I think that I have finally sorted out my timetable. Hourrah! Despite all the university's offices being closed from 12h30-14h00 (with my academic counselor's office only open on Mondays and Wednesdays) I now know approximately what my schedule will look like during the week. Sadly because they university couldn't deal without an incredibly complex paper based system. my schedule changes every week. Yes, you all read that right. Instead of having 5 classes that occur at the same time every week during the school year I have 5 classes (and accompanying TD's which I think are like discussion groups) that are at slightly different times each week. I also have a class that doesn't have a set schedule... they told me they couldn't fit it in so it is on a different day each week, and so it doesn't start until March. I shall have remain vigilant otherwise I will probably end up in the wrong room at the wrong time.
Though it may not be of particular interest to all of you I am in two cognitive psychology classes, which are somewhat interesting but seeing as they are both 3 hours long become quite painful near the end. I also have one neuropsychology & psychopharmacology class which I think will prove to be quite interesting. It is also a three hour lecture (long and dull tendancies) but my professor seems to be quite a believer in Sigmund Freud and referenced psychoanalysis (which is Freud's clinical method) multiple times. This was very interesting to me as all my professors to date have not really put much stock in Freud's ideas and only mentioned him when referencing ideas of the past. In general the consensus at uOttawa is that Freud had some off the wall ideas, for that he gets mentioned. Would you ever treat a patient using only a Freudian approach? No. This man seems to believe Freud is still quite applicable. I'm sure I will have to keep my mouth shut in the future during his class as I am not a huge believer in psychoanalysis. Though to be fair I was warned that France takes quite a Freudian approach to psychology.
Aside from my psychology classes, I am also taking a rockclimbing class (not for credit) which is quite awesome. They have quite a decent climbing gym at my uni as well... though I did get lost on the way over several times and had to ask for directions. I'll even get to learn to lead climb for all of you who know your climbing terminology!
Then to broaden my horizons I am also taking a class on contemporary French culture. The first subject is going to be the French and their fears and desires as a society. I will keep you all posted about what exactly these are. Right now I can only imagine.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
First day of classes
As I have already told some of you, yesterday was my first day of classes. I was quite excited to have something to do with all my free time but that excitement wore off quickly shortly into my three hour lecture (Cognitive Psychology of Perception). I'm not sure why I expected lectures to be different in France but they are not. A three hour lecture at uOttawa is equally as boring as a three hour here. My professor also doesn't quite know how to use powerpoint and crammed as much information as possible into his powerpoints ( entire paragraphs appeared), which made it quite difficult for me to know what exactly was important. The good news is that he showed film clips to illustrate some of the stuff he was talking about.
I understood everything my prof was saying (well not every word but all the main concepts for sure) and I even knew the answers to some of his questions, though I did not raise my hand. I'm also pretty sure my prof did not assign any readings or textbook chapters or other material to learn outside of class time. He told us where we could look online if we didn't understand what went on in class but didn't seem compelled to assign readings. If that is the case I'm sure I will really like him despite his lack of talent for creating powerpoints.
So far I have only listed similarities between my lectures here and the ones at uOttawa (which I assume are representative of lectures in Canada), there were also some major differences.
1. In every morning lecture I have ever been to there has always been an incredibly long line at the nearest coffee shop and most students seem to have some type of caffeinated beverage with them. I have not seen a single coffee shop ( or Tim Hortons/Starbucks/Second Cup equivalent) on campus. Instead all over campus there are machines that dispense what I believe to be espresso. It's quite funny for me to see students walking around carrying tiny cups of espresso (about the size of a kiwi fruit) when at home is seems that the bigger the cup of coffee the better. I have also not seen a single place on campus devoted to selling lattes/cappuccinos or even tea. I guess the French just appreciate strong coffee in tiny cups.
2. A huge amount of students smoke, the prof gave us a 15min break halfway into the lecture and students had jumped up and many already had cigarettes in their mouths.
