First Experiences in Poitiers...
Where to start really? Being in Poitiers has been an experience so far thats for sure! Well I'll start out with my first week here, Me and my fellow unbsj friend krista, arrived at our new home late on a wednesday afternoon. The outside was absolutely beautiful, almost castle esque, naturally we got really excited about our new home.... Until we went to our section of the house. Needless to say it was below resonable standards and it was bad enough that we moved within a few days. ADVICE: Make sure you get your international housing advisor, for Uni. of P. its M. Guerin, to send you pics and info in detail of your housing and if internet in your apartment is what you want, make sure you let them know because we had a hard time finding one with internet after we arrived. Now things are much better, we now live in a cozy home with other international students that is close to "centre-ville". We currently have 5 roomates, 2 from France, 1 from china, 1 from Belgium and 1 from moncton!

It just so happened that the students of university of Poitiers went on strike...thats right STUDENTS went on strike for a month because they werent happy with the education system. That was not so fun for me because it pushed all of my classes ahead by 3 weeks. Which meant that my first month here has been mostly getting settled and picking classes....and going out for drinks.A great aspect of living here is the transportation system, it is VERY impressive, alot better than Saint John. I can get across town easily and very fast also you can get a monthly pass for a reasonable price and some schools offer free bus passes. My advice is learn the bus system when you first get here, the taxis tend to be pricey. They also can tell that you're not from here so they will try to make you tab higher by driving around in circles and going the extra long routes!

The first couple weeks i tagged along with Krista's ESCEM crew (which is another school here in Poitiers) and went to a pub crawl and met some new and exciting people from all over the world. I just came back from a weekend in Paris with some of them, and it was awesome. Travelling around europe here is very cheap, and a big reason as to why i decided to study in Poitiers. Ryan Air sells tickets for reasonable prices to all around europe, in particular this weekend for example their is a flight from Paris to Spain for 1 €! You also have the option of staying at a hostel rather than a hotel which is alot cheaper and usually the same quality room. I already have planned to travel to Rome over my February break and hopefully go to Spain over easter break. The travel here is so cheap that i would advise anyone coming abroad to europe to take advantage of it while you can! You dont always have to fly either, you can also take the train here, which also comes very cheap. ADVICE: if you plan on travel even a little bit, buy the "carte 12-25" card, it saves you alot of money when buying tickets and is well worth the 50€!

Also, anyone going to University of Poitiers, be prepared. This school is very unlike UNBSJ, they're not as organized and often aren't as helpful as our staff in Saint John. Although you may come across a few that genuinely want to help you. Office hours are usually 9-12 and 2-4... not a minute later or earlier... they are very set in their 2 hour lunches! ADVICE: If you are going to see andadvisor, its best to go in the mornings, it varies with all departments and faculties, but alot of them take random afternoons off during the week ESPECIALLY fridays. Other than that the people here are friendly, and i found a couple profs to be very helpful. If you a new comer to UN of P be sure you can keep up with the french language, the profs here do not always speak clearly and mumble often. The secretaries can be hard to deal with too, ADVICE: make sure that you know which faculty you belong to before leaving! I made the mistake of registering for the wrong one when I first came because they offer my courses in 2 different faculties!