Today is a public holiday in France but I don’t know the significance of this PH. Ascension Day. Sounds like the day the king ascended the throne. Anyway it is long weekend for me as IRISA has tomorrow declared as an off day too. I think it is the same for many organizations in France. In the morning, I took down the poster I had written from my door and replaced it with the one Laurent printed for me. Hope that this French version poster would attract some attentions. Then I worked on some Java GUI but couldn’t compile because although I had downloaded the JCreator editor, I had forgotten about the JDK package. So in the end, I went on to play some games.
At lunch, I went to the kitchen to cook and saw Miss Yellow Towel chatting with another guy. I wanted to ask them to do the exp but didn’t know how to interrupt them. I guess by now my neighbours must have seen my poster and if they are really interested, they would contact me. If I open my mouth to ask them, 70% of the time I would succeed I guess. Because normally people don’t know how to reject a favor being asked. For me I would say sorry I am not interested. But these guys would not say that. Moreover, they have difficulties in coming up with excuses in English. Hence, I didn’t want to put everybody in such embarrassment. Let my poster do the talking. After lunch, I watch a very good show, “Mona Lisa Smile”.
The story happened in 1953, in an all-girls college. Juliet Robert played a new teacher to this traditional college and her unorthodox way of teaching art history brought a lot of controversies both from the board as well as the students. Initially she had a hard time in class because the girls had the textbooks memorized and were all so smart. She didn’t have much to teach. Then she began showing things outside the syllabus and challenging the girls’ idea. One of them, played by Spiderwoman Kristen Dunst was very outspoken. During that post-war period, the society’s mentality was very conforming and a woman’s role is to serve the husband and stay in the house. Juliet wanted them to think out of the box and not to live a conforming mind. Kristen however thinks that Juliet is trying to disrupt the traditionalism of the college and steering the girls away from the role they were born to play; housewife.
In the end, Juliet won the girls’ trust and also found what she wanted. Happy Ending. As the movie touched on art history, there were something said about Van Gogh, Picasso, the Sistine Chapel and Mona Lisa. But not much really as it was not the focus of the plot. Luckily I am able to see all these in slightly more than a month’s time. Incredible. Never thought I would be able to go to the Sistine Chapel in my life and see the works of Michelangelo. After the show, I went to IRISA to check my mails. All morning and half of the afternoon I was in my room and didn’t know that it was so crowded outside. The carnival has begun. There were a lot of those modified bicycle with motor at the back. I heard from Laurent that there would be a competition here and it is a great event in France. Everywhere they would have such competitions. But that motorcycle is really very noisy. Besides that there were also stalls selling food and it was like a big party.
I reached IRISA and entered with my access card. And with the master key I was able to enter my office too. I received an email from a student of INSA who is willing to take part in the experiment. But he wanted to do on Saturday which was not possible for me as I would be going to the Forest. Then I received bad news from the hotel reservation. There were 5 emails sent to me consecutively. The first one asked me for my credit card number but I had already given it online! The second told me that the hotel I wanted is fully booked. The 3rd said they found another hotel similar to the previous. The 4th mentioned about the price and the last is the voucher to be printed and presented on my arrival. All these emails were in French and I couldn’t be sure what was going on. Also, they just changed the hotel like that without my permission.
I decided to call them but that stupid phone in my office was not working again. Hence, I decided to send them an email. After that I still felt that this was quite an urgent issue and decided to use the phone in my colleague’s office since I have got the master key. But that means breaking in into other people’s office. I went to Nico (the other nico, not the one who always play soccer and eat lunch with me) room and turned the door knob. I was surprised that the door wasn’t locked and thought he or Jean-Marie must have forgotten to lock the door. Then I found Nico inside working! Wow! He was rushing his PhD and had to work over this weekend. I told him I came back to check emails and to see if any participants would want to do the exp this weekend. It made me feel better to have someone in the office because if I were to be alone, I wouldn’t know how to explain to the security guard if he sees me here. I called this European Hotel Reservation agency and asked them what was going on. Luckily she speaks English and indeed she has found another hotel for me. She said she would send the emails to me in English this time.
