Hello from France! I’ve been here a little over a day and a half, and I’m definitely loving Nantes. The city is amazing, and the people are incredibly helpful. I’ve already asked for directions several times, and each time, they stop and help me with a smile on their face. I feel very welcomed as a foreigner.
Anyway, my 24 hours of travelling went as planned for once in my life….no flight changes or delays! I arrived at exactly the time I’d planned with only a small injury. (My suitcase decided to attack my arm while I was removing it from the luggage rack on the train, and I have a nice little bruise to show for it….ok, a quite large bruise.) The 3 flights were not terrible, and I suggest Air Canada to anyone out there who is maybe a little taller than the average person. I’ve never had so much leg room on a flight… by the time the train ride came along, I was extremely exhausted. I couldn’t stay awake on the train to save my life. I wanted to stay awake and look at the scenery, but there was no way. I woke up for about 2 seconds each time the train stopped, listened for the city name, and fell back asleep. Nantes has a tramway system for public transportation which I had to take as soon as I exited the train station….with all my luggage. It wasn’t easy, but I made it to the Maison d’Echange, my first stop, fairly easily, but I was extremely tired from not having slept for about 28 hours at that point. I actually met another exchange student on the train who is from Austria! We recognized each other by the large luggage and lost expressions. Haha.. There, I got put into a room with several other international students, where we waited for our turn to be checked in. I was so tired that all I wanted to do was lie down on the table and take a nap. Haha…but I resisted and, after check in, began my attempt to find my dorm. Even though they had told me that I would not be able to stay there the first night, it was available…which I wish they’d told me in advance so that I wouldn’t have had to pay for the hotel too since I hadn’t cancelled 24 hours in advance. Oh well.
I wandered around for a good 30 minutes trying to find my dorms. They were fairly well hidden. After asking about 3 people who had no idea where it was, I finally saw this guy around my age walking with a backpack! He was going to the same place! So, I hauled my luggage to the dorm and left immediately to go find dinner and buy a local phone, since everyone seemed to have one except for me. Oh, by the way, I’ve not met any other student from the United States. Everyone is from Germany, Belgium, Spain, Finland, etc. It was so strange. I did, however meet one person from Canada who is also in the ISEP program….She is actually the only person I’ve met from ISEP. Everyone else is ERASMUS (from Europe). Anyway, I love this city. It’s on the Loire River, so the river just winds throughout the whole city. It’s gorgeous. There are boats everywhere you look and the whole city is pretty clean. I was walking around alone, but never once felt uncomfortable. So, I bought myself a little pay as you go phone and also a quiche lorraine for dinner at a little shop in the city center. I got back to my room around 7 and attempted to unpack, but fell asleep right after putting my sheets on my bed. I was “just going to rest for a few minutes.” Yeah, right. So, I woke up at 2am not knowing what time it was and slightly disoriented…I’d not yet even set my alarm clock to the right time. I scrambled to find my watch, and opened my computer just to make sure it was actually that time. Then, I went back to sleep and woke up again at 8 because I had to be at the school at 9 to take the placement exam.
I happened to run into my friend from Canada, so we stuck together hoping that we were in the right place. Right before the test, they made an announcement that if you weren’t an ERASMUS student that you were in the wrong place. After we raised our hands, they said that we were ok because we were in a cooperation with the university….Anyway, my name was on the list when I turned in my exam, so I guess it was ok? Haha, I have no idea. After the exam, I went to get my student id and pay my lovely 200€ fee for social security. That was painful, but at least it meant that I got my internet access code! After that, I stopped at a sandwich shop for a ham and cheese for lunch and went back to my room to actually unpack and get online.
So, my room is extremely small, but not bad. It has a bed, a desk, and shelves. The bathroom is approximately the size of an airplane bathroom… which has taken some getting used to. Showering is definitely an adventure when your shower is about two feet long and two feet wide. I’ll post pictures as soon as I have it clean enough. Haha. Everything’s just kind of thrown wherever it will fit right now.
After taking about a two hour break, I went back into the city center to walk around a little and find dinner. I got back to my room around 7 and took another unintentional nap. This time, I woke up at 10 instead of 2, though. Hopefully, I’ll catch up on sleep soon and won’t have to sleep 12 hours a day to feel rested. I’ve pretty much figured out the tram system, which is really easy and super convenient. Now, I am going back to sleep since I have my first intensive French class tomorrow morning at 9:30. Goodnight!
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