THE FRENCH SYSTEM
It's a lot I can say about the French system, but in it's own way it works. Everything works - as long as I know which forms to fill out, how many copies to bring, why and last but not least the shoe size of my father's son.
The thing that annoyed me the most was the metro card here in Toulouse, the Tisséo. To get a metro card in Toulouse you need the following:
- Identification (passport)
- A picture
- A confirmation stating that you're a citizen of Toulouse - this means your apartment contract.
My apartment contract for a metro card, are you kidding me?
I would like to assure you, I don't hate the French bureaucracy or anything, I'm just not very impressed. Then again everything gets harder when you don't understand what the form says.
Today I found out that there is an election for the student council here at INSA and that several of my class mates are participating. Therefore I went to Bib'INSA to give my vote - I figured I could do my duty and help the GP list (GP = Génie Physique, my faculty here at INSA).
When I got there I was amazed - it's a big election - and what a system! It was straight forward - a French paper mill I can handle!
I had to stand there for a while just to make sure it was true.
It was true. Simple, no big forms, no passport pictures to hand in, nothing hard! Before I got in line to vote I saw JJ from my class and started talking to him. When I told him I was going to vote for his list he told me I couldn't vote. What?! I can't vote? For the first time in France I've found a paper mill that is accomplishable, straight forward and simple - and I cannot participate!?
Arrgh! It's definitely the French system playing with me.
Listening to "Dig out your soul" by Oasis
And now something completely different:
I'm sitting in my room, it's quite cold - autumn is really kicking in here in Touluse. No worries, it's only cold because I haven't tuned in my radiators yet. It's getting warmer every minute :)
Veit and I tried to open the bank account for the Lindy Hop group yesterday, but we had to go back today because the right person wasn't there. But now it's all done!
Listening to "Dig out your soul" by Oasis
The past days I've been listening to the newest Oasis album "Dig out your soul". I downloaded it from iTunes because we're going to the Oasis concert in Toulouse the 17th of February(!). The album is great, recommended by yours truly!
I wish you all a pleasant day!
AND GOOD LUCK!
The past weekend I ended up not going to Sarlat with the others, so I've spent a lovely 4-day weekend in Toulouse. Saturday I stayed inside all day because of my bad throat. The only thing I did outside my room was the laundry. It was absolutely necessary. I got better during the day and joined Santiago, Johannes, Annika (each with a visiting friend) and Kristian for dinner in centre ville. We had quite some trouble finding a restaurant - maybe not so strange at 20h+ on a Saturday.
We finally found the "Goudien" a small little restaurant and got seated in the huggely celler (remember: huggely = Nice atmosphere with good company).
I ended up trying "Andoulette", some kind of sausage with a very strong and special taste. The reason why I tried it was because no one else wanted to try after the waiter said he didn't like the dish. When he served me he said "And good luck!" and smiled. It was a bizarre situation which didn't get any less bizarre when the waiter stopped to watch me take the first bite.
So what did I think about it? The taste was strange, but I thought it was good when mixing the Andoulette with the accompanying food. Will I order it again? Probably not. :)
Sunday morning I woke up with a throat aching from Saterday's restaurant walkabout so I stayed in my room all day drinking tea and surfing the internet.
Monday I did a whole bunch of need-to-do stuff like fixing some things on Candiss' homepage that I made for them and paying some bills. I then went to Carrefour with Juha, Kristian and Johannes. Carrefour is as always a time consuming place, but we got out after only 2 hours!
The four of us went to the The George & Dragon pub the same night to have a few beers and play darts. My iPod notes describes the situation:
"Later that night we drank beer and played darts at The George & Dragon. I lost badly. But then again, the opponents cheated. The only thing important in life is gardening"
If someone thinks I'm a bad loser, I'm not. But I had to fill in the finishing word and "cheated" suited my situation quite well (Johannes started the sentence). A fun night!
Yesterday I tried to study for today's exam, but it didn't go very well. In the afternoon I studied a few hours with Claire and it helped me quite well.
