Missing lectures

But it's not always my fault! Okay ;) :D

Starting from the beginning when I got here. Here different departments start their academic year on different weeks. I got here on Sunday and the next day was the beginning of the tourism and economy and law departments. First two days i obviously spent on registering and all of that - I didn't even know where or when lectures are. Languages started a week later. As I wanted to do spanish I worked my timetable around that, but on a fatal wednesday a lecturer told me out of the blue: "hasn't anyone told you that this isn't for beginners?". Well obviously not, I wouldn't be here otherwise. -.- That was the longest 2 hour lecture I've had. I just kept on wishing that she would give us a 10 minute break so I could run away but noooooo. Obviously I panicked (in my head) and wanted to sort out a new timetable as soon as possible. Finally done but since I had to choose tourism modules and some from the economy and law department meant that by default I'd missed two weeks of lectures already -.-

Friday 8.30 (why does this lecture start so early?????) I was ready to go to my first marketing lecture. Got there a couple minutes earlier - here everyone comes practically on the dot not 10 minutes before. No one was there... hmmm... In that building they have the room timetables on the doors and I was definitely in the right room but all alone... This is weird... Waited until 9.05 (usually most lectures start at 9 in the morning) and no one. Actually to tell you the truth I was a bit relieved since it is a 3,5 hour lecture and just too much for me :D so yeah No lectures on that Friday then :)

According to my new timetable on Mondays I have two lectures in a row, both two hours long. Went to the first one - arabic - enjoyed it a lot. The second one was Languages and Regional Cultures for second and third year business students but since it had three groups I decided to skip it that week and find out which group I should go to before making a total fool of myself :D + I was tired from the previous 2 hour lecture + I just wanted to go and hide under my duvet and never come out :D

Wednesday I had International Relations Law for second year law students. Got there :) but then noticed it was a little office and only 4 students went in. OMG, obviously I ran as quickly as possible. I have to mentally prepare myself beforehand :D and I just wasn't ready for that yet - I like to be invisible but it's hard when there's only four other students besides me. In my defense: What would you have done? You don't completely understand the language - it's second year law and only four people!

This Wednesday my day was supposed to start at 9 with a tourism lecture. For some reason before going to the lecture I wanted to double-check the room and voilà. I couldn't find it anywhere... -.- Finally found that it had been moved to the next Monday and as a comment it said in translation like an excursion. What??? but I have other lectures on the Monday?!?!?! OMG why does everything have to be so hard?

Next Thursday the International Society or International Office or whatever has planned a hike or something to the nearby mountains. On a Thursday! Surely everyone's got lectures. And I don't know if I can afford to lose a lectures worth of information but I want to go and have a walk in the mountains!!!! I think I'll do it. That will also give me a chance to practise my french with the other people :) Or at least take pretty pictures :P

Ttyl ;)
Jazzz...

Nice surprises

Monday, decided to go and get the certificate for my health insurance back home, walked to the office and surprise surprise, they had lunch, how the hell I managed to pick the hour they had lunch. Went back later, got my certificate, so up the hill, to the library to scan it in, everything went well until I wanted to log into my mail to check if the scan got there or not, surprise surprise, my laptop won't connect the uni network, tried switching wifi on and off and again and again, nothing, obviously I had lecture in less than half an hour, so quickly to this IT helpdesk, grab the number, bugger, 3 people before me, waited there, swearing in my mind that why did one guy managed to pick the number 2 seconds before me and why is the queue moving so slowly. Someone got their things done and another guy came to serve, so yaay, oh no, I was wrong as he suddenly goes to help the other one, noooo, we do not help the other person here, I have a lecture to attend and I need my laptop fixed before in case the lecture is boring and I need to surf the Internet. Phew, finally they were both dealing with different people and It was my turn soon, so I tell what's my problem and he asks when did I last used the uni network, um, end of the last academic year, and he asks me again when did I last used it, gees, before summer obviously if it was at the end of the last academic year, how is that so hard to understand now? So my user was blocked, why oh why, he first tells me to wait for 15-20 min and try again, and if not to go back, but then reckons he could do everything he can straight away, halleluujah, why would I wait and come back if the problem can be solved now.

To the next annoying thing, had a dissertation fair in my department today, so we were supposed to go and ask people who are related to our topic about our dissertation, surprise surprise, none of the lecturers related to my studies/dissertation were there and wait, it gets better, they are all on research leave or sabbatical, great, I just don't have anything else to say other than amazing, how I'm supposed to get some good advice now??? So annoyed with that, first of all  got up for nothing and secondly, how do they let people in the same area leave at the same time? Bring on some war or theory or intelligence adviser for third world dissertation then!!!!!!!!

