The Beginning

I'm in Paris, I'm finally here! After the hassle of trying to arrange my job, accommodation and transport over the last few months, I have made it and I have just finished my first day at work. I haven't decided how's the best way to do this yet, because there seems to be just way to much to talk about so I'll try and keep in brief, but get all the important bits in.

So the actual travelling to Paris, God was that a shambles! I booked a coach ages ago so as to be all economical and sufficiently student-y and independent only to eventual decide I wanted to go a couple of days earlier which lead to me spend a lot on other coaches and in the end spending as much as I would have spent on the Eurostar. Then the coach was delayed we waited at the Ferry for about an hour before we were let on and I arrived at my apartment over two hours later than I was supposed to have arrived. After such a horrendous journey I was tired and hot and sweaty and completely failed at speaking French to Diego , the guy whose apartment I have rented for the summer, and his landlords. Basically I will never get a coach to Paris again and neither should you. Rant over.

My apartment is lovely, on the other hand; much more spacious than I imagined and Diego, who has now returned to Colombia, and his landlords are very nice people. I properly hit the high on that culture shock thing that the lady made us do at the Year Abroad meeting. Yesterday was an amazing day I walked into Le Marais (because I live so close!) and got Falafel from the famous L'As de Falafel, which was amazing, but could really have done with some salsa. I tried to open a bank account, but needed a reference letter from my English Bank so that is going to take more time than expected. I also bought a sim card for my phone, but apparently Virgin blocks any other sims on my phone so I had to call up and get that unblocked, another thing which will take longer than expected. In the evening I met up with girls from home at the Eiffel Tower for a picnic dinner, which was so much fun and I was sad to see them go, but I'm sure they are having fun in Amsterdam.

Now for the bit you have all been waiting for ... work! Yes I was dreading it to and I was right to. I'm working near Le Parc de la Villette, where this lovely ball is! 

There isn't much there though as it is so far out. It is right next to the Périphérique and there is a lot of development going on around there. Basically what I am doing is I'm part of 'The I.T. Crowd' except not as funny or quirky or English. I am arranging stock and delivering computers to the people that need them around this massive complex of buildings holding over 2000 employees. There is an 18 year old who is also doing it with me, his name is Juan. He is from the Banlieu and is going to study something computer-y next year at university. Me and him chatted in French for a long time about the usual stuff; music, girlfriends, school before trailing off awkwardly. We had lunch together in the best canteen ever. You know how the French love their food? Well is definitely shows here. Everyone has a one hour lunch break where you get an array of dishes; roast, burger, various sausages, fish, vegetarian, pizza, pasta + desserts and drinks all heavily subsidised! I was in heaven, but unfortunately I couldn't eat very much as you often can't went you're in a new and not entirely comfortable environment.


After lunch they didn't really have anything for me to do so I sat there for the whole afternoon. They had a 40 minute reunion in which my brain literally was on the brink of just shutting down due to an overload of French. I was pretty sure they were talking about me for a long time deciding what to do with the 'stagiaire surprise.' Now I'm incredibly tired and really looking forward to the weekend, but I must remember that I'm getting paid and I probably am improving at French.

So there you have it there is the beginning. I'm sure everyday won't be as hectic as the past few so I'm sure I won't have something to write everyday, but I'll keep you posted when something does happen.