Going for Christmas!!!

Well, it was my the last day at work before the Christmas break. I get the week between Christmas and New Year off which, while it's not a lot, I am looking forward to and could really do with.
Today went much like yesterday; I ended up waiting around for my boss to give me some information before I could complete what I needed to do. From talking to a couple of people at work earlier I think not answering emails and not responding to questions is definitely a French thing. I had to ask my boss to phone someone to ask them to update part of a presentation as I'd had no response from him despite several emails and phone calls.
Unfortunately I left at about 7:00pm so had a bit of a rush to try and finish my Christmas shopping. They don't seem to have the same conventions about late night openings (which was annoying) so I ended up going to the Champs Elysee. I'm afraid to say, the Champs Elysee doesn't live up to it's reputation. There's not much of anything there really. There are some car showrooms, some hotels, a few restaurants, and a few shops but it's not all expensive boutiques. I think it's all the lights everywhere that makes people think it's some magical road where you can find culture if you stop for a coffee there.
I was hoping to write a sort of review of how things have gone so far but it's 2:25am, I've just finished wrapping presents and I have to get up early to catch the train tomorrow.
I'm really looking forward to going to our house for Christmas (it's still in France; about 40 minutes drive to the east of Poitiers) as I haven't seen my parents for about 3 months now. i'm hoping to go home again early in the New Year but I'm not sure when yet.

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New year.

-A-

Shit happens!

Well, it happened. I'd hoped to manage to last my stay in France without this event occurring. I guess it was inevitable really, I mean, after all, France is famous for it.
Yes, that's right, I stepped in some dog poo on my way out of the office.


I'm hoping to get off early tomorrow so I can finish my Christmas shopping. It should be ok as I had to stay late tonight.

Last week and the start of the last week

As you can see, it's been almost 2 weeks since my last post. I never meant to leave it this long but it's been really hectic and at the moment I just want to relax when I get in.
At the start of next year there is an IS Convention which I've been helping with some of the organisation of. There will be demonstrations, guest speakers and there's a short video being shown at the start (which was shot last Tuesday).
There are several things I've learnt at work. People take forever to respond, people don't read their emails, and people don't give out information unless asked.
I would've thought that when people see something like "Confirmation needed regarding IS Convention" in the title, and they are doing a demonstration, they would be fairly quick to respond. But no. "Can you confirm you will be attending the filming of the video to be shown at the start of the convention?". Apparently not.
The filming of the video went well. I wasn't there when they were making the clips as it was throughout the day, and the same day as a big meeting we have once a month for which I have to take the minutes and show the presentations.
I'm always quite surprised about the meetings. Mobile phones are left on, not on silent mode, and often on the table where they rattle when they ring. Often people answer their phone in the middle of a presentation and it's not unusual to see some walk out. They good thing about the meeting is there's always a good meal!
Tuesday was quite a good day (for food), despite being busy. there was a "Cocktail" in the evening after the meeting as some people are leaving at the end of the month. The cocktail consisted of a short speech by my boss, champagne and nibbles. I saw some people reveal their true opinions (among friends) about individuals after most people had left.
After that, I went to see some friends where they had cooked a load of curries (delicious!). It was good to be able to relax and chat (in English).

Monday I had left work after 12:30 (midnight) as I stayed to help my friend with something. We still didn't manage to complete it but we at least made some progress.

The Friday before last I went out to a really good bar on the Champs Elysee. I'm always worried that it's going to cost a fortune to go there but this place was brilliant. It's called "Culture bière" and, unsurprisingly, specialises in beer. It cost 8€ for a 75cl bottle of beer (wine bottle size)! Ok, not great compared to uni, but compared to 9€ for a pint, it's pretty good.

I started Christmas shopping on Saturday and, I'm afraid to say, Paris is rubbish for Christmas shopping. Perhaps I just don't know where to go but unless you want clothes or food you're pretty stuck for places to get ideas. The FNAC is great for a lot of things (think WH Smith's on steroids: massive selections of music, books, games, DVD's and electricals) but sometimes it's handy to have a Woolworths nearby.
Yesterday I went for a Pizza with a couple of friends from work (which was good as I need to do more socially with French people, at the moment I tend to go out with English people) having spent the day walking round Paris.

I'm going to our house near Poitiers on Friday for Christmas and then coming back on the 29th for New Year (finally found some people to spend it with! I was a bit worried as nearly all my friends will be at home over New Year) so I'll try and write something else before I go. There's still loads to do at work (I've been given translations to do last week and today so I'm not as far through the other stuff as I would've liked.) and I still haven't finished my Christmas shopping.

Anyhow, better go to bed or else I'll never get up tomorrow.

