Travel report

Travel report
EMLyon Business School, spring 2013
Nina Jumppanen
Fei Peng
1. Preparing for the exchange
Preparations for the exchange started when we were considering which country and
university to choose as our exchange destination. After researching and asking for people’s
experiences, opinions and advice we decided to choose EMLyon Business School in Lyon,
France. We have both studied French and we are interested in French culture but we didn’t
want to go to Paris. Then again, we didn’t want to live in a very small town so therefore Lyon
was a natural choice. Lyon has ca. 1,2 million inhabitants (2012) which makes it the second
largest city in France. It is said to be the food capital or the capital of gastronomy in France
and its old town Vieux Lyon is listed as an UNESCO World Heritage site. Lyon is situated in
Rhône-Alpes in southwest of France near Switzerland and Italy’s borderlines. This is a very
convenient location when thinking about travelling and exploring the different cities in
France and also the nearby countries.
The actual preparation for the spring 2013 exchange started already in May 2012 when
EMLyon asked the incoming students to send a huge amount of documents such as English
CV and copies of passport, European health insurance card, birth certificate, travel
insurance and third liability insurance to France. Communication between us and the school
coordinators was quite busy throughout the whole May and June because the instructions
concerning the needed documents and general practices were rather insufficient. All in all,
we noticed that the level of French bureaucracy is massive.
In advance, we received some information regarding the school’s club/ organization ‘I Link’
which arranges different free time activities and they also told us they would take us to a
tour around Lyon when we would arrive.
In the beginning the EMLyon coordinators also sent passwords to iCampus which is similar
system to weboodi at Aalto. On iCampus you can check and change personal data, check
information about and descriptions of courses, register for courses and examinations and
check the course results. Circa 3 months before travelling to Lyon we had to register for
courses through iCampus.
Next, we had to determine where to live. There were two choices: trying to get an apartment
from the city centre or then move to le Galion which is a student residence owned by the
school. We both decided to take the easier option and choose le Galion. Nina chose to take
the more expensive room of 30 sq m and with an own kitchen, Fei took the cheaper room of
13 sq m and with a shared kitchen. The rent included electricity, water and internet
connection. The residence was quite old and a bit frumpy, however, it’s very close to our
school, and as we later found out, at least during our semester most of the exchange
students lived there. Therefore, it was convenient when we could throw kitchen parties and
share taxis when coming from clubs etc. Furthermore, some exchange students living in
private apartments had to go to Lyon before the exchange to write contracts and such, we
just sent an email to a person who was in charge of housing arrangements in EMLyon that
we would want to live in le Galion.
2. Travelling to Lyon
We didn’t travel to Lyon together. Nina took a flight from Helsinki to Paris and then a TGV from
Paris to Lyon. Fei, on the other hand, took a flight from Helsinki to Frankfurt and then to Lyon.
Searching flight planners such as Momondo or vertaa.fi sometimes can surprise you with low
fare flight offers. Fei’s aller-retour ticket between Hel-Lyon-Hel which were bought two months
before her departure to France cost only 150 euros.
There are no direct flights from Helsinki to Lyon, but connections from Geneva, Paris and Nice
are convenient. There are trains and busses from these cities to Lyon, trains (TGV and TER) of
course are faster and rather cheap. If travelling by train from some city it is worth to ask for a
Carte Jeune which is a discount card for travelling by train in France. The only condition for
applying for that card is that you are under 27 year-old. It costs ca. 50 euros but with the card
you can get discounts up to 60% from normal ticket prices. Imagine that you want to travel from
Lyon to Paris which usually costs more than 80 euro one way. You save more than 90 euro in
one trip. For us it was worth to buy it.
When we arrived to le Galion there was a caretaker to give us the keys to our rooms. For the
first few days we didn’t have an internet connection because in the orientation meeting the IT
staff gave us passwords and established the connection. The orientation was held at school and
there we met all the other exchange students. We got information regarding the courses, exam
periods, extracurricular activities, medical services etc. Then after the official part the school’s I
Link –organization told us about the city tour and the first big party next week.
