Finally it was clear sky and sunshine this morning although it was still close to 0 degree. But the weather was so fine that even the birds were singing. The campus I am in is like a big park with lots of trees and different kinds of bird. So it is always very enjoyable to walk to office provided it doesn’t snow. Today is the last day before I am on my own at work and next week onwards I would have to meet different kinds of people everyday for the experiments. I was making some final amendments to the experiment and still had not finished when it was lunchtime. But never mind, I got the entire day to do that. I was sitting alone at a table for lunch and 3 ladies came and joined me. Not that I know them but here we often have to share table with strangers. Jean-Marie was a moment too late if not I would have reserved the seats for him and his friend. The 3 ladies were in their 30s and were like a mini market chattering non-stop throughout the lunch. As for me, I was a bit afraid that my table manners were not good or I had food stuck between my teeth and things like that. In the end I was too self-conscious that I dropped half of my bread on the floor. But that was alright as compared to last time, I once spilled half of my fries on myself while cutting the steak. Now I learnt to eat half of the fries first so that I have enough space to cut the steak.
After lunch, I heard from hui that the place he was going to see the car show was indeed Geneva, just that Geneve is the French version of that. Same for London, in French it is called Londre. And I never knew Geneva was so close to France. I thought it was in the centre of Switzerland. Furthermore, it is not the capital which I thought it is initially. The capital is actually argh… I have forgotten!!! Think is Berne. And it is very cheap to go to Geneva from Grenoble. Between 10 euros to 24 euros depending on the timings of the train. I think I would make a trip there in June since it is so near. Furthermore I don’t think I would be going to Torino to visit hua because he wouldn’t be there by then. Maybe I would just go there for sight-seeing. His exchange ends in April and he intends to travel around Europe till July. 3 months of exchange and 3 months of tour. He would be coming to Paris but too bad I don’t live there. And he is planning to go to England, Denmark and then Spain to find a Spanish friend. So now he is trying to get all the contacts so that he can “leech” on them. (I was using the word “lich” when telling hui about this. Lich is a character in the PC game Warcraft which I was super addicted in year 1 and 2. Miss those nights when I would play until 3am with Gary and my hallmates but I missed a lot of sleeps too.) 3 months of touring would cost a lot and compared to him, I am only traveling for 3 weeks in the end. And I am getting paid moreover. Too bad my VISA expires on 11th July and my IA only ends on 18th June. If not I think I would have saved enough for a longer tour than 3 weeks.
I started checking the train prices to Italy, to England and that was when I realized that I was unconsciously planning for my tour. No no, it is still too early to think about this and I still got plenty of work to do. But I did saw a person’s itinerary online and it was very detail. With the dates, the actions, the accommodations, the transport, etc in columns. I think I would follow his way of planning the trip. Back at work, I asked Nicolas to help me subscribe to the newsgroup account so that I can send a global email to the whole of IRISA asking people to help me with my experiment. He came and spent about 20 min doing it because there was some problem with Mozilla mailbox service. In the end I had to use Mozilla Thunderbird to do it. He also helped me subscribed to 2 more newsgroups; one was specially meant for foreigners in which people comm. in English, the second was for buy and sell. This means I can sell my kettle online. I took a look at the foreigner newsgroup and was sad that there are only 3 mails. Either there aren’t many foreigners in IRISA or people are not enthusiastic. And the mails are asking if there are any French classes available in the universities here. No one talked about outings, traveling, games, etc. So I posted a mail and said that I am from Singapore and am wondering if there are any Singapore societies or communities here. I have tried asking INSA but in vain. Then I asked if anyone is interested in traveling around Bretagne during the weekends. Lastly I mentioned that I needed people to do experiment for me.
Immediately there was a reply saying that I can try asking the House of International in Rennes. He said I should speak to a Miss Corrine who speaks very good English. He even told me that I have to call on another day because he just called and she was not around today. Wow, such helpful guy. Even calling to check for me. Then there was another reply and the guy is interested to participate in the experiment. He left his number and when I wanted to call him, I found that the phone in my office could not dial to external number. It is only for internal calling. So I just replied him and gave him a timing to come. 2 instant replies within minutes but no one was interested in traveling together with me. By now I had planned all my schedules for the 3 experiments that I am supposed to conduct. 3 participants per day, one hour each, and I would complete the task in 2 weeks time. After that it would be a lot of work with the results and maybe a 4th experiment. Enough to keep me occupied for March. I still have not send out the email calling for participants to the global group because I still wanted to make a last minute check on my codes. I did sent an email to Michel briefing him on what I am supposed to do during the absence of my sup. I have been sending my tutor detail emails whenever I feel that I had something big coming or had just completed some major tasks. This is to keep him updated constantly. Also I remember Dora saying that it is good to keep Michel posted all the time. This would leave a good impression. Must know how to score points.