Nothing like a bit of gangster rap to put you in the Christmas spirit

There are several things I look forward to at Christmas. These include time with family and friends, presents, going slightly over the top decorating my room and, surprisingly, hearing the same Christmas songs played in all the shops. These songs include "I wish it could be Christmas every day", "Merry Christmas (War is Over)", and all the others. They don't seem to have many/any Christmas songs here. I've been told there's one that's well known but I haven't heard it yet. On my way past the Christmas market last night, I did however hear, what I will call "gangster rap" (ok, so there was a beat and no tune but I definitely heard the word "gangster" in the lyrics).
I was given an Asterix calendar by my friend at work and there are plenty of lights about but I get the impression that they're just up "because it's Christmas". There's no real atmosphere.
On Saturday I went round some of the Christmas markets. The one at La Defense is pretty big and the stuff they're selling isn't bad but at the other 2 markets I went to they were selling almost exactly the same things. Still I had a good time and it was good to get to know a couple of the people I met the other Friday night.
I had been invited to go to Strasbourg at the weekend but hadn't got round to booking the ticket (and had run out of money before the weekend) but I was told it was very good so I'll have to try and go another year.
I've bought a disposable camera so as soon as I've had it developed I'll put some pictures up. I'm still trying to get my digital camera fixed so be warned, once it works I'll be putting lots of pictures up.
I can't really remember what I did last week but things are getting very busy at work with organising the convention for the new year. I'm already tired and it's only Tuesday.

A Joke

Saw this today and thought I'd share it with you:

Q. How many grandmothers does it take to change a lightbulb?
A. None. You go out and enjoy yourself. I'll just sit here in the dark.

Courses, a late night, snow and some sheds

It's been a long time since my last post, the week before last was long and tiring. Last week was better but there's quite a lot to do at work.
The week before last didn't start well so I kind of ended up more and more tired as the week went on. From Wednesday to Friday there was a course on Information Systems Management held at the company University campus. They hold all their courses and events there but it's at Jouay en Josas which is between Paris and Versailles. Unfortunately that meant that I had to get up around 6, catch a tram round the outside of Paris, then catch a lift with my friend at work to arrive at 9 on the first day and 8:30 on Thursday and Friday. The days were filled with lectures on various topics (thankfully all in English as there were people from the UK, the Netherlands, and other countries). In the evening, at 7:00pm, there was a dinner which was nice (although I ended up having the same three course meal twice on Wednesday) but meant we didn't leave until 9:30, which meant getting back after 10:30.....and getting very tired. On Wednesday I had a meeting between me, my boss and some people from the University about the Convention which will be held in January (meaning we ate in the posh bit rather than the main canteen, hence 2, three course meals (unfortunately the same) in one day).
The course was quite good and I found the workshops interesting.
On Sunday I went out to the Frog and Rosbif which is an English pub (part of a chain) where they brew their own beer. There was a quiz on and we didn't come last! The beer was quite good too but I probably won't be going tonight as I'm running out of money for this month.

Last week was spent hassling people. For the convention in January I'm meant to be helping orgainsing who is coming (in terms of invitations rather than presenters) and making sure everyone doing a demo will have equipment (PC's, network access, ...) available on the day. I've been trying to get lists of participants back from the various division leaders of the company but it seems to be taking a while. I've got most of them but I'm still missing a few.
My boss also asked to speak to me about some things for the convention and for me to give him all the things I need him to validate so I took along a pile of paper.
It annoys me that no-one seems to actually require me to do anything. I mean I have things to do but it is not asked for unless it is a translation or something. I'm meant to produce newsletters but due to the time it takes for people to get back to me the one for November will be finished before the one for September! It's not because I've just sent one email and left it at that either, but then again I don't want people to see an email from me and think, "Oh great, what does he want this time?".

On Thursday I was asked by the girl from work if I wanted to come to a lecture being held at her university about IT stuff (I do Computer Science with French at uni in England for those of you who don't know). I figured it might be interesting and had nothing else planned so I went along. Afterwards there were drinks and then we went for a meal not far from rue Oberkampf. It was quite good but I must admit I found it a bit difficult to keep up with what was being said at dinner due to all the background babble.

Friday night I went out to Oberkampf again with some people from my building and met some more of their friends from uni. We went back to the same place as I'd been on Thursday night as I'd seen some pool tables there and we didn't know anywhere else. It turned out that pool was 12€€ per hour which was a bit steep, but we still had a good night. The people from my building went back about midnight but I stayed on with the others and ended up getting home about 4am.
Waking up at 1:30 in the afternoon and seeing snow is quite confusing. It has been really cold here recently. When I was on the course we came out to the car park in the evening and the windows of all the cars were iced up. The snow was fairly light and turned to slush by the evening.

About 2 weeks ago some sheds arrived at La Defense which seemed a little odd at first. Anyhow, it turns out they're putting up a Christmas Market which opens next Friday I think. I'm going to spend today doing all the things I should have got round to like applying for a travel pass, making a list of things to see, .... oh, and as it's Sunday, washing as well.

I read this article recently which shows the perils of smoking, or perhaps of being a French smoker....

French Humour

Just came across this page talking about comedy in France (the site investigates comedy in other nationalities).
It kind of explains some things, especially the line "diverting him from the national desire for effortless existence".

Enjoy!

It costs exactly €23 to look this good

Just as the sun rises and sets, I knew this day would come. It was inevitable. Yes, that's right folks; It was time for a haircut!
I've had this irrational fear since before I arrived of going to get my hair cut and coming out bald. I'm in no way a style freak or anything but obviously didn't want to come out looking stupid after asking for the the wrong grade with the clippers.
Actually this was quite close as I normally have a grade 3 but that's a 12 over here.
As you can see it didn't turn out too bad but as I just went to the busiest of the 2 places nearby (if its busy, it can't be bad) I ended up paying about twice as much as in the UK and they insist on washing your hair (not a bad thing I guess, just a bit pointless). And before you make any remarks about going to a women's hairdressers, there were 2 other guys there (and one of them had a kid so no remarks about them driving a Micra!).
You see the trouble's of living abroad? I think I'll try and find a barber's like at home next time.