I Link also helped us to open the bank accounts in BNP Baribas in Écully centre which is the
suburbia where the school and le Galion are situated. The bank account is free and you will get
two cards you can use. We found it convenient to have a French bank account because for
example to eat in École Centrale, the nearby school, you will need a French card.
3. Studying at EMLyon
The semester started on 7th January. In EMLyon there are three time slots for classes per day ,
the first one from 8.30 to 12.00, the second from 13.00 to 16.15 and the third from 16.30 to
19.45. When you have all three classes per day you might have school from 8.30 to 19.45
which is rather exhausting. There is a school cafeteria but the food is quite greasy and of poor
quality. That is why we often went home for lunch as le Galion is right next to school or then we
went to École Centrale de Lyon where the food is tastier. The only thing is that you will have to
order a specific card from iCampus before you can eat there. However, the card is free.
The first period was finished in the end of February when there was an exam session. The
second period of spring started in the beginning of May. Exams seemed to be quite easy if you
had been listening during the classes, there wasn’t a lot of extra material to read for the exams.
The spring session was finished on 20th April before which there was another exam week.
In terms of the courses there was quite a lot to choose from; finance, marketing, accounting,
sociology, management, logistics and economics. During the exchange Nina took finance,
sociology, and logistics courses, whereas Fei chose marketing and management courses.
The work load wasn’t too exhausting and the courses were interesting. There were a lot of
presentations but we found it useful rather than annoying.
Here are the courses we attended:
GC41A, Ethics of the auditor, graduate, 2,5 ECTS, evaluation: cases and presentation
GF132, Financial decision making, graduate, 5 ECTS, evaluation: exam
MK70, International advertising, graduate, 5 ECTS, evaluation: course work, presentation and
exam
PG47, Social entrepreneurship, graduate, 5 ECTS, evaluation: attendance, case and
presentation
RH 530, Social movements, graduate, 2,5 ECTS, evaluation: presentation
RH53, Power and politics, graduate, 5 ECTS, evaluation: course work, presentation and report
MT48, Warehouse management, graduate, 2,5 ECTS, evaluation: cases and presentations,
exam
MK104 International Marketing and Business Strategy, graduate, 5 ECTS, evaluation: course
participation, presentation, group work, simulation, learning diaries
MK 103 Branding, graduate, 5 ECTS, evaluation: course participation, group presentation and
final paper
PG101A Strategic change management, graduate, 5 ECTS, evaluation: course participation,
group presentation, group paper and group exercises, two quizzes
MK115A Web Marketing, graduate, 5 ECTS, evaluation: course participation, group case
studies, group presentation and individual final papers
MK68 International Negotiation, graduate, 5 ECTS, evaluation: course participation, presenting
a book related to negotiation, team negotiation simulation
The difficulty with the courses was that it took a lot of effort trying to build the timetable since
many interesting courses were in the same time slot (from which you can only choose one
course at a time). Also, some courses were later cancelled since there were not enough
participants so we both had to chance our original registrations before going to school.
Nevertheless, you can still change the courses at school so when taking part in the first class
you can continue or then drop the course if you didn’t like it after all. You can select courses
very freely so there is no certain program inside which you would have to choose the courses.
One bad thing with courses is that you cannot choose any language courses so for example you
cannot study French at EMLyon during the exchange. This we found rather strange. They
explain that language courses are only for those students who study there for a longer time
period.
（Library）
(Batiment C where the library is)
(Batiment B)
4. What to do in Lyon in free time
Food
Lyon is famous for its full-fledged restaurants from all over the world. No matter whether you
want to find Mexican food, Chinese food or African food, chances are that you will get what you
want. But the quality of the food is another story depending on various factors such as price,
the chef and ingredients. In addition to being the paradise of international cuisines, Lyon also
has its own specialties that cannot be found elsewhere. For example, salade Lyonnaise,
saucission chaud, quenelle de brochet, tablier de sapeur and tarte praline are traditional
Lyonnaise food. One place where you can taste a wide selection of Lyon food is a “bouchon” in
French. It is a type of restaurant with a mark of “bouchon” in their sign-board to indicate what
kind of food they sell. Most of the restaurants are in Bellecour, Part Dieu, Vieux Lyon or Hotel
de Ville.
