Mar
26
I am back to my parents’ place this weekend and also next weekend because I have a one day training next Friday 01/04. I just wanted to come back and relax a bit and finish some paperworks to get reimbursed. It feels good to change my routine to something more pleasant and of course to enjoy some home Vietnamese cooking. It has been almost a month now that I am on a sandwich diet. I tried hard to eat tons of salad and oranges besides to keep me healthy.
Mar
23
Call it Karma, Curse or whatever but I am fiercely affected by a serie of unfortunate events. I was supposed to get the mail and the trash box keys. There was some delays caused by something that made me arrive 15 min later and they closed 15 min earlier! Then the electrical fuse that is part of the oven electrical circuit was burned out….cold and late dinner!
Zen I shall remain. They aren’t tragic events just unfortunate and annoying events. My new beginning could have been much easier I’d say.
Mar
22
Stress Stress Stress!
Filed Under Daily
It is no good for my body! It immediately reacted badly to the events from the last three weeks. I need to calm down and get back to a routine or I will be in bad shape. I’ve lost few pounds and my back is full of zits. I hate that! My body is so weak. It reacts so strongly to anything that disturbs my mental balance.
I found out where the weird smell came from in my studio and I added tons of detergent to the water hole in the shower and everything was fixed. I think the previous owner is a pig.
Work isn’t too bad. It is not hard just tedious. I’ve always tried to leave at 5 pm since I arrived at 8 am. I don’t know if it is alright with the group leader but as long as nobody says anything I will keep it this way. It is a bit longer than my normal contract time but since Ive just started I better keep it this way.
The curse is still going on! Life is a bitch. Still no screws for the bed!!!
Mar
20
It’s a Curse!
Filed Under Daily
Since my arrival to Grenoble, there is always a minor but annoying event that followed me in everything I did. here is my list of these sad little events:
1. My eye was irritated
2. The temporary computer I received died after my 2nd day
3. I forgot to ask my dad to sign the second part of the housing contract
4. My internet connection stopped working after 15 min due to a bad physical connection. The technician had to come again to fix it.
5. The people at work tried to make me work with Adobe Framemaker but they couldn’t install it anywhere.
6. The mail box is broken and I do not have the key to either the mail box nor the trash room.
7. My elevated bed to be built was delivered without any screw! <—if that isn’t a proof of a curse what else?
I should admit maybe I am trying to force things to go fast as usual. I am very impatient and I always tried to have everything as quickly as possible. So everything is a bit rushed away and of course they are imperfect. It’s life!
Mar
17
Finally Internet!
Filed Under Daily
Yippie! Now I need to resume a normal life and find time to take care of myself. It has been 3 weeks of stress and unstability.
Mar
16
The joy of moving to a new studio!
Filed Under Daily
Monday 14/03: The internet technician came early to setup my internet connection.
Tuesday 15/03:
I moved into my new studio. It was a big day!
My credit card didn’t work and I had to give an ID card and signed some papers to allow the hotel to withdraw from my credit account, quite unexpected and embarrassing! I’ve spent too much and reached my limits. The electrician came and fired it up for me and there was the light in this dark and cold place! Then came the guy who was doing the formal checkup of the place in case i burn it down to ashes. Then came the TV. Joy oh Joy! my big fancy toy.
I slept on the floor and I forgot to buy a blanket. So I slept with all my clothes all over me. It was cold!
Internet is down for some reason but I can connect to a Freebox and use Wifi through their system. A bit slow but better than nothing.
Wednesday 16/03
I bought few more stuffs for the empty studio.
Mar
13
Cannot wait to move in!
Filed Under Daily
Friday 11/03/2011: I found the main water tap in the hallway and I could finally get water to flush the toilet full of shit and piss. It almost made puke! Horrible experience! Someone broke the lock of my mail box so I could check my own mail. I threw away everything from the previous owner.
Saturday-Sunday:
I’ve spent my weekend cleaning the studio. Lots of dirty work but I am happy. The place is clean. As soon as I get electricity, I’ll go deeper into dirty hidden corners.
I bought a desk (39 €), a TV (500 €),an elevated desk (322 €) and a mattress (79€). The desk should go under the elevated bed. I also bought tons of cleaning stuff and few tools.
I am extremely well located. Everything is around the corner or easily accessible by tram. Maybe it was worth the pain and the wait after all. A technician is coming Tuesday to connect the electricity to the studio. If all goes as planned I should get connected to the internet next Wednesday. The bed should arrive next Saturday. Then I’ll be settled. I am sore from carrying the desk I had to build. Next week it will be my bed’s turn.
