Almost the end

Just one more week and 11 hours and I'll take the train to Perpignan, leaving Paris behind. Never managed to keep this blog up to date, which is perhaps rather a good thing : Paris felt so like home, that writing about it feels strange.

I'm trying to summarize why I love it so much here, but it's difficult. I like the way the city is always moving, how you can always find new places to go, the museums, the thousand bookshops but mostly I love just wandering around (especially in the night on a bicycle). The people I met here, from all over the world, but also the French. Of course you learn to hate the hours of transport like a real Parisian, to complain if your metro isn't coming in the next two minutes, the high prices and just complaining.

So next week, last week, will be filled with learning and saying goodbye. First of all, I'll leave the cité u on Monday (end of the way too short February-month), Thursday last Erasmus-evening and Friday just the general last night in Paris. With on Tuesday a international evening at uni where I'll be one of the four people on stage in front of a crowd way too large for my nerves.

I'll miss you Paris! But....

Banyuls-sur-mer! Villefrance-sur-mer!

First a six-week course in Banyuls-sur-mer (next to Perpignan) with ten of my classmates. It will be fantastic, I'm sure! After a two-month internship in Villefranche-sur-mer (next to Nice)! Then the marriage of my sister, a summerschool in again Villefranche and a month in Tüddern to guard the house and the animals.

See you all soon !

Wow! An update!

Summary: Leuven will have to come with a really cool master-thesis proposal to get me back there. The latest entry is from just before I moved into this beautiful room in the south of Paris.

Paris-life was especially study orientated the last month, exams were last week, in a really different system than the Leuven one. Where we used to have two weeks of 'blok' or 'semaines de révision' and three weeks of exams, here we had 5 days to do the learning and just one week to do all the exams. But no oral exams, so less stress (unless that last article presentation counted as an oral exam, but with the evolutionary ecology training ;) it didn't feel like a really big task). Oh and the best exam was perhaps the English one, or the French one ^^

Not sure at all whether I passed them all, especially the thursday exam was not a real big success, but 'tweede zit' is in January, so no problem =)

November was kind of cool also, with two weekends in the Netherlands/Belgium and to see a lot of you again. Next time will be in february, the 18/19/20 weekend (with the now usual: friday/saturday in Tüddern and sunday in Leuven). And the party for Victor's birthday with a lot of people in my room (and a not-so-happy secretary)

But now the second semester is approaching!! And real Christmas-holidays for the first time in four years! For now, I plan to finally do some touristy stuff around Paris, do the inevitable Christmas-shopping and take the train to my grandparents' place "near" Le Mans. After Karen and Sanne will come to celebrate NYE here in Paris. The weekend after that Stefan and Michiel are coming and at the end of January my sister will come =D

First weekend of february a wine-harvesting festival in the east of France, after a weekend at home and then it's almost the end of my Paris stay (it's coming soooo fast).

In march and april I will live in Banyuls-sur-mer, a little town, just next to the Spanish border, located next to the Mediterranean sea to follow a course. After some kind of internship somewhere and in July an extra course of data-analysis at Villefranche-sur-mer.

O yeah, and that little choice that I have to make, Ecology or Oceanography, Leuven or Paris?

New home! New home!

Let's start with the good news that most of you already heard at least 3 times: I've found a new place to stay from the first of November!! 

I'll miss this beautiful banlieue house of Epinay-sur-Seine and my housemates here, but I'm looking forward to moving into the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris! A lot of exclamation-marks, I know, but when I heard the news yesterday, it was even worse. I hope that not too many people saw me the 5 minutes after I read the confirmation mail, a little too happy =)

For those not so familiar with Paris, the CIUP is a sort of campus in the south of Paris (14th), with about 30 or 40 houses, each representing a country or region (and even some specific 'study' houses, would love to have an oceano-house over there ;) ), with a lot of facilities on the park(library, student cafeteria and sport) and a lot of activities going on there. I will move in the "Collège Néerlandais" which is not really the most beautiful house on campus, but the interior is quite okay by first look. 

The promotional picture of the house:

Will update a bit longer somewhere in the weekend (Disneyland!!!), but for now a well-deserved sleep after a too tiring 8-hour physics day.... And a new one tomorrow. (can you smell the coffee?)