3. The seating in the lecture hall I was in was incredibly impractical. Initially, the room appeared much like any other lecture hall, a large rectangle with rows of desks (ie long tables) in the center and a podium at the front. However, instead of having chairs spaced along the desks they had benches. Not a bad idea you might say to yourself. I would agree except that there was no room in between the benches. This means that if someone is sitting at the end of the bench and someone else wants to sit in the middle they either have to walk on the bench behind the row they want to get into, or ask the person at the end to shuffle down. Furthermore, it's also not easy to get to the middle of the row should you arrive early and want to be courteous. You end up half squatting, doing a crab like scuttle all the way down the bench. At first I thought it was just me who ended up crab scuttling but after observing all the other students it became clear that it was just how you have to move.
I also had a French class (ie to help me improve my French) at one of the other universities and the seating setup was much the same. Also to my shock and amazement, the toilets at this other university were also of the squat variety (my university is one step up with toilet basins that have no seat). I wonder what happens to visiting researchers from North-America? They must believe themselves transported into an alternate universe, with no coffee shops or toilets.
I understood everything my prof was saying (well not every word but all the main concepts for sure) and I even knew the answers to some of his questions, though I did not raise my hand. I'm also pretty sure my prof did not assign any readings or textbook chapters or other material to learn outside of class time. He told us where we could look online if we didn't understand what went on in class but didn't seem compelled to assign readings. If that is the case I'm sure I will really like him despite his lack of talent for creating powerpoints.
So far I have only listed similarities between my lectures here and the ones at uOttawa (which I assume are representative of lectures in Canada), there were also some major differences.
1. In every morning lecture I have ever been to there has always been an incredibly long line at the nearest coffee shop and most students seem to have some type of caffeinated beverage with them. I have not seen a single coffee shop ( or Tim Hortons/Starbucks/Second Cup equivalent) on campus. Instead all over campus there are machines that dispense what I believe to be espresso. It's quite funny for me to see students walking around carrying tiny cups of espresso (about the size of a kiwi fruit) when at home is seems that the bigger the cup of coffee the better. I have also not seen a single place on campus devoted to selling lattes/cappuccinos or even tea. I guess the French just appreciate strong coffee in tiny cups.
2. A huge amount of students smoke, the prof gave us a 15min break halfway into the lecture and students had jumped up and many already had cigarettes in their mouths.
3. The seating in the lecture hall I was in was incredibly impractical. Initially, the room appeared much like any other lecture hall, a large rectangle with rows of desks (ie long tables) in the center and a podium at the front. However, instead of having chairs spaced along the desks they had benches. Not a bad idea you might say to yourself. I would agree except that there was no room in between the benches. This means that if someone is sitting at the end of the bench and someone else wants to sit in the middle they either have to walk on the bench behind the row they want to get into, or ask the person at the end to shuffle down. Furthermore, it's also not easy to get to the middle of the row should you arrive early and want to be courteous. You end up half squatting, doing a crab like scuttle all the way down the bench. At first I thought it was just me who ended up crab scuttling but after observing all the other students it became clear that it was just how you have to move.
I also had a French class (ie to help me improve my French) at one of the other universities and the seating setup was much the same. Also to my shock and amazement, the toilets at this other university were also of the squat variety (my university is one step up with toilet basins that have no seat). I wonder what happens to visiting researchers from North-America? They must believe themselves transported into an alternate universe, with no coffee shops or toilets.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Sunday
As opposed to North America, in France Sunday is still a day of rest. Almost everything is closed except for the a few bakeries that open only in the morning (people need their bread after all) and close around noon. While trying to decide to do with all my extra time this morning I decided to go for a run and get some exercise but ended up getting far more exercise than I had bargained for. It started out well while I was jogging down the hill and the flat portion by the river was also quite nice. What I hadn't considered was the upwards trek. I began optimistically and ended up gasping for breath after the first 250 stairs so I walked up the rest of the way gasping all the way to my room. I am going to take this as a sign that I am still human, because I maintain that no one is meant to gain that much elevation while running, except for perhaps super-marathoners.
Today I did not even have the mountain view as motivation to climb the hill as it is rather overcast and when I woke up, I was in the clouds. I does seem to be clearing up now though and some of the smaller hills have appeared with cloud type halos surrounding their bases. I tried to take a picture to show everyone but just discovered that my camera battery needs charging so you will all just have imagine it for yourselves.
