Oh! I missed the plane!

Back with bad news. Well, bad is not exactly the right word but what is definetly true is "news"!

Last Saturday, I had clients leaving from their hotel to the airport to take a flight back to Romania. The bus supposed to take them had problems so I called the hotel and asked to call a taxi for them (which we would have payed back of course).

Unfortunately, these two (stupid) clients had left the reception and were waiting at the corner of the street. This means that when we called the receptionist of the hotel, as she didn't see any clients, she didn't call the taxi.

The flight was taking off at 5.45pm and everyone knows the check in closes minimum 20 min before.

At 4.50pm, seeing that the bus supposed to pick them up was not coming, the clients went back to the reception of the hotel asking to call a taxi because their bus was not coming. Of course the receptionist, understanding what was going on, hurried and the clients left. They obviously arrived too late for ckecking in and obviously they missed the plane.

To show you how dum these two are, instead of looking for the guide and the rest of the group at the airport or, AT LEAST, call the two other guides in charge, these two grabbed another taxi and went back to the hotel were they booked another room for the night.

And there the problems began!

- There are not so many flights for Bucarest
- My manager was on holiday
- We were a Saturday evening so no reservation department open in any hotel
- Who would pay for this extra room booked (and for the ones until they would leave)?
- Who would pay for the extra tickets to Romania?
- Whose fault was it?

All this had to be sort out really quickly, on a week-end, disturbing my manager on her cell phone with bad news (which obviously she didn't appreciated), loosing the less money as possible and facing the bad faith of the clients that kept on repeting they didn't have money to pay 1 extra night in the hotel (while they just payed 1 week there, come on!) and that the guide told them to go at the corner of the street (which she didn't do).

They blackmailed to call the Romanian TV to make scandal and didn't really helped us finding a solution.

Anyway, they left this morning with an early flight and now I am waiting for any feedback (scandal, trial or maybe reporters making a report on how bad services we provide - Maybe I will go online on Romanian TV!!?!! :D).

Athletic resolutions

Walking on the Promenade des Anglais in the morning or in the evening, you can see lots of people jogging, cycling or roller blading. This gave me the impression of walking along Miami beach and, looking at those people, I felt like I was the only one not motivated enough to practice some sport.

One day, talking with Cécilia, we agreed on the fact that we both should exercise a bit and we decided that we'd go jogging after work a couple of times.

Between the day we took that decision and the one we actually did it, one month passed. Yes, the lack of motivation some days, the various activities we both had planned already and the late hours work prevent us from doing it.

But finally we put our jog suits on and went.
1st time: just a rapid walk all along the Promenade - 1h
2nd time: rapid walk for 10 min alternated with a 5 min run - 1h

And here we are now. We planned to do the same thing the 3rd time to get the habit and decided to do this jogging thing twice a week.

Good resolutions and healthy living, here we come!!!

Time flies away

Back here, under the sun.

I finally managed to bring some pictures to show a bit how my life is here. I can't show as many as I would like to but at least enough for you to have an idea.

On the left:
Here at Cannes' Film Festival on the 24th May.
I saw: Frédéric Mittérand, Dany Boon, Dany Brian, Brigitte Fossé...

On the right:
The main room of my studio. 20m², 3 windows and a comfortable sofa-bed!

On the left:
A good part of my work team. Cécilia, my lovely colleague and friend is the girl with the dark hair. :)

On the right:
Just before spending a great day in Eze Village. Mum and Greg.

On the left:
Mum and I enjoying the time of a picture just after visiting the oceanographic museum in Monaco.

Visits and visitors

Still in Nice and still enjoying my busy life under the sun.

Since I'm here, some friends already came to visit me. Some I expected, and some not! Fred, Aurore, Pascale, Daphné, Luca and now it's my mum and my little brother that are at home.

I did so many things with all of them that I'm even not sure to remember everything.

I visited Nice Castle, assisted to Cannes Movie Festival, went to Villefranche-sur-Mer and met Mousse Diouf (I'm not kidding!), went so many times to the restaurant, obvioulsy sunbathed on the beach, visited Sainte Marguerite Island which is part of the Lerins islands, sightsaw in Monaco...

But the most incredible thing I did, I thought I would never have the chance to do, was I went scuba diving. It was amazing!
I went with Cecilia, my friend/colleague, and Daphné. It was only the three of us on the boat (with the teachers of course) and we really took advantage of this. I went first and discovered a world I only saw on TV. I let myself guide by the teacher, keeping my eyes wide open to see the most of everything and it was unbelievable! I loved it. I'm actually thinking of going again and taking the first level course.

