After a mind-blowing trip to India, I unpacked and repacked within half a day and headed off to Fonty with my new housemate Sing Ai. I only had 2 hours of sleep on my way back from India, and fought back drowsiness throughout the day. I then tried to sleep on the plane to Paris, but found it difficult. I was however happy to learn that 3 other INSEAD gals O (Mongolian), K (Japanese) and E (American) were on board as well.
We arrived at Paris CDG and parted ways with the trio. Sing Ai and I looked for the Peugeot car leasing booth but found there was none at Terminal One. We called up to learn that a blue van was coming to take us to the Peugeot agent’s. However, after waiting for what felt like 15 minutes in 8 degree Celsius cold (wearing clothes meant for about 15-20 degrees) and being told by an Information counter person that we may be waiting on the wrong floor, we called up again. We were told the van was indeed on its way. Finally it arrived, but it had no “Peugeot” sign. I don’t even think it was a Peugeot van. Fortunately we figured it had to be the van, and we learn that other passengers were also going to pick up their Peugeots.
Once there, we queued up again while one man behind the counter bravely attempted to answer two ringing telephones and process our documents at the same time. My Singaporean-ness was already twitching, with thoughts like “So inefficient! Back home it would’ve been done in minutes! etc” but I controlled myself. Finally I got my keys and was told to wait around to be shown how to use my car. That’s nice, I thought. So wait we did. For another 10-15 minutes.
Finally, the brusque man who drove the van reappeared, took my keys and showed me how to open the diesel tank lid. Thereafter he handed the keys back to me. That was it?!
I tried to move the car but forgot how to change gear manually after not practising for 9-10 years (since I passed my driving test) on a manual car. Every time I stalled the car in the car park lot, a British woman tourist (who we met on the van) looked at me and laughed. I laughed back. After it happened twice, Sing Ai took over and we made our way to the petrol station. After paying what felt like a bomb for diesel (not even petrol!) we headed to Samoreau which is where we’re staying.
GPS failed us on a few occasions as suddenly the road pattern differed from what we saw in real life. We had to reboot the device a number of times. Also, at circuses we were told to turn at the ‘third exit’ but ended up at the wrong turning because the GPS system counted inconsequential small lanes (in between two major exits) as an exit as well, even if it simply led to a small car park where you had to turn back into the circus. After we figured out that we had different interpretations, we got better at it and finally made our way to Samoreau, an hour later than planned. Our landlords were waiting for us but fortunately were understanding of our situation.
We learnt that our landlords are a very nice French couple. They took great pains to make sure we knew how to use everything in the house. We had a tour of the large gardens around their properties and the wife took us to a grocery store that was still open on Sunday. The couple then invited us for ‘tea’ which turned out to be 3 bottles of liquor, and we also met the wife’s sister who just got back from a trek to Nepal. Sing Ai spoke of her Cambodia trip, and I spoke of my India trip so it was an interesting exchange of international experiences - quite fitting for INSEADers. We then went back to our little cottage to settle down. We made a simple ham sandwich lunch.
After unpacking in our rooms and pottering about the place, we visited another classmate WY who was living in town. We went home, I cooked spaghetti, showered and am now typing this. Very sleepy. My first class starts on Monday afternoon. Goodnight…
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