I also recently found out (courtesy of the internet) that on a clear day you can sometime see Mont Blanc from Grenoble (approx 110km away) so I will definitely be keeping my camera ready in case she decides to show up. For those who don't know Mt Blanc is the highest mountain in the Alps, Western Europe and the EU. Mont Blanc is also on the border between France and Italy so technically I can (sometimes) see Italy from where I am. Pretty cool eh?
Today I did not even have the mountain view as motivation to climb the hill as it is rather overcast and when I woke up, I was in the clouds. I does seem to be clearing up now though and some of the smaller hills have appeared with cloud type halos surrounding their bases. I tried to take a picture to show everyone but just discovered that my camera battery needs charging so you will all just have imagine it for yourselves.
I also recently found out (courtesy of the internet) that on a clear day you can sometime see Mont Blanc from Grenoble (approx 110km away) so I will definitely be keeping my camera ready in case she decides to show up. For those who don't know Mt Blanc is the highest mountain in the Alps, Western Europe and the EU. Mont Blanc is also on the border between France and Italy so technically I can (sometimes) see Italy from where I am. Pretty cool eh?
Saturday, January 21, 2012
A short geography lesson
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| For an idea of where these picture are relative to one another. I live right about where the E of Grenoble is touching the left mountain |
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| View from my parking lot, I believe the mountains is part of the Vercors mountain range |
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| Some of the stairs on the way up |
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| On the way down the stairs, vue of the Belledonne range |
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| Can you tell these are stairs? |
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| On campus, I'm not sure what this range is called |
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| Descending to the city, view of the Isere river |
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| Massif de Belledonne and the 'trois tours de grenoble' from my room |
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| Same view but from my kitchen |
Papers, papers and more papers
I am sure you are all aware of the jokes circulating about French Bureaucracy. I can't say that I have had to face it but I have noticed that for anything that you want to do, an enormous amount of paperwork is involved. This morning I went to open a second bank account and I felt as if I was single handedly responsible for the deforestation of a small tropical country. I now have over 50 papers, most of which I will never read with complex terms and conditions, I'm just hoping that I haven't signed my life away or committed myself to donating a vital organ. After the 5th document I just started signing blindly, mainly because I couldn't be bothered to read the legal jargon in french.
At this point you might be asking yourselves why I needed a second bank account? The answer is simple, the second bank account that I opened allowed me to get 1euro lodging insurance (something I have to have for my residence). Otherwise I would have ended up paying 49 euros for the year. Given that the most valuable thing in my room is my 4 year old laptop I'm not particularly worried about the deductible or getting my stuff stolen. Also, I don't see many thieves trekking up the small mountain and breaking through my deadbolt.
As a result I now have a bank accounts at 2 competing banks, LCL and BNP Paribas if either of those names mean anything to you. Each one offered different advantages to students so I'd like to believe that I am getting the best of both banking worlds. Hopefully that will help me with the guilt of the massive paper consumption required for what I feel is a fairly standard procedure.
I am also insuranced in more ways then I feel are necessary. I have 2 kinds of civil liability insurance, 2 kinds of insurance protecting my passport and at least 4 different medical insurance providers plus 1 lodging insurance. I can only hope that I will not need them all.
At this point you might be asking yourselves why I needed a second bank account? The answer is simple, the second bank account that I opened allowed me to get 1euro lodging insurance (something I have to have for my residence). Otherwise I would have ended up paying 49 euros for the year. Given that the most valuable thing in my room is my 4 year old laptop I'm not particularly worried about the deductible or getting my stuff stolen. Also, I don't see many thieves trekking up the small mountain and breaking through my deadbolt.
As a result I now have a bank accounts at 2 competing banks, LCL and BNP Paribas if either of those names mean anything to you. Each one offered different advantages to students so I'd like to believe that I am getting the best of both banking worlds. Hopefully that will help me with the guilt of the massive paper consumption required for what I feel is a fairly standard procedure.
I am also insuranced in more ways then I feel are necessary. I have 2 kinds of civil liability insurance, 2 kinds of insurance protecting my passport and at least 4 different medical insurance providers plus 1 lodging insurance. I can only hope that I will not need them all.
