Edhec Business School, Lille Exchange Report Wong Chin1 Wai, Athena
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EXCHANGE REPORT, SPRING 2020 EDHEC BUSINESS SCHOOL, LILLE WONG CHIN WAI, ATHENA INFORMATION SYSTEMS & MARKETING, YEAR 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Monthly Activity Log………………………………P2-7 General Exchange Information …………………P8-10 Items to Bring ………………………………………P11 Useful Links and Contacts …………………………P11 EDHEC BUSINESS SCHOOL, LILLE EXCHANGE REPORT WONG CHIN1 WAI, ATHENA Monthly Activity Log Late December 2019 Since some friends who went for exchange during Fall, 2019 invited me to go to London for a trip after their exchange and since we will be in Europe at the same time, I decided to ask my other EDHEC Business School exchange friend who would be studying in Nice to book a plane to fly to London first for a short trip with them before reaching France. We took the cheapest flight which requires 2 hours to Singapore, 9 hours stay at Changi Airport and 13 hours to London. Since it was during Christmas period, most restaurants and transports are closed. Fortunately, we found activities for us to do nearby at Hyde Park or within cycling distance. I really enjoyed our time at Winter Wonderland carnival at Hyde Park! After watching the Buckingham Palace march early in the morning, I hopped onto a previously booked London Heathrow Car to catch a flight to Cologne to meet my friend who also ended her Fall semester exchange there. I did not understand how the train ticket system works there at first and was able to enjoy a few free rides. Little did I know how lucky I was for not being caught as Germany is one of the strictest countries concerning fare dodging. One thing special about Germany during this cold season is their magically decorated Christmas market that lasts longer than other countries. EDHEC BUSINESS SCHOOL, LILLE EXCHANGE REPORT WONG CHIN2 WAI, ATHENA After my trip in Cologne, I hopped onto a 1st class train to Tallin to Bruxelles Midi. While carrying my 29kg luggage with another heavy bag, I realized how inconvenient it was to travel long trips in Europe via train as they do not have escalators or lifts to platforms usually. The train numbers were also not clearly indicated and may be delayed without prior notice. Everything mainly depends on instincts, i.e. guessing the train according to the scheduled time you were given and reaching out to the locals for confirmation. Luckily, have met Baali from Switzerland and speaks proficient English on my way from Bruxelles Midi to Tournai to Lille. The reason why my train requires so much transfer is because it was a lot cheaper than one-way to Lille. I owed it to Baali to hop on the next train to Lille as it was a long and confusing way down the stairs to another platform and the time provided for transfer was only 5 minutes. I arrived Lille on New Year eve where most places are closed and EDHEC’s accommodation is only opened two days later. Thus, I had to carry my large luggages on the rocky roads to an Airbnb 14 mins away from city center. I had to buy instant food from convenience stores on New Year’s night as nothing else were opened for business. My wallet was stolen during the first week at Euraille mall at Pull&Bear. Luckily, concierge contacted me back to notify me that they found it back. However, I have already cut all my cards that time and all 15 euro inside were stolen. Since that day, I realized how important it is for tourists like us to hide our bags/ important belongings in a big jacket or inside out clothes in Europe. EDHEC BUSINESS SCHOOL, LILLE EXCHANGE REPORT WONG CHIN3 WAI, ATHENA January On 2nd January, I called EDHEC Business School to inform them of my arrival at Lille so they can inform my previously applied car pick-up to drive me directly to EDHEC in Roubaix which was really far from city center (40mins from Lille via tram). I quickly settled down and met one of the 7 other mixed-gendered students, Adithya, living at my KOT where we have a shared kitchen that we have to maintain ourselves. Other students were still on break, thus, they will arrive later that week. He was most helpful when it comes to introducing school systems and experience with me to quickly adapt on my first day. On 3rd January, I attended the orientation and met 40+ of my fellow international exchange students where we engage in mingling sessions and many games were involved to warm us up. We also attended a lecture to learn about the school system and apply for a school calculator if necessary. The