The only thing that I am concerned with is if this new hotel is as near to the train station as the previous one. The price comes second but I already knew it would be a bit more expensive. She said she would send me a link with the info of the hotel. I didn’t want to cancel the booking because I know I might not be able to get any vacancies if I were to wait till Monday and discuss with hui. The trip is only a week from now. I went back to check my emails and immediately I got everything, this time in English. The price was much higher than I thought. The cost of the bed was just 3 euros more but the tax was 14+ instead of 9+! Cancellation of bookings would cost 20 euros for those bookings that are under 150 euros. This is going to be a very expensive trip. I hope hui wouldn’t blame me. Although I should have checked everything thoroughly, I was also running short of time. I had to settle everything on my own by yesterday as it is not guaranteed that I would be able to have internet access over this long weekend. But I guess being a rather understanding person, hui wouldn’t blame me. At most I treat him something at the Loire Valley.
I saw Nico had a t shirt with a picture of a dragon and the Chinese character “long” on it. He said he likes martial arts a lot, esp. Bruce Lee and Jet Lee. He doesn’t like Jackie Chan because he felt that he is a comedian. Kao. Bro. He must have seen all his Hollywood movies like “Around the world in 80 days”. When nico said he likes Chinese kungfu, I thought he was just say say only. But it turns out that he is really a fan of Bruce Lee. He told me Bruce Lee has 4 movies made in HK and 1 in US. He had also read the biography of Bruce Lee, watched all his movies, and know the name of that tall black opponent of Bruce. I told him I had never watched a full movie of Bruce because I find that the fighting is not real. I am more impressed by Jackie Chan’s stunts. Before leaving, I asked if he would be back tomorrow and he said he would be here all 4 days. Wah, sad. I said I would come back tomorrow to see if any participants want to do exp. Just as sad.
Back in INSA, the carnival was getting more and more crowded. There were lots of people skateboarding and rollerblading, and also those noisy motorcycles. But it doesn’t interest me much. I didn’t want to join the crowd because it was quite hot and anyway I am still alone. It is not like I have someone enjoying the stunts with me. I think I would watch more movies so that the more I finish, the more I can pass to hui when we meet. The trip no doubt is slightly over our budget, but I felt it is quite worthwhile. At least get to see a friend and soon I would be able to speak Singlish.
At lunch, I went to the kitchen to cook and saw Miss Yellow Towel chatting with another guy. I wanted to ask them to do the exp but didn’t know how to interrupt them. I guess by now my neighbours must have seen my poster and if they are really interested, they would contact me. If I open my mouth to ask them, 70% of the time I would succeed I guess. Because normally people don’t know how to reject a favor being asked. For me I would say sorry I am not interested. But these guys would not say that. Moreover, they have difficulties in coming up with excuses in English. Hence, I didn’t want to put everybody in such embarrassment. Let my poster do the talking. After lunch, I watch a very good show, “Mona Lisa Smile”.
The story happened in 1953, in an all-girls college. Juliet Robert played a new teacher to this traditional college and her unorthodox way of teaching art history brought a lot of controversies both from the board as well as the students. Initially she had a hard time in class because the girls had the textbooks memorized and were all so smart. She didn’t have much to teach. Then she began showing things outside the syllabus and challenging the girls’ idea. One of them, played by Spiderwoman Kristen Dunst was very outspoken. During that post-war period, the society’s mentality was very conforming and a woman’s role is to serve the husband and stay in the house. Juliet wanted them to think out of the box and not to live a conforming mind. Kristen however thinks that Juliet is trying to disrupt the traditionalism of the college and steering the girls away from the role they were born to play; housewife.
In the end, Juliet won the girls’ trust and also found what she wanted. Happy Ending. As the movie touched on art history, there were something said about Van Gogh, Picasso, the Sistine Chapel and Mona Lisa. But not much really as it was not the focus of the plot. Luckily I am able to see all these in slightly more than a month’s time. Incredible. Never thought I would be able to go to the Sistine Chapel in my life and see the works of Michelangelo. After the show, I went to IRISA to check my mails. All morning and half of the afternoon I was in my room and didn’t know that it was so crowded outside. The carnival has begun. There were a lot of those modified bicycle with motor at the back. I heard from Laurent that there would be a competition here and it is a great event in France. Everywhere they would have such competitions. But that motorcycle is really very noisy. Besides that there were also stalls selling food and it was like a big party.
