Last night at the multimedia centre, I chatted quite a bit with xiaopei, my friend who is working in Germany. She said she had lots of fun in Paris and is starting to plan for her Spain trip in May. She is working for Infineon the chip company and is doing her training in Munich. Good thing is she has quite a number of SG colleagues with her and so isn’t lonely at all. I did not speak with her much (I think I never spoke with her last time) in HJC but just glad to hear some news from her. While I was chatting, a guy came up to me and said something in French. I told him to repeat in English and he said he needs to use my PC so that he can discuss work with his friend who was using the PC next to mine. So I logout and let him had the computer. That also blew my cover because normally students of INSA are able to speak French. That was why he was a bit surprised when I wanted him to speak English. But I wasn’t hogging the PC like some of the guys, playing WC throughout the night.
This morning on the way to work, I saw a rabbit crossing the road. Correction. It was a hare. Those wild types, not those fat bunnies. It was fast and alert and stood at the edge. When there were no cars, it dashed across the road. I once had a rabbit as pet but it died in my hands. It was my brother’s actually and the pet owner told us not to give it water to drink. It was supposed to receive water from the fruits and vegetables that it ate. But one day, while I was drinking a packet of Yeo’s chrysanthemum tea, I thought the rabbit might want some and pour it into the cage. The rabbit drank and died the next day. My mum wrapped it in a plastic bag and threw it down the rubbish chute. I remember I didn’t cry. On another occasion, I was using the camera film container to catch a spider. As I cornered the spider, my mum suddenly booed me from behind just to scare me. My hand quivered and broke one of the legs of the spider. That time I cried. Enough of stupid childhood.
I spent the morning re-analyzing all the results of the experiments so that I can type a brief report to my sup to give him some insights on what I am going to brief him when he returns. At noon, Jaro came and asked me for lunch. He also bought a food ticket from me. I guess now they know who to buy the ticket from when they run out of it because I am paying at student price so it is cheaper. He said he wasn’t around for the past few days as he just bought a car for 2600 euros, which is about 6000 SGD. He said he is going to drive all the way back to Czech Republic next Fri when he returns to his country. Wow! That will be a long drive! He has to cut across the whole of France and Germany to reach home. He said he wasn’t a good driver because previously he spent a lot of time in US and had been driving auto car. And it was running on diesel which he said was much easier to drive. Here not only must he change to petrol, he had to drive manual. I didn’t understand why it is easier to drive with diesel. I am not a motor guy. And a lousy driver.
At lunch, I asked Mr. Giant about the trip to Forest of Broceliande and he said he and Nicolas are planning for it because Nicolas’ girlfriend is interested in going too. So they would go on a French guided tour but he said he would explain to me in English then. He asked if I have some other SG friends so that maybe they can ask the tourism office to organize an English guided tour. Sad to say, I had none here. He said probably it would be in April or May. Then they asked about my experiment and I said I needed 2 more people. Jaro said you can’t even find 2 more people? I told him I tried hard enough. Mr. Giant suggested asking Mathilde but he said the results would most likely be way off. Jaro agreed but they said just ask her for the fun of it. Then we went to the cafeteria and were chatting at a little corner with very comfortable couch. We talked a bit on April’s Fool Day and the ladies at the counter had a paper fish stuck to their arms. They said it was to stick it on the customers’ back when they come. Later Jaro was saying that his PhD paper took 14 months to be published after he submitted it to the relevant authorities. And he and Mr. Giant were talking about some procedures of getting PhD and stuff like that. All the while, the conversation was done in English because both of them speak English well.
Back in the office, I heard some English voices along the corridor and saw a Chinese and an Indian walked past. I ran after them and asked if they would be interested in helping me with the experiment. With the 2 of them, I would have fully completed my task. I must have been a bit imposing because I just suddenly popped up from nowhere and hence they were taken aback at first. I told the Indian guy that I am from SG and he said that the Chinese guy thought so too when they first saw me. Then I asked the Chinese guy what his name is, speaking in Mandarin this time. He was very surprised that I can speak Chinese. His name is Jiang Xian Yang. I said that I was glad to know him (hen gao xing ren shi ni) and he replied “xing hui xing hui”. Then I told him I was from NTU and he said he had some friends there. Both agreed to do the exp for me some time next week. I went back to the office and couldn’t help being excited. In fact I was thrilled to speak Chinese! So I went to Jaro room and shared with him the good news. I apologized to him for being over excited and he said he could tell I was hysterical. But I am not sure how many people can really understand my kind of feeling. I have not spoken a single word of Chinese face to face with anyone ever since I step foot on France soil. Next week when Xian Yang is here to do the exp, I would grab this opportunity to ask him to introduce me to more Chinese in the lab.