At 19h I met the Erasmus and we ordered pizza. The pizza company used one hour and 15 minutes to deliver the pizza. Not impressive, but the pizzas were tasty!
So. And it all ends with the present. I'm happy that my exam went so well and I'm now off to meet Veit. We're going to open a bank account for the Lindy Hop group!
Until next time!
TOUSSAINT: DAY 6-7
Day 6 - 30th:
Since many new travelers joined on day 5 we were now 12 people. We therefor had said 0900 sharp as a rendez-vous and left 5 past. Of the 12, 7 joined the first group going to Versailles.
At 10h30 we ate breakfast in front of the main building (I don't think that was legal - but we're Erasmus and didn't understand). Tom and I bought the cheap ticket (13,50€ without Marie Antionette's building) and spent most of the day by our selves.
Illegal breakfast on the coldest Toussaint day. The view was ok though
The audio guide was nice to have when we visited the numerous impressive rooms in the main building. After visiting the main building we met Annika and Victor who were going to see the Marie Antoinette building a kilometer from the main building. Tom and I joined and found out that the Versailles garden would be a great golf course (or four)! The 18th hole straight toward the main building (the club house). The name of the course? VRGCCC - Versailles Royal Golf Course & Country Club. Something for France to consider.
The rooms of Versailles. Each one beautifully made and with different colors on the wall
A room in Versailles. The statue is a self-portrait of the artist Jeff Koons
who had an exhibition at Versailles
The weather this day wasn't the best so we (Tom and I) didn't eat lunch with Cate, Juha, Nina, Fie and Geir. Instead we got our part of the food and went back to Paris.
We tried to got to Hôtel des invalides and Musée des armées, but we came 15 minutes before it was closing so we figured we could do the visit the next day. It was still freezing and wet, so we went home and bought some beer and crisps at Monoprix When we passed our metro station on our way back someone tried to pickpocket me again! (Last time was the first day in Paris - at the exact same location). Both compartments of my backpack were opened, but I had made my valuables hard to get so nothing got stolen! Pheww.
The others came to the hostel shortly after and we had a nice evening with vegetable soup, bread and some wine.
Day 7 - 31st:
It was hard to get up. I didn't sleep very well this night because of my coughing (I finally managed to spell it correctly, thanks Tom). I fear that I kept some of my other room mates awake as well, in that case: sorry!
No famous monument to eat breakfast in front of today - we ate baguettes (without jam) on the metro. We got to Louvre and left our bags and jackets in a storage room below the famous pyramid. Once again Tom and I spent the day together. We visited the Antique Egypt, Roman and Mesopotamia exhibitions and of Course Mona Lisa. We then saw the Renaissance exhibition before we met the others under the pyramid and ate lunch at 13h30. Le Louvre is extremely big, we had covered less than 1/10 of the museum!
Tom is excited to see the Mona Lisa
At 15h Tom and I went back to Musée des armées and this time we had time to look around. 6€ for the ticket wasn't too bad and we got to see the World war 1 & 2 exhibition and Napoleon's tomb before the museum closed. It closes annoyingly early - 16h45! Bad business!
We tried to get into Jardins de Luxembourg (Gardens of Luxembourg), but it was closed. We ate a 'Royale with cheese' and two milkshakes on McDonalds at Place St. Michel. Yes I know it's bad to eat at McDo, specially in France. No excuses. Sorry.
We went back to le Louvre around 18h where we by coincidence met the others (who had been there all day). They recommended Napoleon III's chambers. The chambers were absolutely magnificent, way better than ANY room in Versailles!
Napoleon III's chambers: The best room ever!
Annika turned 23, so we bought her dinner at a Chinese restaurant. I wasn't really hungry and didn't go for the three course menu as the others did. Amazingly enough I still managed to pay more - and they got the same food as me and a beer plus a starter AND dessert. Obviously a bad choise.
TOUSSAINT: DAY 5
Day 5 - 29th of October:
By now we had a good system for getting up. Every day we met outside the Hostel at 0900 (Zulu time). My head felt better this day than the day before, but was filled with snot. Our plan today wasto walk "The axis of France" - the distance Louvre - Place de la Concorde - Arc de Triomphe. I looked forward to the sights, but understood it was going to be hard.
