French food + pictures

Mooooi!

A French lunch

I've been taking pictures about the food here and now I finally moved them to my computer! The student meal here is 3.05e and it includes a starter, main course, cheese or another milk product and a dessert :)

BBQ with friends!

French onion soup

I'm going to miss French food when I go back to Finland! Especially desserts because we don't usually have them in Finland.

The following pictures are just random pictures taken from Paris :)

Fighting for my CAF

Helloo!

So I called some office to know about my CAF situation.. Turns out that I have to send them 3 papers that I've already sent because they have lost it or something. I just love this country!

I have to send them a copy of my insurance meaning my EU health card. I've already send it but the woman I spoke to told me that I need some other insurance. Well, for the other exchange students the EU health card had worked so I'm sending a copy of it again. I might also write to the letter "FINLAND IS IN EU (idiot)"

Other thing I need is another "attestation sur l'honneur". This is what my friend wrote and I just copied it:

"Je soussignée NAME atteste sur l’honneur que je dispose pour moi-même (et le cas échéant pour ma famille) de ressources personnelles suffisantes afin de subvenir mes besoins.

Je déclare être informé(e) que cette condition est indispensable pour la régularisation de mon dossier."

then where, when and your signature and voilà

Last but not least they want my certificat scolaire AGAIN. I'm just sending a copy of my student card.

Again, a list what you need for your CAF:

- copy off passport

- copy of student card (or certificat scolaire)

- copy of EU health card (both sides!)

- copy of original birth certificate

- copy of translated birth cert

- that letter ^

For me I had to order a birth certificate from Finland with a paper telling that it was all correct and it costed 46e. If you are going on an exchange to France better do this beforehand :)

I was really pissed off because they didn't send me anything from CAF office telling what I have to send them. But maybe next month I'll have CAF!

Should I stay or should I go -

 Hello hello hello!

In these past 2 weeks I've had 3 of my Finnish friends over! I was so happy to see them! Last one of them left yesterday and now my teeny tiny room feels really big and empty.

Now I would like to list all the places and amount of times I've visited sights in Paris:
Moulin Rouge - 6 times
Notre Dame - 4 times
La Tour Eiffel - 3 times
La Tour Montparnasse - 4 times
Musée du Louvre - 3 times
L'arch de Triomphe - 4 times
Basilique du sacré-coeur - 4 times
Chateau de Versailles - 2 times
Disneyland Paris - 1 time
Musée d'Orsay - 1 time

Yeah.. I'm getting a bit bored about this being a guide :D of course I understand that my friends haven't seen there places but still.. I have to find new attractions!

I really liked musée d'Orsay! Especially because they had a Finnish exhibition when I went there. I saw an ad about it and I HAD to see it! It was exhibitio of Akseli Gallen-Kallela and especially about Kalevala. For those who don't know; Kalevala is the national epic of Finland. I've always liked the stories in Kalevala and I was really happy to see paintings about it. I was really sad that we weren't allowed to take pictures so the only memory of this great exhibition is the picture I took from the main sign before entering the hall with the paintings. I had my Tunisian friend Khaoula with me and I was happy to explain Finnish lifestyle and culture to her. Did you know that when J.R.R Tolkien was writing The lord of the Rings he took influence from Kalevala and based the language of Elves on old Finnish?

I've continued my classes normally and we had our partial exams this and last week (what a perfect timing for my friends to be here..) My English teacher asked me to keep a little presentation about Finnish and I'm going to do that this Friday. Finnish is a really interesting language now that I think about it! Maybe I should devote a post here for Finnish :)

Then to the most interesting part: my employer suggested me that I'd stay here for another year. I have to tell that I'm interested. Many people here that I've told have been really excited for me and are asking me to stay. My mom is almost blogging all the airports in Finland so that I couldn't go back :D She also started telling me how she can bring my guinea pigs to me next summer if I stay. I think I'm going to talk with some people in the near future and start asking how hard would it be for me to stay. Hardest parts would be finding an apartment and my pets.


I started searching how expensive would it be for me if I stayed. The prices are awful here! In my hometown with 460 e/month I've rented an two-room apartment that had 45m^2. Here with the same price I'd get a little tuna can of 10m^2. On the other hand if I needed to find a job (like I think I do) it would be rather easy because I talk English and French so well. On the plus I talk also Finnish, Swedish and a bit of German so I'm pretty sure I'd find a job. I found out that I'd pay taxes to France and there is a law so that I don't have to pay taxes to 2 countries.

In Finland you can take a year off of our studies and continue them in an year so this wouldn't be a problem. On the other hand I would like to go Finland to help exchange students and finish my studies ASAP. On the other hand I would like to change my field of studies and find a new path in my life. I think staying here for another year would help me to think about what I want to do.



Well I have a couple of months to think about this :) I'll let you know.


And to finish this little update:
The family where my guinea pigs are told me that one of my little babies died. Now I have only 4 guinea pigs left when I go back to Finland. RIP Taavetti Joukahainen

In the last two pictures you can see a bridge where lovers attach a lock with their names written on it to symbolize their eternal love :) this bridge is near Louvre.

Bisous! à bientôt!

A quick update

Yeah well... I haven't had internet connection since I left for Finland for my vacation so it has been a while. When I came back to Paris 6 days ago I had a nice surprise of not having working internet here. Now when I came home I realized that I have internet. God bless France..........

I spent my winter vacation in Finland :) We had a lot of snow and northern lights! Enjoy the pictures.

The roof of my mom's house

Velli after washing him <3

My dog sitting in our front yard.. :D

Timmy says hi from my mom's backyard!