In the afternoon, I sent an email to both my sup and tutor reporting my progress on my work. I must say that lately I have become quite moody because of the lack of progress and interest in my work. My mood just swings from end to end. In January, I was feeling depress, lonely, afraid, and helpless. In February, I began traveling and was making good progress in work. Hence I was feeling motivated and upbeat. Came March when my sup was away for a month, I was quite stuck in my work. Then I got a bit sian with traveling during the weekend and I just wanted to AWOL and go on a tour. Especially when I was planning my end tour now. My morale was very low then. Now, with the experiment thing done, and my sup returning next week, I felt once more motivated because he would give me some directions for my work. In the late afternoon, Jaro asked me for coffee break again. At the cafeteria, we went over and joined 4 other guys at the smoking corner. One of them was Julien, the guy in our project team who speaks English with British accent. Jaro managed to get for me 3 more guys to do my exp. Yes! Not only have I met the target, now I have extra people to do my exp. I found that I can catch some of their conversations at the table if I listen carefully since they were talking about the exp and I was in the conversation from the very start. With the other colleagues during other lunchtimes, I can’t figure out what they were talking about at all because I wasn’t in the picture at the very beginning. I think next time if I need more participants, I would just go down to the cafeteria. I already told my sup that I didn’t get any people from my residence because it is troublesome and I don’t know them well. I also confessed to my tutor that not much work was done in March. I didn’t want to pretend anything. In the end I still didn’t get Mathilde to do the exp because she was busy on the phone whole afternoon. Another reason was that the exp is rather tiring so I didn’t want her to feel tired. Wah! Like she is my gf like that, haha.
Back in INSA, I was cooking my meal happily and looking out of the window at some kids playing on the field. I have seen them played there a few times before. A big fat boy (about 9 yrs old), 2 small little boys (about 5 or 6) and a sweet little girl with long blonde hair (about 5 or 6 yrs old also). Sometimes she would play soccer with them, sometimes she would play swordfighting with them using branches. Today, she was doing her self-invented somersaults on the grass. If I got a chance, I would want to take a picture of them playing on the field because they were all beautiful children (except for the big boy whom I felt was too old playing with the 3 smaller kids). Then I went to check the letterbox and got this letter from the OMI (Office of Migrations International). It seemed like I have to do a health screening or XRay on Tuesday and present the results to OMI on Friday according to the law. This is a compulsory procedure to enable me to stay in France. Kao! I hate this kind of unnecessary admin because I already went through a health screening in NTU before I came over here. What if I failed the health screening here? They would send me back to SG? Although it kind of disrupts my work schedule next week, it also breaks the monotony of my working life here. Perhaps because I was in a bright mood while reading the letter and hence wasn’t that frustrated. Anyway, have to let my colleague check for me the content on Monday. As for now, I shall put it aside and enjoy my weekend.
This morning on the way to work, I saw a rabbit crossing the road. Correction. It was a hare. Those wild types, not those fat bunnies. It was fast and alert and stood at the edge. When there were no cars, it dashed across the road. I once had a rabbit as pet but it died in my hands. It was my brother’s actually and the pet owner told us not to give it water to drink. It was supposed to receive water from the fruits and vegetables that it ate. But one day, while I was drinking a packet of Yeo’s chrysanthemum tea, I thought the rabbit might want some and pour it into the cage. The rabbit drank and died the next day. My mum wrapped it in a plastic bag and threw it down the rubbish chute. I remember I didn’t cry. On another occasion, I was using the camera film container to catch a spider. As I cornered the spider, my mum suddenly booed me from behind just to scare me. My hand quivered and broke one of the legs of the spider. That time I cried. Enough of stupid childhood.
I spent the morning re-analyzing all the results of the experiments so that I can type a brief report to my sup to give him some insights on what I am going to brief him when he returns. At noon, Jaro came and asked me for lunch. He also bought a food ticket from me. I guess now they know who to buy the ticket from when they run out of it because I am paying at student price so it is cheaper. He said he wasn’t around for the past few days as he just bought a car for 2600 euros, which is about 6000 SGD. He said he is going to drive all the way back to Czech Republic next Fri when he returns to his country. Wow! That will be a long drive! He has to cut across the whole of France and Germany to reach home. He said he wasn’t a good driver because previously he spent a lot of time in US and had been driving auto car. And it was running on diesel which he said was much easier to drive. Here not only must he change to petrol, he had to drive manual. I didn’t understand why it is easier to drive with diesel. I am not a motor guy. And a lousy driver.
