06.29.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 10:17 am by tesstess
Sorry for not keeping you updated on how it’s going with my car, my project and life. I still haven’t got internet in my room, which keeps me from blogging. Also I have had quite a lot of things to do lately.
When writing this I’m sitting at the airport in Nice and ten past one tonight I will arrive in Gothenburg and stay there for the weekend. Jump Session have a show on Friday which I promised to take part in, which is the main reason for going home. But it will of course also be very nice to come home to Magnus, Tuss, family and friends. I’m hoping on meeting Henrik who was in Seattle for a year, and Martin who was in Hongkong, and of course all the rest of you who stayed home 
So, what have I done the past one and a half week? Last week I went climbing with Anthony and two other guys from Amadeus. They are all experienced climbers and they were very kind to me, starting at a low level and teaching me how to do. On the way to the climbing spot they told me I was on level 4, which I found strange, how can I possibly be at level 4 when not trying before, it would have been more logical to be at level 0 or 10. The reason was that level one is plain walking, 2 to go in a slope and so on. So I started at level 4c (I think it was), and climbed up easily. 10 meters up in the air, it looked much higher than from the ground, and now came the scarier bit of going down. They told me to hold on to the rope and sit back so I did. A wonderful feeling!
Totally I climbed up four-five times, every time at a higher level. At 5c I fell for the first time and screamed a bit but Anthony was fast to secure me so nothing happened, and I could continue up and reached the top after having rested one more time on the way up. The highest level I climbed on my own was 5b and this they told me was good for being the first time, so I felt proud and happy when going home. At the way home we stopped at a pub to celebrate that Sebastien had successfully climbed a new level.
It really felt great to be out in the nature, climbing is a perfect hobby down here since you can do it all year and because there are lots of good and beautiful climbing spots in the area. Especially they told me of a place near Monaco where you had the feeling of being above the sea when climbing, with a stunning view. I hope I will go there some day.
In the weekend I, Johan and Anna went to Como in Italy where I attended a swing camp. There was courses during the days and social dancing at night. The first evening there was a show with Harlem Hot Shots, which was great, and I was happy Johan and Anna got to se the best of this dance. During the days they were touristing around the city. Como is an old, small and beautiful city at a lake and with surrounding mountains. The Italian dancers were crazier than other I have seen, on the Saturday evening there was a competition first for couples and then for teams, and the teams did all sorts of dangerous areals, and it was pure luck that none got hurt. The best moment was when parts of Harlem Hot Shots together with Joanna and Henrik, all calling themselves the Vikings, was batteling against the Italian team with Vincenso and Isabella. That was a performance I’ll remember many years.
It was quite a long drive to Como, 5 hours each way, so now I know the car is working fine. We came home at Sunday night one o’clock so I was a little bit tired this Monday, but actually not as tired as I thought I would be.
Yesterday France was playing against Spain in the eights final, and I watched the whole match with Medhi and ten other French people, mostly stagieres living at Thesa, just across the street from my house. The first whole football match I saw in many years, and I enjoyed it a lot. It’s good to get to know more people where I live, and it was very funny to watch them scream with happiness at every goal. Medhi and Claude had made a bet that they would ring a doorbell and dance and sing if the French won, and they won by 3-1 so I got to see this. Crazy French people
So, now I’ve caught up and am at today. It’s been a looong day. It started early with me and Anna going to the Prefecture in Nice to get my carte grise (grey card), which is a sort of evidence of me owning my car. People said it would cost me about 100Euro. I was a bit nervous before since I couldn’t fill in all the French papers when not understanding what they wanted me to write, but me and Anna did our best to fill all the forms, and finally the guy didn’t complain but it all went very well and I got my carte grise. Now to the big surprise. The price was 400 Euro for me!! The reason for this incredible high price is that my car has a big engine and is polluting a lot. So this little paper cost me two thirds of the price of the car itself, together with the insurance it is more than the car… Right now I’m working on forgetting the whole thing and concentrate on being happy for having my own car.
This afternoon there was a staff briefing at Amadeus. We went to a conference place in Sophia Antipolis where some high boss talked about the current status of the company and its goals. Then it was a workshop with 10 people in each group discussing either “Organization” or “Innovation”. I couldn’t follow everything after just being here for three and a half week, but I was happy I was invited to attend since it gave me a broader view of Amadeus and the ability to se my little project in a new perspective.
