IMMIT Graduation: The End

For more pictures see: IMMIT Graduation: IT Symposium & Party IMMIT Graduation: Ceremony

Two years have passed so quickly. Just yesterday, we were all; packing our bags for France; preparing ourselves for this adventure; formatting our minds for cultural shock and discovery; now the end is approaching.

'The end of IMMIT' was officially represented by this graduation ceremony; the granting of our three Degrees, and the declaration of us all as 'Masters of Management of Information Technology'. However 'the end of IMMIT' also signifies a 'beginning'; a beginning of: strongly-bound friendships, new explorations and endeavours, and the application of knowledge and cross-cultural-interrelation-skills gained during the programme to real problems across the world. It also does not represent the end of my Blog: 'EuroJev', since I still aspire to stay in Europe, at least for a while longer, and I still continue my travels and experiences here.

Since IMMIT began in France, they thought that it should end in France. The ceremony was held in the sunny south of France, in Aix-en-Provence, at the IAE Faculty; and was well organised and eventful. The graduation was actually split into two days: the first day: an IT Symposium, where we were forced to present our theses for a second time with company-, faculty-, as well as family-, representatives present as audiences; and the second day: the actual ceremony.

As opposed to the traditional French system which doesn't allow for elaborate graduation ceremonies as this one, we had a full formal procedure, with granting of diplomas, speeches, cocktails, and even full graduation gowns and hats! French students simply get their diplomas mailed to them at home; and will never have something such as graduation gowns since it's too 'Americanised' :).

At the end of the first day, we had a [successful] 'final' IMMIT party at my apartment; something somewhat traditional and unique to IMMIT: 'the IMMIT parties'; we thought we should end with one final grand party as it may be the last time that all of us were to be together as such a big group in the same place at the same time. It was as expected: fun; and we even had an after party in the city-centre afterward.

My family [Dad, Mom, & Sister] in addition to my girlfriend, Maïté, were all present as well [they decided to take the trip to attend my graduation]. Many other IMMITers' families also attended the graduation, and we used this opportunity to show each other off, introduce each other, and to really show them what IMMIT was, and what we've been boasting about [the IMMIT Family] for these two years.

At the end, we all bid each other farewell, as we were all going our separate ways. Some would go back home, some to Finland, others to Netherlands, and yet still others, like myself, would stay in France. Looking back now, writing this blog piece, I remember one other which I wrote at the beginning: 'The IMMIT Crew', and I feel exactly the same now, when Leonardo DiCaprio opened the group-photo that 'Francois' [the sexy French girl] sent to him in the movie 'The Beach'.

IMMIT was this 'Parallel Universe': I hope I could enter another one very soon…

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Other people's graduation pictures:

• IMMIT Graduation Album 1
• IMMIT Graduation Album 2
• IMMIT Graduation Album 3
• IMMIT Graduation Album 4
• IMMIT Graduation Album 5
• IMMIT Graduation Album 6

French Résumé: CV-Résumé Français!

Finally it's here! You can Download my French CV! Enfin, c'est là! Vous pouvez Télécharger mon CV en français!

• Download [télécharger]: Curriculum Vitae [CV/Résumé] de Jevin K Ramjattan en Français
• Perma-link [lien permanent]: http://jevin.ramjattan.googlepages.com/CV-Jevin_RamjattanFR.pdf
  

Normandy: North-West France

End of May: the semester, my thesis, as well as my  programme were nearing their end, and I felt like I needed a well-deserved vacation; a break from all of this academic 'hoo-ha'. I've been 'with' Maïté for a while now, and seeing as she also needed a break at the end of her student life, she invited me to her home-town: the ville/commune of Gavray, in the department of Manche [just next to Calvados], in the region of Normandy [French: "Normandie"], in the North of France. This also implied the dreaded and commitment-intending act of 'meeting the family', or at least her dad and her 18-year-old French-blonde little-sister.

