Anyhow, I got up around 8AM and it felt like 4AM outdoors. Granted, my room has slanted ceilings so maybe the light wasn't really making it through - but I've also heard that this is what they call the "European Winters" - dark & gloomy days...
At around 9am, after trying to find the appropriate health & housing insurance, I got in touch with my airport buddies from the previous day to see if we should meet up to get cell phones figured out and contact our banks for credit cards and cheque books, etc...
We also decided to get something to eat. At around 10AM we met up and walked towards the town center. During this walk I started to notice Chinese restaurants, so with nothing better to do at the moment, I started a tally...
During the day, we really racked up some mileage. First we learned that one of the banks was closed. We continued wandering around, asking for directions to places we didn't want to go - probably just to practice our French, and continued aimlessly through the town.
Finally, we decided to be productive and so walked into a Phone store to look for good prices and deals on phones - this was a bad idea without prior research into the French system for cell phone plans since we had offers for things like 1 hour of talk time a month + unlimited sms & internet. To give you a sense of how different this is, in USA I had 1350 minutes of talk time along with unlimited data & 200 SMS/month. To bring this down to 60 or 120 mins of talk time and unlimited SMS & emailed seemed slightly disproportionate.
BUT I guess we were going for the more cost effective plans (i.e. my plan in Chicago was $150/month so approximately 100 Euros). So, note to all reading this - incoming calls are free and I have unlimited SMS & Email so I will be great about text-based communication and leaving missed calls :)
After a few discussions around cellphones we decided that all the French we were hearing was exercising our brains more than expected so croissants were in order - found ourselves a nice patisserie and indulged in French treats! Ok - I indulged but moreso because I was instructed to do so by my brother to taunt my sister-in-law with pictures of all the treats I was eating in France.
Second note but moreso to self - find gym, sign up for gym, and start a regular workout routine asap...
With a little bit of food in our tummies we ventured towards the bank, again, realizing it was closed. Then walked towards grocery stores (remembered they are called epiceries) and did a lot of random scouring of the town.
Around noon one of our friends decided that he was going to head back before the random discussions regarding HSBC drove him to insanity and it was once again my British Canadian swimmer buddy and I ready to brave Melun.
And brave we did! We figured out that Ligne 34 goes to Melun directly from Fontainebleau. But we did not know how much it would cost, so we emptied our pockets with all the change we had (yes - I'm trying to portray poverty when in fact we basically had too many big notes).
One amazing thing about the bus was that it was a proper bus - not like a public transit bus one might expect - more like a bus you'd take for overnight trips to different cities - make sense? A Greyhoundesque bus - quite the experience. And en route, I spotted at least 4 more Chinese Restaurants!
Tally = 9.
Upon arriving at Melun, we tried to find HSBC which for some reason was a complete mystery to all the locals. They kept sending us to different banks - now I know my French might not be the best, but there were two of us and we were giving every permutation of H (ahj), S (ess), B (bay), C (say) to folks ranging from Domino's Cashiers to Etudiants wandering about town...
Finalement we found a map and with the help of the address I always had in my backpack we located the town square/circle around which HSBC was located.
AND we were up to 12 Chinese restaurants. Mind you, we were speed walking our way around Melun and in the midst of that brisk pace and yelling "Ou est La BANQUE!" I'm sure I missed a few restaurants...
Needless to say we finally made our way to HSBC, which has amazing security - only one person allowed in or out at a time, buzzed through two separate doors - I think I may apply for a job at this branch :)
... this post is getting really long - and I'm not even done talking about the rest of the escapades of the day, but let me list it:
- back to Fontainebleau by bus
- back home to change
- quick stop grocery shopping w/ housemate (milk, cereal, and 2 cases of beer as a welcome present for our other housemates)
- Welcome Dinner for INSEAD Business Foundations attendants
- Post-welcome Dinner conversations with new students
- Debrief on the walk home...
Oh, Tally end-of-day = 13
you know how there is american chinese food? i hope that is true for french chinese food. i bet it is delicious.
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