Frustrations | Encouragements |
1. I was not able to get into my residence room until two days after arriving in Paris. | 1. Thank God my friend allowed me to stay at her place for the time being. |
2. Everything takes a long time to be done here in France. | 2. It’s ok if you make mistakes, you are an exchange student. |
3. Information is quite confusing and not straight forward. You have to go to three different places to check into residence which are 30 minutes away from each other by subway. | 3. People are super friendly and understanding. Also, if you don’t have some documents they will let you bring it later. As long as you have a big smile they will be super friendly. |
4. It’s quite hard to understand their French sometimes due to the speed which the language is spoken | 4. As long as you always try, that’s what matters most! People will always be nice to you if you speak French; they might switch to English, but it’s ok, continue in French. Never try to speak English right away as that comes off as rude. |
5. It takes more than a week to receive your debit card from the bank and without it you can’t get a phone. It’s a domino effect. | 5. I’m trying to find the positive side of this one…… |
6. There are tons of exchange students here and they all want to speak English. | 6. There are tons of exchange students here and they are all super friendly, fun, funny, full of energy and ready to explore! |
7. The University does not have a database of its students. It’s super confusing to register for courses. They have printed out sheets that we have to go to the university to look at. There is no such thing as Carleton Central! | 7. Now I really appreciate how organized Carleton Central is with all the timetables and everything and the super organized database! I miss this! |
8. The school and the city of Paris are NOT accessible at all | 8. The city still has lots to offer |
9. I didn’t know anybody on my floor when I arrived. No floor activities and no floor engagement. | 9. Once you meet one person on your floor, everything becomes easier. Everyone else here doesn’t really know anyone else on the floor either. |
10. During this first two weeks, I didn’t know anyone on the floor or building. | 10. Now my friend from BIB at Carleton has moved to my floor and I've met three other guys from the floor! |
11. My “lodgement” is super far from everything. | 11. Things here are a lot cheaper. Buses always run to here no matter the time. Le metro stops at 1:00 a.m. but buses continue throughout the night. My room is big and inexpensive! |
12. To get la carte Imagine R, (like the UPASS) it takes about 21 days after filling out the paper form and mailing it to them. | 12. Once I have la carte, I can go anywhere in Paris for super cheap. It cost 34 € per month for unlimited rides and you only pay for 9 months but get access to 12 months! |