Anyway, my life here is fool of surprises and beauty.

I just wish to have a special thought for Thibaut, Romain's brother. He died on 14th of July at the age of 20. He was young and fool of life and success. All my thoughts go to Romain and his family with who I share the pain.

From the Parisian style to the "Niçois" one

So many things happened since my last post!

First of all, I moved in my lovely apartment. I say “lovely” because it is really cute: 20m², 3 windows in the room, a big bathroom and a lot of cupboard just as I like it! I’m now settled (thanks to my colleague Cécilia who contributed a lot in upgrading my life standing) and it is really good having my own space after 3 weeks in a hostel.

Talking about the hostel, I had a “nice” present before leaving: I was beaten by bedbugs and on top of that I made an allergic reaction to their damn bites. So after a couple of days, I was covered from the head ‘till the toes with red spots. It was a nightmare: it woke me up in the night, I felt like scratching all the time and I looked like a sick to death person. On top of that I had my graduation ceremony 4 days after and I wanted to look good…
Fortunately, I took some medicines and now it’s gone.

I came back to Paris for the week-end of the 16^th May because of the big event of my whole student life: GRADUATION!!!
I spent the week-end with friends and on Monday evening I met all friends from school at the Théâtre des Amandiers in Nanterre to celebrate and receive my (fake) diploma (it was actually a blank paper!!). The ceremony was great and I had a lot of fun. Jean Sarkozy, Charles Pasqua and all the people from the school management where there… Only Mr Guillaume Bigot was missing… My mum and brother were present and I could see in my mum’s eyes how proud she was of me.
I finished the evening with my FEGT’s friends in a restaurant close to my place and had fun again.

Then back to Nice the next morning: from the airport directly to the office.
The great advantage of my job is I attend to all cocktails organised by hotels: I spent the first one with a glass of champagne and a magnificent sea view at sunset on the terrasse of a castle where Bono (yes yes, I talking about U2’s singer!) use to come. I saw (from far) Elton John’s villa, went to see an extract of the cabaret’s show of the Casino Ruhl and tasted the delicious pastries made by LENÔTRE at the Hotel Accor’s reception. And I’m not talking about the little presents I receive all the time!

To put it all in a nutshell, my life on the Côte d’Azur is exactly as one can imagine: sun and fun!

Quand stage rime avec plage...

Here are the last episodes from my adventures.

I left Paris 1 week ago to move to Nice where I'm doing my internship right now. Well "right now" not really as I'm completing my blog.

I started last Tuesday and I already have a couple of things I'm responsible for. The only problem is I'm not yet autonomous as I don't know how things work. Fortunately, I have a very nice boss and a great smiling team.
Another point is our offices are located 1 minute walk from the Promenade des Anglais and the sea. So this midday, I bought lunch and went to eat on the beach, enjoying the sun (only few people can say that! ;-) )

I'm still at the hostel so far. I did find a nice studio on which I had a crush on but the procedure to get all the papers for the rent done is so long that I have to wait for another 2 weeks. It's really ennoying but I have no real choice.

Meanwhile, I made some friendships and went to the beach a couple of times already. It was my main activity and I got sunburnt!
After my settlement, I've planned to do some nice and interesting things like cannyoning, diving and rock climbing. Of course I intend to visit the region so I really think 6 months are not going to be enough!

The bad thing is my camera died just before my departure so I have no pictures to show at the moment. I'm planning in buying a new one soon so I'll show you my environment when I get it.

Meanwhile, enjoy the sun!

Last year scolarship...

Here we are! The end of my student life.

I really don't realize I'm done with studies.

I feel lost. Usually, I wake up every morning knowing what needs to be done in the day and in the upcoming months but now...

I left my school building thinking: "And now, what's next?" It is really an akward feeling.

And to end up this period of my life correctly, I'd like to say a BIG "Thank you" to the two people without whom I wouldn't have manage this year: Stéphanie and Staëns.

You two, girls, have brought so much to me and have helped me in so many different ways. I'm really happy to have you and even more of our work together. We were an excellent team and I will remember our main succès (the Junior Consulting Project) for a long time. That was really a nice and happy end.

Now the last formality is my internship so here I am! Departure to Nice to work in an incoming agency.

It may be the end of my student life but it's the beginning of real new one!