Welcome to Gaia! ::

Yep. That's what I said. I'm leaving on college exchange in September to TELECOM SudParis south of Paris, France biggrin

Everything is all set up and ready. Paperwork at ITESO is ready, paperwork at TELECOM is ready, paperwork at CampusFrance is ready, paperwork for the student visa is very likely ready, plane tickets and insurance are ready, all that remains is packing my stuff and leaving on September ^^

I'll be taking just one subject, but it'll be one of the tough ones. Remember when I had a hard time with data transmission? That will be it. But since I'll be just taking this and maybe a couple of French classes, it will all be fine, I'll have plenty of time after all. And once I'm done, I'll hit the outskirts of France (sort of divided between Normandie, Bretagne and Pas de Calais, Lille looks like a cool place but I'd kill to visit Omaha Beach) and then I'll hit Alsace and spend Christmas with two friends from France ^^

Lilia, Khang and Tiffany, wish me luck! biggrin

I just got to my grandma's house in Irapuato, which is halfway between Guadalajara and Mexico City. Tomorrow I'm leaving all alone to Mexico City and I'll have to take the subway to the embassy so I can pick up my visa.

God, I'm so excited for this... this will mark the end of one month of stressful paper gathering, signing, filling and asking around for them scream

s**t like this is why I always rely on my best friends and the Life Issues forum to solve my problems.

College here is quite different though, people here are very kind 3nodding of course, I'll have to see how things are like in France, they say these Parigots have a very harsh and rather mean demeanor. And they speak like they were always cursing, watch Amélie in case of doubt.

Uh, but I'll return speaking Parigot, not Québecois confused xd

I also went out to examine transportation in Paris. My God, it's ******** rocket science! gonk

In Guadalajara, you only have the bus, the light train, or the rapid bus. If you ride the bus, you pay $5 pesos to the driver; if you ride the train, you can buy a train token for $5 or a rail card that can be recharged and every time you put it on the scanner it deducts $5 from your card. Ditto for the rapid bus, except it has no bus tokens.

In Paris, you have subway (Métro), suburban train (RER), bus, night bus, tramway, or boat ferry along the Seine river. Buses are operated by a single authority in downtown Paris, but in the suburbs there are like thousands of bus companies. Somehow it doesn't becomes as chaotic as the Mexico City or Guadalajara. You can buy a regular ticket, which costs 1 euro and can be used in subway, RER, bus, night bus or tramway. If you ride the subway or the RER within downtown Paris, you can transfer to as much subways or RERs as you want; if you ride the bus or the tramway, you can only transfer within 90 minutes of boarding the first one; if you ride the night bus, it's one ticket per bus. You can buy a pack of 10 tickets for 8 euros. If you ride the RER outside Paris, you have to buy a special ticket, because the outskirts (the banlieue) is divided in 5 concentric zones and traveling from downtown to zone 5 is more expensive than traveling from downtown to zone 2. You can buy a one-day full access pass that costs like 10 euros and lets you ride as much subways, downtown RERs, buses and tramways as you want, or you can buy a youth pass with student card (e.g. an ISIC card or maybe my IEEE Student Member card) that is the same but costs half as much but is valid only on weekends and national holidays. You can buy a one month rail card for 100 euros, a one month rail card for students with student card for like 70 euros, a yearly card for 1000 euros, people on welfare can get special rail cards for free, people with 3 sons or more get yearly cards for free...

MY BRAIN A SPLODE. burning_eyes

Ugh, just got finished packing a preliminary suitcase. sweatdrop

Gotta weigh it soon, max allowed is 23 kg (50 pounds), hope my clothes, computer, books, pots, pans and hygiene stuff won't make it too heavy...

Dinner is done. That mushroom soup was tasty like hell. Protein requirements covered by a pair of scrambled eggs mixed in. Damn, am I such a great chef ^^

Now I have to e-mail my teachers telling them I'm going to their classes. ******** ********, I want to sleep already! scream

This morning I went to buy deodorant, shampoo, glasses cleaning kit, a lock, a wallet keychain because my keys will otherwise pierce my pants, new walking boots, some pots, plastic dishes and cups. I didn't bought a Kensington lock though, my netbook is small and light enough to carry it everywhere, and buying a lock for my backpack is pointless because these goddamn arabs can just ******** cut it open with a knife gonk confused