Hi everyone! I know it's been a while since I posted, but there has been a LOT going on! Before I actually got to France though, there was kind of a disaster. Just slightly. So when we were checking in for our flight from Beijing to Paris (with a layover in Abu Dhabi), the person at the Etihad Airways counter said that we were STILL overweight. They told us that when flying into Europe, you're only allowed 23 kg total per person. We had 3 suitcases to check, and they said we had to pay $700/over 3000 yuan in fines!!! We obviously were not going to pay that much, so I had to get rid of a TON of my things, right there in front of the check-in counter. I was so pissed off. I snapped at them too, saying it was a ridiculous policy to only allow 23 kg a person on an international flight. They said it was for all flights into Europe, but I know someone who was
allowed more than that when they flew from the U.S., so they lied (unfortunately I found this out after the fact). When I slightly raised my voice to the woman, she said, "Don't get angry at me. This isn't my problem." Well screw you, too! Who does she think she is, telling me what I can and can't feel? What pissed me off even more was their attitude. They didn't even say sorry for the inconvenience, didn't show any sign of empathy at all. All they said was, "It's not our problem. You need to pay the fees or get rid of things." So I had to throw away a pile of things in the airport. I mean, at first I was mad I had to get rid of so much, but at least none of it was really valuable. I was mostly upset at their attitude, and also at the fact that so many of the things (which were still in good shape) would be going to waste. If I'd been in the States I could have at least asked them to donate it to the Salvation Army or something. In China they don't have anything like that! So yes, I had to part with about 1/3 of my things. We were still a tiny bit overweight (even after they allowed us 5 kg of leeway) but my mom sweet-talked the hostess into not charging us. And that is the story of how I went to France with way fewer items than expected.
I arrived in Nîmes, France September 24th with my mom, and pretty much as soon as we got here I started trying to get all the logistics sorted out: phone, housing, paperwork, contacting people, etc. First thing I did was get a sim card. However, after I managed to unlock my Samsung Captivate, my phone's hardware decided to start malfunctioning. I would make a call and it would be fine, but any subsequent calls made after that would have silence on the other line. No dial tone, or sound of any kind, even though it said it was connected. The post office where I bought the sim card couldn't help; they said it was probably a problem with the phone. So I called AT&T, my old provider, but they said they couldn't do anything because I was no longer under their contract. Then I called Samsung, but my Google Voice connection was not very good so they couldn't really hear me. I finally managed to chat online with a representative on Samsung's website, and even after she had me do a hard factory reset, the problem was still there. She told me it was a problem with the hardware and that I'd have to send it in to get fixed. I was still under warranty for another week and a half, so I was slightly hopeful, but she said I would have to ask Samsung France if the warranty would apply here. When I called Samsung France, they told me it wouldn't apply if I sent it to a service center in France, since I bought the phone in the US. So I sadly had to stick with my mom's old slide phone from China. I mean, it works, so I'm not complaining, but it would be nice to have a smartphone! Especially in places where I could get lost easily...Google Maps is useful =( Oh well. Just for your viewing pleasure, here are some photos from when we first got here:
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| TGV from Paris to Nîmes |
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| Acanthe du Temple hotel lobby |
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| Maison Carrée! Historic monument in Nîmes! |
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| L'Arène de Nîmes, another famous ancient amphitheatre |
After that slight setback, I commenced my apartment hunt. One of the other assistants I had met, Anna, told me about Loc'Etud, this packet of apartment listings in the youth bureau in Nîmes. I saw 10 apartments in 3 days (2 showings were 2 apartments in the same building), mostly from Loc'Etud, but also one from www.leboincoin.fr, which is basically like Craigslist. I actually ended up going with the one from the website. It's quite big actually, but it's slightly more expensive than the others. It's 420 euros a month including utilities except electricity. However, us poor assistants will get money back from this thing called CAF (Caisse d'allocations familiales), so it's not as bad. Here are some photos!
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| Bathroom |
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| Living room... |
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| ...which is also the bedroom. lol. |
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| Fully made bed! |
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| Of course, I gotta have some school pride going on. |
Pretty nice right? Anyway, I think that's good enough for now; I'm definitely going to write another post about all the people I've met and things I've done! This was just the beginning. =)
