Why France?

Salut! It's hard to believe, but as of this week, I have been a resident of France for SIX MONTHS. Whew time flies! Since I moved in September, I have been asked the same question several times..."Why France?" I like to say that it wasn't so much that I chose France as it was France chose me. Some of you have already heard my story on how I got to France, but for those of you that don't know the details yet, I would like to share. I am a person of faith and I believe in a God who wants a personal relationship with us...to give us direction when we have no idea what to do next. To me, my experiences in getting to France are more than just coincidence...they are God moments. 

At the beginning of my last year of graduate school (summer 2012) I started to come to the realization that after my divorce I now had the freedom to practice my science anywhere in the world. While at a conference, I met someone from Switzerland and could not stop talking about traveling, culture, and food (surprise, surprise). Some of you may not know this either, but I spent a summer in Graz, Austria in 2007 doing research and caught a travel bug that hasn't gone away...it was just a little dormant during grad school. Anyway, I realized how much I loved experiencing other cultures (both personally and professionally) and the more I thought about it...why not find an international post-doc?

From that moment, it seemed like everywhere I turned someone had a connection to a post-doc in Europe. There was a contact from Nevada in Switzerland, a contact in Germany, a contact at UNC that had done a post-doc in England... All signs were pointing to this being a good idea, but where would I go?

Initially, my searches focused on Austria, Germany, and Switzerland because I was most familiar with the schools and research labs in those locations. I came across a few postings for positions in France, but I knew absolutely zero French (studied Spanish in high school) so in my mind that was out and France was toward the bottom of my list. Good thing God has a sense of humor... For those of you who are still reading, here is a sequence of 10 events that transpired:

1. I finally decided to tailor my post-doc searches based on research topic instead of location. The first posting I found was for a post-doc to do research on the environmental fate of nanoparticles (very similar to my grad school training)...in France.

2. Since I seemed well qualified for the position, I went home that night and searched the internet for more information on the lab in France. I put the name of the hiring scientist into Google and the first return was a link to a Duke University (yes, as in North Carolina) website. It turns out that the link was to a research lab at Duke that collaborates with the lab in France, and I just so happened to have a good friend working in the lab at Duke. 

3. The next step was obvious and I contacted my friend to find out as much about the lab in France as possible. I was invited to take a trip to Duke and was able to talk to and ask questions of students that had already spent some time working in the French lab. When I took the bus from Duke back to UNC I noticed that the seat in front of me had "FAITH" written in big letters. A few minutes later, I looked out the window and I saw a rainbow (below). I thought...ok, I'm listening.

I posted this picture on Facebook with the caption "Looking for my pot of gold."

4. I was contacted for a Skype interview and was going to give a powerpoint presentation on my research experience. I wanted to use desktop sharing during the interview to make the slides easier to follow. I decided that I didn't want anything personal for my desktop background so I went through the options from Microsoft and decided on the picture below. I thought it was pretty, but also not too distracting.

Microsoft Windows 7: Lavender Field, Provence, France: © Cornelia Doerr/Getty Images

I went through the interview and thought nothing of the new desktop background I had chosen...until a month later when I saw the exact same picture in a France guidebook. I had no idea that Provence (the region I know live in) was world famous for its lavender fields. 

5. The night after my interview I went out to dinner with a friend. We decided on one of our favorite restaurants, Poole's in Raleigh (upscale American diner). For those of you in NC, go and have the mac n' cheese. You won't regret it. Ok, back to the story...when I stopped in the bathroom I was surprised to see that the soap was "Savon de Marseille." Meaning "Soap from Marseille, France"...a city only 30 minutes from where I now live.

6. The day I was supposed to hear if I got the job, I turned on the tv and saw that it was on the Disney channel. A little weird since I had been watching HGTV the night before, but I didn't think much of it. I no longer watch a lot of Disney channel so I'm not sure what show was actually on, but it was a cartoon in which a young girl was flying in a space ship...to the French Alps. That night I turned on the tv once more to find the movie Ratatouille playing. I didn't actually receive word on the job that day, but something told me I was still in the running.

7. In the meantime I was still in contact with a few other labs trying to see what positions were available. I had a Skype interview with a lab in Switzerland set up for noon the following Monday. I got ready for the interview and sat down with my computer and notes...10 minutes to go...I checked my e-mail one more time before the interview and found my acceptance notification from France. I exclaimed "I'm going to France!" but then went back to the computer to call the Swiss professor and tell him the news. 