In the evening there was a BBQ and I was happy to get to talk more to people. For instance I met Mai.. (can’t remember her whole name now), who is also a stagiere here since three month. She was very nice and I hope to spend more time with her during my time here.
At eight thirty I left for the airport, and here I am. Actually I’m on the plane now, had to make a break in writing when boarding. Soon home! Home sweet home. One thing that surprised me a bit when going back to France from Italy was that I felt I was going home, and I longed to hear French again instead of Italian. I clearly understand much more of the French language than I thought, I realized this when not understanding a single thing in Italy. So the French Riviera is my new home. Didn’t think I would feel that way, especially not after so short a period!
I found me a French teacher, and will try to meet her for the first time next week when back from Sweden. Practice, practice, practice. I have to learn fast.
Time to sleep a bit. Tomorrow I’m going out with my family on the sea in my grandparents boat. I’ll probably get more sun tanned from this than I’ve been during my time in Nice! For you reading this who haven’t seen the sea and the islands outside of the Sweden west coast I can tell you that this is one of the most beautiful places on this earth. I’ll try to take some pictures to show you!
06.17.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 8:46 pm by tesstess
Yesterday I bought the car, so now I’m the happiest car-owner in the world! I could drive it home from Amadeus on the old owners’ insurance, but thereafter I needed to get a car insurance of my own. This might seem just as a phone call and a little bit of paper work, but in reality it was much worse than that.
First of all we have a different car insurance system in Sweden where you insure your car and anyone can drive it, but here the car insurance is for yourself. The cheapest place I found was direct assurance, an online insurance company. Since they didn’t speak French I got help from a college at work who phoned them for me. The answer was that since they had no office I could walk in to they only accepted French speaking people. The second place I tried was at Carrefour, the big supermarket between Sophia and Antibes. There I got the answer that they only would give me an insurance if I could show that I had had a previous car insurance for three years with no accidents. I can understand that they are careful here with beginners since they drive like crazy but they could at least propose a more expensive alternative.
Well, I asked around at work and they were really helpful and I got some car insurances that I could try to visit. Nicolas, who helped me call direct assurance, called GMF which was his company and also the one that Amadeus employees get discount at. They had an office in Antibes which was closed on Saturdays but one in Cannes that was open. So, today me and Magnus took the bus to Antibes, and then the train to Cannes. It was surprisingly quick to get there, and we were lucky with the busses.
After a little bit of walking around in Cannes we found GMF and went in to speak to them. And no, no English at all. We spoke a few words in bad French with him and then we gave him the phone number of Linda (in my team), and she spoke French with him for a while and then English to me. She didn’t have time to come and help me but instead we called Nicolas, who actually lives in Cannes. He and his girlfriend (or wife or fiancé) came down to help me. Really kind of them! It took us about an hour to talk through all things and fill in all papers. At one point we thought it wouldn’t work since the man wanted to check with the police that my drivers license were valid, but then I think he realized it was valid any way and we came out from there with an insurance J
Magnus is really happy because now I can drive him to the airport tomorrow. One thing that is less good is that it is only me who can drive the car, or a person with an at least two years old French car insurance. Luckily my family will be able to drive when here, since they can get a proof from their Swedish car insurance company and a temporary deal can be made with GMF.
After this adventure we lifted with Nicolas down to central Cannes where they showed us a market with vegetables and fruit. Great place, I will definitely go there again. We had lunch at a grill kind of place and then walked up to the castle where it was a great view over Cannes.
Up at the highest part we stood watching the view when suddenly both of us felt a bird was dropping something on our heads. I saw a light at the same time and shortly after thunder. The thunder was a bit away so I don’t think we were really hit by the lightening but what else can it have been? Anyone who can explain this phenomenon?
Two weeks are already gone and I’m learning new French words every day. Tomorrow Magnus will go home and then I can really try and find someone who can give me private French lessons. I will also start with a new hobby next week: climbing. Never tried before but it’s supposed to be really good to clime here with lots of good sites and nice weather. I bought climbing shoes a couple of days before, really uncomfortable, but that’s how they’re supposed to be.
I just finished cleaning up my new apartment, so now I think we will go over and se if Johan and Anna is home and socialize for a while.