Then hui suddenly popped up in msn and cheered loudly. He had just completed his big task and was exhilarated by his own performance. He had been pretty depressed (like he always does) on his work for the past few weeks because he wasn’t making good progress. Now that he had impressed his sup, he was stressed (like he always does again) because he would be given harder tasks to do. Well I guess that is the whole cycle of life, downs and ups. But I don’t know why I can’t feel such extreme joy when something good happens to me. I remember when I got my O levels result, I didn’t cheered when I got good grades, and also when I got my A levels result, I wasn’t jumping about like the others, I just received congrats from my friends with a smile. I did felt good of course, but the emotion when receiving the cert was as plain as receiving a piece of paper. The only times when I felt excited was when I got my license and the news that I would be coming to France. And of course when the girl I liked accepted my invitation. But other than that, I felt that I had been downplaying my emotions too much, especially in front of others. Same when watching comedy on TV at home. When the whole family is watching, I would not laugh much. I would only “Um Chio” and my mum would say, “want to laugh then laugh lah!” But when I am watching alone (esp. late night shows like Shi Zhi Lu Kou, Guess 3), I would laugh madly on the sofa. There seem to be some resistance to the revelation of the feelings inside me about things around me, be it sad or happy. And now as I am penning my emotions on paper, I am in fact revealing more. Sometimes I really wonder if I am psychologically sound.
Ok enough of psycho talk or else I would really go berserk. After I am very sure of my codes (actually still a bit unsure so I would double check again on Monday morning), I mass mailed everyone in the global mail and immediately there were some replies. Like what my sup said, the people like to do experiments. So now I have got 4 confirmed participants and 1 pending. Finally, today I can go back at 6pm but before that I went to see Anatole and wish him bon voyage. Here it is really culturally different from Singapore. In Singapore, people would just drop the courtesy and go straight in the main point. But here, people would always ask how are you, how’s everything before moving on to the topic, even though they see each other everyday. I felt embarrassed at times when I just went to colleague’s room and asked for help without first shaking his hand and asking how was his day, etc. Really must slow down my pace and learn to be like them.
Tomorrow I would go to town and check out a few things. First it would be to CAF but I am not sure if it is open on Saturday. Anyway, I don’t think I am eligible to apply. Next would be Leader Price then to the Bookstore to look for the guide. There is a Carrefour in Rennes but it is not accessible as I have to change buses to reach there. So if I have to do that every week, it would be a chore. I also did a calculation on my savings and found that the target of 5000 sing dollars is impossible as I have overspent within the first 1.5 months. Even if I cut expenses to the min. for the rest 3.5 months, I would only be close to 5000 but never to reach it. So I made a recalculation and 4500 is a good estimation without compromising too much on leisure. Hope I don’t have to reduce my target any further.
PS: Last night my neighbours were super rowdy, like they were drunk. One of them even opened my door while I was asleep around 12am plus. Then he quickly closed it. I woke up and then locked the door. After awhile someone tried opening my door again. What the F??K were they trying to do? Making so much noise in the middle of the night! I felt like opening my door and throwing a grenade out at them. Or drive a train down the corridor and knocked down all those bastards. I am an extremely light sleeper so it was really annoying.
After lunch, I heard from hui that the place he was going to see the car show was indeed Geneva, just that Geneve is the French version of that. Same for London, in French it is called Londre. And I never knew Geneva was so close to France. I thought it was in the centre of Switzerland. Furthermore, it is not the capital which I thought it is initially. The capital is actually argh… I have forgotten!!! Think is Berne. And it is very cheap to go to Geneva from Grenoble. Between 10 euros to 24 euros depending on the timings of the train. I think I would make a trip there in June since it is so near. Furthermore I don’t think I would be going to Torino to visit hua because he wouldn’t be there by then. Maybe I would just go there for sight-seeing. His exchange ends in April and he intends to travel around Europe till July. 3 months of exchange and 3 months of tour. He would be coming to Paris but too bad I don’t live there. And he is planning to go to England, Denmark and then Spain to find a Spanish friend. So now he is trying to get all the contacts so that he can “leech” on them. (I was using the word “lich” when telling hui about this. Lich is a character in the PC game Warcraft which I was super addicted in year 1 and 2. Miss those nights when I would play until 3am with Gary and my hallmates but I missed a lot of sleeps too.) 3 months of touring would cost a lot and compared to him, I am only traveling for 3 weeks in the end. And I am getting paid moreover. Too bad my VISA expires on 11th July and my IA only ends on 18th June. If not I think I would have saved enough for a longer tour than 3 weeks.