The company has a DVD library and I was recommended a film called "La Grande Vadrouille" as it's a typical French film. It's a comedy about some British airmen who get shot down over Paris and then some French people help them get to unoccupied France. It's very funny and easy to follow so if anyone else on their year abroad is reading this then I recommend you watch it.

That's all for now.

Culture, tramps and crazy French deals

Ok, it's been a lot longer since my last post than I meant to leave it.
Last weekend was quite busy. I didn't do everything I'd planned but that's probably a good thing as I tend to find museums/galleries quite tiring. I think it's the slow pace you have to walk at.

Friday night I went out to Bastille with the guy from uni who lives on my corridor, a girl form upstairs and her friend. We had quite a good night, went to a couple of bars, but I think it might have been better with more people to be honest.
Saturday I went to the Centre Georges Pompidou. It's a big building not far from Les Halles and Chatelet. All the pipes, lifts and the main escalator are on the outside of the building so it's quite unusual to look at. The view from the main escalator up to the 5th floor is incredible. You're above the roofline of Paris but because you're not too high, you can really get a feel for the different heights of the city. Inside there are several exhibitions which change throughout the year. In many ways it is similar to the Tate Modern. The temporary exhibition was on Dada, an art movement that started in Zurich in 1916. There was also another small exhibition to do with shadows. Click here for a picture (and the website).

On Sunday I went to Père Lachaise. This is, essentially, a big cemetery where lots of famous people are buried. Although touristy, it's still quite peaceful and it's not over-run with people. I saw the tombs of Oscar Wilde, Jimmy Morrisson and 2 hot air balloonists who went too high and ran out of air.
Afterwards I walked to Chatelet where I'd planned to meet a friend from uni and we were going to watch Corpse Bride (in English). I decided to walk because A. I was running out of Metro tickets, and B. I wanted to see what sort of life there was in the area, whether there were lots of bars or other places to come to at night. When I got to Place de la Republique I stopped for a McDonalds (very French I know). It was only about 5 or 6 but it was getting dark. On my way out some homeless man started asking me for a cigarette (in English). I told him I didn't smoke and carried on. He then started asking me for some change but I said no and carried on (I'm all for helping the poor but don't see the point if the first thing they ask for is a cigarette, plus I had no change anyway). At that point he said he was going to follow me. Great, just what I need; I'm alone, in an area I don't know in Paris and it's getting dark. I stopped and told him I wasn't going to give him anything as he was hassling me. He went away but it was pretty annoying.
Corpse Bride was quite good, after we'd managed to find each other. Les Halles, where the cinema is, is a big place with a lot of entrances.

Monday I didn't do anything really. I didn't go to the Social Security as I wanted to wait until I got my payslip which has a temporary number on it.

Tuesday I spent the day at the Musée D'Orsay. I'm definitely not an art expert but I did enjoy going round. It is very long though and there's a lot to see. That's also partly why I didn't go to the Louvre.

The rest of the week went quite well, I got some work done and am going to be involved with organising a convention which is in the new year.
Yesterday I went shopping and bought a mobile phone (well 2 actually; they had a deal on where you could buy one pay as you go phone on Orange for €59 or pay €10 more and get another one. it seemed silly not to get 2, I can always sell the 2nd) and a load of food. In the evening I went to see "Combien tu m'aimes?".

Right, it's Sunday which unforunately means washing so I'd better go now :-/

YAHOO!

Yes, it's that time again! It comes around 4 or 5 times a month! Everyone's happy! YES! It's the weekend!!!

This is hopefully going to be the best weekend so far. I've been quite tired this week so I'm looking forward to going out tonight. Plus the clocks go back on Sunday so I get an extra hour of sleep. Plus, it's a bank holiday on Tuesday! To top it all off, as the French are inherently lazy, most companies (including us) take the Monday off too!!!

So, I'm going to have a shower, get something to eat and then find out if anyone wants to come out. I'm planning on spending the weekend being cultural: going to the Louvre, Musée d'Orsay, Centre George Pompidou, ... oh, and the social security again.

Have fun everyone!

GAAAAHHH!!!

Today started much like Friday did. I got to work and realised there wasn't much I could do. I'm still waiting for documents and things to be validated. To make things worse not many people seemed to be in. I wasted some time, um, did some work until 12:00 and then went and asked the secretary if she thought it would be ok if I went to sort out getting a social security number.
On my way from home to the metro station I dropped my suit in at the dry cleaners before catching the metro to Bercy. A week or 2 ago I had emailed the social security to find out how I could get a number. They replied telling me to go to 113 rue de Bercy. When I got to Bercy I left the metro station and headed off in what I thought would be the right direction. Unfortunately I hadn't noticed it said Rue de Bercy and I was walking along Boulevard de Bercy. Eventually I got to Rue de Bercy and to where I should find number 113. 113 is an apartment (or perhaps just the space taken up by garages for some apartments). *Sigh*. I asked around and after walking about some more I eventually found it at number 173, with the entrance hidden behind some stairs (it's just near Gare de Lyon). I made my way up to the office and took a ticket. I thought I was going to have to wait for ages but my number came up as I got to the front of the queue at the reception desk (to confirm where I had to go, what I was doing there...). Anyhow, I went into the little office and told the woman I needed a social security number. I handed her the email response I'd received so I could be certain that she wouldn't understand my situation. She explained that I couldn't get a social security number there as I needed to get it from my local office and go there with my first payslip and a form that work would give me. GAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!
Well that was a waste of a day!
It was too late to go back to work so I went to the shopping centre at la Defense to see about getting a mobile phone. I went back home, dropped off my stuff, then went back to the shopping centre to pick up my suit and buy some food, I'm really beginning to hate those steps up to la Defense. There are escalators but they don't work and won't be fixed until the new year (they've put a sign up but haven't started work yet).
I'm going to bed now as there's a meeting tomorrow morning which I'll probably have to take minutes for. Thankfully I know a bit about the subject so it shouldn't be too difficult.

