Where are you?

I finally have more news.  I received my 'arrêté de nomination' aka 'work contract' from my school district.  This single sheet of paper withheld vital information, what town I would be living in!  I will be living in a small town called Saint-Amand-Les-Eaux (sant-amon-lehz-oh) close to the Belgian border about 30mins by car from Lille.  It's a town of about 17,000 known for its natural springs, including hot springs.  They still bottle their mineral water and are known as a type of old style spa town.  It's in the middle of a regional forest park.  I'm going to be teaching at two middle schools in the town, ranging from 11-15 years old.  In France the grades count down instead of up and finish with a serious sounding 'termination year', the kids I will be teaching are in 'levels' 6-3.  I'm trying to stock up on cool American style teaching supplies, ones I know I won't find over there like Dr.Suess themed items and fake US currency.

I bought my plane ticket (one way), I'll be leaving September 21 from Fort Wayne and arrive in Brussels the 22.  I start teaching October 1 until April 30 but I will most likely leave in early May.  Of course I have already contacted my people in Avignon and we are planning on visiting each other.  I finished my visa appointment in Chicago so I'm waiting on that in the next 2-3 weeks.  We took the south shore into town, just barely catching it in South Bend (we had 3 mins to buy tickets and jump on board) and popped up downtown on Randolph street.  We didn't have much time to spend downtown (south shore takes 2 1/2 hrs plus the 30 min drive to South Bend and the hour time change) but I did get try a Chicago style hot dog and an Italian beef sandwich for the first time at Al's sandwich shop which was delicious most likely because we had lunch at 4:00 our time.  Ta ta for now

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