Fffffff… Another long day reaches its end. So I’ll grab my Laptop and write a few words cause when I post when I’m in a hurry I’ll forget again all the stuff I want to write and then after I post I’ll start remembering them one by one.
I arrived here in the 13th of September and it’s currently the 23rd of October so that makes.. how many? 40 days.. Slowly I think I can reach into some first conclusions about the city, the country, the people, the daily life here etc etc. First of all I like to talk with people who live here and foreigners, getting their opinion about daily life. It helps when you want to see if what you feel is common. I did that a lot and here’s where I am so far.
To begin with, and as you’ll have noticed from my previous posts, everything is really stressed here. Surprisingly, the locals say that Southern France is the most relaxed part and blabla, but I suppose that’s because they haven’t lived in Greece yet 
Hm, I don’t know if the cause of my stressful, active daily program is France or just the fact that I’m dealing with more stuff here. For example, in the Greek university, I rarely attended lectures.(no point) Here, it’s “obligatory”, not only in the sense that they keep track of who’s absent or not asking pre-notification of absences, but also because the lectures actually have a meaning. You work with your group for various projects, the lectures are (usually) (but not always) interesting, etc etc. So there go 6 hours of my daily timetable, 09:00 till 16:15.
Aside from the University, it’s the rest of the daily reality stuff. As most of you dear readers (who happen to be also friends or anyway are in some way familiar with my previous daily life) know, a couple of months ago I didn’t need to care that much about things as going to the supermarket, washing my laundry, fixing the last god-damn-tiny-thing that didn’t work, doing money management, washing the dishes, cleaning, etc etc. Well, I had a small touch with all that the last months, and yes that helped me to ‘smooth’ my transition to live alone, but of course that was nothing compared to the real thing.
So I don’t know if I should blame France for all the stress. All I know is that I talked with my Tunisian friend, and he also said the same thing. (It’s really impressing how we agree on most of our problems with the eastern country guys. We had identical things to say with the Tunisian guy, a Cameroon guy and a guy from Madagascar. ) Everyone is stressed about the dates, you’re 10 minutes late and all hell breaks loose, everyone is strictly following a schedule, organized and all. I suppose that’s a price that comes with the package. If you want buses that arrive every day ON TIME, you’ll have also to be ON TIME yourself. Aha. I get it. Notably, it’s been one or two weeks now that I keep an organizer to my OUTLOOK. Calendar, Tasks, Dates, Time, and all.
Changing to the subject of immediate future, as I’ve said, the Masters has an obligatory “stage” (paid practical training) part. If you are lucky, you may find an “apprentissage” ( apprentship ) contract, that is better, considering the company you work, not only pays you with a normal salary (and not the minimum one), but also pays your fees in the university. [[[ small pause : as time goes by I really get suckier and suckier in English. End of pause]]]
So, about that practical training, you have to option to do it in whatever country you wish. That can be of course France, rest of Europe, US, Canada and I don’t know what else. Now, it happens that I got all negative replies from small/medium companies I sent CV’s here, and cause of that, I really really think about doing most of the part of the training in another country. Possible candidates: Belgium, UK, or Spain. I have some contacts that could help me get a stage there. There’s also the option of Paris which is not bad at all. I’m really considering each country one-by-one, because anyway, a six-month training will be a nice opportunity to live in another country for a while. By May (which is when the big part of the training starts) I will have already seen enough of Aix En Provence. I’ve been told that things in Belgium are more ‘internationalized”. There are also northern Europe options, as Denmark or Sweden, and the climate factor won’t be an issue considering we’re talking about the summer months and September-October. Or, who knows, maybe by May I’ll have changed my mind and want to stick here. Or I’ll miss FETA , PASTITSIO and TZATZIKI so much that I ‘ll want to go back home and start a career there. We’ll see.
I was a bit shocked about the responses for my job (stage) applications. Vasso had told me that the French job market is not so easy-going for the foreigners but we’re talking for a practical training here! And I wrote motivation letters in French and all. I don’t get it. I had interview requests from Finland, and for normal job applications, but none from France. That’s why I want to try many countries. I’ll apply to as many countries as I can and wait and see. Maybe I should also stop being too selective. It’s true that my applications were only for companies located in the city and not in Marseille, where are the most business opportunities and large organizations.
As for the Master’s itself as program, I must admit that at first I wasn’t that impressed, but as we go on and I get myself into the ‘business’ mindset, it gets more and more interesting. It’s cool because the program (called Management & Information Technology) combines both managers and engineers/IT guys (with me being on the latter) so it gives both groups a really good push towards the other side. Personally, I wouldn’t want to end up being an IT guy, so that’s a good thing. Most of the graduates of the program become IT Consultants. Yep.
As for the ‘social’ aspect of my life here, it’s calm. I haven’t had actually much time for “fun”. Maybe now that most things are in place (at last), I’ll have some more time for that too. Today it’s a ‘soiree’ of the University. A university Halloween party thing. I’ll go for a drink, even though we have class tomorrow 09:00. (And this time, I should be ON TIME) I SOOO think it’s not going to be just ONE drink dammit.
So, good night! Au revoir. take good care everyone!
Update: I just got my internet!! Yuhaa! now we’ll communicate more! my skype account is available, mail me for more!
