And the french bureaucracy starts...

Arrival Forms

After I arrived at my new home there was not much time to relax on my first day. I had to get registered at the university. And as it was already Friday 1 p. m. I really had to hurry up. So, I tried to find my way to the correct office - the International Student Office - and found a lot of people in front of it. They were waiting for the results of the language test which I missed in the morning because I was still driving to Amiens. So (as German person) I thought I had to queue up and waited. And waited. And waited. After 25 minutes someone told me that I could just go to the office because it was free. So finally, I went to the office and had to fill out some forms.

Language Test - How did that grammar work again?

For receiving my students card I had to find another building and another office, which was quite difficult because I did not understand everything the lady was telling me in French (That was the first moment I recognized how much of my French I had forgotten during the last years). Finally, I arrived about 10 minutes before they closed and she took a horrible picture of me - just to remind you: I stood up at 5 a. m. Drove 4 hours and went 6 or 7 times up and down the stairs to bring all my stuff into the room. But okay, would only be for one semester. Then I had to get back to the first office and fill even more forms. After that I had to do the language test I missed in the morning in order to find out which my French level was. As (yes, I know, I already mentioned that. ) I was very, very tired I just answered the questions without thinking a lot about it and felt really bad, but I could not concentrate.

The first evening - no time for relaxing: Ice Skating!

Then, finally, my "first day at university" was finished at about 5 p. m. And I thought about buying something to eat. Because I was really, really hungry. I found a supermarket next to the campus (fortunately! ) and bought some simple things and then returned to my new room. Of course, the internet was not working, and I could not figure out how. So, I just told the most important persons that I arrived safely, and everything was okay.

Suddenly something came into my mind - my tutor! He asked me to meet that evening and I totally forgot it with all the stress. Even if all I wanted to do was sleeping, I decided to go there anyway and to meet some people - I would be able to sleep the whole weekend, so come on! So, I went into the city centre (I was already quite proud of myself because I arrived on time and figured out by myself which bus to take) by bus and met my tutor. He was a very nice person and asked a lot of questions, so I didn't feel uncomfortable. When we arrived at the ice-skating place there was a group of English and French people which were welcoming me warmly and I really felt good. Usually I have problems getting to know people because I tend to be shy - one of my greatest fears in regard to my Erasmus. But everything was great, we had a lot of fun, even if I was very, very tired.

So, when I went to bed that evening, I could say that I had a really good start in France - I already met some very nice people and didn't have to be alone on my first evening.

Photo gallery