Italy is complicated … but France is not that much better

While being the third most active industrial region of the world (The triangle Milan-Turin-Venice), Italy is still plagued by one of the heaviest and most corrupt administration systems. But for once it’s not my problem.
Right now, I need to gather some documents to send to my next school, and so far the Italian part of the deal went smoothly. In fact the longest part was the 15 minutes spent in the line waiting for my turn.
Here is a check list of the things I need to obtain or to do :

• my High-school graduation diploma - done [April 30th]
• my High-school grades - done [April 30th]
• a document that certify that I’ve graduated from Milan University - done [April 31st]
• Obtain an official translation of the above mentioned certificate(IT to FR) - done [May 2nd]
• Get it certified at the French consulate of Milan - done [May 5th]
• Write a motivation letter to explain why I want to enter the Strasbourg University 1 - done [May 4th]
• Do copies - done [May 5th]
• Final check by phone with the school’s office - done [May 5th]
• Send everything to Strasbourg ! - done [6th May]

You’ll notice that the hassle is caused by the French administration wanting an official and certified translation of my Italian certificate. I had the luck to find a really kind translator that accepted to do it tonight and to give it to me Friday (tomorrow is the 1st May, the “Work Day”, nobody works), I’ll have to get up early on Monday to go to the consulate and get it certified. It’s just bad luck that tomorrow is not a working day here AND in France, or else the consulate would have been open, and everything would have been sent by Friday at 12AM *sigh*.
Other things to do? Yep. The CROUS thingy, to get an apart in Strasbourg and maybe some financial aid.But now I’m just waiting for them to send me the papers I need to fill and the list of official documents I need to send.

Well, I cheered myself up by ordering my new PC. I chose this one. I decided to get a notebook because I’ll be moving and working around a bit from June to September and even after that (Paris -> Japan -> Paris -> Milan -> Strasbourg -> Japan … if everything goes according to plan). Once I’ll get settled I’ll think about getting a more powerful desktop work station.

I think I’ll do a post soon about my friend G., as it’s the guy I’m going to work with from June to August.