I started checking the train prices to Italy, to England and that was when I realized that I was unconsciously planning for my tour. No no, it is still too early to think about this and I still got plenty of work to do. But I did saw a person’s itinerary online and it was very detail. With the dates, the actions, the accommodations, the transport, etc in columns. I think I would follow his way of planning the trip. Back at work, I asked Nicolas to help me subscribe to the newsgroup account so that I can send a global email to the whole of IRISA asking people to help me with my experiment. He came and spent about 20 min doing it because there was some problem with Mozilla mailbox service. In the end I had to use Mozilla Thunderbird to do it. He also helped me subscribed to 2 more newsgroups; one was specially meant for foreigners in which people comm. in English, the second was for buy and sell. This means I can sell my kettle online. I took a look at the foreigner newsgroup and was sad that there are only 3 mails. Either there aren’t many foreigners in IRISA or people are not enthusiastic. And the mails are asking if there are any French classes available in the universities here. No one talked about outings, traveling, games, etc. So I posted a mail and said that I am from Singapore and am wondering if there are any Singapore societies or communities here. I have tried asking INSA but in vain. Then I asked if anyone is interested in traveling around Bretagne during the weekends. Lastly I mentioned that I needed people to do experiment for me.
Immediately there was a reply saying that I can try asking the House of International in Rennes. He said I should speak to a Miss Corrine who speaks very good English. He even told me that I have to call on another day because he just called and she was not around today. Wow, such helpful guy. Even calling to check for me. Then there was another reply and the guy is interested to participate in the experiment. He left his number and when I wanted to call him, I found that the phone in my office could not dial to external number. It is only for internal calling. So I just replied him and gave him a timing to come. 2 instant replies within minutes but no one was interested in traveling together with me. By now I had planned all my schedules for the 3 experiments that I am supposed to conduct. 3 participants per day, one hour each, and I would complete the task in 2 weeks time. After that it would be a lot of work with the results and maybe a 4th experiment. Enough to keep me occupied for March. I still have not send out the email calling for participants to the global group because I still wanted to make a last minute check on my codes. I did sent an email to Michel briefing him on what I am supposed to do during the absence of my sup. I have been sending my tutor detail emails whenever I feel that I had something big coming or had just completed some major tasks. This is to keep him updated constantly. Also I remember Dora saying that it is good to keep Michel posted all the time. This would leave a good impression. Must know how to score points.
Then hui suddenly popped up in msn and cheered loudly. He had just completed his big task and was exhilarated by his own performance. He had been pretty depressed (like he always does) on his work for the past few weeks because he wasn’t making good progress. Now that he had impressed his sup, he was stressed (like he always does again) because he would be given harder tasks to do. Well I guess that is the whole cycle of life, downs and ups. But I don’t know why I can’t feel such extreme joy when something good happens to me. I remember when I got my O levels result, I didn’t cheered when I got good grades, and also when I got my A levels result, I wasn’t jumping about like the others, I just received congrats from my friends with a smile. I did felt good of course, but the emotion when receiving the cert was as plain as receiving a piece of paper. The only times when I felt excited was when I got my license and the news that I would be coming to France. And of course when the girl I liked accepted my invitation. But other than that, I felt that I had been downplaying my emotions too much, especially in front of others. Same when watching comedy on TV at home. When the whole family is watching, I would not laugh much. I would only “Um Chio” and my mum would say, “want to laugh then laugh lah!” But when I am watching alone (esp. late night shows like Shi Zhi Lu Kou, Guess 3), I would laugh madly on the sofa. There seem to be some resistance to the revelation of the feelings inside me about things around me, be it sad or happy. And now as I am penning my emotions on paper, I am in fact revealing more. Sometimes I really wonder if I am psychologically sound.
Ok enough of psycho talk or else I would really go berserk. After I am very sure of my codes (actually still a bit unsure so I would double check again on Monday morning), I mass mailed everyone in the global mail and immediately there were some replies. Like what my sup said, the people like to do experiments. So now I have got 4 confirmed participants and 1 pending. Finally, today I can go back at 6pm but before that I went to see Anatole and wish him bon voyage. Here it is really culturally different from Singapore. In Singapore, people would just drop the courtesy and go straight in the main point. But here, people would always ask how are you, how’s everything before moving on to the topic, even though they see each other everyday. I felt embarrassed at times when I just went to colleague’s room and asked for help without first shaking his hand and asking how was his day, etc. Really must slow down my pace and learn to be like them.
Tomorrow I would go to town and check out a few things. First it would be to CAF but I am not sure if it is open on Saturday. Anyway, I don’t think I am eligible to apply. Next would be Leader Price then to the Bookstore to look for the guide. There is a Carrefour in Rennes but it is not accessible as I have to change buses to reach there. So if I have to do that every week, it would be a chore. I also did a calculation on my savings and found that the target of 5000 sing dollars is impossible as I have overspent within the first 1.5 months. Even if I cut expenses to the min. for the rest 3.5 months, I would only be close to 5000 but never to reach it. So I made a recalculation and 4500 is a good estimation without compromising too much on leisure. Hope I don’t have to reduce my target any further.
PS: Last night my neighbours were super rowdy, like they were drunk. One of them even opened my door while I was asleep around 12am plus. Then he quickly closed it. I woke up and then locked the door. After awhile someone tried opening my door again. What the F??K were they trying to do? Making so much noise in the middle of the night! I felt like opening my door and throwing a grenade out at them. Or drive a train down the corridor and knocked down all those bastards. I am an extremely light sleeper so it was really annoying.
No comments:
Post a Comment