I guess I’ll have to stick around a bit.
Mar
9
Finally after a long week and half of struggling, I am holding the keys of my studio in my hands. Yea Yea Yea! For the handful of people who might be interested in my life and who are wondering about my departure after a week of work, I can say today that I might stay a bit longer. Few things contributed to this longer stay:
1. The company paying me is based in Paris.
2. The leader responsible for this project/work is in Grenoble
3. After my first week, the project leader was … on vacation.
It is like 2 full weeks of adaptation with no stress. HAHA!
I will stay in this hotel until Sunday at least since I have no electricity or internet yet in my studio. A technician will come Tuesday (15/02/2011) to setup the electricity. I will try to change the internet setup to Tuesday as well. The city was full of students who came back after vacation. It was very lively compared to last week. I kinda of enjoyed it more.
I don’t really want to waste time writing about people I work with since I always made mistakes. It’s better to wait a bit to know them better. Also people tend to hide their dark sides at first when they don’t know you. I get along with the ones in my room. The other room is trying to kiss ass too much to my taste.
But seriously I do not really care right now: 6 months salary and then maybe I’ll stay or I’ll go …. we shall see! My eye is fine now and I am happy. I still need to see an optician nevertheless. I think my eye vision has changed.
Mar
5
First Busy Week in Grenoble!
Filed Under Daily
Sunday 27/02/2011:
13:30 Train iDTGV Paris-Grenoble. First class 54 Euros
16:30 Grenoble train station
18:00 Checkin into Kyriad Hotel at 18:00, 65-79 Euros per night. I lost an hour looking around. It was heavy to carry the luggage.
Problem: My left eye was red and started to irritate.
Monday 28/02/2011:
9:00 am: I met my new teammates and the person responsible for the project in this site. They are all alright compared to the crazy ones I’ve had before.
Monday-Wednesday:
I had to look for a room in a very short time since they only offered to pay my first week’s hotel. The eye infection had me worried. It wasn’t easy but I managed to find few hours to insert into a busy schedule to look for a room.
Wednesday 02/03/2011:
15:00 I left work early to visit some studios in the city. I found a studio I liked. The only bad thing was the weird smell, some kind of chinese’s food smell I reckon. I need to get rid of it after I move in.
Thursday 03/03/2011:
The annoying paperwork required for the room and the eye infection made my week hell on Earth. My left eye was in a very bad condition during the night.
Friday 04/03/2011:
16:00 My dad could get the confirmation from his work that he won’t be fired and sent it to me by email. Since he was on sick leave we could not provide the last 3 month salaries.
17:45 I was in the emergency room at Grenoble’s hospital to check my eye. It was too late nevertheless the interns were kind enough to look at my eye after I explained to them my problem. They gave me a prescription with some antibiotics.
AND everything was miraculously solved by the end of the day!
Saturday 05/03/2011:
10:00 Tour of Grenoble’s Center: Saturday morning market, Supermarket, etc…
12:30: I went to a Chinese’s restaurant for lunch It wasn’t good but since I was hungry I wasn’t to picky.
14:00: I managed to get an internet provider, Numericable. They will come next Wednesday between 17-18 hours to set up the connection. I will have a fiber optic connection (100 Mbit/sec hopefully). I really cannot live without internet and, of course, I want the fastest speed available.
15:00 I was annoyed by an insisting young beggar. He tried to get some money when I was trying to buy a tram’s ticket. I didn’t appreciate when he tried to cancel my order by pushing the button. Stupid kid!
Conclusion:
I kept my expectations very low this time and only focused on my goals. Grenoble isn’t that great compared to what I’ve seen. I need more time of course to check everything out. My room is right in the center of the city so I will have plenty of time to explore the city. At least I have access to all public transportation and I won’t need a car I think. All in all, I’d say it wasn’t that bad for a beginning. I do not look further than the next morning at the moment and just go along with whatever. The job isn’t bad. It consists of working on technical documentation in general: user guides mainly.
Feb
18
Technical writer for Schneider elec. (automate or device user guides written in english) …yea it sounds rather boring! That was what my sister said but who knows it might be less creepy than the previous one I had.
Company: Takoma (kind of a SSII, that works for Schneider electric)
salary: 30 k
starting date: Feb 28 2011
Location: Grenoble (meylan)
….I shall see.
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