First impressions of Toulouse
Long time no post! It's been a month now since we completed our bike tour from Frankfurt to Toulouse. Oskar went back home to Finland, but I stayed here in the pink city to do the 2nd year of my M.Sc. degree in space tech. Here are some first impressions after a month of larping a Frenchie.
The city
Toulouse is great. Maybe I'm a bit traumatized after a year spent in the utter desolation of Northern Sweden, but this city has an inviting vibe and a ton of things to do. Population-wise it's the same size as Helsinki, but it punches above its weight in terms of restaurants, nightlife, and recreation. On weekends the streets are packed with pedestrians who aren't aware of Nordic personal space standards, but in the grand scheme of things, this is great as it provides a steady supply of customers to the myriad restaurants, cafes, and kiosks that occupy the city center. I already have a new favorite restaurant, a small ramen shop next to the Japanese gardens. Can't wait to discover more gems.
A big upside here is the Canal du Midi, which splits the city in half and acts as a highway for pedestrian traffic. Our campus is a few kilometers from the city center, but you only have to grab a city bike, follow the canal for 20 minutes and you're there. Thank you 17th century shipping merchants for building it. I also have a particular affection for the canal since we followed it up all the way from the Mediterranean on our bike trip.
There's still a ton to discover, even nearby, like the Halle de la Machines museum close to our campus. They have a bunch of colossal, moving mechs, like the Minotaur below.
The school
So just to clarify, I'm doing the 2nd year of my M.Sc. at Paul Sabatier University (UPS), which is part of the overarching University of Toulouse. UPS focuses on engineering and medicine, and its campus is located ~5km south of the city center.
The campus is a peaceful place nestled between busy highways. In addition to UPS, there are a number of research institutes located here. Most of our classes are in fact not at UPS, but at these institutes. This means our classes are geographically distributed all over campus, but it's not too bad. You can get anywhere by foot in 30 min.
As in Finland, students get a subsidized lunch for ~3,3€, which is great. A big caveat is the queueing time, which thus far has been between 30-60 min. It's long enough to make lunch at UPS a frustrating experience. Our French classmates tell us that this is just a phase and that half of the freshmen drop out before November, after which the queues clear up. Remains to be seen.
Mostly we've preferred to eat at one of the research institutes, as there's almost no queue and they still have a student option, just slightly more expensive (usually ~5€ for me).
Conveniently enough, our apartments are located inside the campus, so getting to class on time is no problem. The only downside is the lack of services, as there are no grocery stores or anything else worth mentioning inside the campus area. I've been shopping at an Auchan a 30 min walk away, but I'm still evaluating my options regarding groceries, haircuts, etc.
School itself is fine. They really emphasize attendance, and many lecturers keep track of who's attending. On the other hand, there is practically no homework in the form of weekly assignments and the like. Grading is mostly just based on a final exam, with some project courses in the mix as well.
What makes things confusing is the fact that we don't really have any terms/periods. Instead, we have ~15 courses going from September to February, with most of the exams and due dates squeezed into February, after which we start our 6-month internship. So it seems that school is going to be very chill until January-February, at which point it ramps up really quickly and you've got to be studying non-stop for a couple of weeks. Not the best way to do it IMHO, but let's see how it goes.
The people
True to stereotypes, French people are super polite and friendly. Everyone greets each other in the apartment building hallways, and doors are held open to let others pass. On occasion, people have even come up to me to talk without reason, something that would never happen in Finland!
The language barrier is still a big issue. Yes, some older people absolutely refuse to speak English (like my landlord), but the bigger problem seems to be the variable level of English among young people like our classmates. Most are fluent, but there are also many who are maybe on a B1 level (intermediate). This makes conversation sometimes difficult, especially with multiple people, as some have a hard time participating. It's probably the same as conversing with a group of Swedes as a Finn. You understand most things, but forming coherent sentences and participating in the conversation is difficult and slightly embarrassing.
On the flip side, I'm now taking B1 French! Not sure how that happened. I'm barely A2 based on a language test we took here, but due to some scheduling conflicts, they put everyone who's not an absolute beginner in the B1 group. It's all good though, and while the teacher refuses to speak ANY English, she knows some of us are noobs and makes an effort to speak slowly and with easier words.
As a final note, it's super nice to have some of last year's Kiruna people here. Usually moving to a new place is an intensely stressful experience, but this time it's been really chill since we can discover things together and there's no pressure to find a group. The downside is, of course, that we make less of an effort to get to know our French classmates. We should do it the French way and just go talk to them without reason 😁