S'installer et se calmer (Settling In and Settling Down)

This is the second time I am posting this message, which is quite annoying. I was almost finished when all the computers decided to reset themselves - it was all of them at once, so I guess it was programmed to do so. It was 4:15 am, so perhaps they did not figure a jetlagged individual would be happily typing away at that time. A lesson learned...

Things are definitely looking up. Overnight my language level seems to have improved enormously, as I'm now able to understand most everyday conversation. I think once I got over the initial shock of hearing everyone speak French, and also managed to get some sleep after my 25 or so hours of flying, I found my studied French coming back to me. I sometimes find myself thinking in French, and I am also able to listen more carefully to what people are saying, because my brain no longer panics when someone speaks to it in French. I now feel extremely confident about picking up French very quickly, and have got into the habit of carrying around a dictionary wherever I go. If I see a word I don't know, or an object whose word in French I don't know, then I look it up. I have not done this as yet in places like shopping centres, where there are simply too many new words, but I intend to devote some hours to that in a few days time. It is certainly a very tiring an intensive experience, but I am enjoying it greatly.

I have found parallel to my improvement in language that the French are really wonderful, helpful people (or at least the people in this town anyway). It has nothing to do with them being more accepting of me as I can speak their language a bit more now, but everything to do with my own perception. Being able to understand their help, and not feeling threatened anymore, have certainly contributed to my feelings of goodwill.

I had my first French meal today - up until then I was surviving off a huge packet of soy crisps which I had brought from Sydney. It was at a restaraunt specially designed for students called 'Resto U', and I will definitely be back there. The food was good, generous and exceptionally cheap! I got some spicy cooked vegetables, a mound of french fries, two youghurts and a side plate of salad, all for €2,85!!! That's cheaper than cooking your own food with products from the supermarket.

My bag arrived this morning, which was a massive relief. I know my mother was concerned that I would live out of my suitcase, so if you are reading this mum, don't worry I have unpacked nearly everything. In fact a sudden compulsion to be neat has seized me, which is bizarre given how messy I used to be - perhaps i've realised subconsciously that the buck really does stop with me, and that I am the one who will suffer if the place is a mess. This experience of living alone will definitely be good for me.

This is a good opportunity to talk about the living conditions. The rooms are so-so, fairly limited in space, and with quite basic facilities. The wallpaper seems to be peeling in a number of places. There is a table with two drawers, two chairs, lots of shelves, a small wardrobe, two large cupboards, a randomly included chalkboard without chalk, a continuously leaky sink, a bed with borrowed sheets and pillow and a curious contraption called a bidet. The dictionary translation of bidet is 'bidet', which isn't exactly the most useful translation the dictionary has given me! Someone told me it is basically a urinal, but instead of hanging on the wall, it sits on the floor.

There is also a communal bathroom and a communal kitchen. The bathroom contains the commodes and the showers, and on the whole seems quite well-kept. The only problem is the absence of toilet paper - we need to provide our own. The communal kitchen is very very basic - just some sinks, a couple of hotplates, a microwave and a personalised fridge (at €33 per year, fridge rent is very cheap!). There are no communal cooking utensils, cutlery or cleaning instruments - again we need to provide this ourselves. Time for me to do some shopping, I think.

I did do some shopping, in my first little venture out to the main part of the city. In the supermarket, I was utterly stunned by the variety of choice they had. In Australia you are seriously getting gipped. There was at least 50 of everything, and probably double for the cheeses and chocolates. The fresh vegetables are beautifully displayed in baskets - layout seems to be very important in shops here, more so than in Australia. I ended up buying a loaf of bread and a block of roquefort cheese - absolutely delicious!! I know I am going to spoil myself with all these amazing cheeses, and I'm worried about how cheese-fussy I will become on my return to Australia.

I went to a major department store called 'Monoprix' and bought a large pot, a plate, a bowl, a fork, a spoon, a knife and a warm blanket. The blanket in particular is a welcome addition to my inventory, because now I won't freeze at night. I'll buy sheets when I have a bank account, for now I buy the essentials. One of the essentials I missed out on was a pair of gloves - they had run out! It is freezing here, so everyone has rushed out to buy themselves gloves.

