(no subject)
Ugh, and I thought livejournal was dead last year while I was in France. *Sigh* Dreamwidth people who are still reading over here, are people still posting there? The livejournal internet neighbourhood is feeling a little sad and lonely.
But anyway, life in France. I've continued to make progress at getting things set up for my year here. On Tuesday, I made an appointment at the bank to set up an account, and picked up a letter from prof FM for the international student people. On Wednesday morning, I met with the international student people at the university to get myself officially... I'm not sure if I'm registered, but if not, entered into their database as a visiting doctoral student. I also had to pay the student sécurité sociale, I think mostly for liability reasons. The French government doesn't actually seem to keep a very close eye on international students! In any case, I tried to apologize for inadvertently causing so many complications, but they were all "no, no, it's not just you. You're not the only one! It's the way the system is set up!" That made me feel a little better, but really, if I'd known what I was asking for when I suggested an "informal affiliation" would actually have to end up being so formal, I don't know how I'd have managed to make myself do it. I guess it's probably better that I didn't know.
I went into the city center for lunch and to wander around a little after that meeting, and had a delicious sandwich and made a brief visit to the former abbey church of Saint-Melaine de Rennes. A surprising amount of it is actually eleventh- and twelfth-century! Then I had to go back to campus with photos to get my student card, and after that (and a brief interlude at home), it was time for my appointment at the bank. That turned out to be a long, although not especially painful, process of going through the details of my future account with the woman who will now be my French banker. I got confused a few times, and she had to give me the English equivalent of a few words, but my confusion had mostly to do with confusion about how the account worked, not failing to understand her French. Yay! The student chequing account offer I ended up taking included another round of student insurance, which had me really confused for a while, but in the end I went with it. Then I got my renter's insurance, with the result that I'm now covered in various dimensions by five insurance policies (although only four of them fully cover me in France).
After all the events of Wednesday, I was pretty tired yesterday, and didn't do much except give my landlady proof of my insurance and go grocery shopping. I mostly lurked around my apartment and worked a little on my stuff for my Haskins paper. That, by the way, is stressing me the hell out now, because I'm pretty worried I won't get my visa validated in time to be able to leave France to attend. I plan to start looking into a "visa de retour" sometime in mid-October if I haven't heard anything, but eep.
Anyway, now that I've got most of the setting up my life done (with the exception of internet, which I just don't know what to do about), the next challenge is going to be figuring out what to do with myself so that I actually get work done. Now that there's no pressing need to get things organized... eep. I think I'd better go and start by getting dressed.
But anyway, life in France. I've continued to make progress at getting things set up for my year here. On Tuesday, I made an appointment at the bank to set up an account, and picked up a letter from prof FM for the international student people. On Wednesday morning, I met with the international student people at the university to get myself officially... I'm not sure if I'm registered, but if not, entered into their database as a visiting doctoral student. I also had to pay the student sécurité sociale, I think mostly for liability reasons. The French government doesn't actually seem to keep a very close eye on international students! In any case, I tried to apologize for inadvertently causing so many complications, but they were all "no, no, it's not just you. You're not the only one! It's the way the system is set up!" That made me feel a little better, but really, if I'd known what I was asking for when I suggested an "informal affiliation" would actually have to end up being so formal, I don't know how I'd have managed to make myself do it. I guess it's probably better that I didn't know.
I went into the city center for lunch and to wander around a little after that meeting, and had a delicious sandwich and made a brief visit to the former abbey church of Saint-Melaine de Rennes. A surprising amount of it is actually eleventh- and twelfth-century! Then I had to go back to campus with photos to get my student card, and after that (and a brief interlude at home), it was time for my appointment at the bank. That turned out to be a long, although not especially painful, process of going through the details of my future account with the woman who will now be my French banker. I got confused a few times, and she had to give me the English equivalent of a few words, but my confusion had mostly to do with confusion about how the account worked, not failing to understand her French. Yay! The student chequing account offer I ended up taking included another round of student insurance, which had me really confused for a while, but in the end I went with it. Then I got my renter's insurance, with the result that I'm now covered in various dimensions by five insurance policies (although only four of them fully cover me in France).
After all the events of Wednesday, I was pretty tired yesterday, and didn't do much except give my landlady proof of my insurance and go grocery shopping. I mostly lurked around my apartment and worked a little on my stuff for my Haskins paper. That, by the way, is stressing me the hell out now, because I'm pretty worried I won't get my visa validated in time to be able to leave France to attend. I plan to start looking into a "visa de retour" sometime in mid-October if I haven't heard anything, but eep.
Anyway, now that I've got most of the setting up my life done (with the exception of internet, which I just don't know what to do about), the next challenge is going to be figuring out what to do with myself so that I actually get work done. Now that there's no pressing need to get things organized... eep. I think I'd better go and start by getting dressed.