We did the normal shopping round of baguettes, today I bought vitamin juice and candy to make my day easier. We ate breakfast in front of Le Louvre (the world's most visited art museum), it was cold - really freezing! Luckily the sun raised and shined when we had eaten, which helped a bit on the cold part.
There is always a line to Le Louvre.
A cold, cold, cold breakfast
We passed Le jardin des Tuileries before some of us ate a crêpe (pancake) or a gaufre (waffle) in front of Place de la Concorde.
Place de la Concorde was the host of a huge happening about 215 years ago when Louis XVI was sentenced to death and then guillotined at Place de la Révolution (as it was called then) on the 21st of January 1793. His wife Marie Antionette followed the 16th of October the same year. The Place is surrounded by huge historical buildings, but we mostly looked at the gigantic Egyptian obelisk in the middle. The obelisk was given to France from Egypt in the 19th century.
Place de la Concorde. Champs Elyssées to the right
Champs Elyssées seen from Place de la Concorde
The famous Champs Elyssées starts at Place de la Concorde and ends at Arc de Triomphe. We walked the 1-2 kilometers to the Arc and visited a large Adidas shop on the way. Juha wanted to get new shoes, but we left without finding anything, a bit expensive maybe? We were all amazed about the Arc de la triomphe, it's really astonishing! The view from the top of the Arc is best night time so we returned later the same day to go up. Marvelous!
Paris is devided into to parts (ish) the old and the new Paris. The new paris is centered around La défence, the business area of Paris. We took the metro there (it's a bit far to walk) and had a brilliant lunch in the steps in front of La Grande Arche (a modern arc of triumph).
Lunch in the stairs of La grande arche
Since it was still freezing (the sun was on/off and didn't really help) so we had a coffee at McDonalds to get warm. We also found a huge mall, Quatre temps, so we went in to shop (the true reason was to get warm). Juha now wanted gloves - his Finnish hands were finally cold!
We strolled back on the Esplanade de la défence and took some photos before we met Fie (our 7th traveler) who had been dropped off at the Arc de Triomphe by her parents.
Front to back: Cate, Juha, Tom, Geir, Nina and me.
Notice Arc de triomphe on the left and Tour Eiffel on the right
We met Victor, Kristofer, Henrique, Kristian and Annika (other Erasmus students) who arrived in Paris the same day. This party of 12 and three additional norwegians (Norginsa students from INSA Toulouse) ate dinner together at Pizza Hut near Centre Pompidou before we went to the top of Arc de la Triomphe (as I told you about earlier).
When we got home I got straight to bed.
The Eiffel tower seen from the top of Arc de Triomphe
SARLAT?
The reason is of course that I'm still ill and that it (at this point) doesn't look like I'm going to get well by tomorrow. I've been more or less ill for about one and a half week now, so I really need to relax to get completely well. It's annoying to calf all the time (or is that the mammal?).
I went to school this morning since we had eight hours of mandatory Travau pratique, but I had to forfeit at lunch time. My head was tumbeling, so I wasn't to any help for the group (my lab partner [binôme] and I).
FX (the binôme) was very understanding and said he would finish the lab on his own. It's normally a lot to do, so it was very kind of him.
When I got home around noon the tea drinking begun. Now it's 21h and I am still drinking tea - I'm completely soaked!
I was supposed to go to bed, but I've been sitting in front of my computer (like now) drinking tea and starting (and finishing) a homepage project. You can see the little thing here, but don't expect too much, it was made in only an afternoon.
Oh, by the way. As I worked on the little homepage project I started looking through all the old designs and homepages I've made (20-30). And boy have I made a lot of ugly homepages! At the same time I'm glad to see that their designs have improved as I've learned more - the last ones are the ones I think is the most beautiful. Mental note: I'll make a post where I show you some of them!
I've added a picture today that I'm really proud of. As you probably understand I took it in San Francisco, on the north side of the Golden Gate bridge. It's a HDR image (3 images with different exposures put together).