Anecdotes

So I found out yesterday why Sorbonne Uni doesn't have a big fancy sign at the entrance.  It does.   The university building takes up the whole block, but most of the south side is currently undergoing renovations, and the main entrance to the uni is conveniently obscured by all the scaffolding in the courtyard out the front.  It's actually quite a nice entrance, too - big letters saying 'SORBONNE UNIVERSITY', the EU and French flags and some pretty-coloured wall panels.  I feel a little bit diddled now.  Fingers crossed they finish building before I leave so I can get a photo for posterity's sake!

First trip to the Le Bourget post office yesterday - and I escaped alive!  Strange, though - their post office is also its own bank!  It wasn't too far to walk, either - I keep forgetting that Australia is BIG, and Paris is small, and therefore maps lie to me when they tell me how far things are.  I re-learned this fact today (as I'm sure I will many, many times) when I headed for the post office in the 5th arrondissement, also nice and close.  It's all so little!

My other handy discovery of yesterday - turns out my bank, which is a nice, two-minute walk from uni via the shortcut I've discovered, also has branches and ATMS in Le Bourget (between the pharmacy and the post office, I forget exactly where, but it's a short walk, naturally) and at Place du 8 mai 1945 in La Courneuve, where I change from the metro to the bus.

Speaking of buses, they're crazy around here!  Even the bus drivers themselves fail to see the logic of a 20-minute wait at the terminus for three buses to then leave at once.  My poor, unmathsy brain is also bamboozled by the way the trip to the metro in the morning (during peak hour, please note) takes the five to 10 minutes that it should to cover the relevant distance, yet said trip in the other direction at 3pm takes at least 20 minutes (from when I started counting...).  It's actually faster at 5pm, I've found!  They also build buses differently here - most of the centre of the bus is given over to standing room, which makes sense since every bus I've been on while here has been so full it was standing room only...

Our teacher mentioned something about the metro last week that I've noticed applies elsewhere as well.  All rubbish bins in the Paris metro, and in many public areas around Paris (even footpaths in Le Bourget) are clear plastic bags hanging from a metal ring.  Why?  So that you can't hide a bomb in the rubbish.  I kid you not.  Paris rubbish bins are designed not to be conducive to terrosist attacks.  It's a little sad that we live in a world where you have to think this way.

I've also discovered that, according to the popular opinion of my friends and Erasmus peers, group E is thought to be the top class is our French stage intensif.  Apparently, A is the bottom and E is the top.  Needless to say, I'm more than a little confused and concerned by this concept...though I'm equally concerned by the other way round!

Mind you, they told me this after I complained how bored I was because my class was really easy (today we conjugated the two most common verbs in the four most common tenses!  Yay!).  Hmmm......France makes NO sense at all.

At the CROUS canteen - Rafael, Lisanne, Martin

My chocolate mousse (and Luis Felipe's arm)

...then the world would be a much more sober place (pun intended)

The bus stop in La Courneuve

Sorbonne's library, which has a HUGE collection of Spanish and French literature...

Wandering east through Le Bourget

A new take on 'Beware of the Dog' ('mechant' means 'wicked')...

The clear plastic bag bins - see story above.

The west end of Rue Rigaud, looking east

The clinic next door from the west side

The bottom of Rue Santeuil (where Sorbonne is)

Guess where...no, you'll never guess...