Oh so French

Today I returned my CAF (local housing allowance) papers. I'll see the results in TEN TO TWELVE WEEKS. Jesus I was so surprised when they told me that it's going to take so long. No worries, I didn't need the money anyway.. In Finland it's illegal if it takes more than two weeks of the offices to handle your papers about allowances. I guess I won't be wining about those two weeks when I got back to Finland.

I'm really starting to get a handle of my French needed in lectures Now I can sometimes even understand what the professor is telling on the lectures without studying like crazy after the lesson. It's actually really funny that I can talk about wave functions and Gibbs free energy in French but I can't tell about my life or use different tenses well. I'm really gratefull to my friend K who has helped me a lot with my homeworks. She is always so patient and helps me with my French too. Yesterday we went to the libryary of Pompidou and calculated Quantum Chemistry for 3 hours. She would have been so much quicker without me but she explained all the stuff that I didn't get. Long live friendly people!

Talking about friendly people the family whose children I watch asked me, my mom and my aunt to join them for dinner when my mom and aunt come to France next month. My mom and aunt were so excited about it :) I'm also really happy to see my relatives. I hope mom brings me a lot of salty liqourice, I miss it so much! Last Friday I realized in a store that I didn't want to eat chocolate nor salty snacks but I wanted to eat somehing good: salmiakki! (which is the Finnish word for salty liqourice) I tried to buy black Mentos but these taste more like liqourice and these are actaully really bad..

I'm still wating for my ImagineR. I have a friend who has wated for more than a month now for hers. I'm going to send my papers again this week because that's what they asked my friend to do when she went asking about her card.  It really sucks not to have it because every weekend I could go for free to Paris but now I have to pay 7e/day for a weekend ticket.

I've bought a couple of shirt and vests here. I'm really good at buying useless shoes so I bought a pair yesterday. I just couldn't leave them to the store! Belleville is a good place to stop for shopping. I should find something for winter because I've left almost all my winter clothes to Finland. Also when I try to sleep I always wish I had pyjamas becuse a top isn't just enough. I'm sleeping with woolen socks. I think this is really interesting. In Finland it's not this cold indoors when it's -30C outdoors! Moreover I always feel like it's colder inside than it's outside. I really miss Finnish insulation materials.. AND I don't have a radiator in my room! It's now +15C outside and I'm freezing in here. I'm really looking forward to winter :D

While I'm at it I could talk about living here. This residence universitairé is just a huge building with 5 floors full of rooms where students live. We have shared toilets and a shared kitchen. I hate it when people run around the corridors after 12 in the evening when I'm trying to sleep. Also talking in the corridor instead of inside the rooms seems to be a nice sport for everyone. Also during weekends they have competiotions of who has the loudest party while their door is open. People also smoke cigarettes and weed in their rooms and the corridor smells really lovely after that. I feel like I'm the nagging neighbour if I go complain about everything all te time so most of the time I let it be. But oh my when I once wanted to sing in my room at 15H00 on Sunday there was immidiately someone telling me to shut up! It's actually sad that my singing voice bothers people more than weed :D

Last weekend was also really interesting because for some reason out kitchen was sealed off. I was really happy when I came home on Friday and realized that the kitchen is locked. I couldn't cook at all last weekend and I couldn't have tea this morning before going to lectures. Now the kitchen is open again. I think that the cleaner just forgot (or "forgot") to open it before going away for the weekend.

Anyhow I think that's all folks! Now I'm off to buy my tickets for DisneyLand Paris where we are going 16th of October! Wuhuu!

Autumun never comes

Defacto présente Le Petit Prince

Hello and welcome to enjoy the weather of +25C in the beginning of October! This is so not true! All my friends are enjoying the mild temperatures of +4 - +8 in Finland and I'm here.

Talking of mild temperatures there was HOT WATER in the shower! Party time! The most irritating thing I've grown to almost hate in here is taking a shower. This building is really old and I think there is something wrong with the pipes bacause there isn't enough hot water for the showers.