Coffee and Halloween

Well, so much for 35 hours a week! As I mentioned, this week was budget review week which involved lots of meetings and, for my part, lots of confusion. The meetings were done by Wednesday which left the rest of the week to do other work. Part of my work, when not attempting to write minutes, involves communicating information about the various IS projects currently being done. I have to write status reports and newsletters and things, so obviously I have to ask people for information. This means that at times I have very little to do because I'm waiting for information from people, waiting for reports to be validated, waiting for answers to questions.....
And this brings us to Friday. I had arranged to meet with the guy training me (who has pretty much finished I think) so I asked him a few questions but otherwise he, the other stagiare and I drank coffee and chatted most of the morning. At about 11:40 we went for lunch. If you go before 12:00 you get a free coffee so we had lunch, got our free coffee and then went for a walk. The afternoon was spent doing some work (to be honest there wasn't much I could do as I'm waiting for things, I'm not just lazy or Parisian) but I left at about 4:00 as there was nothing left to do and I'd arrived early and left late for the rest of the week.
Friday night I went to the guy down the corridor's flat where he had a few English people round. We had a few beers (we've all been to Auchan (the supermarket) where they've got an offer on Kronenbourg 1664: 24 bottles for under €€9!) and chatted.

Last night was Halloween. Ok, it's a bit early but Friday night I was talking to the other intern from work online (I'll call her M for brevity's sake as I don't want to use people's real names here) and she invited me to a kidsHalloweenn party. She used to babysit for some kids and their current au pair, another friend (ex au pair I think) and M were having an earlyHalloweenn party. It seemed like it might be fun and I thought I'd better get to know some French people my own age rather than just hang out with English people all the time. M's 2 friends are both German (so I'll call them G1 and G2) and the kids speak French and German. This made it a little confusing as it sometimes took a moment to work out whether they were speaking German or whether I had just forgotten all theFrenchh I know. Anyhow, we played hide and seek in the dark, musical chairs and chatted a bit. At about 11 M, G1 and I left (G2 is the au pair) to go to a bar. G1 had arranged to meet some people near the Arc de Triomphe.
M knew a place called the Sir Winston (just off from the Champs Elysee) which looked quite good but was very full. It's an option for next time I go out though. We went on to another bar though on the Champs Elysee about 150-200 metres from the Arc de Triomphe. It was a nice bar, quite trendy and nowhere near as expensive as I thought it would be. We had a few drinks and in the end only one of G1's friends joined us.
It was a pretty good night, if a little out of the ordinary. I'm going to try and do more with the French people I know because they're helpful when it comes to learning the language and I get a lot more practice than at work.

Ok, time to finish now. It's Sunday which means washing day...

You can have a free lunch but only if you come to the 8:00 am meeting

Don't worry, I wasn't eaten by the Social Security. They gave me a form. I took it to the HR dept and they send they'd get it back to me. They only had 4 lines to complete but I received an email from the Social Security today asking me to get in touch with them so maybe I didn't need that form after all.

So, it's budget review week. This means lots of early morning meetings (in French). I'm meant to take the minutes for them but to be honest I think I missed most of it. I just got lost in all the figures and not knowing how the review process works or what to expect (I had asked what would happen) it was quite confusing.
On the bright side my boss did pay for lunch for everyone at the meeting. I had beef in truffle sauce. The beef was cooked French stye .i.e.: Not.

On Saturday I went for a walk. I went up to la Grande Arche and then headed down towards the Louvre. At the Palais de Congres I met my friend from uni (the first one I met) and we walked on together. We went about 13-14km and went all the way down to the Louvre, then through the courtyard and then back up parallel to the Champs Elysee until the Grand Palais where we got the Metro back.

Anyhow, I'm off to bed as I have to get up early again tomorrow.

Body armour - check; laser shield - check; Damn, still need the prozac!

Sorry it's been a while since my last post, I haven't had much time recently. Now I'm working I find that after I've got up around 7:00, gone to work, left around 6:00, got home, eaten and lazed a bit, I'm too tired to be bothered to type. I'm getting used to it though so I'll start posting more soon.

