British Council Teaching Assistants 2016/2017

I've been allocated Outre-Mer, anyone get that?

Aix-Marseille for me

Woo happy French students! My first choice was Outre-Mer so a bit bittersweet, did the email specify exactly which overseas département you were allocated?

I got Aix-Marseille too! My first choice, so happy!

Ah, that's a shame. I was half-hoping I'd get somewhere in mainland France so that I wouldn't have to push myself out of my comfort zone but I know this will be the best thing for me in the long run. They haven't specified where, apparently we should find out in the next month or so.

Wasn't one of my three, but Nice was my first choice so happy I'm in the south! Just really hope I'm actually in the city of Marseille!

Got Lille. Absolutely devastated, had my heart set on Outre-Mer really don't want to go anymore but don't know what I can do.

You can withdraw from the programme you just have to let them know asap as there is still a waiting list

I'm a student though so it's a requirement of my course to go on a year abroad

Ah ok, I'm not sure how it works for that! You could talk to your lecturer/studies advisor about it but I think going to France, no matter where you are, will be so great experience wise! I remember for my year abroad I didn't get the city that I wanted in Spain (I did Erasmus student and not the BC) but I ended up loving where I was and others in my year who got their first choice and didn't enjoy it so you never know

Thanks for being so nice I know it's my own fault really, we were warned it was a risk, I'd just worked so hard on my application and built my hopes up a lot. Watching someone from my school doing BC in Réunion have an amazing time this year and having had a bit of a crap year at uni myself it was the thing that was keeping me going.

Congrats on your placement

You can get the Ouibus to Nice from Marseille for €15 return, done it many times! I've been living in Marseille for a year now so I'd like to stay in the city too or in surrounding towns/villages! But Marseille really is a great city and Provence in general is such a beautiful part of the country

I specified that I wanted to be in a big city as a graduate as there will be more opportunities for private tutoring as I won't be receiving a loan/erasmus grant, so hopefully I will be. Thats cool, what is it like? I've never been to the south before which is why I chose Nice originally, having worked a summer in La Savoie and spent my year abroad studying at Science Po Strasbourg I wanted to try something completely different.

To be honest I love it here! Its so much more laid back than other parts of the country which is something I like plus coming from Northern Ireland I really do appreciate the glorious sun here haha the accent is quite strong and they have their own slang words like everywhere but its not difficult to get used to! Only negative about France in general is the amount of paperwork involved but once its done its done! If you want to know anything about here ie transport/CAF etc feel free to ask me, I've had to fill out a LOT of things since being here haha

Paperwork is the bane of my life right now! My partner and I are in the process of renting a flat here in Lyon but keep getting rejected because we don't have French bank accounts or French guarantors. It's so frustratingly ironic because when I was in London there were hardly any decent, affordable flats and they'd disappear in an instant, and here there are plenty of beautiful and easily affordable places but no one will rent them to you without a 30 page dossier! But I think it's more of a problem for us as we're looking to rent a whole flat together rather than just looking for a flat share...

Me! I'm half excited and half absolutely terrified!