On my flight back home I noted things about my experience and now I have time for another post.
For the future candidates, you have no reason to be afraid, legion's staff behaves professionally, they know what they have to do. Every volunteer receives his share of "kurva", usualy because he do not understands the orders, sometimes someone is called "mongol", and sometimes we all did "pompe" push-ups as punishment. If the DSPLE personal is not friendly, do not take it personally, they probably want to check your reactions, body language, and even if they mean it, if you want to be part of their club, you must play by their rules.
The candidates (EV = engage voluntaire) come from all over the world, but most of them are from Brazil and the former USSR (Russia and Ukraine mainly, and some from Moldova, Belarus, Kazakhstan). I think half of the candidates speak either Russian or Portuguese. There were a few people from Nepal, Madagascar, France and South Africa. The rest of us came from: Albania, Algeria, Colombia, England, Hungary, India, Kenya, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Romania, Scotland, Slovakia, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, US, Venezuela, and I believe one guy was from Senegal. I am sure there were people from other countries, but I do not know or remeber for now. I guy came from Tahiti with the help of the new preselection center there, they pay for his trip to Aubagne, and he made it to rouge stage of selection.
Less than half of the EV's spoke English. It was a shock at first. With the brazilians I could use to comunicate a combinaion of french and spanish, but in russian I know only: da, niet and harasho.
The age of the EV's was between 18 and 39. I know two 31 years old and one 33 years old who made it to rouge. Some guys with military experience, with wife, with children, tattos, glasses made it to rouge stage.
Every morning the corporals asked us if someone wanted to go civil (papa, mama, playstation), and on Friday, they announced that Saturday and Sunday you can not go civil, and if you want to go home, you must to go today. Only four people I remember that they asked to leave. They were from Spain, New Zealand, England and Mexico.
If you come from EU or Schengen zones, you can bring only your passport and birth certificate. You can let home or to a friend your ID and drivers lincence. If you make it into the legion, when you are on vacation, with your ID you will be able to travel across EU and Schengen areas, and with your drivers licence and a valid bank card you could rent a car. You could also go to your embassy or consulate, explain your situation and ask for a new passport. But be careful, you are not allowed to hold these documents until you are rectified, if the legion fiinds out, you will be punish.
I recommend that you make copies of your study papers and bring the copies. You could bring them in your phone, or on a SD card, USB stick, even a CD. You could keep them in your mail acount or in the cloud. Make them in jpg or pdf formats at 300 dpi.
For medical documents I believe it is better to bring the originals.
The DSPLE people want to know you better, to know that they can trust you. I believe it helps if you bring digital photos with you, your family, friends, girlfriends, to see that your are a social creatures, with a normal life and hobies. You can also show them your social media profiles if you have. But be careful, maibe you come from a good life, to good for your sake.
Every day you will work (corvee), your first weapons (premier fusils) will be the broom and the scrape (balai et racle). You will do a lot of cleaning, you will help at the kitchen, at the warehouse, you will see.
The food in Aubagne and Malmousque it is very good, I ate everything they gave me. Some complain that there was little food, especially at breakfast, but it was enough for me. For the past year I did intermitent fasting to lose weight, in my case, I found out that staying away from bread helps me with not feeling hungry in the evening and not feeling bloated. I have eaten bread only at breakfast.
I had all my things in an 30L rucsack. It was the good choice, easy to travel by plane and to walk with it, but in the legion you will not have the time to put everything inside the rucksack in good order, so the solution is to bring a bigger bag or to be more selective with what you bring. My problem was that I have taken a huge towel, 70x130 cm, and that I had 2 pairs of shoes, a street pair and the running pair. I recommend that you take only the running shoes with you, you will not have time to destroy them in selection, and if you make it to become a legionnaire, it will not matter. The towel can be a lot smaller too. Bring some plastic bags to separate the clean dry clothes from the dirty wet ones in your bag. And I repeat, it is not a problem if you bring 5-6 pairs of t-shirts, underwears and socks. And I recommend you have another pair of pants. After the commission for rouge, the ones that were not accepted were taken by minibus to the St. Charles train station in Marseile. My clothes were a little wrinkled, I went to a hotel to get a room, I took a shower, I chose the cleanest clothes I had and then I went to a Decathlon shop to buy new pants and t-shirts.
Next time I will post about my experience day by day.
