Paris to Nantes? Thats exactly what i want to do and i don’t know if i’m missing something but i can’t figure it out. I’m assuming your flying into CDG and taking the train from there?
Sorry if you think i’m completely weird but i’d love some help. If not i might see you at the Nantes meet up on the 3rd =]
Hey Jonny,
Are you going to be teaching in the city too? I just headed over to http://www.voyages-sncf.fr and bought a train ticket on there. A lot of people recommended getting discount tickets for young people, so that’s what I did. Just head over to that site and type in your departure and arrival destinations (Aeroport Paris Roissy Charles De Gaulle if you want to leave from the airport). You might have to click on “recherche avancée” to get the extra options: 12-25 ans, carte 12-25, carte de fidelité. This will search for discount tickets and requires that you have a 12-25 card. Once you get to paris, you can pick up your ticket from a guichet and also purchase a 12-25 card for 49 euros. You’ll also need a passport photo for your 12-25 card. This will be my first time doing it, but the vets say it saves a lot of money in the long run. What day are you flying into CDG? Anyway, I’ll be at the meetup on the 3rd so I’ll see you there. If you’ve got any other questions then you can send me an email, but I’m probably as lost as you are!
Cheers for the reply. I’ll have a look at that site now!
Yeah this is my first time doing it too (nobody would have guess haha). Actually its my first time doing anything like this! I’ve been reading about the 12-25 on the boards and am def going to get one of those as i hope to do a fair bit of travelling in France.
I’ll be flying into CDG on 24th september after a schedule similar to yours! But nah I’m not teaching in Nantes, i’m in a smaller town “Saumur”. Its fairly close tho!
Cheers again for all the help =D
Hey Kevin–
I also found you on the assistants forum and added you to my google blog reader– hope that’s alright! Just wanted to mention, I’ve been seeing a lot of things about finances on the forum and it seems like if you get your paperwork in promptly when you get there, you get some percentage of an advance of October pay toward the end of October. Wouldn’t count on that, but it sure would be nice, huh?
Kinzie
Hey Kinzie, thanks for the message. Yeah, I’ve read about the payment advance on the forums since posting this. That’s a relief! I’ll be opening a bank account as soon as I can to get that taken care of.