The beginning

Dear friends,

To begin with, a piece of information that might make you feel disappointed: I have no intention to traduce all my articles in English! It’s too much work, really!

Let me give you my first feelings after my arriving. After a warm welcome yesterday at the School, and a few tests to evaluate our level, we have started the classes today. I must say I’m not disappointed; it’s much more enthusiastic that at Dauphine (sorry Mrs Bartlett, but sincerely, we won’t miss you). The teachers (e.g. Nick, Jeremy, Peter, Simon, etc.) have all the same sickness as many people here, that I’ve decided to call “smilo-pathology”, and that consists in having a permanent smile on the face. It’s true that the context of this School leads to an easier and pleasant contact with the people. Easier, but still in English… Anyway, today, I spoke with one German, three Saudi Arabians, one Suisse, one Russian, one Brazilian, two Chinese, and one Korean who takes the same bus as me in the morning. So, I see all colours, and for me who can’t remind the names, it’s not going to be easy!

The teachers, I was saying, are really pleasant, but pitiless. As a result, I just completed a page about myself (in English, of course), and I must write no less than 450 words about “accommodation problem in Paris” for tomorrow morning. At least, I will have a lot of things to say! And I thought that 23h of class each week would be very few…

At this moment, some people are talking about rugby in the cafeteria! Of course, this is the big subject here: you can see flags everywhere, and the “All blacks” one is the most common. On the other side, some are moaning about the oval ball omnipresence, which remind me of the reactions to the last football world cup.

Please forgive me for the lack of structure in this article! Hey, for instance, I’m thinking that I will be able to wish Laurene her birthday 11 hours before everybody else ! Of course, the jetlag has consequences, and must be the reason why I get asleep à 8.30pm yesterday, and woke up at 4am. But it may also be due to my cold that I still have, or to the temperature in the NZ houses, which is not different from the outside temperature. The bathroom’s window, indeed, is always opened. Thus, difficult to get out of the very warm bed in the morning!

The school has a lot of activities each week: ski trip, week end at the beach, or… Hobbiton visit! But I’ve decided to stay at home this week, so as to get better.

Just a few lines about politics, after the victory of the left in the senatorial election. Auckland is a good example of the importance of public-services. Here, the public transports are… private. As a result, the buses belonged to different companies, and this provoke a certain… disorder. No more Navigo pass that let you access to every transport! Here, you need different pass for each company, or area, or you have to pay a few dollars each time. It’s a little difficult: there is no common organisation between the companies, and so, no coherence at all!

This, and the fact that I don’t know where I’m going to live in a month, doesn’t help me to feel calm. I mean, at night; only at night I worry for such things.

I think I’m going to stop here for the moment.

See you very soon, probably with a few photos! Give me news from France too.

Sébastien

PS: some of the people from the different nationalities I listed previously actually knew the Limoges porcelain!