En grève

Strike!

As you may know, France is quite known for its strikes, and this is a big one. Strike in Paris mostly means: big rallies (one on Tuesday, one on Saturday) and less transport. Transport is cut by about a half, so if you need a train in the morning, you will participate in the attempt to break the world record, how many people can one train hold? Announced trains will sometimes just not come or people are not allowed to get in the train because it's too full. Overall I was quite lucky this week, minus Thursday when they cancelled the two announced trains of 9h, so I had to wait over an hour to finally get into a train. As a result, I took the train an hour early on Friday, but of course this time there was no problem at all. Strike is still on for Monday, Tuesday another big rally, so it could still last for a couple of days.

But had a really good week! Last Saturday there was a big birthday-party in a apartment, a lot of Latino music ;-) but a really good atmosphere. Left too late to get back home in a normal way, so a classmate offered to put us up for the night, which was really nice =) Worked through quite a lot of study-material on Sunday and Monday-morning.

Monday evening the introduction for foreign students by the uni. After more than a month, it was about time. But the buffet they offered was really good. And met a lot of nice people there! Such a shame they didn't do this event in September! Once the whole buffet was eaten, we left the caves, to do just one last picknick (it was kind of cold) on the banks of the Seine. Below a, really bad, picture of a bunch of erasmus-students on their way to the Carrefour Market.

Tuesday just another day on campus, "trying" to finish that stupid homework of the French class (finished it in the end) and French lesson in the evening. This time we had to describe an object we had invented with "street-inspiration". And that was the whole lesson. Grabbed a thing to eat afterwards.

On Wednesday was the first 'TD' here. Which by all means is not the same TD as in Belgium. t's quite the opposite: where in Belgium you'll name your student-party a TD, here it is a 'werkzitting' or an class with exercises.Laughed quite a lot with the other 'sediments' (too much?) during those 3 hours about the significance on iron in the oceans. Normally there would have been a lecture afterwards in the oceanographic institute, but it was cancelled.. But we still went for our after-lecture Belgian beer =D  

Missed the first course of Thursday because no train showed up... Not much for the rest, caught up with a lot of people on MSN that evening which was really good! Left the house an hour early on Friday, to be sure to be on time for the first class, arrived an hour early, and did some work in the library. Tried to find an interest in the physics-course. Luckily this course was in between two descriptive courses of specific oceans.. And finally to celebrate the beginning of the weekend, rue mouftard.. Yesterday an evening in a pancake/karaoke bar to celebrate the birthday of my aunt, which was really fun and the food was really good! Stopped my night-bus on a roundabout and the driver let me in (phiew, otherwise it would have been a long 50 min wait..)

And for the next week, statistics test on Monday with afterwards a new buffet for foreign students, Tuesday Disney!!! with Dimitri, Victor and Fred, and work, work, work to 

Totally in English from now on!

A small change in the content of this blog: the language. Hopefully now everyone will be able to read all the super-exciting stuff that I put down here. Loved today, by the way, the weather was just perfect to stroll around the university after the courses. I had to go and buy just one book for my French courses, but ended up strolling around the Latin quarter and its fantastic (second-hand) bookshops during 2 more hours. Ended up with 4 'new' books =) 

The week was quite calm, but the university work is beginning to pile up on my desk here. I'm not sure yet how the learning-process will go here, with my lecture notes in French (talking the language is one thing, taking notes in it, another) especially as there are no books to back up the powerpoint-presentations. Luckily everyone is really helpful around here!

Monday, statistics (still not sure whether the way they teach it here, is really useful in a master program) and lecture about climate-models at the ENS-institute of Paris. That's another nice thing about living in Paris: a lot of opportunity to go to extra lectures. This lecture was perhaps not the most exciting of all lectures, but still worth it. And those seats were really good. And how to forget that conversation with Dimitri, Victor and Sara (some details are perhaps worth forgetting) afterwards? Ended the evening on Place Jussieu with a durum and fries. 

Tuesday, 'Grandes Questions Environnementales', again a lecture on climate change. "Worked" in the afternoon to search some articles for the project, first French lesson in the evening. We're going to do grammar after all, so that's good news! This session was kind of boring and the tasks we have to do seem a bit stupid (write a horoscope, imagine a new object based on something you saw in the street), but also a sheet full of verbs. To forget the course Sjoerd and I went to the 'Mayflower' to get a Karmeliet and some food. And it was actually after that, on the RER back home, that I had my best work-moment of the day.

