I had a weird dream last night. I dreamt that I was back in medieval China during the San Guo Yan Yi times. There were many assassinations of Cao Cao then and I was one of the assassins. He was to die by natural cause according to history. However, in my dream, I succeeded in killing him and I was very frightened because I knew that he is not to die in this way and by killing him, I have changed the course of history. All the while in the dream, I knew I was dreaming, and was very afraid that when I woke up, I would be at a different place, a different time, much like what happened in the movie Butterfly Effect. When I woke up, it took me a while to realize that I am still in France, and everything remains the same. On the way to work, perhaps I was still thinking about the dream and didn’t look out for the cars when I was crossing the road. After almost 2 months now, I knew that the traffic system adopts the left-hand drive rule here. However, this morning, I just wasn’t concentrating and look to my right first. Seeing that it was clear I just crossed the road and there on my left was a car which stopped immediately for me. Luckily I was crossing at the bend of the road and hence the car’s speed was quite slow and was able to stop in time. I wanted to make an apologetic gesture but the driver was not at all angry at my reckless crossing. She didn’t even bother to look at me.
My first customer for the day was a lady and she was 33 yrs old. Although I had a preference for older women, she wasn’t my type. But she was very gentle though. After that I heard some news from hui that the embassy replied him saying that most probably we could re-enter France as many times as we want and we could stay in France for 90 days as tourist even after our VISA had expired. Later in the evening, hui said that if he hadn’t remembered wrongly, apparently there is a buffer of 6 months between the expiry date of the VISA and the 90 days status. In any case, he would find out from his prefecture this Saturday. I really dreaded going back to my chaotic prefecture and so would await his good news on Monday. Really hope we can stay longer.
The student restaurant was closed again for no reason. My guess was that there was a strike today. So I had to go the other far away restaurant. Jeremy later told me that my guess was correct. After lunch, I waited for my last customer of the day to come at 2pm. Thereafter, I had plenty of time left in the afternoon and started to do an overall analysis of the results of all the participants for the week. Some patterns were beginning to show but I still had too little data to make any conclusion. Then jeryl came online and asked me to send him my journal as he can’t access the online blog. Previously, he told me that he had also started writing blogs after reading mine. Haha, never thought my writings could be so inspirational. Then with the remaining spare time, I began to plan the tour in more detail; almost like an itinerary plan now. I left the office quite early at 530pm because I had to have an early dinner if not I might threw up later in the soccer game.
Back in INSA, I went to check if the stoves were working and yes they were back to normal. So I began cooking rice plus luncheon meat and carrots. The luncheon meat tasted just like the one in Singapore. Previously those that I bought at Intermarche tasted horrible and made me suspicious if they were for dogs. Twice I checked the label just to confirm. I opened a can of carrots and it was really tasty. The carrots were very sweet and one can is equivalent to 2 servings. Products from Leader Price not only are cheap but good too. I have about one hour before I go to my colleague’s place as he would give me a lift to the indoor soccer court. Hope I wouldn’t get lost finding his place later. I realized that for the past few days, I have been very vexed and worrisome. This is because there are a few things bugging me in my mind.
participants for exp
planning the tour
VISA issue
spending money or saving them
Guided tour in English for that Forest
CAF
Back in the NTU, I always looked very “zai” when troubles arise. But those problems are just nothing compared to what I am facing here. When “real” problems surface, I tend to get frustrated easily, like the VISA issue before I came here. I always like to pre-plan everything nicely but this actually has a detrimental effect because when things go out of hand, I tend to get very “pek chek”. Really I should learn to take things as they come. It is natural that not all things are under our control. So no point vexing about them. Sometimes the smallest problem would annoy me because I simply can’t accept a flaw in my plan. But from now on, I must really learn to be cool. Do whatever I can to solve the issue and if all else fails, learn to accept. Learn to accept defeat is really quite hard for me. So here is how I would tackle the above bugs:
keep sending emails, beg, pester… But I think a better way is to do as many participants as possible, if I still can’t meet the target, move on to other works. Anyway, the experiment is actually scheduled to conduct in April not March. I am sure when my sup is back, he would be able to find the people to do the exp but that might leave a bad impression on me.
