Back after 2 weeks in Aubagne

[Jhonny]

Hello guys, I just got back in Spain on friday after 2 weeks in Aubagne.For those who plan on leaving soon I`ll be describing life in Aubagne so u can go prepared First u have to know that probably when u go to the gate they`ll just tell u to come back tomorrow or the day after as it happened to me and a lot of other people there...I don`t know what`s that about maybe some test or maybe there`s just to many people nowadays that are trying to join.So go with some extra cash to spend a night or two in Aubagne or Marseille.In marseille there`s a really cheap hotel near the Old port wich is about 20 min walk(slow walk) from St. Charles station, I don`t remember the name of the hotel right now but look for a yellow folding screen over the entrance door.We slept there like 3 guys in a room for 60 euro(one big bad and one small one, bathroom in the room) and they even had some small single rooms for 30 euros wich is as cheap as it gets in Marseille and Aubagne by far.
Ok, so that`s pretty much all about lodging in Marseille..oh and be carfefull if u go in one of the brothels arround there...and let me tell u they have a lot of them, because the girls just ask for drinks and just want to squeeze as much money out of u as possible without doing much.A guy I was with ended up spending like 400 euros without getting anything...so be carefull.
Back to Aubagne.Once u make black after they take away yout civil belongins u won`t be left with anything except money and cigarettes so don`t bother with dictionaries books or anything else because they`ll just take everithing away and store it.About telefones mp3 and such u can bring them with u and when u get in they`ll just take them from u and do the same as with the rest of your staff..store it.They don`t cut credit cards or anything ...everithing u have will be stored and eventually returned to u in exactly the same condition.
The test, and I`m talking about all of them, are extremely easy.The fisical is more of a joke...u just run seven paliers and do 4 pullups and u are ok...most of the guys that were rouge did exactly that and got in there were some of them that when we had to do 5 pullups each before lunch(sometimes the caporal chef made us do that....) strugled with the last one or couldn`t do it alltogether.So don`t train for months and months for the test because it`s something that a couch potatoe could do easy.They don`t seem to put much emphasis on fitness since I`ve seen chubby guys rouge or guys who were very very thin and guys like football treainers or ex military who did like level 12 and 23 pullups(yeah 23....freakin amazing in my book) got rejected.
The IQ test is also easy although for most people this test is the end of the journey.Me, I can`t understand why since the caporals and the guys there call it the moron test.There are 4 tests that make up the IQ test the first one is geometry: they give u a geometrical form lets say a cube.....that has one one of it`s facetes a point and another facete is black.They give u the form spread out on a plane and then they give u 4 choices of cubes and u have to choose the right one.It sounds much more complicated than it is.In this test u have , if i remember corectly 26 questions and not all the geometrical forms are normal...there are some half pipes some complicated forms and stuff but the test is not difficult.
The second iq test is math....strings of numbers and u have to say wich is the next in the string.....this test is farely simple also.
The third one is with simbols....is the same as with the numbers....they give u three symbols and u have to guess the forth out of like 4 possible. If u passed the Iq...that`s all these 3 tests they will get u in the fourth one wich is a personality test...if u haven`t done it they`ll just send u in the courtyard.All the test take about 1.30 hours.
The gestapo is a nice interview where they ask everything about u...for me it was 2.30 hours but there were people who were in for 3-5 hours so....it varies.
Then there are like 2 other interviews about 5-10 minutes each where they just put u 5 questions or so ant that`s it.
The medical: if u have coated teeth it`s ok....I have 10 and i passed...if u have some 2 or three small cavities u will pass...a romaninan guy went to castle with 3 cavities and most of them had at least 1 ...so don`t worry.If u are overweight don`t worry about BMI it`s only grossly overweight people that get rejected...for example I went in at 1,84 and 100 kg and had no problem( I lift weights so I`m not fat just bulky).
So my advice to anyone who wants to give it a try just go down there and try it the fitness and the medical are not what they used to be...u have to be reaallly fat or reallyyy bad teeth to fail.
I can`t continue writing right now but I`ll be back with more info about life there and things u can do to make the 2 weeks pass easier. Take care.

[SquirrelFest]

Out of curiosity, do you know why you failed?

[BafuD]

Out of curiosity, do you know why you failed?

One reason could be very arrogant attitude against Legion way of doing things.

[Hroflr Grimm]

First of all, show some gratitude to him sharing his experiences. Second, there is a decent enough chance he didn't "fail". He could be on inapt temporaire for just about anything. He could receive an inapt definitif because he did everything perfect but just didn't make the final cut. Luck plays as large a factor in getting as does anything else, due simply to the mass numbers trying to get in.