Ems

Becoming a proper student

Registration for being a proper student took forever. About a couple of hours most of it due to waiting in a queue in each checkpoint. So the first day I was here went to the first checkpoint, waited waited waited and waited some more until I got to see the lady and she told me that first I have to go to the International Office. -.- Why the hell did I waste my time waiting there??? Because the International Office is behind the second checkpoint. So went there she gave us all the information packs that Aber sends its students months and months in advance and a regisration pack. Then she led me to the accommodation office to sign the contract and blah blah blah and since the rent is a euro higher than advertised I should have my guarantor sign the guarantor paper again, all because of an euro. Well... thank you very much, I will send it to my dad (I don't even know where the paper is - that's how much I was going to do that and if they start demanding it I'll just say it got lost in post). I asked if I could pay the deposit and the first rent now. Yeah I could, so I waited and waited and waited and waited some more until finally they directed me to the lady who was able to take payments.

Got my registration pack and started filling it out slowly. Back to the first checkpoint. Surprise-surprise did some waiting and saw the lady again. I couldnt fill in some of the questions because I didnt really understand what they wanted from me but she said it's not important, had a look the folder, checked my european health insurance card - they're freaking addicted to students health matters and insurance. Filled in some gaps and sent me to the next checkpoint. There was a confusion since the man hearing I was an Erasmus student sent me back to the International Office. Ok tried to explain there why I was there :D She sent me back to the second checkpoint but to the lady now and asked herself if I was supposed to be here, and voila I was. In the second checkpoint she filled in a bit more of the registration folder - or asked me to fill in certain parts. Onto the third one where I had to pay for the sports and cultural activities - 35 euros per year and I could do as many sporting activities as I could and wanted. In the next checkpoint they took my folder and started typing it in the computer, there was confusion because I am an originally from Estonia but at the same time I am an English Erasmus student. I could see the queue forming behind me :d before it was literally non-existant lol :D oops. The last stage was collecting my student card - they did a picture there and then. Someone could've warned me, I would've made myself look better but it's  not that horrible luckily :D

So yay after all this I'm now officially a student in this University all I need to do now is choose all my modules and get them approved and as you already know I've had some problems with that but I'll tell you all about it in a post of its own.

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz...

So, what's been happening

I'm still alive :D but obviously not a blog person, but should post something before Jazz asks someone to kick my ass.
Oh shhh, just remembered it's playlist time too, bugger.
Let's get that done first then...

And as the tradition is:

Other than that, I have uni from Monday, yaay, not really, last year ahead and I don't even know what my dissertation is going to be about.
Have been up in campus couple of times, to register people, as they have this stupid system here, which is that you can only register through uni computers. And also went to freshers fair, I know I know, I'm not a fresher, but couple of free pens won't hurt anyone, right? So, this year it wasn't in the sports cage anymore, instead of that in a huge tent, and as always, freshers were lucky to have a ridiculously nice weather, so on my way up the hill I remembered why I hate this hill, because it makes you sweaty etc, so, up in campus, let's find the tent, looked quite nice, so in we go and WOW, it was so HOTTTTT and small, one person stopped for something, everyone else had to stop too, so I couldn't stand being there more than 5 minutes, walked only one way and out we go again, phew, I was so sorry for the people who had to stand there for the whole day to introduce their companies or shops, gees, respect for them. As you can expect now, I didn't even think about going to the other fairs they had there.

Ems

Raw eggs everywhere

Like I mentioned in the first post about my new life :D I was starving the first day, yeah not a very good start but hey, I think all the excitement and nervousness kind of pushed the feeling of starvation away. Since it was a Sunday night I had little hope of finding anywhere to eat but I did, a nice little underground pizza place. And let the surprises begin :) In a good way of course. I didn't understand all the things that were on the menu so I picked the pizza that's toppings I could understand - mushrooms, ham, cheese AND egg. Weird isn't it? I didn't really know what to expect but I certainly didn't expect the pizza I got. There was a raw egg just cracked on top of the pizza. Well this is strange. I've never in my life eaten a raw egg... Is it safe? I mean regards to the salmonella disease? Who knows - I don't... But it must be. They can't serve diseases to their customers. Well lets try this then. And guess what it was really good, a bit strange yeah but I could definitely get used to it. The huge pizza cost about 8 euros - not too bad but it was huge and I couldn't eat all of it - left like a quarter of it. I always feel really bad not eating all the food - the staff might think there was something wrong with it or I didn't like it but I did, I just can't eat all of it okay!!!!