We (nearly all the English people I know plus friends of the guy on my corridor form his uni) went out to Place Monge on Friday night. We stopped at Châtelet first but saw one place asking €9.00 for a pint and quickly moved on. Place Monge was a lot cheaper and we found a good bar. On the way there we were waiting at a Metro station for some more people to join us and it turns out one of them was a girl I knew from college. We were in the same French class and went on a French exchange. It was quite a shock to see her again but there have been quite a few coincidences so far.
I didn't do much on Saturday and ended up watching the first 2 series of Coupling after someone quoted it on Friday night.
Sunday I went to the Sacre Coeur for the Fête des Vendages where there were stalls selling dried sausages, wines, Pineau, cheese, wines, sweets and wines.

Tuesday was a big day at work. Once a month there is a big meeting where presentations are given about projects. I was acting as secretary which meant I was taking the minutes and sorting out the presentations on the projector. Despite having asked for people to send there slides to me the week before I still received an email 2 minutes before the meeting asking for a laptop with an internet connection. Luckily someone else had already requested one!
I've decided I like these meetings as we got a 3 course meal with wine (and coffee of course). The meetings are in English and I managed to take the minutes ok apart from one project where I got a little lost.

The rest of this week I've been trying to work but it's difficult as I find I'm often waiting for other people to respnd before I can continue. This wouldn't be so bad if they weren't in meetings or busy most of the time.

Tomorrow I'm going to hell. Ok, actually I'm going to the Social Security office to get a Social Security number so I can be paid. The receptionist (well she's more than that, PA maybe) at work and the guy training me were telling me to smile, stay calm, make sure to take a ticket even if I'm the only person there, be as nice as possible, don't expect them to do anything to help,....

Can it really be that bad?

Ze zill boggle you zith buzzzords

I don't like French keyboards! The AZERTY layout means I have to delete and re-type half of what I type.
Just a short post today. I did some work on a newsletter and learnt about how to post on the intranet system. The research for the newsletter articles was quite heavy but I'm getting used to the business language. The guy training me is out tomorrow. I'm going to get some sleep now as, being a student, I'm not used to getting up early.

Veal

They say it's tough at the top but I'm not so sure. I had veal in raspberry sauce with ratatouille for lunch today.

My second day had a typically Parisian start. I had to leave before 8 as there was a strike on the RATP network and the SNCF so I had to cycle. It's an easy ride (although I almost forgot that the road crosses the Seine in 2 steps) and only takes about 25 minutes.

There was a meeting this morning which must have taken almost 3 hours. Luckily I didn't need to take minutes in the end as it was quite heavy. It was mostly in English, apart from the more heated parts, but I found I could understand most of the French (apart from the jokes). It's just a case of trying to understand the subjects now! There are lots of IT projects about which I know nothing about and when they're being talked about in acronyms it becomes even more difficult!

At lunch I sat with some others my own age (ish). There was no room at the table with the others from the office to the other stagiare and I went and sat with some friends of hers. We went to the coffee bar afterwards and luckily I didn't win the "game" (I mentioned it in the last post).

In the afternoon not much really happened. I re-organised an agenda and we sent it out to people but mainly I discussed projects and things I didn't quite understand with the guy training me. I'm not sure what I'll be doing tomorrow afternoon as he's going to a meeting. I hope there's some work because I don't like just sitting around. It's also annoying that there aren 't set working hours. I have to do 35 hours a week but no-one counts them and I don't need to write down when I will be/have been in. I keep forgetting how long lunch has taken so I never know when I should leave. I'm going to start keeping track. They seem to be quite keen on coffee breaks too, I'm still getting used to the strength of the espressos.

I found out today that I need a social security number before I can be paid. I had assumed that the company would sort that out but apparently not.

Champagne and caviar

I started work today! I managed to get up at 7:00 despite not being able to get to sleep and got the bus to work although the walk to the bus stop took a little longer than expected. I was a little worried about the Paris traffic in the morning but got there in plenty of time. When I arrived I said who I was to the lady at reception and she organised an ID card for me.
I spent the day going through some parts of my job, the tools I'll use and the upcoming meetings. There's a guy training me who has been doing the job whenever there hasn't been an intern to do it (as far as I know).

At about 12:00 everyone was called into a room where I another woman (mainly the other woman) were introduced. Then came the champagne and hors d'oeuvres (including cavier on little bits of bread). A little later we all went to lunch. After lunch we walked upstairs from the canteen to the coffee bar. There's a "game" they play (I didn't have to today) where they all put there passes (which you use to pay for food) face down on the counter and the guy serving picks one at random so that person pays for all the coffees.

In the afternoon we sent some emails and drafted an agenda for a meeting next week.
Thankfully most of today was in English. I'm concerned that when the guy training me was speaking to the other stagiare I couldn't really understand but I think that was mainly because they were talking too fast.
I think I'm going to try and use more French before they start as then at least it will show I'm willing to learn and improve.

Anyhow, I've got to stop now as I need to get ready for tomorrow. I've got to cycle into work thanks to the strike.

Tired

I got up after 12:00 today. "Tsk, lazy!" you might think. Unfortunatley going to bed at 5:00am tends to make you quite tired.
Since my last post I've met quite a few people. I've now met 4 other English people from my building (one has since moved to her friend's flat which is closer to her uni), some friends of 2 of the Brits from my building, and a french friend of my friend from uni.

