Living Conditions

I’ve been asked to write about my living conditions and school, but I’d rather write about more travelling. Haha.

Nantes is a really beautiful city with a highly organized and efficient transportation system. All we need to do is buy one ticket and we are free to ride the tram, bus, and ferry systems at least for an hour. There are students everywhere because of the good number of schools dotting the city, which makes good opportunity for the girls to ogle pogi French Fries on the bus or the tram. The only real qualm I have about the region is how quiet it can get and how early the bus ways stop operating. We have to be back home before 9pm or else we have to walk a good 2kms from the nearest tram station.

Our house is an even better experience than the city itself. We all live in a sprawling apparthotel where we each get our big room in a two-story villa. The villa is complete with everything and more. We have a full crockery set, linen, and some complicated Euro appliances. It took me at least an hour to figure out how the washing machine works, and until now, I haven’t been able to make the dishwasher work for some reason. The last time I actually used it was when Max was here, and now it refuses to operate with my Filipino touch.

Doing the other chores has been major fun, though. I’ve been to the grocery thrice this week to pick up some bread, meat, cheese, and other supplies for the house. In a week, I’ve learned how to properly cook, clean, and do laundry. I would’ve never expected to be so engrossed in ironing clothes, but here is Iworking intensely to get rid of the creases on my shirt:

As you can see, I’ve gotten noticeably tanner since I got here because of the great deal of walking every day. I’m genuinely wishing that my color becomes darker in proportion to the weight I start shedding, but it almost seems impossible with the enormous food servings they have here.

My room here in Nantes is exponentially bigger than both my rooms in Manila and Davao. My bed is huge and my closet is much to be admired because of its size. It’s a pity I didn’t bring enough clothes to make it look pretty. All I have are a couple of sweaters/jackets hung on the bar and some shoes on the floor.

School Ties

It’s been so long since I was last in school, it was a little hard waking up for classes again. Our first day in Audencia was for the welcome introduction for the exchange students. There was a total of 90 of us sitting in the small auditorium, most coming from Asia, others coming from South America and Eastern Europe.

As I said in my previous post, Audencia is absolutely beautiful, and the academic atmosphere feels like being in a big company. Our teachers are mostly in top-level positions in various multinationals, and give practical advice to us on being entrepreneurial and whatnot.

My first class was on International Business Planning, a pseudo-workshop that spans an entire week and which requires us to present a business plan by next Thursday. Initially, the Filipinos wanted to be grouped together as this would make it easier for us to work because we’ll be going to Lourdes this weekend, and cannot afford to be grouped with other nationalities due to time constraint. The teacher forced us to mingle, and we understood the cause. We were exchange students after all, and we needed to do actual exchange of opinions. Nate and I teamed up with a French buddy sitting behind us, and we had a healthy discussion on food, culture, and other geeky management stuff for our project.

That’s what I’ve been doing so far. Not quite eventful, but it’s a good start. I have to cook lunch now because Nate and I are going to the center to meet with our French groupmate.

Au revoir