First steps in foreign territory

The first city which I set my foot in was Dubai. We had a connecting flight from here for Paris. Dubai airport is wonderful, huge and very beautiful. Emirates being a good airline, we reached Paris safely (to my parents relief). At the airport there was a well suited person waiting for us (me, Pushpraj, Saurabh and Chandan) with our names on a placard. He ushered us into a taxi and then we were headed for the EGIDE office which was to give us money for our initial expenses. We later reailsed that the person who had taken us was a driver (he had ray-ban glasses on and spoke fluent English).

At the EGIDE office we had our first encounter with the French people. The person at the "Accueil" (Reception) was in a pin-striped suit with long hair which had been wetted and set properly. He had that typical French look and spoke with a French accent. He guided us to the office and to our utter dismay none of the ladies there knew much of English. After much deliberation they made it clear that it was dangerous to leave for Nancy at this hour (it was only 4:00 pm) and so we shud stay in a hotel for the night which would cost us 'only' 40 euros. We said "na baba, hume jaane do hum pahunch jayenge".

They called a taxi for us to take us to the station but we were late and we missed our train. Luckily our tickets got changed at the station for nothing and so we took the next train to Nancy. We reached there at 8:30 and my professor, Monsieur (Herr would be more appropriate because he is Deutsch) Stephan Merz was waiting for us. He took us to "Residence Universitaire du Placieux" which was to be our home for two months. A thorough gentleman, he then invited us for dinner at his house and I ate "Mousse Schokolade" (Chocolate Mousse) which was the best I had ever had. And henceforth started our days at Nancy ....

The preparations

It finally became sure that I am going to France for summer internship when I received a mail from our DUGC Prof. Deepak Gupta saying that I can now collect my invitation letter from the CSE office ... whoosh !!! what a relief it was. Then started the preparations - the letters from French Embassy (actually Ambassade de France en Inde impressive huh ?) saying that they are glad to offer us the air-tickets (I thought wow they are glad and I am flattered). And then I went to Delhi (and Gurgaon) to get my French i.e Schengen VISA.

Once that was done I realised that end sems were hovering very near ... but this was the time when we had endless discussions about the meetings to be arranged in Europe. The parties in the discussion were Harshat, Kapil(JK), Pankaj(Pango), me, Shubham, Vikas(Malai) and sometimes Nikhil(Nikux) too. The funniest one was when Tanvir instructed all of us how to board the plane, settle down in the seats, fasten the seat belts and to ask the air hostess for lots of food (had a good laugh about it later because he had even taught us how to switch on the overhead light for reading and how to focus the cold air direction towards ourselves).

Once the end sems were over on 1st May, did a quick packing of everything (thought it finally became 21 itmes to be shoved into the mess) and then after much efforts we started on 3rd for our journey to Yash's home in Lucknow. It was me, Shubham, Yash and Fuloria in a rickety van during the election time. But finally had lots of fun there (saw "Main Hoon Na") and then I finally boarded the train for my home in Agra on 4th night.

I reached Agra on 5th morning and then again was headed for Delhi on 6th morning for my Swiss VISA. It was afternoon by the time I reached the Embassy so there was not much which could be done. So that day I had a gala time with Shubham who was to leave for Itlay on 8th. The next day at 6:30 in the morning i was standing in front of the Swiss Embassy but still my appointment no was 21. Finally with the help of Riya's father I got my Swiss VISA and then was again headed for Agra in the night. Reached home at 2:00 in the night and then had a good sleep.

The next day was hectic with a lot of packing and then on 9th morning I was finally sitting in the car which was to take me to Delhi for my upcoming journey. We reached Gurgaon in the afternoon ay my mamaji's place and at 12:00 in the night I was headed for the Indira Gandhi International Airport for check-in.