Orientation

Today was the orientation day for the program I'm on, and it was quite a marathon effort (a what?). Orientation began at 9 o'clock, which having gone out last night felt quite early. For over 3 hours, they provided us with information, most of which I felt I had already read on the web site, or information packets that they had sent to us. Needless to say, I found myself drifting off.

One interesting thing they told us about was our first "excursion" with the program, which is going to be this coming weekend. Everyone on the program is traveling to Nice on Friday, then to Monaco and Monte Carlo for the evening, and then to Cannes on Sunday, returning Sunday evening. Monte Carlo is supposed to be EXTREMELY classy, with the wealthiest of Europeans flocking to it.

Part of the orientation also included our group sitting down with a few local French teens, and having the opportunity to ask them questions. They told us all the best places to go in town, the cheap restaurants, best bars, etc. The teens were extremely nice and helpful, and assured us that most French students are the same, and very willing to practice their English (which is probably better than our French).

Last night was a fun experience, and I think characteristic of the small town that Aix is. I left the apartment with Christopher and Thomas, my housemates, and we met up with Katie, a fellow IAU-er who lives up the street. We had arranged to meet with 2 of our friends at a pub (Alex, from Penn State, and his house mate, Justin). Once there, we saw a group of people across the street, who looked like they might be in our program, so I yelled out "Are you American?" in doing so perhaps reinforcing the justified stereotype of loud, obnoxious Americans. They were from our program, and after meeting up with a few other people walked into the pub (O'Shannon's) with 20+ Americans.

The end of the orientation provided us with some practical information, like how to get our mail, and how to get phones. If you want to write to me, don't write to the previously listed address, write to me at the program I'm on, IAU:

Noah Simmons
IAU, 2 bis rue du Bon Pasteur,
13625 Aix-en-Provence,
France

Fan mail would definitely be appreciated.

After orientation I decided that I'd gone long enough feeling vulnerable without a cell phone, and gathered a flock of followers to go searching for a cell phone. Laura (who was on the program last year) had told me of a good deal at a store called The Phone House, so we went searching. We found it, and I ended up getting a phone! Pretty good deal; it was 30 euro for the phone, plus 60 euro for a prepaid plan. This plan includes unlimited text messaging for 4 months, and 79 euros worth of credit, which translates to 6 hours of local calls, but call also be applied to long distance calls or (more applicable to me) roaming charges, as the phone works all over Europe. While all the other suckers are loading up 10 euro cards at a time, I'll be set with unlimited texting for the duration of the program. Also, incoming calls are free, so if someone wants to call me (I know Skype and Google Voice have very cheap rates), my number is

00 33 760408560

Well, I suppose that's all, folks. First day of classes tomorrow, although my first one isn't until 2:30, so I'm going to go meet some people in town. À demain!