'bureaucratie'...doesn't surprise me that the French invented the word

The first few weeks of uni can be stressful wherever you go. There's a fair bit of paperwork, modules to choose, people to see and places to go, though you probably don't know where these places and people are. However, the UPMF (Universite' Pierre Mendes France) is making me appreciate the University of Dundee so much more.
The first day of intro week was just dreadful. We got lost trying to find where to matriculate as it was different for French and Erasmus students. The people we asked were generally very nice to us, but unfortunately they all seemed to give us the wrong information. When we finally found where we were supposed to be going, the forms we had to fill in were quite difficult to understand. There were a couple of nice people helping us though so it all worked out in the end. We were then told that we would receive our student cards soon, maybe by the end of the week. It took just over a week, but we finally got them. They are basically pieces of folded up coloured paper with our details and out photos stapled to them. It's a good job we got them because you need it for several things, such as the 'inscription' for the library and getting your tram card. Though if you ask for an 'attestation' confirming you're a student there, then you can get some of these things done already.
We then had a week of 'methodologie' classes. Being a politics student in a law school, these were kinda lost on me but I went along anyway just to test my understanding of French. We were also given timetables with all the law modules on them and were told that we had until October 10th to choose them. There's actually not much choice for European Studies and Politics students. However, we also found out we could take some modules from the Institute de Sciences Politiques so that's made us feel a bit better.
The first lectures have been alright to understand, but i've found it difficult to take complete notes as the lecturers seem to go pretty fast, and there's no powerpoint (how I miss Dundee :-( ). Most French students take notes on their laptops and they are frickin quick typers. For a couple of lectures i've tried to strike up conversations with a few of them and casually ask if they could send me their notes as there were a couple of things i missed. So far, they've been quite nice about it.
For each semester we need 30 ECTS credits. We can now do a French as a foreign language course and get 6 credits per semester for it (or so we've been told). Other modules are generally 6 credits in the law faculty or 4 in the politics faculty. In total, to get the right amount of credits, i've worked out I need to take 7 modules (including French) this semester. Again, I miss Dundee. Though acutally it's not too bad as a few of my modules seem to cover a couple of the same things.
I'm a bit worried about exams though. Apparently my degree mark will be based 50% on the marks I get here and 50% on the marks I get in 4th year in Dundee. So I really want to concentrate on doing the best I can here. One of the lecturers told me that the exams are written, but for Erasmus students they are oral. I've been told that that's easier and hopefully that turns out to be true.

Let the adventure begin

So, I’ve been in Grenoble since Tuesday. Actually, that's a lie. I officially arrived on Monday. My boyfriend drove me up from Arezzo in Italy, but since we set off Sunday at around 11pm and didn't get here til 4pm Monday doesn't exist for me. It was only supposed to take 7 hours for flips sake. 'We got lost' just doesn't seem to cut it somehow


Monday night we stayed in hotel Les Pattinoires (which btw is very simplistic, but cheap and has free wi-fi) and Tuesday I moved into my new accommodation. I'm staying in the ‘résidence Home’, which I was assigned by CROUS, the student lodging agency. What I didn’t realise when I applied for this residence was that it’s a ‘studio’ apartment, i.e. the kitchen is in your bedroom. I’m afraid that’s just me being lazy and not reading the descriptions properly. Though it’s actually not too bad because you can hide the kitchen part behind a sliding door and you also have a mini corridor and a decent bathroom with a bath/shower. However, the kitchen consists purely of two cupboards, a sink, a small fridge and two electric hobs. Huh. How can a student survive without an oven or a microwave? How is one supposed to cook a pre-made meal? Or…a PIZZA?! Well, at least there’s Domino’s and Pizza Hut. Yeah, who would’ve thought. And actually Domino’s is dead cheap…I haven’t tried it out yet but the ads say that you buy one pizza and get the second one free, 7 days a week. And some days, get any size pizza you want for 7.99 euros. Awesome.

There is also another downside to not sharing a kitchen. I didn’t realise it when I was staying in Belmont, but a communal room like a kitchen is actually your first place to make friends. I’ve been staying here 4 days now and, while I heard them, I hadn’t met a soul in the building until this afternoon. I’m a big talker and was literally on the verge of having a huge melt down. So I decided to just force people into having a conversation with me. I mean, the worst thing that could happen would be for them to say ‘go away’. I almost jumped on the first person I saw in the hallway. Fortunately, she turned out to be a highly likeable Spaniard who asked me if there were any communal rooms in the building, as she too wanted to meet people living here. Then, a couple of hours back, I heard someone moving in just up the corridor. I waited for the parents to leave then went up, knocked and introduced myself. The new tenant, though temporarily shocked, was really nice too. An Italian girl from Vicenza, so also had something to talk about. And she actually seemed quite relieved to be meeting someone too.

Outside of the residence, I had already met people mind. On Wednesday I went to see the campus and have a beer at EVE (the student union), where I invited two Italian guys and an English lad to sit at my table. They were also sound. Then I was contacted by a Brazilian girl who had found a list of email addresses and wanted to know if anyone wanted to meet up. So I had a lovely walk and beer with her and some Portuguese guys. Funnily enough, though, haven't made friends with any French students yet. Huh.

So the first few scary days are over and now comes the fun part. Am off to a party that the Spaniard invited me to. Laters.