The next day we went to have a look through the town - Corté and decided to have a snack in a cafe or restaurant or whatever you call it. At first I thought I'd get a sandwich but then again it was in the middle of the day and I didn't know where the kitchen in our accommodation was yet, so I could do with something more substantial then a sandwich. I chose tagliatelle carbonara - carbonara sauce is my all time favourites but the love for it just grew to a totally different level. WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Surprise surprise there was a raw egg next to it! What is it with the french and raw eggs? Or is this how it should be properly done? This was the first time I took a photo of my food, because I was just so amazed - it was layered - sauce at the bottom, then tagliatelle, on top of it bacon strips and on the edge of the plate an egg cracked open. WOW!!!!!!! I didn't know what to do so I hope I do not sound very stupid now :D I poured the egg on the tagliatelle and mixed it a bit - but not all of it because I liked the layers :D And it was delicious!!!!!! And yet again I couldn't eat everything - I think it's a little due to the heat - when it's that hot I do not want to eat a lot.

 Here's the photo of the meal I crave for now and trust me when I say I think about ALL the time but at the same time I'm a bit afraid that if I go back there and order it again it won't be as good as the first time was :D 

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz...

Frustration

Argh... this is my first and hopefully only negative post about France. Its just all the little things that aren't going according to a smooth plan and one big thing :D

• The transport here: it is nearly impossible to go somewhere for a day to chill, the beach for example or a bigger town since there are basically only 2 trains per day. But thats a minor detail obviously since my town is pretty and has a little beach thingy of its own, but you know I'm a restless soul and need to go to all the places.
• To go to the uni cafeteria to eat for only 3.15 euros per proper meal I have to top up my student card, esy right? Oh hell no! The french has this stupid electronical money system which does not accept foreign cards. You would think that there would be at least one machine that tops up my card with cash but no, they all require a bank card, khm sorry a french bank card. Then they told me I could do it online, previous Erasmus students have done that. I was like Yay okay I'll do that then. But nooooooo it still won't accept my card. Spoke to other Erasmus students and they can't top up their cards either so it isn't just me. Luckily I found out that I can pay cash for my food, so 2 proper meals a day now :D the student life for me. But no this is not the happy ending for the card top up saga since I can only use my student card electronical money to wash my clothes. What a stupid system!!!!!
• I have to log in to the internet every freaking time and it just does not only redirect me to the login page but first gives me warnings that this redirection is unsafe etc etc etc are you sure you want to proceed etc etc. Freaking remeber my computer and give me internet all the time!!!! Plus it occasionally throws me out so I have to log in again.
• One of my bathroom lights and the light above my bed do not work -.- Freaking why didn't the man who checked that everything works, when I moved in, notice those?????????? Plus my shelfcase is upside down so it's superweird and unpractical. Tried putting it the right way round but then nearly broke a leg off because it has gotten soaked with water so is very fragile. FUDGE why do these things happen to me??????? Other roos have normal shelves and walls are newly painted and some even have hooks to hang clothes etc. Yeah my room is the crappiest. I haven't gotten round to go tell the receptionist that the lightbulbs need changing because I still haven't packed properly so it's a bit of a mess right now and I don't want anyone coming in to see this :D It's not that bad :D
• I can't freaking sign up to a step aerobics class without a freaking stupid medical certificat that no one told me beforehand. Ok fine I'll go to the uni doctor. Oh no wait they do not give out medical certificats. Why the hell are you there then?????? Freaking now I probably have to pay loads of money to go see a doctor in town. I just want to do some exercise and get my stupid credits from that!!! Why are you making this so difficult for me!!!!!!!???????
• And the cherry on the top of the list: Yesterday while I was sitting in the spanish civilisation class and introduced myself (the teacher said I have good french - i only said two sentences -.- hy my name is and an erasmus student from... you can't judge my language skills by only two basic sentences, but dont get me wrong I was flattered :D), the teacher then announced that this class is not for beginners. Why wasn't this written or said somewhere before!?!?!?!?! OMFG now I have to change all my modules because I worked everything around spanish. It took me an hour and a half to come up with a new timetable and module choices because I want to make life harder for myself and not just plainly choose all the modules from one course but do one module here, the other one there etc. And it's not easy!! Especially if some of the module times change in October or November, like why????? Why can't you have the class at ONLY one specific time???? Anyway today I'll go to the international office and ask if they see any problems with my newly proposed module choices and if they do well, I don't know what I'll do tbh. The reason I don't take just one course is because I think some of the modules might be too difficult in french etc.
• I'm just so tired every evening. My brain is literally working full-time just trying to understand what the lecturer is talking about and it is so exhausting! But I'm not complaining about this. I knew it would be difficult at first and my french will only get better in time and that is my main motive to be here :)

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz...