Just plan as much as possible. Anyway, I wouldn’t be the only one doing that. Hui would be doing also. So the problem is halved. The greatest obstacle is the lack of internet access.
Wait for hui’s answer on Sat. If we can’t extend, then 11 July is fine. That way we would save more money. If we can’t leave France, that would be quite frustrating because 3 weeks in France seems too long. And I have already visited most of Bretagne by then. But I would get to go to Loire Valley for sure.
Spend. I think by now I roughly know how much I am spending per month and feel that I can loosen up my budget. So I will go traveling every weekend and play soccer every week too.
Call them maybe on Monday if still no reply from them. Or else just go there and walk the forest myself lah. Take some pictures of the tomb of Merlin, come back and find info from the net.
This grant thing is still lingering in my head. Maybe when I am done with my exp, I would take half day off (self-declared) to check it out. If not, just drop the idea.
What a game!!! I had just come back from the soccer game and noticeably I had played better tonight than last time. Although I still gave away balls unnecessarily and letting the opponent scored, I had improved, especially my stamina. Now, I am able to play throughout the one hour game, although I was still constantly panting. Here are some highlights:
- 1 assist
- 1 goal (took a deflection from Vincent’s shot, goal stealer, haha)
- 1 good strike on goal
- 3 good saves
Although these little achievements were insignificant to the guys, it meant a lot to me. Because when you are playing good game, you enjoy more and would want to play more. And whenever I made a strike or a save, the guys would cheer for me because they know I can’t play well. Some form of encouragements from them. And they keep telling me don’t be afraid to play rough; don’t be shy. The thing is I was afraid I might get injured. These guys are so much bigger than me. But as the game continued, I was more aggressive. In the previous game, I was hoping that the game would end soon. This time I felt it ended too fast and I hadn’t played enough. But my body was telling me I needed rest, especially the muscles at the left side of my pelvis. I think I have strained them.
Before the game, I found Vincent’s place easily from the map but when I pressed the buzzer, no one answered me. I remembered he stays at the 2nd floor so I pressed the 2nd buzzer counting from the bottom. I kept pressing and pressing but there was no answer. In the end I tried all 4 buttons and the main door opened. He then told me that his is the 2nd buzzer counting from the top. Luckily the other residents were not at home. He was playing FIFA with Mathieu when I arrived. After the soccer game, he offered to send me all the way back to INSA, which was very nice because it not only saved me transport fee but also time. And another benefit I got from the game is that I got 2 more people to do my exp. And Vincent also taught me how to use the office phone to dial to ext number, which meant I could dial straight to the House of International and asked about Singapore society. Also, I could call up the Office of Tourism and ask about the guided tour for the Forest. Waiting for the email reply is simply a waste of time.
I am looking forward to the next soccer game, which sadly would be Mathieu’s last.
PS: After the game, the guys would go around shaking hand and said “bien juene” which meant “well played”. I really like this kind of gentlemanly gesture and good sportsmanship.
PPS: when I took out my socks, I realized I had a black toe nail (2nd toe on my left foot). Damn, soon the entire nail would drop off. Hope I can still play soccer.
My first customer for the day was a lady and she was 33 yrs old. Although I had a preference for older women, she wasn’t my type. But she was very gentle though. After that I heard some news from hui that the embassy replied him saying that most probably we could re-enter France as many times as we want and we could stay in France for 90 days as tourist even after our VISA had expired. Later in the evening, hui said that if he hadn’t remembered wrongly, apparently there is a buffer of 6 months between the expiry date of the VISA and the 90 days status. In any case, he would find out from his prefecture this Saturday. I really dreaded going back to my chaotic prefecture and so would await his good news on Monday. Really hope we can stay longer.
The student restaurant was closed again for no reason. My guess was that there was a strike today. So I had to go the other far away restaurant. Jeremy later told me that my guess was correct. After lunch, I waited for my last customer of the day to come at 2pm. Thereafter, I had plenty of time left in the afternoon and started to do an overall analysis of the results of all the participants for the week. Some patterns were beginning to show but I still had too little data to make any conclusion. Then jeryl came online and asked me to send him my journal as he can’t access the online blog. Previously, he told me that he had also started writing blogs after reading mine. Haha, never thought my writings could be so inspirational. Then with the remaining spare time, I began to plan the tour in more detail; almost like an itinerary plan now. I left the office quite early at 530pm because I had to have an early dinner if not I might threw up later in the soccer game.