The cold is probably the most uncomfortable element of my existence here. For one, the sky is perpetually grey. I never thought I would miss the sun, but I do. Also when I said it was freezing, I was being literal - outside the department store was a fountain with massive icicles hanging where there should be running water. On my walk home at about 6:30 in the evening from the department store, my fingers began to feel extremely painful, and I felt my throat clogging up. Before my organs stopped functioning I was lucky to reach home. I will definitely make a much more determined effort to get a scarf and gloves tomorrow.

The walk from the department store wasn't all bad; I did notice some amusing signs which I will take photos of. One was a piece of graffiti, in English, which said 'Help the police - Beat yourself Up!' I found that pretty funny at the time, but I wonder if there is a more serious undertone to that - was it just a randomly funny piece of graffiti, or is there a serious problem with police beatings here? Another just bizarre sign I saw was a directions sign - it simply said 'Other directions' on it. Why on earth would you have a direction sign that says that on it? I've seen a few of them, so I guess I must have missed something. Will investigate further.

I have met some more friendly English-speaking exchange students while I am here. One is Bao, from Vietnam, who is doing his economics degree here. There seems to be a large nu,ber of vietnamese students here - presumably because French is one of the major languages in Vietnam, making France an obvious choice for study. I also met Shailja, a girl from Chandigarh, India, who is doing a Masters in Law here. Apparently there are a few other North Indians here as well, so she has committed them to teaching me Hindi. I look forward to it.

Tomorrow night I will meet a lot of the exchange students at a New Year's dinner organised by the University, including Rob Watson who I think will arrive tomorrow. New Year's in France should be interesting, although the following is a direct quote from Yahoo News: 'Burning cars is not unusual in France - where dozens of cars are set afire on an average night. But the number has risen to about 300 on New Year's Eve in recent years, according to the Interior Ministry. "Nothing's different. We are indeed expecting cars to be burned like every year" Catherine Casteran, a spokeswoman for the national police, said by phone on Friday.' What a shame I'm not in Paris to see the pyrotechnic display. :S

That's all from me for now. My next post will be in the New Year...so happy New Year to everyone! Make sure your New Year's Resolutions are realistic, but ambitious! :)

Vol et arrivée (flight and arrival)

It's quite tempting to write in French, because I know I need all the practice I can get. But I know most of the people who claim they will read this are Australian, so I'll write in English so they have no excuse but to read it.

My fingers are really hurting right now...I think my fingers were so used to the Australian keyboard that it actually hurts to adjust (it could also be the cold, but I'm not sure) One good result of that is I won't waffle as I usually do. Or at least until I get the hang of this keyboard.

It took me many many hours to get here by plane. Was travelling for nearly 1.5 days - Sydney to Bangkok, Bangkok to London, London to Paris, Paris to Marseilles. Am super jetlagged - that is why I am making this post at 5am.

From Sydney to Bangkok I sat next to a guy called Anthony who looked like a clone of Nick Trim (President of AIESEC Curtin, for those of you who don't know him). A nice guy, he owns a business in Hungary importing swimming gear from Brazil. Funnily enough he did his undergrad at UNSW, and knew AIESEC UNSW well as he had many a friend in it. A lot of his Hungarian friends are ex-interns in Hungary. Its a cliché to say it, but its definitely a small world.

From Bangkok to London, the long flight, I was lucky to get an aisle seat, and sit next to a nice English couple in their 50s. Even though I spoke to them a great deal; I never got to know their names. I guess its weird to open a conversation with your neighbour with a formal nominal introduction, and once you're deep in conversation you tend to forget. They had been traveling in Thailand for the last month and having a blast. I asked them a lot of questions about Europe; it seemed I knew more about Europe than them! It seemed to be 'backyard syndrome' - they'd never really traveled or learnt much about Europe because it was always there. Same with most Australians - how many have been to Uluru?

Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris is a nightmare. Its massive and confusing, and the shock of hearing everyone speaking in French all of a sudden did not help. I remember talking to the check-in lady, trying to speak in my bad French...she just glanced at me and said rather coldly "speak english". I felt a bit silly after that, but kept trying to speak french with other airport staff. It seemed to work. At the gate however, the airport staff member who was speaking French to everyone took one look at me and started speaking English. It's not that obvious is it? Maybe its my bad dress sense, or the fact that I looked awful being unshaven and generally revolting after 26 hours of travel. One of the observations I've made of the French so far is that everyone seems to keep themselves very tidy and fashionable. Thinking back on the incident, he probably saw that I was carrying a giant French-English Dictionary.

The view on the final flight was amazing - I was glad I had specifically requested a window seat. I had been impressed on the descent to Paris, with white in every direction, but on the flight to Marseilles I saw the Alps: through the clouds! They are extremely beautiful, and reminded me of my trip to New Zealand. I'll definitely be spending a lot of time skiing there; will post photos as soon as I have some!

At Marseilles airport, I came out of the terminal to see a sign saying 'AIESEC - It's up to you!'
Thus I met Johanna Rasplus, the person from the Department of International Relations who was assigned to pick me up from the airport and help me settle into Aix. She also happens to be the VPICX of AIESEC Marseilles. It was a very random coincidence, as there are many people who work for the international relations department, and only one AIESECer in the whole city (she works for AIESEC Marseilles, despite being in a town 30 minutes away). Her English is very good, she is very friendly and amazingly professional. Despite a continual series of problems (my luggage still being in Paris, a spelling error in my name causing administrative chaos at the accommodation place, being sent the details for the wrong accommodation place, etc.) she handled them as much as possible. She also gave me a lot of advice with advice with regards to the room and payment details, and other things like when we will meet to open a bank account etc. I think if it weren't for her help I would be stuck somewhere begging for food near the airport. One of the French MCP candidates had mentioned to me over msn that Johanna has been tagged for a national committee position next year despite the fact that she is a first-year AIESEC member. Given her level of professionalism, this does not surprise me at all.

I felt a bit glum after she left because it meant I had to fend for myself in this strange environment where I did not speak the language properly. I unsuccessfully tried to negotiate for some sheets and pillow from the site manager - it may have been possible if we were able to communicate effectively, but I won't know for some time. So, stuck without luggage, sheets or a pillow I sat down unsure of what to do next. I realised I needed to keep busy to avoid the feelings of alienation that come with culture shock, which I was clearly under the influence of.
I thought I should call my sister and tell her I had arrived. I headed for an empty phone booth, when I heard someone say - in English - that the phone didn't work. Their use of English didn't register until I heard one of them say 'he speaks english' in response to my response. It was then I realised how good it felt to hear a foreigner - they were Americans - speaking English. With the exception of Johanna, the French had come across to me so far as an impenetrable cultural monolith, and even when they spoke English to me they were still somehow 'against' me for being a foreigner. Its all ridiculous and entirely the effect of culture shock, but it can feel horribly true. For that moment, I was so happy to be in the company of Americans.

The 3 Americans are pretty cool people. There were two guys, Jeremy and Jason, and one girl, Shannon. Shannon was the exchange student - she had been here for 4 months and will be here until July. The other two were her friends, just visiting from the US for 2 weeks. Those two openly boasted to be even more mystified by France than me, which naturally incited me to describe my own troubles to date. It turned out to be a good open forum for us to air our grievances and help us get over the feeling of culture shock to some extent. I look forward to further conversations with Shannon to help me understand living in Aix, and to remind me that there will be a time when the language difficulties come to an end. Having heard my plight with the sheets and pillow, she told me that she had an extra set and lent it to me. This one gesture gave me a lot of calm - not only would I not freeze tonight, but there really are solutions to the problems I will be facing, and there will be nice people to help me when I'm in trouble.

Feeling a lot more confident, I've made my 'faire' (to-do) list for the next few days. One of the things was the creation of a blog, which I've now done :). I look forward to getting lots of comments from people, its a good way to keep in touch. If you actually want to read more in future, post in the comments what you want me to write about and I will do my best. Internet access is a bit limited, so I will post when I can.