Into the City We Come !

When I first arrived in Paris, it wasn't too bad. I had an apartment set up and ready (I had an "office" as my bedroom and shared a duplex with two other people), and got started immediately on setting up a bank account and getting a SIM card. Turns out, the bank account process took about 3 weeks and I had to wait about 1-2 months before getting a SIM card from Orange and officially getting a French number.

Turns out, having a French bank account here was really helpful for a lot of reasons. Providing a real address in Paris was also critical to get my visa and for my school (if I remember correctly), and eventually to get my carte vitale and my first job in 2021. It's true that things were a bit slow administratively, but then it all came into place and made sense when I started working, because I got access to certain things like a mutuelle, ticket-restaurant and a sense of how French vacation works. Yay!