All problems solved

Or at least most of them :)

Finally I took some pictures so that this blog doesn't seem so boring!

Anyhow. Finally I got my student card! Oh my what a fight was to get it. For getting one you need
- 2 pictues
- copy of your learning agreement
-copy of your student card in your home Uni
-copy of your European Health Insurance card
-paper signed telling that they can or can not use your information for research

Well I gave them all this ages ago but there was some woman who really knew her work handeling my papers and they started asking me for "insurance civil". Of course I didn't know what this is and I started finding out where I can get it. Many calls to my mom to Finland and discussions with Erasmus students  later I found out that my responsibility insurance is my European Health Insurance card.
 
  So last Friday I returned to the office pissed and ready to fight for my student card because all the stuff with my courses and such were in halt because I didn't have a student card. Luckily there was some other woman now looking over my papers. She just opened my file, said "Oh but you have all papers needed here" and gave me my student card. Now it's fine but back then I was really upset with the system. I'm just a little student, they can't expect me to know everything and defend myself!

Techno Parade 2011

Last weekend I visited Techno Parade Paris 2011. It was crazy! In the middle of the day big truks were driving around the streats with music so lound that you needed earplugs. People walked behind these cars and danced. With my friends were followed one truck dancing for some time. My friends continued to follow the parade while I parted to see two of my friends that I know from Finland. Both of them have been to exchange near Paris earlier so they showed me places that I should know! We visited Basilique du Sacré-Cœur and Avenue des Champs-Élysées. We also walked around Paris shopping a little.

Tehcno Parade 2011

Basilique du Sacré-Cœur

I can really recomend Sacré-Cœur to everyone! The view over Paris is amazing. Unfortunately you can't see La Tour Eiffel but you can get a picture of what a big place Paris is. Also of course people have to see Champs-Élysées and Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile. I've already been on top of Arc de Triomphe so we didn't have to go up there but I really liked the shops at Champs-Élysées. We visited the shops on Sunday and they all were open! Good to know because in Orsay where I live everything is closed during Sundays. Some other good thing to know is that Also  the all-day ticket for under 26-years-olds is 7e. With that you can travel as much as you want around the city with any public transport. Also it's good to know that most of the museums and such (Louvre, Arc de Triomphe..) are free for less than 25 years-olds European citizens. I'm going to visit all the museums!

View from Basilique du Sacré-Cœur

Macarons and the little box from Ladurée

One place woth visiting is Ladurée. It's a shop that makes the best macarons. It's so cute! There is one at Champs-Élysées but we visited the shop nearer to Louvre so that we didn't have to queue so much. This is the link for their site. I bought eight macarons with the cutest little box. From Champs-Élysées I bought books when we visited a huge Virgin store there. I think this is really good for my French.

I really see that my French is getting better and better all the time. At lectures I think I can understand well what the teacher is telling. My speaking of French is really slow and my prononciation needs practise but I'll manage. I'm hoping to meet some nice French people to speak with. It's really hard to get to know them especially because this Uni doesn't have an ESN (Erasmus Student Network) section. It's really sad that we exchange students are on our own but I'm sure we'll find things to do ;)










 Next us Erasmus students were thinking of visiting Château de Versailles and Disneyland Paris! I so can't wait for that! When I finally get my Imagine R card like other students we can go there for free during weekends.

My Imagine R card is going to be the following:
free traveling in zones 4 and 5 during workdays and free traveling to everywhere during weekends and holidays. This costs around 34e / months. I know some students who are taking the card for zones 1 to 5 but I didn't think it's necessery because with my courses I don't have time to run to Paris every day. The card for all the zones costs more than 70e/month.

 With two of my Eramsus friends we visited Le Jardin de Luxembourg. It's (on top of all the other places) worth visiting. There was a live band playing when we were there so it was really nice.









We also visited Moulin Rouge. I'd love to see a performance there! Also this street is worth checking out: the street is full of porn stores. The metro stop is Blanche or the next one from that. The Sacré-Cœur is also really near to this place so they can bee seen at the same time.


I think I'll go study some words in French :) Bisous!

First two weeks in Paris

Hi guys!

It has been a while but I have been extremely busy with all the stuff that's been happening here.

When I first arrived here the first week was really lonely. I was the only Finn and the only chemistry student from the exchange people. What are the odds for this? Anyhow when the intensive course for French started things started to get a bit better. I think we are now grouping really well with all the Erasmus people here and I think it's really nice :) we have been clubbing a couple of times and yesterday we went to see a big firework show. There are only 40 of us and I was really surprised with that. I think every year in my city there are more than a hundred exchange students. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

I didn't expect stuff to be this difficult compeared to Finland! For example for the Internet they only accepted cheque for payment. I have never even SEEN one in my life! I think even my mother has never used one so it tells how long ago they vanished from Finland. So for the Internet: getting a student card for French bank account 2 weeks, opening a French bank account estimate of 2 weeks, getting a cheque book and finally giving 2 weeks for someone to put the Intenet stuff together for your room. Luckily I got the cheque from a friend so that I didn't have to wait.. But in my opinion this is really badly organized here.

Second thing is the courses. No one knows anything about any other course than he/she teaches. I have ran days around the campus asking people about which courses I can take and when will they start etc. In Finland we log in one site, find the course, click "join" and that's that. Here I have all the timetables printed and my next mission is to find my courses from there, compear them to each other and see if I can actually take the courses I chose. In here you have to attend the lectures so the system is again different than in Finland and I can't have overlapping courses. I don't need to wine but really.. is this the best system France can come up with?

After choosing the courses I have to find a secretary who sees my papers and gives me an amen on my choises. I think I should have done this last Friday but I don't still have all the papers needed for this. Sigh.

In Finland all exchange students have a "Kummi" person who helps them around and helps them finding courses and such (I'm going to do that when I go back to Finland!). Here in France, it's more like "you need to do this and this and this. Good luck". I think it's to differ the people who don't want to study from the ones who really want it. Lucky for me being the only student for chemistry has its perks: I'm everyones priority when it comes to helping. All teachers have been really helpfull about my course stuff and so on.

It was really a shock when I came to my home in here. It's a room with a sink, closet, bed and two chairs. The showers and kitchen are in the corridor. I'm wearing slippers in the shower just in care (paranoid). The first time I went to the kitchen a guy threw flour on me. Only buying a fridge was an adventure let alone trying to get your Internet connection working. I had to buy everything from blankets, pillows, forks and knives to carpets. For more than a week it was kinda hard to try to eat for I didn't have a fridge.

Now everything is ok though! I just need my student card and then I can buy my Imagine R card for the trains so that I can travel as much as I want. My place isn't exactly in Paris but 40min away from the 1st zone on the 5th zone. I think this is really good. I have also got to know a lot of nice people during this two weeks.

Tomorrow my classes start for real and I really have to start improving my French every day. Our French teacher told us to keep a diary in French so that we check new word every day and see how much we improve. I think I should start that also.

Also with my friends here we are planning a trip to Versailles and Disnay Land :P I so can't wait!

So if you are planning to coming to France: don't expect it to work. It's not so serious. Be prepared that everything is going to take some time and you just have to wait.

Take care. Bisous