At lunch, I asked Mr. Giant about the trip to Forest of Broceliande and he said he and Nicolas are planning for it because Nicolas’ girlfriend is interested in going too. So they would go on a French guided tour but he said he would explain to me in English then. He asked if I have some other SG friends so that maybe they can ask the tourism office to organize an English guided tour. Sad to say, I had none here. He said probably it would be in April or May. Then they asked about my experiment and I said I needed 2 more people. Jaro said you can’t even find 2 more people? I told him I tried hard enough. Mr. Giant suggested asking Mathilde but he said the results would most likely be way off. Jaro agreed but they said just ask her for the fun of it. Then we went to the cafeteria and were chatting at a little corner with very comfortable couch. We talked a bit on April’s Fool Day and the ladies at the counter had a paper fish stuck to their arms. They said it was to stick it on the customers’ back when they come. Later Jaro was saying that his PhD paper took 14 months to be published after he submitted it to the relevant authorities. And he and Mr. Giant were talking about some procedures of getting PhD and stuff like that. All the while, the conversation was done in English because both of them speak English well.
Back in the office, I heard some English voices along the corridor and saw a Chinese and an Indian walked past. I ran after them and asked if they would be interested in helping me with the experiment. With the 2 of them, I would have fully completed my task. I must have been a bit imposing because I just suddenly popped up from nowhere and hence they were taken aback at first. I told the Indian guy that I am from SG and he said that the Chinese guy thought so too when they first saw me. Then I asked the Chinese guy what his name is, speaking in Mandarin this time. He was very surprised that I can speak Chinese. His name is Jiang Xian Yang. I said that I was glad to know him (hen gao xing ren shi ni) and he replied “xing hui xing hui”. Then I told him I was from NTU and he said he had some friends there. Both agreed to do the exp for me some time next week. I went back to the office and couldn’t help being excited. In fact I was thrilled to speak Chinese! So I went to Jaro room and shared with him the good news. I apologized to him for being over excited and he said he could tell I was hysterical. But I am not sure how many people can really understand my kind of feeling. I have not spoken a single word of Chinese face to face with anyone ever since I step foot on France soil. Next week when Xian Yang is here to do the exp, I would grab this opportunity to ask him to introduce me to more Chinese in the lab.
In the afternoon, I sent an email to both my sup and tutor reporting my progress on my work. I must say that lately I have become quite moody because of the lack of progress and interest in my work. My mood just swings from end to end. In January, I was feeling depress, lonely, afraid, and helpless. In February, I began traveling and was making good progress in work. Hence I was feeling motivated and upbeat. Came March when my sup was away for a month, I was quite stuck in my work. Then I got a bit sian with traveling during the weekend and I just wanted to AWOL and go on a tour. Especially when I was planning my end tour now. My morale was very low then. Now, with the experiment thing done, and my sup returning next week, I felt once more motivated because he would give me some directions for my work. In the late afternoon, Jaro asked me for coffee break again. At the cafeteria, we went over and joined 4 other guys at the smoking corner. One of them was Julien, the guy in our project team who speaks English with British accent. Jaro managed to get for me 3 more guys to do my exp. Yes! Not only have I met the target, now I have extra people to do my exp. I found that I can catch some of their conversations at the table if I listen carefully since they were talking about the exp and I was in the conversation from the very start. With the other colleagues during other lunchtimes, I can’t figure out what they were talking about at all because I wasn’t in the picture at the very beginning. I think next time if I need more participants, I would just go down to the cafeteria. I already told my sup that I didn’t get any people from my residence because it is troublesome and I don’t know them well. I also confessed to my tutor that not much work was done in March. I didn’t want to pretend anything. In the end I still didn’t get Mathilde to do the exp because she was busy on the phone whole afternoon. Another reason was that the exp is rather tiring so I didn’t want her to feel tired. Wah! Like she is my gf like that, haha.
Back in INSA, I was cooking my meal happily and looking out of the window at some kids playing on the field. I have seen them played there a few times before. A big fat boy (about 9 yrs old), 2 small little boys (about 5 or 6) and a sweet little girl with long blonde hair (about 5 or 6 yrs old also). Sometimes she would play soccer with them, sometimes she would play swordfighting with them using branches. Today, she was doing her self-invented somersaults on the grass. If I got a chance, I would want to take a picture of them playing on the field because they were all beautiful children (except for the big boy whom I felt was too old playing with the 3 smaller kids). Then I went to check the letterbox and got this letter from the OMI (Office of Migrations International). It seemed like I have to do a health screening or XRay on Tuesday and present the results to OMI on Friday according to the law. This is a compulsory procedure to enable me to stay in France. Kao! I hate this kind of unnecessary admin because I already went through a health screening in NTU before I came over here. What if I failed the health screening here? They would send me back to SG? Although it kind of disrupts my work schedule next week, it also breaks the monotony of my working life here. Perhaps because I was in a bright mood while reading the letter and hence wasn’t that frustrated. Anyway, have to let my colleague check for me the content on Monday. As for now, I shall put it aside and enjoy my weekend.
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