Nevertheless, we planned a trip* and almost 7 hours & 1,094 km later I was in the middle of nowhere: Gavray.

*Trip	7 hours & 1,094 km
A. Train from Aix to Paris	3 hours & 758 km
B. Waiting time on Champs Elysée	1 hour
C. Train from Paris to Gavray	3 hours & 336 km

View Larger Map

Overview of Gavray:

Gavray is a French commune, situated in the département of Manche and the région Basse-Normandie; and is located in the heart of "la Vallée de la Sienne". The town is nestled between several hills, one of which housed the ducal castle of Gavray. The bridge on the Sienne, called the Peace Bridge (2004), was destroyed along with all the surrounding district during the Second World War.

In summary, Gavray is a small village with: cows, horses, donkeys, lots of nature, no internet, no buses, no people, and farm girls. :) [OK, that's maybe a little bit of exaggeration, but one gets the point]. The population is around: 1,678 people in 2005. Wow!

Overview of Normandy:

Normandy [Normandie in French] is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is situated along the English Channel coast of Northern France between Brittany (to the west) and Picardy (to the east) and comprises territory in northern France and the Channel Islands.

During the Battle of Normandy in World War II, Normandy became the landing site for the invasion and liberation of Europe from Nazi Germany. This is recognised as a turning point for the war in Western Europe. It's for this reason that's it's quite famous, and it was even more interesting for me to be there at the same time that President Obama was there for the commemoration of D-Day.

Some Famous things from Normandy include: Crêpes [more so from Bretagne, but famous here too], Apples [Maïté is ironically allergic to apples], Camembert Cheese [which smells uncannily like a dead fungus infested cave-dwelling animal, but tastes good once you've acquired the taste :)], and of course Apple liquors such as calvados and Pommeau. It's probably also where the commonly used expression "ah la vache!" comes from, somewhat translating into "holy cow!", because of the cows and all, you know… [The pictures to the left & right above are of Pointe du Grouin].

Overview of Trip:
[click on the bolded-title-links for more pictures]

• French Sunday Lunch: A 3-hour long lunch including:  aperitif, appetizers [or as we say in Trini: "cutters"], main course, dessert, wine, champagne, family, friends-of-the-family, and a 2-hour long promenade [after-lunch-walk], on the cold beaches of Normandy. We actually swam there, that day, uncannily freezing.
• La Baleine: A refreshing walk into the wilderness of the small  village of La Baleine [the whale]: trees, cows, horses, rivers, small churches, English-country-side-houses, and an Andouillerie [a fumerie, where they smoke and cure pig intestines filled with chopped-up pig intestines and stomach, to create an appetizing "sausage" called "Andouille"].
• Gavray's Sheep: I never really saw sheep like this until I came to Europe. Maïté's dad was trying to explain some stuff about them and the terrain around. The beaches just beyond actually look beautiful here.
• Le Château de Fougères & Mont Saint-Michel: This day we  visited a Medieval fort of Fougères and the famous Mont Saint-Michel. Fougères is a commune of the Ille-et-Vilaine department in Bretagne in north-western France. Here, a medieval fort is built atop a granite ledge, which was part of the ultimately unsuccessful defence system of the Duchy of Brittany against French aggression. Le Mont-Saint-Michel is a rocky tidal island and a commune in Normandy [this is often frowned upon by "Bretagnians"]. It is located approximately one kilometre off the country's north coast, at the mouth of the Couesnon River near Avranches. The population of the island is 41. On this day, we also visited the Pointe du Grouin [the rocky finger that points out and protects the entrance into the bay of Mont Saint Michel] and the picturesque fishing village of Cancale also known as the "oyster capital" of Brittany.
• Chateau de Gavray: Basically it's not a castle, it's the ruins of a castle; I climbed all this to see some crumbled rocks; but the sunset and the stray dog we found were nice. On top of a steep-sided hill that dominates 'Vallées de la Sienne et de la Bérence', stood at an imposing medieval fortress: Le Château Ducal de Gavray. Its location at the crossroads of routes from Caen and Nord Cotentin, which led to the Mont Saint Michel and Brittany, was a strategic point of interest. It is why the Dukes of Normandy had chosen the site of Gavray as a seat of viscount and had established this castle, for military purposes.
• Granville: Maïté drove us there: first time I saw her driving [manual car]. It's a nice port-town, where the beach tides recede super-fast and very far-out during daytime, and advance all the way up to the port-side at night. The old town of Granville preserves all the history of its military and religious past. The lower town was partly built on land reclaimed from the sea. The upper part of the old town is surrounded by ramparts from the fifteenth century. These are entered through the drawbridge [Grand'Porte], the bloody theatre of the "Siège des Vendéens" in 1793.