I went out with the English guy on my corridor, uni friend and his french friend to the Latin Quarter on Friday. The Latin Quarter is the/a student area and has witnessed protests over the years. There are lots of restaurants there but fewer bars. The social scene over here is quite different to in the UK. For a start, at uni people go out to a bar or a club. Here I guess people go and eat. I assume it's because there's less of a drinking culture than in Britain (or maybe they're just more cultured when drinking). To be honest the bars we went in didn't have the studenty atmosphere I expected but then that could have just been where we went. Another thing I'm going to have to get used to is table service in a bar.

Last night was la nuit blanche (the white night). It's a little difficult to describe but is basically a big art festival centred around 5 sections of Paris. There were several art installations in the streets, a fashion parade (we saw that from the bus but thought it was a jumble sale at first) and then more art inside buildings. We only went into one of the buildings as the queues were very long. The piece was based on CCTV but I can't really explain it here. We also saw some short films which were,...um, ...contemporary.
I went with the English guy from my corridor and another Brit from upstairs but we also met up with people on the same course as the guy from my corridor.
There was also some music. A DJ and some people with drums at Les Halles, and apparently 300 guitars at the Sacre Coeur but we didn't see them as we were too tired from walking all night.
It was a good night and I'm going to try and go to more of that sort of thing while I'm here.

I start work tomorrow. I'm not quite sure what to expect. I'm just hoping that my language is up to scratch and that they'll give me a bit of leeway for the first couple of weeks while I learn the workplace vocabulary. I'm going to get a small notebook to put in my pocket and write new words in.

Well, I'm going to go for a walk now to get some fresh air.

The Brits are coming!

I feel quite bad now that I've found out there are 3 other Brits living on my corridor and I haven't seen them yet.

I paid in the cheque that MAAF sent me for overcharging me for my insurance and also went to the station to check the buses for next week. It turns out that the SNCF (railways) and RATP (Paris transport (Metro, Bus, RER suburban lines)) are striking on Tuesday. Thankfully it's not on my first day at work but I'm going to have to find another way to get there on Tuesday. I'm a little concerned as I've been told that I will be acting as secretary in a meeting that morning so I really don't want to be late.

With respect to the allegations about Thales you can read the other side of the story here.

When I was at reception asking if they knew anything about the strike there was another girl there signing her contract. The lady at reception said that she was English too so I said Hi and everything. The lady at reception then gave us both a list of all the English people in the building. It turns out there are 14 including myself, and 3 of them are on my corridor. Another unlikely conincidence is that another guy from my uni may be coming to live in this building. There's someone with the same name due to arrive soon and as he's apparently doing a stage in Paris I can only assume it's the same guy.

<sarcasm>Oh what a night!!!</sarcasm>

Well, tonight was ok. The guy near the lift and I met my friend from uni and we went to Courbevoie. We thought that, as the nearest town/place with anything there, there would be some sort of bar. Now I know that the bank is shut on Monday but I didn't think this would extend to the "nightlife" as well. We eventually found a bar and chatted for a bit. I find it hard to understand how there can be so few students about near at least 4 student apartment buildings and 2 universities.
On the way back I jokingly suggested to lift guy that maybe we should organise a night out for everyone in the building. I'm beginning to think it's not such a bad idea. Unfortunately that would mean I'd need to find a bar that was A) open, and B) had some sort of life to it.

(btw, as I mentioned at the start of this blog I'm not using anyone's real name for privacy's sake. I know I'd be annoyed if my name was on the internet)

A new week

Well it's monday today and so far it's not looking too bad (apart from one thing which I'll come on to in a moment).

I filled out all the forms to get a rebate for my rent from the CAF today so hopefully that should go through soon and I should get something back from them. I went out to get some bread and envelopes, then had lunch, and then went back out to post the letter.

After I'd posted the letter I walked up to la Défense. I wanted to see if there are any uni bars around as there is a uni just there. As I was reaching the top of the bridge which crosses the road/railway between me and la Défense, who did I see? A friend from uni! He's studying at Nanterre and arrived last week. It turns out he's living in one of the places I looked at and has found it as quite there as I have here. Anyway, we've arranged to go out tonight so I'm going to see if the guy on my corridor wants to come (and if he knows anyone else).

On to the not so good thing. After talking for a bit, I carried on to la Défense and went into the CNIT building. I went into the newsagents to see if they had a magazine when I noticed the headline of "Le Monde". Erk! I'm not going to write anything myself because you can read it for yourself here and in English here. In case I haven't said, I will be working for Thales soon (in a different division of the company). This has nothing to do with the part of the company I'll be working for but I may edit this post later. I've put this on my blog because it affects me. Not directly in any way but in the fact that I start at the company next week and it will be interesting to see the mood within the office.

Friday night

Well, it's Friday. Today I opened my bank account and sorted out other soon to be costly things (paying electicity bill, giving the apartment people permission to take the rent each month). It's strange, some of the things we take for granted in England. Like not having to pay to have a bank card for example. Luckily as I'm opening a student account I get it free for a year. I knew I stayed in education for a reason. Oh, yeah, that degree thing too.
I emailed work yesterday as I'd got a phone call from the guy who will be doing my training asking me to confirm that I was still coming. I'd already replied to his email last week so he obviously hadn't got it.
I saw the guy who lives near the lifts earlier and asked if he wanted to go for a drink later. He said he would like to but wasn't sure if he'd be around. I guess I'm going to have to start making an effort to meet people if I want to actually have a social life!

