Moving In

The morning was fairly stressful. I woke up on schedule and ate a quick breakfast. My plans, however, would not be respected by the forces of the universe;  the elevator was broken down. I hauled my suitcase down the winding stairs. Outside, it was raining. I managed to get to the RER A at Charles de Gaulle - Étoile station with no problem (a part from the stairs). The route was direct to Gare de Lyon. However, I missed my stop. The mystical woman announcing stops neglected to mention which stop we were at and I was unsure so I stayed on.

I missed my train to Lyon by several minutes. When I had taken the metro back to the Gare de Lyon, I booked another one (for an additional 66€) and paid for my carte 12-25 (which saves you 50% on fares, which is good considering it cost 50€) and almost missed the second train! I had to haul my luggage up the staircase in the train and through four cabins (dirty looks courtesy of the First Class passengers) before I finally found mine.

In my effort to be super prepared for Warszawa and Paris, I forgot to figure out how I was getting around once I got to Lyon and ended up taking a cab -- and thank goodness, because my muscles were all dead from hauling around my luggage (see earlier posts). The address given to me by ENS is 15 parvis René Descartes (which means René Descartes Square). I gave this address to the driver and it didn't come up. Luckily he knew where the campuses was located (rue Jean Jaurès) and we got everything sorted out.

My original plan was to go straight to the Résidence, but I was so lost I just asked for the international department. They were not expecting me until the 30th (I had been confused by a sign-up sheet they'd sent to us), but they took wonderfully good care of me.

My res room is HUGE (compared to my room at home and my room at Brock) and I have my own bathroom and shower. There are only four of us in our residence "floor", two guys and one person who hasn't moved in yet. The two days, I've eaten lunch at the cafeteria. The first night I fell asleep at 17:30 after unpacking my stuff and didn't wake up until 11:30 the next day. I was starving! Setting up all my administrative stuff is almost done. I've just got to do the bank account and buy the insurance I need to live here for 5 months. I bought groceries and some necessities like sheets, a pillow, some cooking utensils (there are almost none), and sticky tack for my photos of my friends and family today at the Carrefour (sort of like a French Walmart). I bought my SIM card and an adapter that worked for my laptop cord :) so I finally have Internet!!

Orange walls?

Penguins Jersey :)

It's actually white

The shower




My desk



Reppin' Canada



My backyard
 



No sheets or pillow yet... look familiar?

Moving out of St Catharines



Kitchen

The common area




Our view



Our view



Everything is really good so far. I'm just a little lonely since classes and Orientation stuff won't start for at least another week and I didn't get here in time to do the French-language classes which I assume is where the other Internationals are meeting each other.

I ran into one of the girls, Milica' from the Ontario program today. I contacted the other girl, Jenny, (there are 3 of us in total) and I might be going to an ERASMUS party with her tomorrow night (ERASMUS is like the over-arching term for exchange students, even though it is techincally only European students that participate in that program). So hopefully I will be on the right track for meeting people! The only other person I know is my friend, Fanny, who is French and came to Brock on exchange. Unfortunately Fanny is on holidays in Greece until the 31st so I haven't been able to ask her a million questions.

More updates soon

xx
Tessa