Registration Day

(27-Aug-2007)

Today was registration day. I am in the letter H, so my turn was in 11:00. Actually you could have come in any time you wished. It all starts in the Upper Gallery. I dressed nicely, with a buttoned shirt and off-white pants, but it wasn't really called for, and people came in a variaty of customs.

First I met Mrs. Isabella Ramos, finally being able to connect the face to the name. She congratulated me, and gave me a very big file with tons of papers to read. I will probably finish reading it by the end of the semester.

I got a badge (finally), and could wear it around my neck like a marked sheep. I tried to be creative, using other mechanisms to hang my badge, like clipses on the pockets, but all the other students (with no exceptions) wore the blue reabon, so I wore my badge like everybody - around my neck (I hope it will not suffocate me). I also got a checklist of things to do. I had to fill some forms: Code of Conduct (only signature), Personal details (address and stuff like this) - I needed my passport for this one, An agreement to use my picture if they take my picture on campus (?! a well-known model is studying here, why would they want MY picture?), a pole of how I got my apartment, and details about my health insurance.

Apperantly you need to be covered by the ammount of 200K Euros or you will have problems with the Card De Sejour. Lucky for me, I brought with me the insurance policy I issued back in Israel (which was ok).

Overall I spent today more than 200 Euros. I paid 100 Euros to the BDE (student association), 115 Euros for the Spanish exam on Wednesday (this will be deducted from the language tuition if I attend one), 50 Euros to load into the INSEAD account (the badge is an elecronic wallet), and 30 Euros for the internal phone and fax services (actually a great service offered by INSEAD). Since I don't have a chequebook or a card yet I had to pay cash.

The phone companies did not show up as promised (they actually told us to go to Rue Grand to check them out ourselves - like we haven't done that already). But all the banks showed up to collect our money. It wasn't really relevant to me as I already have a French bank account.

I registered to the library, picked up the material for p1 (a pile of pamphlets), and then went to my personal locker to set put everything inside. It's cool to have a locker in campus. It has a combination that you can set at any time. On the way I went to my pigeon hole (that's what they call the mail boxes - because they are really narrow - I'm NOT kidding), to find a present from Bain & Company - a really nice bottle openner. Also there was an invitation to a party on Sep 1st. The student association put a note that there is a big meeting on Saturday, right after the Outbound thing.

We got a sticker for the car, with a bunch of instruction. There where boothes for the languages, alumni (where I entered the draw for a free Summer Ball ticket), partners (where my wife - I am sorry "Significant Other" - signed up again and got a temporary badge), and some more.

In retroperspective, I had to bring: cash (I don't have my debit cards yet), my passport details, my health insurance paper, and believe it or not - a pen (they didn't provide one in the file, so I used a pen I got from NYU a while back, talk about irony).

While waiting in the lines I met many of my fellow students, and was really amused to see 100 people sit with laptops and try to install their IT disc (provided in the package). With so much computers I almost felt at Elbit. The blend of cultures, languages and a bit overwhelmed faces puts you right into perspective of where you are, and that everything actually begins now.