I was feeling re-energised after a small holiday. Everyone in the office said, “you are back!” when they saw me. I went to tell Mathilde that I am leaving next Friday and asked if I need return my access card. She looked surprise. She put her hand on her cheek, opened her eyes wide and said, “so fast?” Yes, I know you will miss me. Haha. I received an email from xp regarding the details of the Berlin trip. Instead of bed seats, she got normal seats for us which saved us 35 euros. This is most welcomed as I really spent too much in Normandy. But that also meant I would die sitting throughout the 8 hours train ride. She was thinking of joining a guided tour in Berlin, recommended by her friend. I took a look at the content of the tour and felt that it is worth it. Then I had an idea of joining such city tour for my own Europe tour. I was thinking of Brussels and Amsterdam as they are small cities and we have only 2 days for each. But for Brussels, most of the tours are in French. English tour needs special arrangement. For Amsterdam, the min. number of people is 4. I looked at London and found that it was very expensive. Will think about it when we get there.
Throughout the day I was coughing and having a bit of running nose. Must be the Normandy rain. I thought I had been well-trained in Brittany and can tolerate rain quite well. But in the end, I still caught a cold, perhaps because of the sea breeze. The wind at Omaha Beach was actually quite strong. Laurent and I went to the cafeteria in the afternoon to have a break. The drinks here are really cheap. A cup of hot chocolate is only 25 cents. I had to pay 2.60 euros for one in a cafeteria in Bayeux. Laurent said it cost about 3 to 4 euros in Paris. Crazy prices. At the cafeteria, I met Kadi and again he asked when I would be leaving. I said next Friday. He said that we have to meet up before I go. Actually, I don’t mind going out with him or have a drink. The reason I didn’t want to organise a farewell dinner is because I guess I would be left alone for most of the time in the end. Only Vincent, Mr. Giant, Laurent, Kadi, Julien, Fabrice and Anatole will talk to me constantly because they speak good English. For the rest, they are more likely to talk among themselves. I should be the centre of attention throughout the farewell dinner and if I am not going to be one, I would rather not hold the dinner. Unless I stress that everyone must speak English just for that last dinner. But that would be too imposing. Anyway, if Kadi wants to have a drink, I would definitely go. In fact I love to go because although I chatted with him for only a few times, I feel that he is really interested in Asia and even though he is quite old, he has a very open and receptive mind. Like those old wise man whom I can gain a lot if I were to learn from him. But I guess he would forget most probably. And next week I would only be around for 2 days.
At 4pm, I went with Sebastien to the Virtual Reality Lab. There, I met my partner Fin, who is Danish. However, the network in IRISA was down at that time and Sebastien told us to go back. He will call us again when everything was ready. That explains why I couldn’t print my stuffs. I wanted to print out all the booking details but the printer failed to work. In the end, I used the colour printer and printed the flight and hostel for the Germany trip. As for the rest of the tour, I didn’t dare to use the colour printer too much and ask hui to print instead.
Half an hour later, Seb came back and told us it was working again. By then, I wasn’t coughing anymore but I was really drowsy. My nose was running like mad and eyes full of tears. Typical symptom of a flu. I hope my state of mind wouldn’t affect the result. When we were there, the network coincidentally was down again and it was already past 5pm. Seb said there was no way to do it today because it was quite late and he didn’t know when the network would be back. He proposed tomorrow morning but that Danish guy would not be free for the next 3 days. He would only be free next week but Seb’s deadline is this Fri. I felt disappointed not to be able to do the exp because it looked fun. Like playing game in VR.
Seb said he had to find another English speaking guy to pair with me. He said he can’t find any French who can speak English well. This is because during the exp, the 2 participants are required to communicate and hence both must speak the same standard of language. He said he needed more time to find an English-speaking person and asked if I can wait till Fri evening. I told him I wouldn’t be around then. I asked why didn’t he ask the 2 Americans in our team, Jaako and Mark? Also there is Mustafa. He said he has no contact with them. I told him we will go now to look for them. I went to their room and found only Mark and Mustafa. In the end, I persuaded Mark to pair with me. He is really an easy-going guy who is like a kid. I prefer doing the exp with him than Jaako because Jaako is not as fun-loving as Mark.