student union there also invited all of us to go to a club and bar in Lille city center to feel the night life in France. It was the first time for me to go to a club and bar but it was more fun than purely flirty to what I expected as people there were generally there to enjoy the music and dance around and drinking was a norm in Europe. Four of my newly bonded friends our of 7 of us were drunk and we had to hop onto Uber for 90 Euro back to school that night. The day after, we decided to go to the supermarket to get some food and living supplies e.g. pillows, shampoo, condiments, as nothing were offered by the campus residence, other than free breakfast from 7.30 am to 10.00 am on weekdays and a red blanket. Everything was in French and it is rare for people in the area to know English, thus, we had to rely on Google Translate entirely. The nearest convenience stores, Casino and Pico were 20 minutes away while the nearest supermarket LIDL was 30 mins away, which was torturous to us as we carry around full paper bags that can break anytime. The days afterwards, we quickly adjusted to the academic schedules and planned for trips to fill in our weekends since I had day offs on Saturday to Monday. We went to Lille, Belgium and Amsterdam during our first week as a group of 7. EDHEC BUSINESS SCHOOL, LILLE EXCHANGE REPORT WONG CHIN4 WAI, ATHENA I was able to fit my trip schedules in my tight academic schedules, with friends who went to winter exchange in Estonia, new friends I met during my orientation day and other Hong Kong students who went for Spring Exchange in France to Estonia, Bruges and Krakow respectively. February I continued my journey in early February as I went to Finland and Sweden with a fellow exchange mate from the same school but at a different campus in Nice. We first spend a day in Helsinki where we tried sauna and swimming in the Baltic Sea, as well as Finnish clubbing, which was less exciting that that in France. We also visited Santa Claus Village, tried Skiing and driving snow mobile in Rovaniemi. Do remember to bring the soft-copy of your driving license with you if you have one. We travelled back to Helsinki via train and travelled via cruise to Stockholm as there was no one-way directly to Stockholm from Rovaniemi. There were online lecture videos and quizzes in the middle of our journey and I also skipped 2-3 classes for this 10-days trip, but the absence was not a big concern to my gradings at last. EDHEC BUSINESS SCHOOL, LILLE EXCHANGE REPORT WONG CHIN5 WAI, ATHENA Despite my tight academic schedules with many projects and assignments, especially for Legal Environment and Business Decision course that cannot transfer cannot credits at all to HKUST, I was able to travel around Europe e.g. Luxembourg, Strasbourg, Zurich, Interlaken, Blausee, Milan, Rome, Barcelona and Madrid with my new friends. Living in Lille did provide us perks to travel to the North and then down to the South as it is near Bruxelles which is a common mid-point for Flixbus from and to other European places. Do remember to pay attention when you pay for Switzerland’s transport as they are as strict as Germany in terms of checking fare dodging. One of the bunkmates we met at Zurich was fined with all of her Swiss Franc as she did not know the region the bus would reach was actually another zone to the ticket she bought. EDHEC BUSINESS SCHOOL, LILLE EXCHANGE REPORT WONG CHIN6 WAI, ATHENA March In March, I travelled to Paris to visit some friends exchanging there and visit my long-awaited Paris Disneyland! Protests were rampant this year in Paris especially, thus, it is recommended not to buy any train tickets to Paris as they often cancel most of their trains not long before your departure time which is not reliable at all compared to Flixbus or BlaBlaBus. Paris Disneyland was not as different to that in Hong Kong but there was a Crush rollercoaster that was unexpectedly thrilling, and I highly recommend it. The staff there were also fun as they photobombed in our photos multiple times. The food there was surprisingly cheap as it was the same price as those restaurants in Paris in general. As coronavirus was spreading fast in Europe that time, I had no chance but end my exchange trip in Amsterdam. France announced that schools will be changed to online courses and I decided to visit Amsterdam with a friend as planned before returning to France and back to Hong Kong. People in Amsterdam had no sense of health and hygiene as they had no idea where to buy masks or hand sanitizers at all.