September 6 2006  - I checked in to the departure terminal at the cochin international airport at about 12.30am and the rules forbid my carrying two bags including my laptop as hand baggage. This was the first piece of excitement which continued into the next few days, as I embarked on my first foreign trip which was of course, a dream and a means to and end which I hope to accomplish in the coming years. After stuffing most of the documents from the rucksack into my laptop bag and sending the sack along with the huge bag and a bigger briefcase, I bid goodbye to my parents, sister and brother-in-law who were there to see me off. Dressed in a pair of jeans, a white shirt and a blazer, little did I know that it was going to be my dress for the next 3 days. Well, and so the flight took off to mumbai at 3.45am and reached mumbai at 5.30am. On time, I was happy.

Well it was also happy Onam, the biggest festival in my home town kerala in India. Well, the Air India flight from mumbai to Paris started at 8.30am, a full hour and 10 minutes late as it was raining heavily in mumbai and there was some cleaning to be done inside the aircraft as water had apparently got in during the catering company’s loading operation. Along with a group of mostly irritated and a few anxious passengers, I started on the journey to Paris which took about 8 hours. The timezone had changed in between and I reached paris at 2.45pm which was 6.15pm India time. The first experience of a timezone change, it was fun to turn my watch back by 3 and a half hours back. I tried to cock my neck to see paris from the air before landing, but could not find what I was looking for though – the Eiffel tower. When I come back to paris, I said to myself.

After a wonderful Bonjour! from a waiting security personnel I told myself, La France, J’arrive! Well, people talk of dreams come true and now I know how the feeling is – its not that you jump up and down or wake up every sleeping soul to know it has happened, its just the quiet smile of satisfaction. Sometimes, you have to congratulate yourself. Well, all I had to do was to get a seal on my passport showing my entry into france and this procedure was surprisingly simple, so much so that I wondered it if was all that was needed. I had to confirm with air france if my luggage would be transferred along with me to the next flight bound to Marseille. Before this, I went to try to get a calling card which ended up as a futile search mainly because the shop that I went to had a very busy hostess.

The next few minutes was for rushing from one check in post to another to somehow get into the flight bound for Marseille as I found I had only 5 minutes to board. Well, the first time I experienced the reward of speaking French was then. A pretty assistant and her colleague rushed me through the check in process and I found myself seated in the airplane shortly before its departure. I was panting by then, and had forgotten about the luggage, which by the way was supposed to come to Marseille with me as per the airline official.

The flight left at 4pm, a little late and I realized that the French can be late too. One hour and 5 minutes more, and I get a beautiful view of the see, the calanques and Marseille, the place I am going to be in for a year. I come out of a somewhat less crowded airport (paris was just the same, I gather that weekdays are the best to leave and arrive) to be kissed on both cheeks by Anne Sophie, my good friend from AIX in france. It was such a relief to see her smiling face, and then I embraced Antonin, her boyfriend and my great friend. It was one thing that my parents were very happy about – the fact that there would be someone to welcome me in France. I waited for sometime for my luggage and then gathered from my friends that my luggage had not come and would be late. So I went with them to the baggage claim office where I was given the official regret and a toilet bag with stuff for a day, which included a tshirt as well, which came very handy as I had nothing to change until my luggage came on the 7th evening.

My friends helped my buy a calling card and I called home from the airport. They then drove me to the train station and I was greeted by the members of INTERACT, the association of French students for International students. They immediately started to speak French as they saw me with my French friends and I must say that at this time, I felt happy and comfortable as I was able to speak the language I had learned with a lot of interest. Laurent, Elodie, Maria Luisa and Sabine are names I will remember as they were Euromed’s welcoming smile for me. I met two international students there – Ilka and larsch. Well, that was the beginning of learning to be international by being international. In the next few days, I met about 200 international students from almost 40 countries. This indeed was one of my reasons for chosing and I was really happy it was proved right. My friends left me with an A bientot and I was driven to my reisidence ALOTRA by Interact along with a few more international students. After a drive of about 15 minutes, we arrived at the residence and I walked straight into a gathering of international students at the common room in the ground floor.

I had also met an Indian girl Guncha at the entrance and along with her we are four Indians here for the one year master’s – the others are Deb and Sonali. Deb lives in the Cite Universitaire or Cite U, which is a cheap and nice accommodation for the student population. Sonali and Guncha live in Estudines, which is another student residence which is cosy, expensive and right next to the campus. Well, I met about 50 international students that eve and by the time I slept without dinner, one of the longest days that I remember had ended well, after all the excitement. I also called home to tell that I had reached my hostel and everything was fine. This was much to their relief, indeed.