First day at INRIA (june 6th)
It turned out that the pick-up spot (I was all worried about missing the shuttle
and not making it to work) was the first place we went to the evening we arrived: Etoile, corner w/ avenue Carnot. Getting up at 7am is
hell, but the subway ride is easy, and the shuttle is easy to idenify by the crowd of geeks gathering next to it. It takes just over an hour
to get to INRIA (oh god, back to the hellish commutes I had at UofT), and it turnes out to be much like Francois (at RALI) descibed: very
green, military barack(sp?) style buildings (only one more than a story high, and that's the caf) ... security is pretty high, everybody
either has a badge or has to sign in (giving up a photo ID) at the entrance gate.
Boss is nowhere to be seen (o'course, who arrives before 9am! freaking shuttle...), but a nice guy named Aleksy of Lebanese origin shows me
my desk and chats (he's a lecturer at some uni in Paris, at INRIA for a year, then going to Marseille to lecture there; he is my
office-mate, his wife calls the office all the time) until Eric (my boss) arrives. Eric sets up my account and introduces me to everyone in
the group (ATOLL); they are spread out in about 6 rooms, 2-4 ppl per room, with windows everywhere (hurray!!!); everybody works on something
parsing-related; I seem to be the youngest one there, and the only one not in a PhD program or further: Mila (Spanish girl born in
Switzerland, doing her PhD, hurray - there's a girl!), Pierre (in his 50s, working on smth very efficient), Benoit (who tells me his apt is
available for july as he's going to Poland for an internship; he's finishing his PhD and is supposed to become a permanent researcher at
INRIA; very imperial guy that keeps his nose in every project and everyone's business; very smart and socially polished, too),
Guillaume(sp?) (sort of a systems admin, sometimes comes to work with his cute dog, has a long braid), and about three other people (one guy
works on tracing errors produced by parsers, one guy is the most "CS-y" one there (barely turns his head and doesn't say anything), one or
two other ppl are missing).
After a lenthy chat with Eric in which he presents my options of what to do for the two months that I'm there, informs me that there's
absolutely no documentation of their work, and gives me some scrips to poke around with, I do just that until lunch time. The caf is quite
amazing! Everybody buys little tickets whose price varies depending on how much the buyer gets paid at INRIA, and the tickets get you a
plate of hot food + 3 starters/fruit/deserts/etc. It's rlly impressive, esp. after I learn that I only have to pay 2.3 euros for it! I also
like that the whole group eats together; much less isolating than RALI already. There're about 10 ppl at the table, and I'm told it's a lot
more than usual (some ppl there for just a week, some finishing their internships, I don't rlly get it). Unlike in the meeting with Eric,
following the quick conversation at the table isn't very easy, but I can basically follow it. I feel so sleepy that a coffee w/out milk
tastes good (no fridge, no milk, I'm told on another day).
Staying there until 6:30 is a bit of a shock ... never before have I stayed in one spot for so long (ah, student freedom!). Everyone else
seems to do it though - they arrive between 9 and 10, and as I was leaving at 6:30, many were still there. Oof, good luck getting used to
getting up at 7am and not coming home from work 'til 7:30pm or so! At least I have a good book by Llosa to read on the way, given to me by
dad right before I left.
The ride back on the shuttle is a bit painful: there's traffic, and the stop&go makes me nauseaus. But at home, I get a nice surprise of
James having already cooked up a dinner! Yumm! And then - yeek - evening is so short and everything's already closed ... hello, working
world.