t-12 hours

So the last few days have been a packing frenzy, and in about 12 hours time from now, i'll be on the way to dover. phew. my brother left to go back down to uni in cornwall this morning, which suddenly made everything feel very real... i'm going to france tomorrow - a place where i've only ever been to before to go and drink orangina on holiday - except this time i'm going to be living there. paying bills and everything. i can only just about get by in wales... what am i doing!?

i phoned an administrative office in france this morning to try and find out which school(s) i'm working at. it took me a good 10 mins to summon up the courage to just dial the numbers and get on with it, spluttering out a sentence that i hope meant what i wanted it to mean, only to be told by the nice lady on the other end that the man i needed to speak with was out of the office today at a meeting. mon dieu. so i still don't know where i'm teaching, where i'm living, or what the hell is going on. i'm going to call up again tomorrow before the ferry crossing. fingers crossed for a result.

after that initial turmoil and disappointment, all i wanted to do was curl up in bed and wait for the man in question to ring me back with excellent news (the receptionist had given me his mobile number and told me to leave a message...), but i couldn't do this due to the vast amount of packing i still had to do.

here is a picture of the final feat of spacial awareness that i created this morning:

in there you may be able to see some pg tips (240 pyramid bags... probs enough for the first month), some marmite, custard powder, homemade chutney and peanut butter. all the essentials. the top box is also crammed full of various essentials (and 10 pairs of shoes). we have put two of the back seats down for extra bags that will serve as our overnight bags on the way down. i'll be cosy at least. it's times like this that i'm glad my parents are able to drive me down to france. if i had to fly i have no idea how i'd manage...

despite all my lists, i am still finding things that i had forgotten about. i think before i go to sleep tonight more things will doubtless pop into my head... and i probably won't have a lot of room to pack them. tomorrow morning is going to be frantic. i find it so strange that i'm leaving the uk tomorrow. i think after such a long summer break it is bound to feel weird - i got into the routine of going to work, earning money, spending money, and it will be strange to leave that behind. especially into a routine that is literally, so foreign.

hopefully we will find a hotel for tomorrow night that has wifi so that i can post another update with how it is all going. fingers crossed i will know what i'm doing by then!

finally, a good friend of mine gave me this cushion for my birthday - it will be delighting our french tail-gaters all the way down i imagine...

p.s. please can everyone who matters add me on skype... i will need to see your beautiful faces in times of despair, i'm sure!