8. Another interesting series of events involved me trying to get a French work visa. I needed to go to the French consulate in Atlanta, Georgia to present the required documents and of course, had to make an appointment. To give you an idea of the timeline, it takes about a month to process the visa and I was leaving the 3rd of September. I needed an appointment no later than the beginning of August. According to the consulate website, appointments could only be made online, not over the phone. At the beginning of July I looked at the calendar and there were NO availabilities...my heart sunk. I decided to call the French consulate and practice my best "Parlez-vous anglais?" The man that answered the phone confirmed that appointments could not be made over the phone and that I would have to continue to try online. He was a bit difficult to understand and all I could take away from the conversation was that I needed to sign back on to the calendar system at 6 o' clock.

 When I got off the phone my friends were curious to know what was said. I told them I just needed to sign back on at 6 o'clock. 

"What happens at 6 o'clock?" 

My response: "I don't know...magic?" 

Not wanting to miss this opportunity, I made sure my browser was ready and waiting at 6 o'clock. Sure enough, when the calendar loaded there was now 1 appointment available...for the next day (July 3rd) at 10 am. :( 

"Ok. I live in NC and I have to go to Georgia. I am going to need a little more notice than that."

I was feeling a little defeated, but at least now I knew more about how the system worked. At 6 pm they start opening appointments for the next day? That seemed absurd. Going back to my analytical roots, I decided to conduct an experiment and wait five minutes, refresh the calendar, and see what happened. When I looked at the calendar again, there was 1 open appointment...for August 2nd...the exact date that I needed to get the visa on time. I clicked sign up as fast as I could! I still don't know how that calendar system works, but all I can say is magic happened at 6 o' clock!

9. Moving out of the country for a long period of time includes a lot of boxes to check (as you can see from #8) and finances to arrange. Even with selling a large amount of my belongings and a graduation gift from Dad, I still needed money to get to France, pay for a hotel in France the first few days since I hadn't found an apartment yet, pay deposit and one month rent on an apartment, and sustain myself for about a month and a half until I would get my first paycheck from my new position. The most expensive part of that equation was the airfare. I was flying to France in September, but that time is considered the end of summer so prices were still quite high. However, it turned out that I was able to get there for free using airline miles...from Ellen Degeneres. My mom and stepdad had the chance to be in Ellen's audience for one of her 12 days of Christmas episodes in 2012. That day she gave each audience member an array of gifts, including airline miles. Thank you Mom and Jim for passing those miles on to me!

10. The last event I want to share is my process of finding an apartment in France. I was hoping to be cast on House Hunters International and have the whole thing taken care of for me, but that wasn't exactly how things turned out. I was given a few websites to search for apartment listings, including one similar to Craigslist and a rental site meant only for students. I ignored the student site since they asked for proof of your enrollment and seemed quite serious about checking credentials. However, I continued to have no luck with the "Craigslist" site and my stepmom convinced me to sign up for the student site. She assured me that she had a feeling that I would find my apartment on that site. I went ahead and signed up, sending them a copy of my employment paperwork with the university, hoping that would be enough. The website said I would receive a password for access to the website in a few days if I was approved. 

A few days went by and I still hadn't heard back from the student rental site. Then I thought hmm...maybe I should check my spam box. There it was! I was approved! I signed on to the site and looked at the listings, but nothing fit quite what I was looking for. I left for France with only one lead, just trusting that everything would work out the way it was supposed to. On the way to France, I had a long layover in London and decided I should use my free wifi to see if I could find any new apartment listings. Unfortunately, I only had 20 minutes. I logged on to the student site and found an apartment that seemed to have everything I was looking for at the right price. I e-mailed the landlord to ask about visiting the next day...all before my free time ran out. The landlord responded rapidly, I made an appointment to visit the next day, and I signed the lease the afternoon of my first day in France. Talk about efficient!

Well, that's the story up until now. The one place I was not planning to go was France...and that is exactly where I am. However, now that I'm there I love it...it was exactly what I needed and just didn't know it. Don't worry, this doesn't mean that I'm never coming home ;) God is full of surprises and I am loving the ride...it's good to be alive!

I am grateful each day for this opportunity and everyone that supported me/continues to support me in this adventure. A special thank you to my parents for supporting me mentally, physically, and financially. I love you all and thanks for reading.

A+
Danielle