The Mailbag Part 2

Following the success of the first of my Mailbags, I can happily say here's a second part:

• Accommodation, deposits and all that - A few people (myself included) have asked about what the next step is with regards to our accommodation.  Things like deposits and rent and insurance all need to be sorted out.
  Thanks to David Reyes (University of Malaga) I can tell you that we'll be sorting everything upon arrival.
• Household Insurance - One of the compulsory things you need is household insurance when getting CROUS accommodation in France.  This is simply to cover you in case of an accident.
  At first I think it was safe to say that no-one really knew what to do, though a bit of searching goes a long way.  I looked at several sites and they all pointed to Smeno as the place to go.  Once you are insured you are able to download the certificate immediately to show to the accommodation office.

• Mobile phones - A lot of people across Europe have been talking about mobile phones and which is the best company to go to.  Well, there was a rousing response from people.  Sarah Bilot (UPMF) handily added in a comparison site to compare contracts (known as 'forfaits' in France) which can be seen here.   

During the next couple of days I'll work out what's going on with the CAF, the grant you can get paid for your accommodation in France.  I think it'll help greatly with costs so it's definitely worth looking in to.

Much to do today - keeping life as normal as I can given the insane excitement that's befallen me of late.  I cannot wait to get going.  

It's three weeks today.

Mike :)

So I've got somewhere to live...

Good morning everyone!

And so the end of the working week has arrived. All over the UK offices are filled with relieved workers all waiting for 5pm to come.

More interestingly for me, I get some time to file through some of things that have arrived for me over the week.

Things have been quite quiet on the Erasmus pages, so here's some of the bits and pieces to sort out for me:

Firstly, I can plug that SIM card in for the first time and get my phone number (one does not simply have it written down...)

I can also get that little green slip sent off which says I've actually used the SIM.

There are a few emails to send off with regards to my Erasmus grant - just confirming what else I need to do to make sure it gets paid on time. I've been in close contact with my home university to check the details of my placement, I would always encourage people to do the same.

Home insurance - for those of you who don't know, students in France need household insurance in order to move in. I'll probably do a blog post on that at the weekend; it's quite a broad topic!

And then of course, there's the small matter of American Football. While I'm away, I'll be playing for the Grenoble Centaurs - very exciting stuff!

Naturally, there's paperwork to fill out for it and a payment to send to the board that represents teams and committees in Europe. A move has been in the pipeline for several months now, time to make the move official!

Think it's beginning to dawn on me now, as I stare out of the bus window as I type. It's three weeks now. Everything's coming together and I'm getting organised (no small hand to my parents there) but I think nothing is going to prepare me for coming off the Eurotunnel into France.

Exciting, yes. Slightly terrifying, absolutely. 

Phone SIM arrived, bit confusion...

Well I think things are progressing at a reasonable pace now... Chief thing to report is that my French SIM card arrived from Le French Mobile yesterday!

Brings up an interesting point: all pre-paid PAYG SIM cards have to be registered under French law within 15 days of arrival. If you don't, you stand to get cut off! I can only imagine it's for security or something similar.

I also must apologise to my friends on the Erasmus pages on Facebook over Orientation Week timetables.

I noted that some members due at IUT2 and INP colleges both had received timetables of what to attend during the orientation week. Of course, going to IUT2, I assumed I missed something. It transpires that the current ones floating around on the Facebook pages are not necessarily for Erasmus students.

It appears that us exchange pupils will receive our information closer to the time (thank you Rosie Paul and Sandeep Mishra for clearing that up!)

Spent the vast majority of the evening speaking on Skype with Bethany - she seems to be enjoying her summer back home in Liverpool. I'm fairly sure she's getting tired of listening to my ramblings of Grenoble and what comes next...

Still, it's lovely that she supports me and I'm sure she'll pay me a visit at some point over the course of my time away.

Thank you for questions and words of encouragement that have come in recently, they are all much appreciated. If there is anything you'd like me to include in a post that's relevant to Grenoble, then just drop me a message, comment or if you know me on Facebook then that's an easy way to do it too!

Mike :)