06.13.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:03 pm by tesstess
Finally, this morning I signed a contract for a studio where I will live the rest of my internship time. I am so relieved. The location is in Sophia Antipolis, in the house above the hotel where I live now. It will take me two minutes to drive to work from here! Drive in my new car which I almost bought today.
The plan for today with the car was for the owner to go and change the tires during lunch and then we would go together in the afternoon to fix all the papers and the final check of the CT (besiktning in Swedish) with the new tires are on and one of the front lamps fixed. Well, our plan didn’t work out since the technicians didn’t have the tires. They ordered tires and a new time is booked for Thursday at 5pm. That means I will have the car at earliest on Friday, maybe on Saturday, and probably in the beginning of next week. It probably takes one or two days for me to fix the car insurance as well, too sad since I wanted to test it this weekend and the weekend after I’m driving to a dance camp in Como, Italy. If any of you reading this knows about a good and cheep French car insurance, let me know. I need all advice I can get.
What shall say about my new room… I guess my guests that will come during the summer are curious!? It’s small, about 20m2. It has a balcony but the view is of a construction area where they are building more houses of the same kind as here. What is good for me is that I will be at work at all times when they are building. There is a bed sofa where two people can sleep and there is enough room on the floor for two or three mattresses. No bath, unfortunately, but the toilette and shower are fresh. There is a small kitchenette with a fridge. No microwave. A table, a desk and some chairs. I think that’s it. Nice and fresh, and 550Euro with electricity, telephone, internet and parking.
I tried to get to the bank today as well, but messed it all up by first forgetting the placement agreement, then hitch hiking to the wrong place because the driver didn’t know any English. I missed my appointment time and could not get a new because the lady was having a meeting and was not working on Wednesdays. I will go on Thursday morning instead. What I need in the bank is a French bank account and then give the RIB (account details) to Amadeus and to the place where I got the apartment. I found a bus back which gave me a lift for free, probably since I was looking so very lost.
06.12.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 10:19 pm by tesstess
The Alps are beginning (or ending) just behind Nice, and today we went up with the rented car to look at the surroundings of Nice.
First we drove on A8 for a bit. Every time you enter or leave the highway you have to pay a little amount. I found this scary at first – what if I came there and didn’t have money or the visa card did not work! But now I’m beginning to get used to them.
Here are some pictures of the mountains:
Our goal was a small village high up in the mountains, next to the border to Italy. On the way there we found a small road leading up a mountain side, and on the map we could se that it would connect to the road we were currently on a mile or two further up.
(Here will be a movie when I get a better internet connection)
Marie, a small village on the mountain we were climbing, was the cutest place we found so far. We really have difficulties to understand how all those villages were built so high up, and what a trouble mustn’t it has been for the villagers before there were cars to travel just to the neighbor village!
(Here will be some photos from our trip, you can see them now on my photo page)
After walking around in Marie we tried to continue on the road, but soon realized this was no good idea since now there were no longer any side barriers on the road and it was a dust road instead of asphalt. When the wheels began to spin we decided it was time to turn around. Instead we went back on the main road and drove around.
Since we had to leave the car in Antibes at six o’clock we decided not to go all the way up to the small village but just drive around and back to Nice. On the way we saw mountain tops with snow, and we stopped above St Martin to eat our lunch.
(Here will be pictures from our lunch)
So come back and view this post with pictures within a week!
06.10.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 2:44 pm by tesstess
Wednesday evening Magnus arrived, finally. The plane came in 9.15 pm, and half past eleven I was beginning to be worried when I hadn’t heard anything from him at all. But he showed up and had a funny story to tell: The plane was on time and he got a bus to Antibes but from there no busses was leaving for Sophia Antipolis so he aimed for a taxi, but there was no taxis either, since the drivers probably were watching football. Fortunately he found a dad who was in Antibes to pick up his daughter, and got lift with them all the way to the hotel. Happy ending :-)
On Thursday I sent out Magnus to Antibes to buy groceries, and it was really nice to come home to find him in the room and a fridge full of food.
On Friday day I started calling apartment agencies to look for someplace to live but it was a lot harder than I would have thought. It is first now that I know where it is ok to live and what the prices are, so I haven’t been able to do much work on finding an apartment earlier. I have realized I need a car if I don’t find a very central place in Antibes to live, and that seems difficult and very expensive. Nice is too far to live in, even with car because the rush hour traffic jams. On Monday I will have a look at a cheap car which I found in an advert on Amadeus intranet.