Lastly, it's none of your business as to why he didn't make it through selection. If he chooses to share that, it's completely up to him. Show some respect.

[SquirrelFest]

First of all, show some gratitude to him sharing his experiences. Second, there is a decent enough chance he didn't "fail". He could be on inapt temporaire for just about anything. He could receive an inapt definitif because he did everything perfect but just didn't make the final cut. Luck plays as large a factor in getting as does anything else, due simply to the mass numbers trying to get in.

Lastly, it's none of your business as to why he didn't make it through selection. If he chooses to share that, it's completely up to him. Show some respect.

As was said, it was a motion of curiosity with no disrespect. Don't be so bloody shirty. If he knows and wishes to say why, he can readily do so himself - and given from his first post I'm sure he would without hesitating. Lastly, he did "fail" as he failed to make it in regardless of reasoning - even be it that said reason be of his own volition or he did perfect and simply wasn't shortlisted. Wind your neck in. Your post smacks far more of your own personal issues rather than valid correction, not that you're in a place to push such advances anyway.
As to BafuDs post, you do have some give on that one.

[alecaf]

agree with the above, it would be of great help to know why he is not in presently, weather he failed, quit, inapt T etc would all help to know what the legion is looking for.

[Neffy]

..oh and be carfefull if u go in one of the brothels arround there...and let me tell u they have a lot of them, because the girls just ask for drinks and just want to squeeze as much money out of u as possible without doing much.A guy I was with ended up spending like 400 euros without getting anything...so be carefull.
.

I guess best things in life comes for free then

[Mugur]

Like i said before: sometimes joining in Légion étrangère is lottery. Some other times is not lottery, is just pure knowledge. To join the Legion you should be very lucky or very good in all tests, over the other candidates...unfortunately you Jhonny weren't too lucky, and definitely not the best of. But at least you tried man, and that is what we need to appreciate from you. Many wannabes say "I will go now", but they never see the FFL gates.

Mugur

[repman86]

Never mind jhonny (wierd spelling of a great name) the correct way to spell this name is Johnny, were your parents illegitimate or illiterate or both, that's probaly why your not there now. For defacing the great name Johnny. My parents could read and write, my name is Johnny.

[Madmonk 7.5]

sometimes candidates have the wrong attitude, wrong expectation and/or a face that even their mother hates! (to the liking of the interviewer)

[Mr. Wolfe]

Thanks for sharing the info and cheers to you for having gone and tried out.

You going back?

[Jhonny]

