First day at work

First day today! Yaaay!

It was a whole lot of fun and very interesting. I got to meet a lot (a lot!) of people, mostly bureaucratic ones obviously (since it was my first day, and we are in France, after all), but also many other ones that didn't want my signature or my drivers licence whenever they saw me. What did work however, that I'm not used to, was the ACCESS! First thing in the morning, my access tag was waiting for me with my name on it. Incredible!

For those who don't understand this amazement, I'm used to fighting for my life (not for my life) every summer/winter that I go work for the Clinical Research Centre (CRC) i.e. the lab where I work in Malmö. So yeah, I know what you're thinking "maybe that bureaucracy seems to be working then", this time yes. But sadly, mostly no.

It's a lot of fun though because the rabbits that I'm going to work with are a bit further away from where I work. "Oh!" said I, and wondered "So, where is this place? Is it far? Are there buses?" And Laurianne said: "No, no buses, but we will give you a car". I felt excited, and frightened to hell at the same time because people in, and around Toulouse learned to drive in Toulouse and that's a major problem for those who did not. Anyways, I then asked how far I would have to go by car, and if I'm insured (given the Toulousic driving style) and she answered that I am insured as long as I don't leave the INRA campus. Small pause in my thinking. "So, I am not insured when I leave the campus to go to the rabbit farm?", "Oh, yes! You are, you won't have to leave campus, it takes five minutes by car and 20 minutes by walking, that's why we give you a car!"

Why not add some extra bureaucracy? Well anyway, no complaining, God forbid, I could have gotten a bike! But that would have been very unleasant, I mean, what if it would rain someday? Sweet Jesus, I would like her to see me when I bike in 10cm of snow in Ol'Uppsala :) But they're really nice and I understand they just want what's best for me. After all, as it seems now I've gotten a bit of a cold. Which sucks. A lot. But that gives me a valid reason to be in bed, watching Homeland at 21.56, with my teeth already brushed. And, actually, I have been really good today, calling the bank, shopping for groceries, tried to get a French phone card (but it's not that easy when you have an iPhone), paid the rent, and got a bus card so I can go in to the Toulouse city centre, so in other words, I'm worth an early evening. Actually, I will go to the Toulouse city centre on friday. I was invited by the other young people of INRA, also writing their theses, apparantly. Nice!

Oh, by the way, the access tag that I got, is actually a multi-task tag, because it gives me food, cheap food, but good and alot of food, every lunch with the collegues. The restaurant reminds me a little of the IKEA restaurant, except the chefs here have white coats and huge chef hats à la Française. You get an entrée, a main course, a desert, bread, salad bar and drinks. You have to choose between almost a thousand alternatives of each which is not good for the decision anxiety of the Swedish half of myself. I ended up with too much good food (I couldn't walk away from the restaurant properly). This evenings food intake (19.30) ended up in fromage blanc with special K branflakes, I was still not hungry from the lunch yet though. So perhaps, minor adjustments will have to be made starting tomorrow.

Okay, so first day, a lot to write obviously!

À demain!

Lauriannes' and my office. 

My way back from INRA today.
18.00, blackbirds singing, not very cold, felt like a late summer evening almost.
I can definately get used to this. 

One of the best things about France. Every store has a yoghurt heaven. My heaven.
(They also have wine heaven, cheese heaven, meat heaven, bread heaven, and did I say wine heaven?)