Our plan was to see to that we had views of apartments during the weekend since we have rented a car from Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately I only found one apartment to view, and that is on Monday so Magnus has to do that.
Today we have been driving down to Antibes and talked with lots of agencies, but there are only very expensive apartments to find down there. We then went home to eat before going for a longer drive up in the mountains. There are quite a few nice small villages and I think I rather live in the mountains with nature and fresh air than in Antibes which is very crowded.
06.06.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:53 pm by tesstess
Slept ten and a half hours tonight. Well needed. This morning I took the bus to Amadeus, but I think that I will walk in the future since the bus gave us a sightseeing in Sophia Antipolis before coming back to Amadeus, and I just as well could have walked.
The French breakfast is not what I would call a breakfast. It consisted of one bun of white bread, a couple of jam jars, a hot chocolate (which I took instead of coffee) and some butter to have on the bread. I asked the lady for another peace of bread, but still I left the restaurant with the knowledge that I would be hungry again after an hour. I’m very much looking forward to Magnus coming here and help me buy some groceries! Ah, not only for that of course, I miss him for lots of other reasons
Today I continued on the e-learning of the Amadeus system. I also got my email to work and fetched my own entrance card from the reception. At the end of the day I got to speak to Eric, who is the manager over the four teams where I’m in one. He gave me some more overview of what the people around me are doing and why I got me a new project. A very good explanation and I feel better about it today, not that I felt bad about it yesterday, but it’s still better now. Someday I will give a better description of what it is I’m doing, right now it’s just a mess in my head – full of abbreviations. Everything is abbreviations. Abbreviations with a French accent.
I must say it again that I am so happy with all those nice people! It’s really nice having lunch or “fika” with them, even if they speak French most of the time. It’s a beautiful language. I learnt some new words today and I recognized my first whole sentence out of that flood of words! And I got invited for a barbeque party at on of the girls house on Saturday evening!
Tomorrow lunchtime I will go with Steve and another girl to look at an apartment in a house in Antibes. It sounded like the perfect place to live in so please hold all your thumbs and stortår for me!
Time for a luxurious dinner with butter and jam (saved from breakfast) and a peach (saved from lunch).
06.05.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 8:24 pm by tesstess
I’m so tired. It’s been a long day.
This morning I, Steve and the Indian guy walked up to Amadeus, but split up when coming there since we were going to different receptions. I found my reception easily and asked for the person I was supposed to ask for. It was Securitas guards in the reception and I smiled for myself when I recognized the way they worked and compared it to the way I worked at Securitas at Volvo in Gothenburg. They didn’t understand English but finally they managed to call someone and gave me a card and a post it note with a room on and pointed towards a building. I walked off and in to a big house, up in an elevator and searched my way through a maze of corridors before I found the room. There were nice ladies in there who phoned Christoff who would guide me through the day.
I was told that the guy who had had the telephone interview with me had left a couple of month earlier and that Christoff had taken his place. I was also asked if it was okay for me to change project! They had a new project that was much more urgent than the other one. In this project I don’t have to learn C++ and it seems to be only to build a user interface in Java for tracking of what a system is up to. I only had a five minutes explanation of this project, so I can’t give you much detail now. I am a little bit worried that this new project won’t be complex enough for a theis work at Chalmers, but I’m thinking that if they think it will take me six month to do, then it probably is complex enough. We’ll see.
My new manager, which showed not to be Christoff either since he is on another team, was not at Amadeus today, and not Gregory who will be my closest supervisor either. A bit confusing, but every one were very nice to me and I said hello to about fifteen people. Didn’t even try to remember their names today.
My computer was not there when I came but it came some hours later. In the mean time I borrowed another computer and started with an online training on the Amadeus travel agency system. When my computer arrived I continued to read on it and the reading took me the whole day and will probably take me the whole day tomorrow as well. Not a very fun task, but it will give me a good overview of what Amadeus is doing.
The official language on Amadeus is English, therefore I was not worried about not knowing more than a few words in French. I even thought that I should get some activities outside of work where people spoke French so that I had a chance to know. Now I know that the in official language is French… which means that everyone speaks French. Unfortunately I am the only person on that department who doesn’t speak French. Everyone were kind to me and spoke English to me but there are some variations in how well they speak, so it seems hard for them to speak English between themselves. So, most of the day I found myself with a group of French speaking people and I didn’t understand a word (since the words I know were spoken so fast I couldn’t recognize them).