At 530pm, my nose was really killing me and I looked as if I had been crying. I had to retreat to INSA. I had a simple dinner and took a flu pill. Hopefully I can recover in time for the Germany trip.
Throughout the day I was coughing and having a bit of running nose. Must be the Normandy rain. I thought I had been well-trained in Brittany and can tolerate rain quite well. But in the end, I still caught a cold, perhaps because of the sea breeze. The wind at Omaha Beach was actually quite strong. Laurent and I went to the cafeteria in the afternoon to have a break. The drinks here are really cheap. A cup of hot chocolate is only 25 cents. I had to pay 2.60 euros for one in a cafeteria in Bayeux. Laurent said it cost about 3 to 4 euros in Paris. Crazy prices. At the cafeteria, I met Kadi and again he asked when I would be leaving. I said next Friday. He said that we have to meet up before I go. Actually, I don’t mind going out with him or have a drink. The reason I didn’t want to organise a farewell dinner is because I guess I would be left alone for most of the time in the end. Only Vincent, Mr. Giant, Laurent, Kadi, Julien, Fabrice and Anatole will talk to me constantly because they speak good English. For the rest, they are more likely to talk among themselves. I should be the centre of attention throughout the farewell dinner and if I am not going to be one, I would rather not hold the dinner. Unless I stress that everyone must speak English just for that last dinner. But that would be too imposing. Anyway, if Kadi wants to have a drink, I would definitely go. In fact I love to go because although I chatted with him for only a few times, I feel that he is really interested in Asia and even though he is quite old, he has a very open and receptive mind. Like those old wise man whom I can gain a lot if I were to learn from him. But I guess he would forget most probably. And next week I would only be around for 2 days.
At 4pm, I went with Sebastien to the Virtual Reality Lab. There, I met my partner Fin, who is Danish. However, the network in IRISA was down at that time and Sebastien told us to go back. He will call us again when everything was ready. That explains why I couldn’t print my stuffs. I wanted to print out all the booking details but the printer failed to work. In the end, I used the colour printer and printed the flight and hostel for the Germany trip. As for the rest of the tour, I didn’t dare to use the colour printer too much and ask hui to print instead.
Half an hour later, Seb came back and told us it was working again. By then, I wasn’t coughing anymore but I was really drowsy. My nose was running like mad and eyes full of tears. Typical symptom of a flu. I hope my state of mind wouldn’t affect the result. When we were there, the network coincidentally was down again and it was already past 5pm. Seb said there was no way to do it today because it was quite late and he didn’t know when the network would be back. He proposed tomorrow morning but that Danish guy would not be free for the next 3 days. He would only be free next week but Seb’s deadline is this Fri. I felt disappointed not to be able to do the exp because it looked fun. Like playing game in VR.
Seb said he had to find another English speaking guy to pair with me. He said he can’t find any French who can speak English well. This is because during the exp, the 2 participants are required to communicate and hence both must speak the same standard of language. He said he needed more time to find an English-speaking person and asked if I can wait till Fri evening. I told him I wouldn’t be around then. I asked why didn’t he ask the 2 Americans in our team, Jaako and Mark? Also there is Mustafa. He said he has no contact with them. I told him we will go now to look for them. I went to their room and found only Mark and Mustafa. In the end, I persuaded Mark to pair with me. He is really an easy-going guy who is like a kid. I prefer doing the exp with him than Jaako because Jaako is not as fun-loving as Mark.
At 530pm, my nose was really killing me and I looked as if I had been crying. I had to retreat to INSA. I had a simple dinner and took a flu pill. Hopefully I can recover in time for the Germany trip.
No comments:
Post a Comment