Spending time in Lyon
Cycling with rented bike is one cheap way of relaxing and exploring the city. Since May 2005,
Lyon has had a public bicycle service called Velo which allows travelers to pick up and drop
bicycles to and from over 300 points around the city after registering a credit card, The price is
very affordable: a 1-day ticket: 1.5 euro, free of charge for the first 30 min of each ride and a 7day ticket: 5 euro.
There are many sight-seeing spots in Lyon.
The classics:
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The view from Fourvière basilica, and the basilica itself
Streets and traboules in Vieux Lyon, St Jean cathedral
Traboules in Croix-Rousse
Musées Gadagne
Parc de la Tête d'Or
Off the beaten path:
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Musée urbain Tony Garnier and Etats-Unis neighbourhood
St Irénée church, Montée du Gourguillon, St Georges neighbourhood
A drink on Place Sathonay
St Bruno church
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Parc de Gerland
Gratte-Ciel neighbourhood in Villeurbanne
5. Transportation
The public transportation system known as TCL is regarded as one of the most efficient in the
country. On the website of TCL (www.tcl.fr), you can find real time schedules and bus routes
between any places in Lyon.
However, if you live on campus, the availability of bus is very limited. To go to Bellecour, you
have to take no. 3 bus and change into metro D in Gorge de Loup. After 9 pm in the evening,
no 3 bus runs once per hour and the last bus leaves at around 00 am. The frequency of buses
passing school is even lower in the weekend.
About the transportation fee, you can buy a bundle of 10 tickets with student discount at 12,90
euro. Optionally, you can purchase a 2 euro single ticket from the bus driver. If you are a
frequent mover, you can apply for a monthly travel card at the price of 28 euro per month in
return for unlimited rides within a month. One thing to notice is that you have to check what
kinds of documents is required for the subscription and which TCL offices offer subscription
services. As far as we know, the TCL office in metro station Gorge de Loup does not offer such
service but metro station Bellecour does.
6. Accommodation and mobile plants in Lyon
As an exchange student in EMLYON, you receive free housing services from the school. If you
want to live on campus in Le Galion student residency, you write an email to the housing
coordinator to reserve a room with one month deposit. The rent in Le Galion is relatively more
expensive than that in private market. But the price includes cleaning service once per week, all
the furniture and charges. If living there, you just need to carry a pillow with you. Moreover, you
can apply for the CAF subsidies for the accommodation in le Galion. But the amount of money
you receive is around 94 euro, which is far lower than the amount you might receive from
accommodations in private housing market (the cap is 170 euro max.). If you decide to live off
campus, you can write to the personnel from school who is assigned to help students to search
for off campus housing. So how it works is that you place your request about an off-campus
accommodation, the person starts to research on housing offers and provide you a list of
trustworthy housing offers from owners who are in partnership with the school or from other
public student residency.
Mobile plants in Lyon are full of choices. The mobile plant market used to be dominated by four
main national operators in France with price secrete agreements so the price of mobile services
was quite high. But because of the anti-monopoly movement, new players went into the market
with low price strategy which leads to the plummeting of the mobile plan price. Ranging from 2
euro to 40 euro per month, the price of the plan depends on what services are included. If you
want 3g, unlimited calling and SMS like Fei, B&Y seems to be the best choice at a price of
19.90 euro per month. Comparing with B&Y, Orange offers the same services at price much
higher. For most mobile operators in France, you have the option for subscribing and ordering
the sim card online, however, the page is always in French so it is better to have a browser like
Google Chrome which translates the page to the language you know or have a French friend to
help you out.
7. Conclusions
The exchange in Lyon was a very good experience and we can happily recommend Lyon and
EMLyon Business School to everybody. The school was good and the courses were
interesting, the city was very cozy and pleasant and the location is perfect for travelling.