I was very nervous about going to ESSEC on the next day that I did not sleep well last night. I kept waking up after short nightmares. Also, I think I also got a little bit of jet lag (after all, France time is 9 hours ahead of California).
Anyway, the morning was colored by my room accidentally locked itself and refused to accept the access code, me asking around how to get to ESSEC, me walking to bus stop accompanied by an old (but very nice) guy, and me getting to the No. 45 bus that certainly is not that different from the Metro bus.
Oh God, when I opened the door to ESSEC campus and heard a voice calling my name, I couldn’t be happier to see my Pepperdine colleague at ESSEC. I was still amazed that I got to arrive at Paris and survived all this time with very minimal knowledge of French language, so seeing her was like a confirmation of “I am finally here, in France!” moment. This is the start of my life as a MBA exchange student at ESSEC, France! It was definitely nice to hear people conversing in English after not hearing it for what it seemed like a long, long time. Not that I mind French, though. Even though I don’t understand it much (as of now), I still think it’s the sexiest language and accent in the world.
The orientation went fairly smoothly, I must say. The students we met were nice; there is even a guy graduated from University of Wisconsin-Madison! Oh my God, badgers everywhere!!! Anyway, here is a snapshot of students queuing to get their student IDs. Oh, and my camera’s battery was dead after that shot. I forgot to charge it last night. Lesson learned. Here is the last picture taken today:
After orientation, lunch, and a failed attempt of converting my US$ to Euro, the exchange students were divided into two groups for an hour-session about ESSEC student portal, webmail, and e-Learning. Seriously, my two immediate neighbors (one of them the Wisconsin guy) almost fell asleep and I could not blame them. The lady should’ve just given us the guide sheet and let us be on our way. I am 99.5% sure the students can figure out how to navigate around the portal and their email account, so an hour was really not necessary.
Now the fun part began. I had to go to Louvre to exchange my currencies, then to Notredame to check the apartment, and then go back to Cergy. From ESSEC, I took RER A to go to Charles de Gaulle Etoile Station. Then change train to yellow line to Louvre, get off to look for “Bureau d’Change”. Easy to find? Definitely not. After much wandering around, I finally got to exchange it with a very terrible rate (1 Euro = $1.479). Very bad, bad, bad considering in average it’s 1 Euro = $1.37.
Anyway, I had to go back to the yellow line, went as far as to Chatelet, change train to purple line to Saint-Placide. Walk for a bit to Rue Huysmans, where the apartment is. Guess what. Apparently I have yet to get the apartment room. There are a lot of people visiting that day and what my potential roommate said on the email “to bring the deposit and first month rent; then I will give you the key” did not apply. I was crestfallen, I really do hope I could get the room. It will be trouble if I don’t. Really.
Now go back to Cergy. At least now I only have to reverse it, but the bad thing is when I arrived at Cergy itself. The bus did not go through the bus stop I originally hopped on at the beginning of today. I had to walk the rest of my way. Getting lost? Of course! The weather’s getting cold and I had to walk for a good 30 minutes with a relatively heavy bag to boot. I finally arrived at the hotel around 8:30 pm. Definitely no appetite, just exhausted and ready to sleep. I have to check my email, though. I am so exhausted, and I really hope I get the room. Dear God, help me.
- to be continued... -
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