Orientation week

My staying in France was easier and better thanks to International Club. To be honest, I have to say that people from the International Club are just amazing. I heard about them already before coming to France because they sent us an email about picking up service. When I received their message I was sure I wanted them to pick me up.

We had our welcoming party from the International club already first evening. I was totally impressed by all activities they decided to organize for us. My staying started already with an introduction week. I would like to describe my introduction week in a detail today. Their programe included iceskating, pub crawl, city tour, speed dating and many other activities. In addition, they organized few trip during the semester. We had a deadline for it and if we wanted to go with an International Club we had to register for it in advance. It was a hard choice where to go.

My staying in France started perfectly with orientation week organized by International Club. We already received the whole program before coming to France with all the details. When I checked it, I was quite surprised because it was one week full of many activities from morning to evening and I did not expect that. December was a crazy period for me because I had to convince all my teachers to write an exam before Christmas. Fortunately, they were all tolerant and they allowed me to do that. Although I was quite nervous about whole situation because I already booked the accommodation in France and I bought a bus ticket at the time when I had no idea if I was going to pass the exams. There was also possibility to do the second or third attempt in January but I would have to come back which would be inconvenient. The only thing I could do was hoping for the best and study. At least I had a big motivation. I had all exams in one week and I studied for it much. When I left to France I did not even have all results from my exams but I had a good feeling about that and it well great. The last thing I needed to have done was my bachelor thesis which I surprisingly managed to write there. It was not the easiest task but I felt responsible and I started writing early not to be stressed and it was great. I even managed to go to Portugal before the deadline because of my amazing studying plan. I did not really have time to do some good-bye party or spend some time individually with my friends. The day after New Year´ s Eve I just left.

My first time I was not in a mood to meet new people. I experienced the typical first day in a new country and I did not like anything – accommodation and city. I could not imagine spending all five months in Lille. Why did I want to move there? That was my question whole evening. I missed everybody so much. When we went out I did not feel good and people did not seem attractive to me so much. I had kind of depression, I went sleep early and I knew I had to get up early because it was our first day of orientation week.

First day at the university

I was walking to school. I have to say that it was obvious that IESEG was not university for free. Normally, French people who want to study there have to pay a lot of money for it. It was great that thanks to Erasmus program we did not have to pay for it. Although university receive a lot of money each year and thanks to it they take care of their students much. Our orientation week started on Tuesday and they prepared program from morning until the evening! My mood easy changed in few seconds. Firstly, I liked our campus. It included four main buildings and all furniture was new and all classrooms were well-looking. We started our meeting with breakfast and then many presentations came. The director of the university had a long speech about exchange, adapting to new country and he also did quiz about how many students from different countries came for that semester. I was shocked when I found out that there were not many people from Europe! I still don’t know why but it was normal that people mainly came from Latin America or India. It was not usual for me and it took me some time to get used to it. It has many advantages and many disadvantages. I loved to share all stories from different countries and get to know information from other students. Moreover, it is amazing to know new culture, habits and opinions. The bad thing was that I made a lot of friends abroad and since they are not from Europe it will be hard to meet them again. Nevertheless, I was paying attention when the professor said the Czech Republic. It was only me and another girl! Before coming to Lille I promised myself not to contact the girl from the Czech Republic to make my exchange real. Although I could not resist and we already talked the second day in Lille. It was relieving to talk with her about all feelings and ask her about some advice also.

During our first day we had many presentations – about visa procedure, about CAF, about accommodation, about food, about French classes and many others. The most important one was of course related to International Club. They all looked so cool. They were active, friendly and they already told us about their offer of trips we can overcome during our semester. I was mostly with my new housemate Tanvi. She is from India and she was very friendly since beginning. They talked about the course procedure long time because we had deadline for choosing the classes soon. To be honest, I preferred French system much more than ours in the Czech Republic. It was normal that we could choose extensive classes which take places almost every week during whole semester but on the top of it we could also take intensive classes which were held only during one week. They started on Monday and there was an exam on Friday. They were always during the mornings and it was supposed to be taught but it was only one week. This system suited me well because I hate stereotypes and having same classes every week. In France, I chose few extensive classes and few intensive classes which enabled me to have enough time for my bachelor thesis because when I had an intensive class I was focused only on it and when I had extensive class only I could write my thesis almost every morning. In the beginning it was hard but I knew that if I did not write the thesis there I would not be accepted to Amsterdam University. It was a big motivation that made me finish it on time.

We also received special cards as the access to the building. I was so happy not to solve VISA because another people had a lot of arrangements with it and they had to pay much more money also. The university also helped us with CAF which was really helpful. The thing is that you have possibility to apply for student help from French government during Erasmus. It is not usual in another countries in Europe. When I heard about that I was delighted. On the other side it can be demanding process. Firstly, you need to have your birth certificate translated into French and then you need to give them your ID copy, the bill from your landlord, six pages long form with all the details about your room, equipment and location and many other things. In addition, it is normal that even though you hand in all your documents they will require some of them again. Nevertheless, I was successful with CAF and I received around 130 euro each month (except for the first one).

Another important part of the first meeting were French classes. We had two options – attending normally French classes or being listener at the class without exam. Since it was my intention to improve French I wanted to take the class normally. Before, they sent us some French test to divide people into the group. When I was doing the test I had no idea it was important. Therefore, I did not even read all instructions properly and I was too lazy to do listening part. It also explains my result. I was supposed to be A2. When I spoke to the teacher she told me it was a shame because I had such a nice writing and she did not even believe that I wrote it haha. I realized that if I had better group I could attend more classes and I asked about moving to B1. As a test the teacher had conversation in French with me. It was so awkward! I wanted to go B1 group but when we had a conversation I was not even able introduce myself. It was terrible. Total disaster. I had not been practising French last six months and I did not even repeat anything before going. That explains the fact that when the teacher asked me a question I mixed Spanish, French, Czech and English all together. It was funny but I felt ashamed at the same time. Nevertheless, the teacher did not really care and she allowed me to move to harder group with condition that if my teacher says I should go back I will go. In the end the classes were good and I passed my B1 french exam!