One week on

Well, I arrived in Paris a week ago and I guess things aren't going too badly. I must say that waking up to "Lonely" by Akon isn't exactly a great way to start the day.
Still, as boring as it may sound, someone finally came to fix my sink.
Tomorrow I've got the oh so exciting job of opening a bank account.
I met the guy who lives near the lifts earlier today and I asked if he'd seen many people about. He said he'd met 2 others but hadn't seen many people about. He's been here 2 weeks. We're assuming there aren't many people here yet because the uni term doesn't start until October. Anyhow, tomorrow I'm going to call round to see if he (and the others he's met) want to go for a drink. I'll also see at reception if there are any other brits in the building.

Is this Spain?

I thought it was Spain where the answer to everything is "tomorrow". I tried to open a bank account today and was told that that would be fine ... on Friday. I only got as far as making an appointment and Friday was the earliest I could be seen.
On a brighter note I went to see MAAF about the fact that they'd spelt my name wrong (despite spelling it out) and also about the little matter of €30.04 which I'd been over charged. I was planning on catching the metro as the office is near to where I work but as I went into the la Defense station I remembered that it's also a bus station (as well as metro, RER and tram) so I thought I'd take a look at the buses on offer. It turns out that there's one which stops almost directly outside the office where I'll be working. I took it (only take 25 minutes and they come about every 5-10 minutes) and then walked to the MAAF branch. The lady was apologetic and said they'd send me a cheque.
I bought (another) bike lock today and an inner tube but didn't move it. When I got back to my room I found the washing up bowel was out from under the sink. I assume someone has been round to try and fix the leak in from the waste pipe but still leaks. They do appear to have fixed the extractor fan though.
It's still very quite here although i did see some people filling out contracts today so it might liven up. I'm going to stick some stuff on my door to make it look like some lives here. It's a bit gloomy in the corridor.
Anyhow, bye until next time.

Here we go...

I'm here (or there depending on where you are).
On Thursday I caught the 10:40 Eurostar to Paris and got to Gare du Nord at 14:17 (on time as usual). I caught the (hot and stuffy) metro to the apartment block at la Défense. I'd sent all the documents (contract, garantor details,...) to them on Saturday and was told it should arrive before I got there. I could have brought it all with me but I figured I'd try and give them a day in case they needed to do anything with it all. It's now Monday and it appears to be stuck somewhere in the french postal system. Anyhow, thankfully I'd photocopied everything so there weren't any problems getting the keys. Just as we were sorting everything out I met an English girl who will be staying here. She's going to uni but was going back to England the next day as term doesn't start for 2 weeks. At least I know there's one more Brit if I get fed up of speaking French.

Midnight on Friday my parents arrived with all my stuff (I went with a rucksack and laptop so I could keep in touch). That's another good thing about living in Paris, it meant I could actually bring (or rather, have shipped to me) quite a lot of stuff I'll never get round to using.
As you walk into my apartment (6th floor, with lift) there's the bathroom (shower, toilet, sink) to the left. You then go through the entrance bit into the kitchennette area. There's a sink, and then 2 hobs to the right of it. Below them is the fridge and above them is the microwave. There are cupboards above and below the sink. The kitchennette leads into the bedroom/living room which has a built in wardrobe, a small fold out leaf table, a box with 2 drawers another, table which opens out and is now my desk, a bookshelf thing with 2 drawers at the bottom, a tiny bedside "table" and finally fold out sofa bed/futon thing. It probably sounds quite a lot bigger than it is but it's big enough. Unfortunately it doesn't have a balcony like some of them do but it's on the north side so I wouldn't really have much sun anyway.
Anyhow, on Saturday we unloaded the car and made a few trips to "Les Quatre Temps", a shopping centre to get food and electricals (kettle, iron, coffee maker (if I'm going to be a Parisian I need to drink more coffee), ...). In the evening we went for a walk into Courbevoie and had dinner in a chinese/asian restaurant. There were quite a few asian restaurants but no Indian Take-Away's :-( .

My parents left on Sunday and I spent most of the day sorting out my laptop (boring I know but it's fairly quiet on Sundays in France as far as I know). I went for another walk in the evening and found a gym that does Judo, Jujitsu and maybe Karate. If I can find someone to go with (who can explain what we're meant to be doing rather than assume I know and try and hit me) then I might join. I used to do Karate and did Ninjitsu for a year so hopefully that will make it a bit easier.

Today I went down to reception to find out about where to keep my bike. My parents brought it and I was given a key card for the underground garage and told I could put it in the bike spaces there but had to come back today to confirm it would be ok. When I went down I explained why I was there (and reminded that them that they need to fix the leak under my sink and the extractor fan in the kitchen). They told me that I couldn't kepp my bike there after all. Ok, so where should I put it? In the corridor, in my room were suggested. I haven't moved it yet but will go down tomorrow and find out why I can keep it in the spaces which are meant for bikes.

When I took over the apartment the lady from reception was very helpful, she made a note of every little mark for the inventory and replaced anything which wasn't in good condition. She even replaced the bedside lamp just because the shade was a bit childish. I know my last landlord wasn't particularly meticulous when we left.

Today I planned on opening a bank account but it turns out that the bank is closed on Mondays so I'll have to go again tomorrow. I also went to the shopping centre to try and find a new inner tube and a new lock for my bike but didn't have much luck.