On Wednesday, another whole day at uni with some moments of work and more moments of fun. Thursday was an easy day, only courses in the afternoon and a nice birthday-drink for Candice afterwards

On a less positive note: will probably have to leave my room here in the middle/end November, because I cannot get onto the contract of the house (don't ask, already spent too much time on that, primary cause=****landlord). So around that time I'll start a new room-hunt in Paris.

And that's about it for this week!  I still haven't developed mad photographic skills, again almost no pictures, but this one is from Thursday:

Opgepast - enkele foto's gemaakt met Laurine-kwaliteit

Ok, ik heb deze blog wat verwaarloosd, maar het was een drukke tijd!

De voorbije twee weken waren goed gevuld met allerlei activiteiten en veel lessen. Het einde van de zomer is ook in zicht, de laatste vrije ochtenden en middagen in de lesweek gaan nu langzaam verdwijnen en het einde van de administratie lijkt in zicht. 

Vooral de donderdag en vrijdag zijn hier enorm lang qua lesdagen. Einde van de week gecombineerd met 8 uur luisteren naar lessen (4 hoorcolleges achter elkaar) met daartussen te weinig pauze om eten te kunnen kopen in de kantine. Gelukkig zijn mijn klasgenoten echt fantastisch en vormen we een hechte groep. 

In Frankrijk wordt daarbij iedereen in een klassement geplaatst aan het einde van het semester en aan het einde van het jaar. Je voelt toch dat er een soort van strijd is om een goede positie in dat klassement te behalen. Studieresultaten worden gepost in een excelbestand, zichtbaar voor iedereen van je studie. 

Over naar bevestigde vooroordelen, zowat elke week is er wel een dag met aangepaste dienstregeling omdat er een staking is. Maar ze strijden hier nu ook tegen de verhoging van de pensioenleeftijd en om de berichten uit veel nederlandse en belgische media tegen te spreken, het gaat hier niet om de verhoging van 60 naar 62. Dat is de leeftijd dat mensen op pensioen mogen, maar niet de leeftijd van het volledig pensioen. Volledig pensioen is hier ook als mensen 65 zijn en die leeftijd willen ze nu optrekken naar 67. Een ander vooroordeel; chauvinistisch. De lessen praten nogal veel over franse wetenschappers, wetten en ontdekkingen. De rest van de wereld wordt soms iets te gemakkelijk vergeten. En: Parijs is de mooiste stad ter wereld. Op basis van mijn ervaringen, bevestig ik dit. Naast de vele mooie wijken/straten/parken, leeft de stad gewoon altijd. Altijd is er een of andere activiteit. Enorm veel musea, bijna allemaal voor niks te bezoeken. Ik hou van Parijs =)

Dan een kleine samenvatting van deze vreselijk vermoeiende week:

maandag, les statistiek (eindelijk een gemakkelijke les!). Blijven slapen bij een studiegenoot in Parijs zelf om dichterbij de campus te zijn voor het onmenselijke tijdstip van vertrek op dinsdag.

dinsdag. 4u20: wekker, 5u05: bus richting campus, 5u30 aankomst campus, 6u00 vertrek naar Downe (Kent, vlakbij London). Zes uur bussen richting het huis van Darwin in Engeland. Of zeven, want we waren er om 12u engelse tijd. We werden ontvangen door een kleinkind van Huxley (een redelijk bekende wetenschapper), mochten dan een uur lunchen op een manier dat we de lokale bevolking niet zouden storen (we vonden in een zijstraat van een zijstraat een lege wei), kregen in de Village Hall wat lectures over de geschiedenis van Darwin's huis, een rondleiding door het huis, een wandeling over de nadenkwandeling van Darwin, weer wat lectures, reclame om het Darwin huis aan te merken als UNESCO werelderfgoed en toen was het alweer tijd om naar huis te gaan.