After a long day we met in front of university and we had our first official Welcome Party. It was probably in Rendez-Vous. Partying in Lille was amazing. Even though the city is quite small there is a long street with bars and you have a lot of possibilities where to go. Except for Sunday and Monday, the street is alive. I liked that everything was at one place. If I wanted to meet my friends I just went to check three bars and it was likely that I would them there. I was still shocked by new people that evening because I could not find anybody from Europe and I needed more time to get over it. Nevertheless, we already made our Czech group - with Lucia and Katarina. Lucia was from Slovakia but it was great that we could talk about everything in our own language.

One of the most important evening in January was Galaevening for me. It was again organized by International Club and since they got some money from the university it was awesome. Firstly, I love all party in a suit and dress. It is so nice to see everybody in their best clothes and it looks kind of luxurious. Secondly, we had a lot of free food and drinks. It was not usually for me because during my studies at Charles University we never had a party like this organized by our school. We had one dancing ball but it was for whole university with advantages and we even had to pay for the entrance. We came to this evening early and I was enjoying the atmosphere whole time. It was an unforgettable evening. Later on, I spoke to my French friend Pierre and he told me he could take me to the “secret” party after the ball. We were totally in and we were heading there right after Gala evening. We were so excited about exploring new party place. It was approximately 15 minutes from school.

When we entered the place we found out that it was a residence with basement which was used for parties. After few second we totally fell in love with that place. It was literally created for parties. It was called St Johns. At that time we did not know anybody living there but the place was quite crowded and they were people talking in the hall, in the kitchen, outside and also downstairs. Downstairs there was a place for dancing and it looked quite old. There were two sofas and all people were from IESEG. We were drinking wine and vodka. It was perfect evening! Later on, after two weeks, we found out that the place was not secret at all. In fact, it became our pre-game place for every party. Every time when the girls living there decided to have a party there we were craving to be part of that!

Second day of orientation week was quite similar as the first one. We had again breakfast and lunch provided by IESEG together. Then we had again some presentation to know all information. It was awesome because every day I met a new person. In the very beginning I met Lucia, Katerina, Moon, Pratik, Leon, Adrien, Juliette, Katie and many others. They were the first ones I was in contact with. For a dinner, we had possibility to go all together for all you can eat pizza. Of course I went there! The place was nice and we had a whole room for us. Typical French pizza was called Flummenkiche and I had a lot of it. They also offered us a sweet pizza as a dessert which was totally delicious.

On Thursday, we had individual appointments for course registration and bank presentation. I appreciated this week so much! It was the time when we did not have any worries and we could just spend a week by meeting new people and exploring new places. I don’t know why they don’t do this in Amsterdam! We had to pay 40 euros just for half day of introduction day and of course it is not enough!

During the evening we had a special event – Speed dating! It was my first time doing it and I was amazed. Even though we came quite late I had a lot of fun. The points was that we were sitting in a round and they started to stop the time. We had always 2 minutes with each person. After that, people changed. It was so crazy! I was just sitting there and every 2 minutes I had to say: ”Hello, I am Barbara. I am from the Czech Republic and I study finance. And you? ” It was basically my conversation whole hour. Of course I did not remember all the names and I was so thirsty after talking much but I loved it. I got to know a lot of people, for example Juan.

Subsequently, we all went for a pub crawl. I will always remember this night because it was great! We were divided into three teams and we were supposed to do three pubs in one evening and then we were supposed to meet at Rendez-Vous. In each bar we took some drinks and I met again many new people. It was a big mess because nobody know where to go. Although we ended up in the last bar and at midnight they decided to do free shots! People from International Club stood on the bar and they were pouring the shots directly to our mouths. It was crazily crazy!

Later on, International Club organized many other events such as Buddy night, Karaoke night or Eating is cheating. I appreciated all their ideas. It had always some purpose as eating for free, singing or going to the party with your buddy. I think that their events played an important role for me. Of course we had many other parties organized by ourselves but with these it was even better.

After all these activities I already felt exhausted but also I adapted fast to new environment. On Friday, we had a city tour whole afternoon. We were again divided into teams and we had to play the games and accomplish certain tasks. It was quite long! We were walking everywhere and the main intention was get to know the city better which we did. We also had to take as many pictures as it was possible. This day it was not enough. During the evening we had a movie night! They announced the results of city tour and then we met at the university again. We were watching the movie – Bienvenue chez le ch'tis. It was a French movie about north of France – exactly where we were supposed to spend our semester. The story was about one guy who was transferred from the south of France to the north because of its job. The point was that he was no happy with moving at all but after spending some time there he did not want to go back. They say that you are crying when you are moving to the north because of terrible unstable weather and weird accents and then you are crying again because you don´t want to move back. Basically, it was same for us. It took us a lot of time to get used to the weather in Lille because it was raining so often. In the end we did not want to go home.

Source

One of our last activities during introduction week was ice-skating. I had not been doing it for a long time before but it was great. The stadium was quite far because we were travelling by metro long time but it was definitely worth it. A lot of people came there and for some of them it was their first time doing iceskating. I enjoyed it a lot. They had a great music there and they had a special lights at night. We also went to the bar after that. When I got home it seemed to me that I already experienced so awesome moments and it was only the beginning.

International Club did a good job!

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