Friday, January 20, 2012
Le Rabot
After looking over my blog I've realized that thus far it is mainly one long rant about how rude the French are which would lead you all to believe that I am not enjoying myself, which is not accurate. So I have decided to describe my residence.
Basic Facts about my residence:
1. It is on top of a very large hill. It takes approximately 10 minutes to go down and 20ish minutes to walk up.
2.The hill is steep enough that I have to stop and gasp for breath several times if my bag is heavy. Though my legs are already more muscular and I do not gasp nearly as much.
3.There are just under 350 steps (346) to the entry of my residence plus quite a long steep section of paved road in the middle
4. My residence has 5 floors, I live on the 5th floor which can only be accessed by one stairway at the very end of the building.
5.The bathrooms are reminiscent of those one would expect to find in a developing nation.
6. The entire residence is full of character (Some may call it run down, I prefer to say full of character).
Now that you are all aware of the basic facts I will attempt to describe some of its most interesting facets for you. The aspect that most surprised me initially was the lack of toilets. I do not mean that there is nowhere to go to the washroom, just that there are no toilets like those we would expect in North America. This is where the part about the developing nation comes in. Le Rabot has kindly provided us with squat toilets (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squat_toilet for more info). Although they have been kind enough to provide indoor plumbing, soap and toilet paper are up to you.
The showers are also quite unique and do not provide hot water reliably. I could deal with tepid or somewhat cold water, but before I found out which were the 'good showers' I was treated to a glacial stream of water. It woke me up instantly with the kind of cold that puts hair on your chest. I have now discovered the good showers ( all on the 1st and 2nd floor) and now make the trek down the stairs and then to the end of a 150m hallway before showering. The lights are also turned off in the bathrooms and the kitchen between 12am-6am so if you want to shower between those times you had best bring a flashlight.
In the same vein, the kitchen is distinctly student and has a chronic smell issue. It was particularly bad the first day I arrived. The people on my floor were making Raclette ( bread dipped in Raclette cheese) which has a smell similar to the one you would smell if you didn't wash your feet for a week. We usually remedy this smell issue by opening the windows, which means you freeze while cooking. I haven't quite decided which one is better, as opening the windows never quite seems to eradicate the smell. The hot plates are also quite temperamental. Last night while I was eating at the table in the kitchen, I witnessed a friend get shocked. The hot plate emitted a very loud band, much like gunfire and we all jumped about a foot. On the bright side I have not yet burnt a meal as vigilance is important whilst cooking.
Though one might think from these descriptions that my residence is the lowest of the low ( and you wouldn't be wrong) there are two key reasons I really enjoy living here.
A. THE VIEW IS AMAZING, I wake up every morning and on a clear day I have a 260 view of the mountains and the city. It makes the hike worthwhile.
B.The people on my floor are very nice and I really enjoy the atmosphere.
Also, my room is nice. Though very simply furnished it has tonnes of storage and I have my own private sink which I love. Oh, did I mention rent is only 168 euros a month (about $220 CAD) and the laundry is very cheap.You sign up every monday night and for 1 euro you receive 2 hours of washing time and 2 hours of drying sometime later in the week.
Basic Facts about my residence:
1. It is on top of a very large hill. It takes approximately 10 minutes to go down and 20ish minutes to walk up.
2.The hill is steep enough that I have to stop and gasp for breath several times if my bag is heavy. Though my legs are already more muscular and I do not gasp nearly as much.
3.There are just under 350 steps (346) to the entry of my residence plus quite a long steep section of paved road in the middle
4. My residence has 5 floors, I live on the 5th floor which can only be accessed by one stairway at the very end of the building.
5.The bathrooms are reminiscent of those one would expect to find in a developing nation.
6. The entire residence is full of character (Some may call it run down, I prefer to say full of character).
Now that you are all aware of the basic facts I will attempt to describe some of its most interesting facets for you. The aspect that most surprised me initially was the lack of toilets. I do not mean that there is nowhere to go to the washroom, just that there are no toilets like those we would expect in North America. This is where the part about the developing nation comes in. Le Rabot has kindly provided us with squat toilets (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squat_toilet for more info). Although they have been kind enough to provide indoor plumbing, soap and toilet paper are up to you.
