Wednesday, November 16, 2011

The French can be swindlers...

My first week in Lyon was about getting settled in. Mindy and I went to the Part Dieu shopping center almost every day that first week. It is the largest mall in France I think? It is huge! However, by then end of that week I began to hate it. Our apartment was not equipped with internet and we cannot live without internet (we are so American) so we went to Part Dieu because it has like 4 different internet companies in the mall alone. We went to each company - Bouygues (still don't know how to pronounce that one), Orange, Darty, etc. but Bouygues told us it was take 14 days, Orange told us it would take 7-10 days, and Darty told us 2 days - which wasn't bad at all, but we decided to try one more place, Infinity, which sells SFR products. We explain our situation and this woman tells us it will take 7 days, so we start to leave and she tells us to wait. We could get this 3g key that creates a wifi hot spot so both of us could use it. It sounded perfect! Only 30 euro a month - good deal! AND it is unlimited internet. We made triple sure with everything she said, so we decide to sign up for it.

Boy did she get us good.

When you sign up for internet/tv plans, it is much like a cellphone plan - you have to sign up for 2 years, which stinks big time. We are going to be here for 7-8 months but they don't have plans like that. But, we needed internet. So we got the key and returned home excited to use it.

We had to download all this software and low and behold, it does not create a wifi hotspot like the woman said. We call the store and they tell us to do a few things. We hang up, do the things they say, and still nothing. We call again, they tell us to come in the next day. So we go to Part Dieu once again, they tell us to do a few things, and send us on our way. We come home, boom. Still no "instant wifi-hotspot" This became a cycle - us calling them, us going to visit them, them "working on it" and then sending us home. We also began to notice that our internet was slowing down immensly - like it would take minutes to load a page, while at the beginning it was super fast. This went on for a week, the calling and visiting! Hence why I started to hate Part Dieu.

At this point we are so annoyed that I go to Darty Box and sign up for an ACTUAL wifi box. Another 2 year contract.

Finally on the 8th day we go in with guns blazing. They proceed to tell us that we need to call SFR and talk to them and we can't return the key because there is a 4 day return policy. Great. So we call SFR - 7 times we spoke to them because our phones kept running out of minutes or we somehow get disconnected - and they tell us no, we can't make a wifi spot and since there are no hotspots around us that it is too bad. Also, when we asked why the internet was slowing they told us that we have a capped limit of so many gigabytes and after that the internet slows down exponentially. So, yet another thing that the workers at Infinity lied to us about. We are stuck with the 3g key. So we are currently paying for 2 internet plans despite the fact we only use one. Unfortunately you just can't call and complain like you can in the U.S. They just don't care. Oyy. You live and you learn - just the hard way I guess. The good thing is (at least, goodness I hope) since we leave in 8 months we can show them our visa and copy of our work contract that shows we are leaving the country and we can end our contracts. Let us hope it is that easy come May...

Thursday, November 3, 2011

The rest of my doozy arrival

So I last left you with Mindy and I getting to know each other. Sorry it took so long to post - I was out of the country - I think that is a legitimate excuse! Anywho,

Mindy is my roommate here in France. She is an assistant just like me and is also in the Grenoble Academy but decided to live in Lyon. Now, she is ALSO from Illinois and went to ISU! What are the odds? We both posted on Grenoble Academy wall on Facebook about how we want to live in Lyon, and decided to live together if possible. We both didn't want to live alone, that is for sure. She was a life savior because she got here a week and a half before me, meaning she did all the apartment hunting on her own. i felt horrible not being there to help her :( but glad I had somewhere to live when I got here!

Now, the getting to this apartment part. It was a difficult process... after the cafe we had to hop on the metro to get to our landlord's place. He lives outside of Lyon. Remember, I have to big suitcases and a carry-on AND one of the big suitcases is broken. Getting those bags down stairs and onto the metro was crazy. My suitcases kept flipping over because it was broken. We then had to get on a bus but there was literally 100 people on this tiny bus. It was 80 degrees, I am sweating, I am trying to fit these bags onto a bus with 100 other people who are sweating. it was a nightmare. We were on the bus for a good 20 minutes and then we got off at the bottom of a hill. This is where my bag completely broke and I left a big metal tub lying on the ground -oops. At the point I just didn't care. So I drag my suitcases up the hill, and by now I know I probably reek, I am sweating, my make-up is half off my face from travelling and I get to meet my landlord. What a great first impression.

I thought I was probably cranky but mand does my landlord take the cake. He is a majorrrr grouch-monster. He was extremely sick and coughing up a lung so I can understand it somewhat, but I was just not ready for it. And the fact that he made us put down 1300 EURO (yes THIRTEEN-HUNDRED) I wasn't in the greatest sympathy mood. After a half hour of paperwork (I was so weary at this point I could not understand a thing. Poor Mindy had to do all of the talking) he tells us to follow him. He makes us clean out his car and tells us to get in - he doesn't tell us where we are going. So naturally we load my stuff and get in the car. Don't worry it was fine, well we had to shell out more money because we had to pay for homeowners insurance - so another 193 euro down the drain.

When we left the insurance place our landlord called the previous owner of this apartment and got into this big yelling match with her. Apparently, she had to work and he "had no key" for us to get into our new apartment, therefore he dropped us off into the courtyard area of the apartment complex and we waited there....in the dark....of 3 hours. Three hours. See the French are all about conserving energy, which is great, but we literally had to press this light button every 30 seconds or so, so we could see what we were doing. It was great. At this time I am exhausted, hungry, still smelly and just wanted to go to bed. Finally near 11, we got the keys and got to enter our new apartment!! Yay!!!

It is super colorful with pale lime green trims in the kitchen/living room, light blue in the bedroom, purple in the entryway and water closet (a room with just a toilet) and our bathroom is yellow. It is super cute! There is only 1 bedroom, but it is a large bedroom so it is like freshman year in the dorm again, but hey we are making it work. The downside of the apartment was - it wasn't furnished. There was a table and chairs, a fridge, 2 stove-tops and a futon and that is it. No beds. No closet/shelves. etc So Mindy and I really got to know each other because we shared the futon haha but we slept the opposite way so our feet were on the ground and there was much more room.

At one point there were three of us on the futon because Tina, another Grenoble Assistant living in Lyon hadn't found a place and our floor is not comfortable at all. But all worked out in the end! We went to this Irish pub in Old Lyon and this British guy started talking to Tina and asked her how she is. She answered truthfully, that she was awful because she had no place to live, and low and behold one of his roommates moved out that day! So now she is living in a swanky place in a really nice neighborhood - sometimes it pays off to be honest! We couldn't believe her luck, especially after hearing how many assistants still did not have any housing whatsoever. It is verrrry difficult to find housing, especially in big cities and our little guidebook does NOT help us at all, nor tell us it will be as difficult as it was. Again, I am thankful Mindy was here a week early and found a place otherwise I possible would be living in a cardboard box on the street rather than this cute apartment.


Luckily, Mindy's friend Katie, who was a Grenoble assistant last year, came to visit us and she had a car - MEANING IKEA!!!! She graciously took us there to get our beds, clothing shelves, plates, containers, bedding etc. It was great and I might have gone a little overboard. I wanted everything there. Oh the Swedes, gotta love 'em! Finally after a week our place finally felt like home!