February 23, 2014

Stage: le début.

For all my complaining about how unorganized my university is, how uncommunicative the professors and administration are, and how nobody ever seems to know what’s going on, I can at least now say that it has prepared me pretty well for the realities of being an intern in France.

After accepting the offer and settling on a starting date in December, come mid-January I still had no information about how my first day was going to be. This continued until the week before my start date, when I decided that I’d rather know than wait around. I called them to double check the starting date and find out what time I was expected. I then learned that I should be there at 9 in order to attend orientation.

While no further details were given, I was at least grateful to know this little tid bit. Knowing the first day was going to include an orientation calmed my nerves.

While I had them on the phone, I wanted to ask if it would be okay if I took an extra long lunch on Thursday in order to pick up the keys to our new apartment. However, they misunderstood me and thought I said lundi (not jeudi). That’s how I discovered that we were to be lunching with our bosses and other new interns on the first day.

I cleared up the confusion, but was glad that there was some otherwise I'm sure I would’ve been kept in the dark until jour j.

Just like orientation for the master, after my day of learning about the operations of the place, I still felt like I knew how nothing worked. We were not told if there was or wasn’t a strict time to come into the office. We had been told we’d learn how to use their time sheet software, but somehow or other it didn’t happen. I was told my desk would just be temporary, as they hadn’t found a place for me just yet. They then gave me a bunch of papers to read to play catch up on my project, and left me to figure it all out on my own.

Three weeks into it, I am getting the hang of things. I was able to figure out the time sheet situation mostly on my own, and as far as I can tell there are no future plans to change my desk.

I guess France is gonna be France. At least I get to look at this on the walk to the métro every day.


La Défense.

8 comments:

  1. France is France! Good job and welcome to Paris! I have been reading you off and on since you were au Noooorrrrd. I hope you will like it while you are here!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for being such a dedicated reader! Always great to find out people actually enjoy my blog :) Thanks for the welcome and so far so good!

      Delete
  2. Salute biloute, et bienvenue encore. After 2 1/2 years Chez les Ch'tis i think their system is more Irish than anything, & it's all made up as they go along. System totally beyond me & rely on the belovéd to sort out the battles with the administrations for me. Bonne chance pour le job.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wessshhh! Yeah luckily my boyfriend helps me out with administrative stuff too :)

      Delete
  3. LOL yeah, I'm glad you and I are on the same mentality in the essence that we both just say, "That's France," instead of being so frustrated. Can't wait to hear more :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, I can get frustrated, don't get me wrong! But yeah I do try to take it all in good fun and just accept France for how she is^^ Which is pretty much a disorganized hot mess.

      Delete
  4. You've never been to Italy then! ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Just came across your blog. Love it. :-)

    My first experience with everything French was last year. So I am a newbie.. I will again leave for France in a month. Cannot wait! :-)

    Quick question, if I may. I thought gros bisous (Big Kiss) is innocent. Why is that this French boy I met got all excited when I said 'Big Kiss' back when he signed off his SMS with Big Kiss in English?

    On Valentine's day, he told he 'I kiss you' in English. I did not think anything of it since 'I kiss you' is the literal translation of 'je t'embrasse'.

    This is all very strange and new to me. Haha.. I am wondering if he started getting a bit amorous or flirty with me. :p

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...