The French Experience!!!

Bonjour!

Here I am ... on the land of Bread, Wine and Cheese :) (and yeah off-course ... beautiful women)!!

Peace!!!

I landed in Paris (French say it paryee) on &-th ... grrrrrr the fucking french keaboard ... on 16th May. I obviously had lots of dreams in my eyes. 16th was a friday and I decided to spend the weekend in Paris. While I was in India preparing my trip to France, I came across an interesting concept of couchsurfing (http://www.couchsurfing.com/). Here, people just open their house for you and you can say with them for mutually acceptable time for free. The main idea behind this concept is cultural exchange without boundaries. This is really cool and you will get to know it better if you google a bit.

So, in Paris, I surfed the couch of Math (French) and Veronica (Chilean), a very sweet couple. And believe me guys ... there is no better way to travel then couchsurfing. We talked so much ... exchanged over point of views ... they showed me cool places around Paris and we went to a great Spanish restaurant together for dinner. Vero and I went shopping few times and that gave me a good enough idea about basic French atticates. I firmly believe that mixing with local people and living a local life is a very important part of any travel. I think I couldn't have had a better beginning for my Tour de France!

I had already booked my train tickets for my travel to Brest (almost north-west corner of France), were I will be working for coming 2 months. So I boarded the TGV (counted among the worlds fastest trains) on Sunday night. 2 days for Paris are not enough ... I will come back again ... :)

Few points to note about Paris:

• You sometimes have to pay 40 cents for peeing which is bad ... France has a poor public toilet system!
• You must visit Latin Corner which is a vibrant student hub of Paris.
• There is always a queue for everything in France ... believe me, sometimes its longer then what we have in India.
• If you want to go up the Eiffel tower, keep a day in hand as the queue is so long that it will take hours before your turn comes.
• Metro train system in Paris is great, use it for cheap and quick travel.
• Paris Shopkeepers are rude!!
• You must couchsurf!

I reached Brest on Monday early morning. It was so cold that my teeth were really vibrating when I came out of train. I waited for 2 hours on station and then I was picked up by my Professor Dr. Marc PREVOSTO (that is how French write there name). I was damn tired ... but he directly took me to the IFREMER (French Research Institute for the Exploration of Seas), where I will be working for coming 2 months.

This place is really cool ... situated in a really scenic place ... surrounded by waters from 3 sides. It is considered the best institute in the field of ocean sciences in France. Well just to highlight ... IFREMER played a very important part in the search of Titanic and has its own submarine for marine research.

The first day was ok stuff ... I passed my entire day at the institute. I am in the hydrodynamics lab which is kind off small compared to other labs here. And one thing sucks ... there are no girls in this lab!!! Just one really helpful and cute secretary Nicole. Every morning at 9:30, all the Profs and students have coffee together in the meeting room which is cool. So I met everyone on the first day during the coffee time. Pffff hardly anyone speaks good English!!!

Then Marc explained me my work (related to ocean current profiling in west Africa) and then he said that everyting is confidential. So I am not explaining more here :P. At 12 we went to eat at IFREMER cafetaria. Its a subsidised canteen which serves really awesome food at very cheap price. Almost everyone around eats here. What a food it was ... awesome!! Proper 4 course french meal. There were 5 options for small plates (Bakery product, milk product, fruits, salad and a sweat dish) fom which you choose any 3 and 2 options for big plate (Veg and Non Veg dishes and a big plate of salad) from which you choose 1. Then off course you can pic up as many peaces of bread as you want. All this in 1.95 euros! Then there was a drink and coffee section for which, if we want, we hae to pay extra. My God ... the food was so rich and so good ... we dont even have this kind of food in India when we go on treats!

Yo Kshitij! :P

Then at 5 pm, Marc drove me to my residence .... a kind of studend hostel. I think its a chain which provides facilities to students all over France ... but the whole system is still not clear to me. We complited some basic formalities and I got my room. Its a small room of the same size as we have at IIT's but offcourse the faciities are a lot more. I will be paying 160 € per month (almost 10,000 rs ... fuck!!!) for this room which is I think the cheapest you can get in Europe.

Well now after lot of efforts, I have been able to organize everything. I bought some milk, bread, awesome Nutella and some cereals which I have as breakfast before leaving for Ifremer. I eat lunch there and then cook something for the night when I am back. I have made some friends (believe me ... it was a real tough task!). Davy from Africa, Carina from Germany, Egor from Canada ... and few more ... Its a nice multicultural envronment. But its surprising to see that there are not many Indians here, I think because of language problem... huh ... finally I got a place which we Indians dont want to conquer :P

As of now I know, I am not going to speak to much in the coming 2 months. Its difficult sometimes being alone ... and I dont want to compare it with my stay in Canada. But I am sure ... after 2 months when I will return ... I will be taking back lots of memories with me ... I will return more fresh, more experienced, more mature and more French :) !!

@Louvre!

Salut!!
Karan

Brest, France