It was a very relaxing, inspiring, and well-deserved trip after a long and tiring thesis. It allowed me to discover another side of France: another landscape, another culture, another language, another history, and another adventure…

IAE Gala: Casino Royale!

It wasn’t my Gala, but I was invited. A large ‘ball’, a final year party for students of the master programs in IAE, organized by the BDE and held within the IAE compound itself!

The IAE Gala 2009, at first sounded like a really corny idea, but in the end it astounded me past anything I could imagine. The entire school complex was turned into multiple dance floors, each with a unique theme of its own. The entire party was named “Casino Royale”, and thus had the air of a casino theme.

The cafeteria had a dance-club-type atmosphere, with disco lights, a DJ and electronic music blasting throughout. The courtyard was turned into a concert-type environment with a live rock band performing throughout the night. The “bubble” or mezzanine/lobby was 80’s style with pop and dance music. The reception held the big bar with fairly affordable drinks [ranging from beer to whiskey to some weird green stuff].

One large classroom featured a live Jazz band with tall cocktail tables arranged for casual conversation. Finally the room next to it was the casino room, with a Roulette table and a Black Jack table, with actual casino staff teaching you how to play, and where you could actually win free drinks!

In all, it was nothing short of a great party: dancing, drinking, with my girlfriend, with past IAE friends [Emeline, Ewa, Taina], watching the drunken IAE bourgeoisie girls in their evening dresses; awesome night.

For more pictures, see:

• IAE Gala: Casino Royale

Trekking Aix

In the month of May, Maïté and I suddenly had a realization of the short time that we had together before she left for Paris in the start of June. Thus we tried our best to visit as many places as possible, but failed. Ha-ha. So we spent some quality time in Aix instead, not so bad, considering that it’s quite the charming little city. Here are some recounts of things we did, along with the censored pictures.

• Bulldogge [25 April]: Bulldogge, the best burger in Aix? Perhaps; quite a nice place, good food [and beer], with a familiar British theme . [Bulldogge Pictures].
• Parc Jourdan [1 May]: The First of May [May Day] began with traditional Muguet de mai [Lily of the valley] flowers. We attempted to go to Arles, but missed the bus somehow and thus had to settle for Parc Jourdan, it's a nice park when you think about it. [Park Jourdan Pictures].
• Sushi [1 May]: Later that night we had sushi at a restaurant on Cours Mirabeau, but surprisingly, it wasn't as good as my first sushi in Beni Hanna in Trinidad! [Sushi Pictures].
• Puyricard [6 May]: A day at school, ending with a peaceful mid-summer's eve walk through the countryside of Puyricard. Old country roads, chateau's, blossoming roses, the works. [Puyricard Pictures].
• Ice Cream [8 May]: On the promenade! [Ice Cream Pictures].
• Ratatouille [8 May]: Traditional, home-cooked, very colourful, very French Ratatouille, made with love by ma copine :). [Ratatouille Pictures]
• Marseille [9 May]: Just walking around Marseille, attempted to go to 'les calanques' but the bus was messed up, so we just went to 'la plage de catalan'. [Marseille Pictures].