A new start again

In case you do not know I´m spending a year abroad in Corte, France. It is a fairly small town in the middle of Corsica. At first I thought oooh, in the middle that's nice because I can go everywhere and it wouldn't take too long but as I soon learned the hard way that the transport here is pretty crap and that kind of destroyed all my big plans of travelling around the island.

But from the start: How I got here:

Last Saturday I was in Manchester enjoying the last days before the big adventure. My flight was due to leave 7.10AM Sunday and the gate closed at 6.40 meaning I should be there 5AM. This time I had a big suitcase too to drop off so I couldn't just walz in and go straight to security. Looked at the train times to the airport and guess what: the first train left at 5AM and got there 25mins later. Not too bad right? Is it? technically that would've left me about an hour to stand in the bag drop off queue, the security and actually finding my gate. My flight was in terminal 1, that made it worse because I have never flown from there so I don't know how big it is or how long the queues could be etc. Checked the bus times just in case but that took 46 mins so I decided to take the chance - yeah yeah some would say I'm worried about nothing as it's still 1h45min before my flight leaves. I just like to freak out a bit when everything does not go according to my plan. It was around 10PM, i had just bought a proper on-board suitcase and was worried that it wouldn't fit as much in as my previous bag had. As I glanced at my phone I noticed I had 2 new messages, from Easyjet. Guess what they said! The Manchester Airport will be working on its full capacity and I should allow more time to get to my gate, basically freaking me out more and saying that I should get there as early as possible while I had planned to get there a bit later than 2h before. And in my defense I must say again that I did not know the terminal and had to stand in 2 queues. After a lot of stressing I decided fudge it, I'm going with the 5 o'clock train, what's the worst that can happen, I'm only 15min later than the suggested 2h before the flight departure.

When I got to the airport the sihgt I saw was a surprise - there wasn't a huge mass of people everywhere, just a normal flow of people in the airport in my opinion and the first queue moed rather fast so after that I could breath easily. It's not as bad as they deemed it to be. The security queue took a while but not a ridiculous amount of time as well so when I got through there my flight's gate wasn't even announced yet, so early no need to worry anymore. The check-in lady from the bag drop off desk said that my gate is 15 so I decided to go there immediately and not wait in the lounge as the screens told people to. I got to gate 12 and that was the end of the hall! What??? I can't be that stupid that I can't follow signs that definitely said gate 11-15 this way, but no gate 12 was the last one and full of people waiting to board their flight so I tried to squeeze past them to see if I'm just being blind and stupid and can't see the corridor leading to gates 13-15 but no there wasnt one. What the heck? This can't be true. Retraced my steps back to the last sign and it definitely said gates 11-15 pointing to the way I just came from. Oukay... well the gate number was displayed on a screen so maybe it's the same gate but the gate number just changes, what I think is a bit stupid, why can't it be just gate 12???? And I was right the number shortly changed and became 15. Meanwhile I saw how people actually ran to their flights and the crew got a bit anxious because everyone wasn't there yet though they had checked in and passed through security etc.

The flight went alright, but when we got off and had to enter the airport I got stuck in the security gate. What a stupid system. I got stuck between the door and the gate. So me. Luckily a guy next to me got stuck too so we were both like oh well... The security guy game in a couple of minutes and got the guy out, I was still stuck there. Finally I figured out why neither the door or the gate opened - it was because my bag was just in front of the gate and the sensor must've thought that it was someone trying to go through the wrong way and voila as soon as I pushed my bag out of the sensors the gate opened, thanks for nothing useless security guy - you should be familiar with your system.

Got my big suitcase too and went to the information desk to ask how to get to the train station at Bastia. I already knew we had to wait like 4 hours for the next train but thought it wouldn't be a big deal as Bastia was a big town so I could eat and drink something while waiting. The receptionist said that the next train would actually go in 10 minutes and we should take the taxi to the nearest station which is only 5 mins from the airpot. I was happy like wow yes I can get to my room quicker than I thought. We raced to the station and guess what, never trust stupid people, the receptionist had told us the train time for weekdays but we were there on a Sunday so the next one was the one I had been planning to take anyway and in that station we had to wait 5 hours now. And when I say station I mean just a station in the middle of freaking nowhere!!!!!!!!!!! I hate people so much!!!! I didn't have anything to eat or drink and the taxi here was already 20 euros so I wasn't going to spend more money on that + I had a ticket from that station now and I didn't know any taxi numbers even if I wanted to. So yeah a great start isn't it?

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz...