Mon jour première à l'université (My first day at university)

Despite the title of the posting, I'll actually be covering 2 days here - Jan 2nd and Jan 3rd.

1. The 'Group': Nicole, Leah, Christian

At various points during the 2nd January, Rob and I met three other exchange students who will also be studying at IEP (Institute of Political Studies). They are the only students arriving at this time who live in our accommodation and are studying at IEP, so given the amount we seem to have in common, we have become fast friends. I'll put a little description of each of them. The description for Nicole is longer because she was the first one we met, and we have gotten to know her a bit better.

Nicole, who will be in France for one semester, is originally from Michigan, but has been living and studying (Int Relations) in the capital of Lousinia, Baton Rouge. Apparently the media attack on the US government for their response to Katrina was actually an underestimate of how bad things really were. All her friends from New Orleans lost their homes...its quite sad to hear about the situation from someone who actually saw it. Quite naturally she is not particularly fond of George W Bush, although the Hurricane Response only exacerbated her dislike of the man, as she voted for someone else in the last election.

Nicole is quite a strong Catholic, and she has said she wants to make a visit specially to the Vatican. I asked her opinion on Pope Benedict, and she said that even though she didn't know much about him, she thought he was awesome simply because he was The Pope! Nicole is very friendly, yet is prone to moments of vicious sarcasm. She tells me this is a 'Michigan thing' and to make nothing of it. I guess her sarcasm should be appreciated, because I know its not a very American thing, but a very Australian thing - although our sarcasm seems to be a bit more light-hearted in nature. Nicole also has a tendency to disappear into her own world for periods of time, which is fine by me, because I know do exactly the same thing.

Leah, who will be in France for one semester, is also from Michigan originally, but has been living and studying (also Int Relations) somewhere in Florida. At 19 she is the youngest of us, but seems more mature than her age. Her family is Irish in origin. I guess I don't know her well enough yet to note anything particular, but she is definitely friendly too. I think she is quite a straightforward individual, with no secret, bizarre and unexpected traits, which I know I have often been accused of having in Australia.

Christian is from Cordoba, Argentina. He is extremely valuable to have around, because his English is somewhere close to zero, so we are forced to speak in French with him. He has only been studying French for one year, but he is extremely good considering this - he is at about our level, and we have all studied it longer than him. He also speaks Italian (his mother is Italian) and of course Spanish. He is extremely friendly, and is here for one year, so he is great to have around. I am thinking of picking up Spanish in the second semester, and he has promised to help me if I do :)

2. Walking, fitness and my busted ankle

I must have been really unfit in Sydney. Well actually I already knew that, but I didnt know I was THAT unfit. I've been doing a lot more walking in Aix; its about 20 minute walk to the main Street, and a further 10 minutes to IEP. Since I've gotten here, I've done the round trip to the main St once or sometimes twice a day, which is between 40-80 minutes of walking per day. This isn't much, but I was pretty unfit...not only have I lost a large amount of weight, but also I woke up one morning with a strained ankle, and that was possibly from the 'excessive' walking. Its still busted as I type this, but I've been hobbling along as best as I can. Unfortunately I had to miss an informal social gathering of the international students at IEP because my leg was in too much pain.

Thankfully there is a solution. There is a student organisation called 'Bikes on Campus' which has been around since 1901, and they rent out bicycles to students for either 5 euros per month, or 40 euros for the whole year. While it has been a while since I have ridden a bike, I think it is definitely the best option I have.

3. Random logistics

I had my meeting with the cleaning lady to mark down the state of the room. Even though she spoke extremely quickly, we managed to get some sort of communication going. She gave me some cleaning products and a broom, and promised to send someone to fix the tap (who came quite soon and did fix that tap, thankfully).

I also managed to pay for my accommodation and my fridge, however for some reason I still don't have a fridge. I have to take the proof of payment somewhere else, then bring it back, etc. This kind of inefficient to-ing anf fro-ing seems to be quite common in French bureaucracy. Just another argument for mass privatisation, I guess.

We found an even cheaper supermarket called ED. It seems to work on the basis of mass production, so while the quality suffers somewhat, it is definitely good for students to shop there. Having bought all my food the other day at a slightly more expensive shopping centre called 'Casino', I did not buy anything there. But definitely will in future.

3. The first day at IEP

On the crisp, cold morning of 3rd January, my freedom came to an end. Although thankfully it didn't feel like it, as everyone was really friendly. We were met at the gate of our accommodation by Madeline Neoux, one of the IEP administrators responsible for students, and the person for whom Johanna works. She was extremely friendly, speaking French very slowly, and with a wonderful sense of humour. She took us to the IEP, answering questions along the way.

IEP is a beautiful old building; perhaps once it was a mansion for some fat feudal lord of the Middle Ages. Opposite is a medieval cathedral which looks amazing; apparently some of the classes at IEP take place there. I wish I could say the same about the inside of IEP. It was definitely put together in the 70s, and I don't think it has undergone renovation since then. The general colour of the inside is an off-yellow, perhaps yellow with a smidgen of brown in it. I thought UNSW was ugly, but this really lowers the bar considerably. I guess its just a matter of acclimitisation.

At IEP we were shepherded into a roomwith about 20-30 international students, many of whom spoke much better French than me. There seemed to be a large number of Americans, a good number of Canadians, and a few people from assorted European countries (Czech Republic, Sweden, Norway, Netherlands). A man with a very calm expression and an even calmer voice addressed the room, with a welcome address about subjects and logistics. I felt the at,osphere of the room relax as he spoke - he would be an amazing hypnotist! His name is David Coates, and he is the head of international relations at IEP. From what I picked up from other students who have known him, this man is legendary for his kindness and calm. As someone who stresses myself and as a consequence stresses others, I have much to learn from him. I had a conversation with David Coates later in the day; he is English, and despite having lived in France for 26 years, he still has a very strong English accent!

We were given some drinks and some good quality pizza (at least by Australian standards), and it was random networking time (clearly I've been in AIESEC for far too long). I found out I can do the Certificate of Political Studies and finish off with a diploma, which is good. Eglantine took us on a tour of the IEP, but it was quite hard to follow what she was saying. I kept asking about internet, and there seems to be a number of places thre which have it. Unfortunately, the ugliness of the inside was uniform throughout the building.

Afterwards we enroled in our subjects. Its quite a different system - there are tutorial type subjects on the one hand, and lecture type subjects on the other: no combination as we usually Australia. While you need to enrol in the tute subjects immediately, you just rock up to the lecture and see if you like it, if not then don't do it. The test for the lecture type one is an oral exam, where you just talk your way through the subject matter to your professor, and are given a mark for your understanding. I had one compulsory tute called 'France in the World' which I enroled in; I also enroled in two other tutes: 'Law of the European Community' (i.e. European Union Law) and 'Political Analysis of Latin America'. I'm not sure which of the lectures I will attend; I've got some in mind.

I have no classes on Wednesday, so I'll spend the time cleaning and doing other random logistics, not to mention filling in the massive forms.