Ok, this is the story so far...

Last year in October I was offered a PhD in France on a full scholarship, in my chosen (someone chose it, although I'm not sure whether it was me) field of computer science. It was in my field, and at a good lab, so I said sure, why not, I'll go to France. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, and after great trials organising visas and flights, somehow, on January 19, I jumped onto a plane to come to France. After an interminable flight broken by brief ubiquitous international stopovers (my ticket tells me it was Singapore and Dubai), planes, trains and courtesy buses delivered me to my destination where, upon being shown my room, I collapsed and claimed some much deserved sleep.

This trip (if a 3-year tour can be called such), as well as being a furthering of my education and career (such as it is) in research, is an adventure, an expedition out of my comfort zone to a situation totally foreign to me, knowing no-one, not speaking the language, and in a climate and culture that I don't fully understand.

What follows, then, is my story as it unfolds.