At lunch we went to the restaurant at Amadeus which turned out to be a really good place with around five different dishes to choose from. I think I had duck, and pasta, and it tasted really good. Especially compared to the dry bread and bad tasting water I had the night before and this morning.
At a quarter to six I asked the guys sitting in the same room as me (there are four people in each room), when they usually got home in the evenings. Ten, they said, and laughed but then answered that they used to leave sometime between six and seven, later if they had a lot to do. I don’t like this. In my papers it said that starting time is nine and leaving time 17.30. I hope I don’t have to stay until six every day, but maybe it’s better to follow the others before I know the place.
On my way home one of the guys on my team stopped and gave me a lift home. When back at the hotel I met Johan and Anna and spoke with them for a while. Johan is in my class at Chalmers and I knew he would be coming as well, but I didn’t speak to him until today. He seemed to have had roughly the same experience of his first day as I.
Now I have had “dinner” consisting of even dryer bread and today fresh, not boiled, water. At least the water was a lot more tasteful than the other days. Tomorrow I shall have breakfast at the restaurant up at Amadeus, and then in the evening try to find a grocery store.
06.04.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 8:22 pm by tesstess
After writing the post to you I went with Steve to Amadeus. The gates were closed so we didn’t really se much, but at least we now know that it takes about 10-15 minutes to walk there which saves us a Euro on the bus.
We tried to find a bus that could take us to Antibes, but there were no bus at all to find so we went back to the hotel, and then we decided to try to hitch hike down. A bit nervous, but we tried and actually the seventh car coming past picked us up and the very nice woman were also going to Antibes 
Antibes is a small and cute town, with narrow streets and at the sea there is a harbor with expensive boats. We ate at a Chinese place where Steve ate the other day he was in Antibes, quite expensive but very good food. Everything in Antibes is expensive.
There was a parade going on when we arrived so we stopped and watched it for a while and then we went up to the bus station to see if there would be any busses leaving for Sophia Antipolis later in the evening. One bus came and we asked the driver, who said one bus would be leaving in an hour. That is, not according to the time table for Sundays… strange.
I wanted to buy some breakfast and other food, but in France, everything is closed on Sundays. Some bars and restaurants are open of course, and I found a bakery where I bought a loaf of bread and an ice cream. It’s very hot down here.
Then we went back to the bus station and waited and waited. Steve told me that buses are always late. Steve is from the south of England but he lived in the north of France for half a year so he knows French.
Tomorrow is my first day at Amadeus. Hope it is a good one.
Posted in Uncategorized at 12:05 pm by tesstess
Wow, I’m here!!
The sky is only blue and I can see the mountains from here. Sitting in the reception of the apartment hotel I’m staying at these first two weeks.
I arrived in Nice airport yesterday at 6pm, and had to get to the hotel before eight. I was lucky and found the first bus really quick, it was so crowded that you couldn’t move when standing up, and people got angry at my bag since I was blocking the exit. But it took me to Antibes, where the second bus should go from. I managed to call the hotel and the girl said she would wait for me if I got late.
It was hard to find the right bus stop in Antibes, but also here I was lucky and it only took a couple of minutes until bus #1 appeared and took me to Sophia Antipolis. Everyone I asked for help along the way were really helpful and explained where to go. But already after a few hours in France I realize I will gain a LOT on learning French. People are not good at English and they really would prefer me to speak French.
When I got of the last bus I was lucky again and met a guy, Steve, who also lives in my hotel and also will start an internship on Amadeus on Monday! He showed me where to go and helped me with my bags.
My room is nice with a view of a golf court. I had to wipe the floor since they left soap on it, but otherwise it’s new and fresh.
I took some pictures when I came yesterday but I didn’t manage to get them onto my computer yet. You’ll see them when Magnus have explained how to connect the camera to my laptop.
Today it’s Sunday and everything is closed, there is not a grocery store nearby and the busses leave only now and then. Steven bought some breakfast yesterday so I got some of him this morning so I wouldn’t starve.
Now it’s time to go out exploring a bit. I and Steve, and maybe the guy from India we met in the reception yesterday, are going to look at the Amadeus building and also go down to the sea front, probably to Antibes, which is the closest town.