woensdag Aankomst 02u00 in parijs, aardige lerares gevonden die mij en een studiegenoot naar het beginpunt van onze nachtbus reed, 02u30 op nachtbus (vergiste zich in de route), 03u15 in mijn bed. 06u45 uit mijn bed voor de les van woensdagochtend. 09u00, de klas realiseert dat de professor niet gaat komen opdagen. Met drie achtergebleven in de collegezaal om youtube filmpjes te kijken en daarna te gaan slenteren in de stad. Naar 'Arts et Metiers' museum gegaan, een museum in een zeer mooi gebouw, met allerlei objecten van de geschiedenis van beroepen, wetenschap en vervoer. Lastig uit te leggen eigenlijk, maar wel de moeite. Vooral de tijdelijke 'expositie', 1,5 uur spelen op alle oude consoles (incl. de originele Pong) op enorm grote schermen. Gaf een raar gevoel icm te weinig slaap. Ons bioritme was er toch aan, dus om 16u avond gegeten. 19u30 lezing in het oceanografisch instituut van Parijs over de eerste, vaak vergeten, ontdekkingsreis in ons vakgebied van, natuurlijk, een fransman, Nicolas Baudin. 21u nababbelen in de Mayflower (€5,50 of €7  voor een halve liter goed belgische bier, karmeliet, chouffe, ect.). Daarna afspraak met Erasmusstudenten in een Irish pub vlakbij de faculteit. 

Donderdag: moe naar de les (oeps, nacht was iets te kort weer). Na de les een nieuw café gevonden met belgsiche bier à €5 per halve liter (normaal formaat hier), gaan uiteten, taart gegeten met een bankpas als mes op de kades van de Seine. Vreselijk gezellige avond =)

Vrijdag: oeps nog altijd niet echt geslapen. Na de les met studiegenoten naar een happy-hour bar naast de uni gegaan (€3 voor een halve liter frans bier, wie zei dat Parijs duur was?), boodschappen gedaan, rustig thuis gegeten en ruim op tijd in bed. 

Zaterdag: geslapen, gegeten, op de computer. Vanavond naar 'Nuit Blanche'. Een hele nacht zijn veel musea, parken en pleinen omgevormd tot feestlocaties met allerlei extra voorstellingen en veel muziek.. 

Oja, voor wie het leuk vindt, 30/10 ben ik 's avonds in Sittard, 31/10 ook nog overdag en 1/11 ben ik in Leuven om 2/11 weer terug te keren naar Parijs =) En 12/11 -14/11 in de Ardennen.

Een enkele foto's om mee te eindigen. Zodra ik mijn camera weer terug krijg, zal ik er meer gaan maken :)

Alles begint in mijn straat,

gaat door in de trein (incl. ontbijt)

wandelen richting uni

uitzicht vanaf de hoofdtoren op de campus

Picknick met klasgenoten langs de Seine

De beste uitgaansplek in Parijs: de kades

Erasmusdrink

 

An english entry for all the non-dutch speaking people ;-)

As I had some remarks that the Dutch language is not really readable for everyone, here an entry in English. If you don't feel like reading: Paris is fantastic, study is cool and the people are really nice. Administration is hell like everywhere and organisation is often missing. That will about summarize the past few weeks.

The thing I was scared about first, the fact that you can easily be lost and alone in a big city like Paris, is not a thing to be scared about any more =) The people here are great, and not just the Erasmuspeople, les océano's are also a great bunch. And of course my coloc's!  

The lessons at university are interesting at some point, but very different to what I'm used to. Not every professor will have a powerpoint presentation (although most have) and statistics isn't taught on a computer, but we have to calculate everything by hand... We get a table with p-values instead of statistica just giving you the answer. And then there is the professor with a powerpoint presentation, who refuses to put it online. And there is no course, so you'll just have to do with the things you wrote down. 

And the after-uni life is just great. The pick-nicks on the banks of the Seine, the pubs and just the beautiful city of Paris make it a really nice home. I'm already used to the transport-hours which are a big part of your life here, but I do miss a bicycle. I'll have to find a second-hand one somewhere fast =D

Negatives: administration and organisation. Administration in a new country is always hard I guess, but here the just love their papers. It feels like the Vogons in the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy from time to time. And the organisation just isn't clear and most of the times just lacking. Chaotic, just like the city, I guess.

See you all in Paris!