I reached IRISA and entered with my access card. And with the master key I was able to enter my office too. I received an email from a student of INSA who is willing to take part in the experiment. But he wanted to do on Saturday which was not possible for me as I would be going to the Forest. Then I received bad news from the hotel reservation. There were 5 emails sent to me consecutively. The first one asked me for my credit card number but I had already given it online! The second told me that the hotel I wanted is fully booked. The 3rd said they found another hotel similar to the previous. The 4th mentioned about the price and the last is the voucher to be printed and presented on my arrival. All these emails were in French and I couldn’t be sure what was going on. Also, they just changed the hotel like that without my permission.
I decided to call them but that stupid phone in my office was not working again. Hence, I decided to send them an email. After that I still felt that this was quite an urgent issue and decided to use the phone in my colleague’s office since I have got the master key. But that means breaking in into other people’s office. I went to Nico (the other nico, not the one who always play soccer and eat lunch with me) room and turned the door knob. I was surprised that the door wasn’t locked and thought he or Jean-Marie must have forgotten to lock the door. Then I found Nico inside working! Wow! He was rushing his PhD and had to work over this weekend. I told him I came back to check emails and to see if any participants would want to do the exp this weekend. It made me feel better to have someone in the office because if I were to be alone, I wouldn’t know how to explain to the security guard if he sees me here. I called this European Hotel Reservation agency and asked them what was going on. Luckily she speaks English and indeed she has found another hotel for me. She said she would send the emails to me in English this time.
The only thing that I am concerned with is if this new hotel is as near to the train station as the previous one. The price comes second but I already knew it would be a bit more expensive. She said she would send me a link with the info of the hotel. I didn’t want to cancel the booking because I know I might not be able to get any vacancies if I were to wait till Monday and discuss with hui. The trip is only a week from now. I went back to check my emails and immediately I got everything, this time in English. The price was much higher than I thought. The cost of the bed was just 3 euros more but the tax was 14+ instead of 9+! Cancellation of bookings would cost 20 euros for those bookings that are under 150 euros. This is going to be a very expensive trip. I hope hui wouldn’t blame me. Although I should have checked everything thoroughly, I was also running short of time. I had to settle everything on my own by yesterday as it is not guaranteed that I would be able to have internet access over this long weekend. But I guess being a rather understanding person, hui wouldn’t blame me. At most I treat him something at the Loire Valley.
I saw Nico had a t shirt with a picture of a dragon and the Chinese character “long” on it. He said he likes martial arts a lot, esp. Bruce Lee and Jet Lee. He doesn’t like Jackie Chan because he felt that he is a comedian. Kao. Bro. He must have seen all his Hollywood movies like “Around the world in 80 days”. When nico said he likes Chinese kungfu, I thought he was just say say only. But it turns out that he is really a fan of Bruce Lee. He told me Bruce Lee has 4 movies made in HK and 1 in US. He had also read the biography of Bruce Lee, watched all his movies, and know the name of that tall black opponent of Bruce. I told him I had never watched a full movie of Bruce because I find that the fighting is not real. I am more impressed by Jackie Chan’s stunts. Before leaving, I asked if he would be back tomorrow and he said he would be here all 4 days. Wah, sad. I said I would come back tomorrow to see if any participants want to do exp. Just as sad.
Back in INSA, the carnival was getting more and more crowded. There were lots of people skateboarding and rollerblading, and also those noisy motorcycles. But it doesn’t interest me much. I didn’t want to join the crowd because it was quite hot and anyway I am still alone. It is not like I have someone enjoying the stunts with me. I think I would watch more movies so that the more I finish, the more I can pass to hui when we meet. The trip no doubt is slightly over our budget, but I felt it is quite worthwhile. At least get to see a friend and soon I would be able to speak Singlish.
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