The showers are also quite unique and do not provide hot water reliably. I could deal with tepid or somewhat cold water, but before I found out which were the 'good showers' I was treated to a glacial stream of water. It woke me up instantly with the kind of cold that puts hair on your chest. I have now discovered the good showers ( all on the 1st and 2nd floor) and now make the trek down the stairs and then to the end of a 150m hallway before showering. The lights are also turned off in the bathrooms and the kitchen between 12am-6am so if you want to shower between those times you had best bring a flashlight.
In the same vein, the kitchen is distinctly student and has a chronic smell issue. It was particularly bad the first day I arrived. The people on my floor were making Raclette ( bread dipped in Raclette cheese) which has a smell similar to the one you would smell if you didn't wash your feet for a week. We usually remedy this smell issue by opening the windows, which means you freeze while cooking. I haven't quite decided which one is better, as opening the windows never quite seems to eradicate the smell. The hot plates are also quite temperamental. Last night while I was eating at the table in the kitchen, I witnessed a friend get shocked. The hot plate emitted a very loud band, much like gunfire and we all jumped about a foot. On the bright side I have not yet burnt a meal as vigilance is important whilst cooking.
Though one might think from these descriptions that my residence is the lowest of the low ( and you wouldn't be wrong) there are two key reasons I really enjoy living here.
A. THE VIEW IS AMAZING, I wake up every morning and on a clear day I have a 260 view of the mountains and the city. It makes the hike worthwhile.
B.The people on my floor are very nice and I really enjoy the atmosphere.
Also, my room is nice. Though very simply furnished it has tonnes of storage and I have my own private sink which I love. Oh, did I mention rent is only 168 euros a month (about $220 CAD) and the laundry is very cheap.You sign up every monday night and for 1 euro you receive 2 hours of washing time and 2 hours of drying sometime later in the week.
Monday, January 16, 2012
French Courtesy
In Canada, people will apologize for walking between you and the groceries you're looking at. It's a sheepish type sorry to let fellow shoppers know that you are a decent person who realizes that it's somewhat distracting to have your browsing interrupted yet not so apologetic as to make people believe you have no backbone. You are after all in a grocery store aisle and it is expected that people will be walking by. This mentality applies to all other interactions and I'm sure if I were to do a tally of how many times I say sorry per day it would be quite a large number.
Before arriving in France, a land known for its surly customer service I figured it couldn't be that different. Canadians don't really say sorry that much more frequently than the rest of the world, do they? After my short time here I can already conclude at least two things. Compared to countries that were formerly members of the British Commonwealth, Canadians are only slightly above the norm, perhaps even average when it comes to general niceties and friendly customer service agents. Compare an average French person to a Canadian, and they probably say sorry as many times in a year as we do in a single day.
Having already been to several grocery stores I feel qualified to make this call. The grocery store is a silent place, devoid of sorry. I am fairly certain that even if a fellow shoppers ran over your foot in France you wouldn't even get a sorry, you may perhaps get a "Bah, y'a beaucoup de monde' (Well, it's busy) accompanied by hand gestures. I have understood this to mean, 'I did just run over your foot but you should have expected that, these aisles are crowded and I couldn't possibly be expected to politely ask you to move over'. However, this is not to say that all the French are rude, I have met some very kind and helpful people. It just seems that they are the exceptions rather then the norm.
I have also seen customer service agents engage in behaviour that would have been fired on the spot for back at home. Yesterday, while I was getting my bus pass they girl in charge of making them couldn`t have cared less. I gave her the same sized picture as I had used for getting my student card earlier that day. She then proceeded to ask me a few questions in the rudest, 'I couldn't care less about you or your bus pass' kind of way. I now have a bus pass with a standard ID sized box ( similar to the size on a Driver`s license) which contains a minuscule photo of me, my face is about 1/6 of the size of the box. I don`t even know why she bothered to put my photo on at all, you can`t see my features. Although I supposed I should be grateful that she didn`t flat out refuse to make me a card. Perhaps most disconcerting about the whole transaction was the fact that not once did the girl smile, say thank you or make eye contact.