First of all you repman prick I wrote the name like that because the user name "Johnny" was already taken, secondly I'm Romanian and I speak English, French, Spanish maybe not perfectly but still I manage. I would like to see you writing and speaking in some other language and some f****r calling you illiterate ok? Man some dudes or just d***s. Anyway back to what I was saying about my experience in Aubagne:
I failed because I didn't make the cut, I'm not too bummed about it because I think that if they gave me inapt definitif (my psych profile is not what the FFL requires...that's what the paper says so that must be it) is because they saw something that I didn't. I don't think I would have deserted if I got in but still maybe they thought I could very well do it since my life as a civil isn't really bad and perhaps they were right saying that my place wasn't there... who knows? For those other as*****s that are planning to say that I was full of myself or had attitude problems (arrogant and such) I would like to say I was never shouted at, I had no problems with other comrades and such and did everything as fast and as best as I could and never had any complaints. I went with the right attitude, humble, shutting my mouth and opening my ears but sometimes you can be a perfectly functional human being and do everything perfect and you still don't make it in. I trust and respect their decision and think they know best so for me the road to FFL ends here, knowing that I passed every test and knowing that I could have made it through Castel and everything for sure it's good enough for me.
Back to life at Aubagne... So as I was saying in Aubagne life is rather boring all you do is stand around (thing that plays tricks on many people who just can't handle the sitting around waiting for some other test without knowing if you did well on your last one or if you did enough to still be in the game), running to the front yard whenever the alarm sounds and working if you get picked or volunteer for some corvée. If you smoke I would advise you bring with you some tobacco and paper since it lasts waaaay longer than normal packs of cigarettes and if you bring like 2-3 packs of tobacco you will have enough to smoke for 2 weeks there plus you can sell cigarettes (the price is 50 cents a cigarette so you can make cash for coke, coffee or whatever). A pack of ciggies is 5+ euros there and most people don't have money on them so a fresh EV with cigarettes is like a chunk of meet in front of a hungry pack of hyenas in the back yard at Aubagne .
About eating: many people said that the food at Aubagne is bad... I personally disagree. I think the food is good and enough for a normal day but if you want to eat more you can do one of 4 things...
1/ Volunteer when a black caporal-chef with a black kepi shows up to pick some EV, usually like or 4 (he will take u to wash some dishes in an NCOs building and things there are really cool and you can steal bread and cheese from the fridge pretty much as much as you want and some times the cook just gives you food and lets you watch TV
2/ Volunteer for the main kitchen where everyday they need like 12-15 EV and after you finish cleaning they give you extra food,
3/ You can also volunteer to do corvées with some East European caporal-chef to a place near the entrance gate (you will know what I'm talking about when you get there) where you will have to clean a small kitchen and a bathroom and some showers but the good thing is that the kitchen is always empty and the fridge is full of butter and jam and honey and there is always bread around or sometimes it's the caporal-chef that invites you to eat something,
4/ Last thing you could do is get good with the Romanian mafia there... which is an easy thing to do if you speak English and are not some arrogant pr**k especially with the Romanians that are rouge because you will get like 2 breads and as much honey or jam or butter as you can take in one hand at breakfast, they'll get you some coffee in the morning because the rouge are the first in line and are the only ones who can take 2 bowls of coffee in the morning because normally if they see a blue one with 2 bowls like taking one for some mate of his... Well let's just say it's not a pretty picture ...plus if you get good with the Romanians u can spend more than 10 sec in the showers most of the time since they do shower duty often. About the 10 sec shower... the trick is to just wash your armpits, ass and d**k and after that if you have time left go for feet or something else...but in 10 sec that's pretty much all you can wash... but it's not that bad...
So, to end on a positive note... don't stress it too much. Selection is easy, don't make waves and do your best and things will go smoothly and your life there for the duration of selection will be pleasant. You'll talk to lots of legionnaires you will see interesting stuff and hear nice stories and meet people from all over. Ah... Almost forgot... You might be sent away to work in Malmousque or La Ciotat or some place... If you get to go lucky you because it's better than staying in Aubagne... Me, I got sent twice at La Ciotat and let me tell you it was niiiice: all the food you can eat and more, TV in the room, shower as long as you want and probably at 7 at night you will be already in your room and in the morning you wake up at 6.30 and everyone there is pretty cool especially the caporal-chef in the kitchen (a guy with a legionnaire tatooed on his forearm). You'll see why I'm telling you he is mad cool. So if you want to go don't waste time, just go but remember you can do everything perfect and think you are in and still don't make the cut because they think that your place is not there. My disappointment is that at least in my group in my opinion the best guys got rejected... And I'm talking real soldier material dudes intelligent, athletic and really wanting to get in and instead they picked some 1,60m 50 kg Vietnamese, some borderline autistic Polish guy and some other shady characters... Only good guy that got in is a NZ guy named Murray (so if you go this week he is there rouge)... But hey it is what it is I am just saying go try it and see what happens don't stress it too much and hope you get in but if you don't chin up and let all the f*****s talk trash each of us has his reasons for going/deserting/quigting/staying and there's no right or wrong answer there's only one's peace of mind Bonne chance et bon courage camarades !!!

[Jhonny]

Mugur about the tests I don't know... From what I saw there the most important is the Gestapo... Most of the rouge did average on the sport test like 7 paliers and 4-6 pullups and some of them cheated on IQ test (yeah you can cheat easily watching the guy on your left or right) but they had a pretty good reason for being there: running from law or something like that. The thing that amazed me is that even in the FFL you can get in by knowing someone... A Moldavian guy failed the IQ test and because he knew a caporal-chef he got to take the test again and obviously made it the second time and got picked to go rouge... Same deal with 3 Romanian guys who got in same way and I mean guys that told me from the start they would get in and so they did... One of them made rouge in 1 week... So in my modest opinion the most important test is by far the Gestapo and you have to have a pretty damn good reason for being there. I'm not trying to be arrogant or anything. I only was there for 2 weeks so I'm not saying I know everything about FFL. I just wanted to tell you guys about life there because this forum helped me a lot and the things you read here are pretty much the truth and will help all wannabes a lot. Bye

[SeanG]

First of all u repman prick

Now now wind it in buddy

[Chval]

Thank you for sharing a fresh information. It's greatly helpful for people like me who's going to join soon.