One good thing to come out of today though was that I introduced myself to a guy on my corridor. He's studying at Nanterre and seemed friendly. I don't think there are many people living here at the moment, I think it's a little while until the uni term starts. If I meet someone else though I'll see if they want to go out for a drink.

Sorry this has been a long post, I'll try and post more often otherwise I'll end up writing it all at the end of the year.

3 days to go

Well, I started packing today. I leave on Thursday.

I’m going to catch the Eurostar to Paris in the morning and should be at the apartment block by 4:00pm French time. I just hope all the documents arrived in time…

On Saturday I finally managed to get all the necessary documents ready to send. Having only just received the form for my Dad to act as guarantor for the apartment, it was a bit of a rush to get it filled in. The letter accompanying the form said that it had to be countersigned at either a “Mairie” or a police station. So, off we went down to the local police station with the apparently silly assumption that it would be simple to countersign a document to verify that it was in fact my Dad’s signature on the form. We were told however that they “don’t usually do that” but that they could if we knew one of the policemen there…and had done so for over 2 years. Right. Luckily we do know a policeman so we paid him a visit and he obliged. I’m curious as to what I should have done had I not known a policeman (or a mayor). With everything filled in I sent it off and then went and annoyed my friend by arriving at her birthday party on time…instead of 2 hours early as I’d told her (I blame the forms).

I’m also beginning to wonder whether I should have been so cheerful about buying my insurance from MAAF. I asked for the documents to be sent straight to the apartment as there wouldn’t be time for them to get to England and then for me to post them on. I did however ask for email confirmation so I could at least prove that I had insured the place in case the documents didn’t arrive. I’m going to have to give them a ring because I haven’t had it yet. Maybe they have to fill out forms before they send me emails. They seem to have forms for everything else after all.

Anyhow, as I said, I started packing today. This is actually quite early for me; I have a habit of packing at the very last minute. In fact I seem to do a lot of important things at the last minute. Maybe this trip to France will change that, especially if there’s as much bureaucracy as they say there is.

HURRAH for MAAF!!!

Finally, after a week of waiting for a reply I gave up on BNP Paribas and looked elsewhere for insurance.
I'm now covered by MAAF who were really helpful and inexpensive.
I just hope I'm not cursing myself by being so pleased, so soon....

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So, I need to buy insurance for my apartment. Last week I phoned BNP Paribas to try and buy it over the phone. They seemed cheap and I saw their adverts when I went to Paris looking for somewhere to live. I gave them a ring on the number from their website and the helpful lady said she'd get the local branch to contact me. A bit later I got a call and was told to fax some documents to them and they would email me the necessary documents for me to buy my "assurance habitation". So, I immediately sent the fax and waited...
And waited...
And I've been waiting for a week now having left messages on their answer phone.
Looking in my french academic diary I don't see "VACANCES" stamped over the past week so I can only assume that either they're not getting my messages or they don't want the hassle of a foreigner. I think I'm going to have to get the lady at the apartment a box of chocolates for all the questions I keep sending her. Still, I guess that's what the 1 month's rent reservation fee is for.

On a lighter note I've finally got the "caution" (guarantor) bit almost sorted now so once I've finished filling in those forms I'll have one less thing to worry about.

Only a week to go now until I leave. As always I don't feel at all prepared. I'll be going out by train or plane next Thursday with my rucksack and maybe another bag or two and then my parents will bring my stuff at the weekend. Then I've got just 2 weeks until I start work.

It's getting a bit daunting now...

Beginning (well, pretty much)...

I haven't even arrived yet, and it already seems far more difficult to get anything done in France than it does here in England.

Let me explain, I'm at uni, studying Computer Science with French (weird combination I know; it seemed like a good idea at the time...). I've finished my second year and am about to start my year abroad.

"Wow, you get to spend the year in another country! Cool! Sounds a bit scary", I hear you say. "Yes" I respond. I'm sure (I hope) it will be good. I'll meet lots of new people, learn lots of new things, see lots of amazing sights. Right now however, it's more "scary" than "cool".

At the beginning of October I start work at a big company in Paris in their Information Systems department, where I'll be for about 9 months. Recently I went out to Paris to find somewhere to live. I'm hopefully staying in an apartment block full of students. I was hoping to get a place there as one of my main concerns was about meeting people. I'm not sure my work colleagues will really want to go out to the pub with me, and they don't look like the disco sort either.

Back to the beginning again. I'm currently getting a little stressed as I'm having a bit of trouble sorting out some of the financial matters for the apartment. When renting a place to live for my second year of uni it was as simple as looking round, handing over 1 month's rent as a deposit, the 1st month's rent, and signing the contract. In France I have to pay the reservation fee (1 month's rent), the 1st month's rent, 2 month's rent as a deposit, provide insurance against fire, flood, rampaging monsters, and provide a guarantor. I knew there was a lot of beauracracy but I must admit I wasn't expecting to encounter it so soon.

I've started this blog to document my experiences of my year abroad. I won't go into much detail about some things (this is the internet, I'm not putting my bank details up), I will not use people's real names if I write about someone directly (It's a bit unfair to write about people I meet and not let them keep their privacy), and I can't guarantee to post every day.