On Saturday I was in a checkout line that was very long and there were only two cash registers open, I witnessed the most jaw dropping display of customer service (or lack of). There were about 10 people in each line, the checkout ladies were just a chomping away on their gum, scanning items in a very casual aloof manner. It was an 'I hate my job and can't be bothered with you or your items, you are wasting my valuable time' type feeling. Then, as I was about 3rd in line checkout woman A picks up the phone. I assumed that she was calling for someone to open another till. Wrong. She actually wanted to talk to checkout woman B. Checkout woman A is at the checkout right beside checkout woman B, they could have probably shook hands if they really wanted to. They then proceed to have a 45 second conversation about nothing, which further reduced their scanning efficiency, hung up and went back to chewing their gum loudly. I`m fairly certain their manager was at the next checkout over, she didn`t appear to care at all.
I've also had a bank employee draw me a map so I could find my way to the next branch location without getting lost and provide detailed instruction. At their other branch I also received excellent customer service and the woman opening my account was a delight.
I suppose that there will always be good and bad customer service experiences. It just seems as if the French don`t particularly care about minimizing your bad experiences, if you don`t like the service you receive c'est la vie. You had better move on because there is no chance, not in a million years, that you will be getting an apology.
Before arriving in France, a land known for its surly customer service I figured it couldn't be that different. Canadians don't really say sorry that much more frequently than the rest of the world, do they? After my short time here I can already conclude at least two things. Compared to countries that were formerly members of the British Commonwealth, Canadians are only slightly above the norm, perhaps even average when it comes to general niceties and friendly customer service agents. Compare an average French person to a Canadian, and they probably say sorry as many times in a year as we do in a single day.
Having already been to several grocery stores I feel qualified to make this call. The grocery store is a silent place, devoid of sorry. I am fairly certain that even if a fellow shoppers ran over your foot in France you wouldn't even get a sorry, you may perhaps get a "Bah, y'a beaucoup de monde' (Well, it's busy) accompanied by hand gestures. I have understood this to mean, 'I did just run over your foot but you should have expected that, these aisles are crowded and I couldn't possibly be expected to politely ask you to move over'. However, this is not to say that all the French are rude, I have met some very kind and helpful people. It just seems that they are the exceptions rather then the norm.
I have also seen customer service agents engage in behaviour that would have been fired on the spot for back at home. Yesterday, while I was getting my bus pass they girl in charge of making them couldn`t have cared less. I gave her the same sized picture as I had used for getting my student card earlier that day. She then proceeded to ask me a few questions in the rudest, 'I couldn't care less about you or your bus pass' kind of way. I now have a bus pass with a standard ID sized box ( similar to the size on a Driver`s license) which contains a minuscule photo of me, my face is about 1/6 of the size of the box. I don`t even know why she bothered to put my photo on at all, you can`t see my features. Although I supposed I should be grateful that she didn`t flat out refuse to make me a card. Perhaps most disconcerting about the whole transaction was the fact that not once did the girl smile, say thank you or make eye contact.
On Saturday I was in a checkout line that was very long and there were only two cash registers open, I witnessed the most jaw dropping display of customer service (or lack of). There were about 10 people in each line, the checkout ladies were just a chomping away on their gum, scanning items in a very casual aloof manner. It was an 'I hate my job and can't be bothered with you or your items, you are wasting my valuable time' type feeling. Then, as I was about 3rd in line checkout woman A picks up the phone. I assumed that she was calling for someone to open another till. Wrong. She actually wanted to talk to checkout woman B. Checkout woman A is at the checkout right beside checkout woman B, they could have probably shook hands if they really wanted to. They then proceed to have a 45 second conversation about nothing, which further reduced their scanning efficiency, hung up and went back to chewing their gum loudly. I`m fairly certain their manager was at the next checkout over, she didn`t appear to care at all.
I've also had a bank employee draw me a map so I could find my way to the next branch location without getting lost and provide detailed instruction. At their other branch I also received excellent customer service and the woman opening my account was a delight.
I suppose that there will always be good and bad customer service experiences. It just seems as if the French don`t particularly care about minimizing your bad experiences, if you don`t like the service you receive c'est la vie. You had better move on because there is no chance, not in a million years, that you will be getting an apology.
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