When you are in the shower when someone turns the tab on in any part of this building (with maybe 80 people living in it) hot water turns off and the water pressure goes down. I've experiances hell in here when taking a hot shower; in a couple of seconds hot water turns into a water from Antarctica. It's especially irritating when I've been jogging and feeling hot I take a shower. After sports it's nice to take a cold shower but I don't want to have a frostbite while at it.
 Ok I'm exaggarating a lot but it really pisses me off because I'm a friend of warm showers.

 Well what else have happened here. I've gotten new French friends and I'm really happy to practise my French with someone. After 3 weeks of courses I can now write my notes and listen to the professor at the same time without lifting my head to see what the professor is writing. I was so happy when I realized that! Also I've started to use new French words more and even when I'm not sure of the right word it usually comes to my mind. I still have problems with conjugation but I'll learn I'm sure of it.

I'm still wating for my ImagineR card for metro.. I'm paying them starting from October (this month!) so I'm wating to see it soon. Although I know that French system is slover than a dead snail I really hope to get my card so that I can go to work and to stores whenever I need to without paying extra!

 Oh yeah that reminds me: I got a job :) I'm a babysitter for a French family and I'm teaching English to the children. I'm taking care for an adorable 1-year-old boy and his 4-year-old sister. It's a bit of a trouble to travel there because it takes 50nminutes by metro and a buss but it's totally worth it. I didn't like children at all when I came here and now I'm taking care of them. I knew exchange changes people but this is so unbeliavable!

And then to things we have done with my friends: we visited "Spectacle : Defacto présente Le Petit Prince" meaning a show of the story of Little Prince with lights, pyrotechnics and fireworks (24.09.2011). Oh my God what a show it was! The story was told in French so I didn't get every word but I could keep track of the plot. The pictures were reflected on a side of a building in metro station La Défense. I included a link of the show from Youtube if someone is interested to see some parts :) There are also pictures included if you look the beginning of the text.

Le Jardin du château de Versailles

 The following day from the spectacle of Little Prince (and after only 4 hours of sleep..) we visited Le Jardin du château de Versailles with Erasmus students. Our intention was to go inside the castle but we ended up wondering around the garden and seeing Domaine de Marie-Antoinette. We saw like 1/5 of the garden it was so huge! It was nothing breath-taking but it was beautifull. We are going to visit the castle some other day. It was Sunday so the lines were awfull. Pictures from the garden are included around this text.

Domaine de Marie-Antoinette

Domaine de Marie-Antoinette

 Tomorrow I'm going to keep my first Finnish course to one professor who wants to learn Finnish. I find it really weird that someone wants to learn Finnish.. It's not exactly too usefull. But in return he is going to teach me French so I'm happy about that. I need help with my prononciation and there are also so many words to learn. I always tend to forget the genre of the words and the whole sentence is ruined if you have feminine and masculine stuff incorrectly in there..

 Speaking of languages I took up German. My German courses are on Thursday from 5.30pm to 07.30pm making Thusday officially my favorite day of the week with 11 hours of lectures. By the time German starts my brain is hurting from all the French I've heard that day and I should learn morea languages. Of course I'm starting with the beginners course so all the stuff is really easy. Actually sometimes I have to think if the teacher is speaking German or French because I understand both so well that I can't make the difference! :D

I'm still wating from my CAF (local housing allowance) on top of ImagineR. I thought getting it would be really hard but actually there was a generator in the interenet that filled the papers for you. But at least I got all my bank stuff in order. I got two bank cards and a cheque book from BNP Paribas. It's like I've gone 30 years back in time because now I can use cheques.

I think today I reached the ultimate Frenchness: when making notes I started writing Finnish with accent marks :D Also sometimes when I speak with my mom on Skype I start to answer her sentences in French without realizing.

I end this lovely little writing thanking MikGo for correcting my mistakes in spelling! His name is link to his blog (in Finnish). Thank you, it's nice to know that there is at least one person reading this! ^^

// Riikka helped me with mistakes in spelling. Thank you!

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