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...