Back in INSA, I went to check if the stoves were working and yes they were back to normal. So I began cooking rice plus luncheon meat and carrots. The luncheon meat tasted just like the one in Singapore. Previously those that I bought at Intermarche tasted horrible and made me suspicious if they were for dogs. Twice I checked the label just to confirm. I opened a can of carrots and it was really tasty. The carrots were very sweet and one can is equivalent to 2 servings. Products from Leader Price not only are cheap but good too. I have about one hour before I go to my colleague’s place as he would give me a lift to the indoor soccer court. Hope I wouldn’t get lost finding his place later. I realized that for the past few days, I have been very vexed and worrisome. This is because there are a few things bugging me in my mind.
participants for exp
planning the tour
VISA issue
spending money or saving them
Guided tour in English for that Forest
CAF
Back in the NTU, I always looked very “zai” when troubles arise. But those problems are just nothing compared to what I am facing here. When “real” problems surface, I tend to get frustrated easily, like the VISA issue before I came here. I always like to pre-plan everything nicely but this actually has a detrimental effect because when things go out of hand, I tend to get very “pek chek”. Really I should learn to take things as they come. It is natural that not all things are under our control. So no point vexing about them. Sometimes the smallest problem would annoy me because I simply can’t accept a flaw in my plan. But from now on, I must really learn to be cool. Do whatever I can to solve the issue and if all else fails, learn to accept. Learn to accept defeat is really quite hard for me. So here is how I would tackle the above bugs:
keep sending emails, beg, pester… But I think a better way is to do as many participants as possible, if I still can’t meet the target, move on to other works. Anyway, the experiment is actually scheduled to conduct in April not March. I am sure when my sup is back, he would be able to find the people to do the exp but that might leave a bad impression on me.
Just plan as much as possible. Anyway, I wouldn’t be the only one doing that. Hui would be doing also. So the problem is halved. The greatest obstacle is the lack of internet access.
Wait for hui’s answer on Sat. If we can’t extend, then 11 July is fine. That way we would save more money. If we can’t leave France, that would be quite frustrating because 3 weeks in France seems too long. And I have already visited most of Bretagne by then. But I would get to go to Loire Valley for sure.
Spend. I think by now I roughly know how much I am spending per month and feel that I can loosen up my budget. So I will go traveling every weekend and play soccer every week too.
Call them maybe on Monday if still no reply from them. Or else just go there and walk the forest myself lah. Take some pictures of the tomb of Merlin, come back and find info from the net.
This grant thing is still lingering in my head. Maybe when I am done with my exp, I would take half day off (self-declared) to check it out. If not, just drop the idea.
What a game!!! I had just come back from the soccer game and noticeably I had played better tonight than last time. Although I still gave away balls unnecessarily and letting the opponent scored, I had improved, especially my stamina. Now, I am able to play throughout the one hour game, although I was still constantly panting. Here are some highlights:
- 1 assist
- 1 goal (took a deflection from Vincent’s shot, goal stealer, haha)
- 1 good strike on goal
- 3 good saves
Although these little achievements were insignificant to the guys, it meant a lot to me. Because when you are playing good game, you enjoy more and would want to play more. And whenever I made a strike or a save, the guys would cheer for me because they know I can’t play well. Some form of encouragements from them. And they keep telling me don’t be afraid to play rough; don’t be shy. The thing is I was afraid I might get injured. These guys are so much bigger than me. But as the game continued, I was more aggressive. In the previous game, I was hoping that the game would end soon. This time I felt it ended too fast and I hadn’t played enough. But my body was telling me I needed rest, especially the muscles at the left side of my pelvis. I think I have strained them.
Before the game, I found Vincent’s place easily from the map but when I pressed the buzzer, no one answered me. I remembered he stays at the 2nd floor so I pressed the 2nd buzzer counting from the bottom. I kept pressing and pressing but there was no answer. In the end I tried all 4 buttons and the main door opened. He then told me that his is the 2nd buzzer counting from the top. Luckily the other residents were not at home. He was playing FIFA with Mathieu when I arrived. After the soccer game, he offered to send me all the way back to INSA, which was very nice because it not only saved me transport fee but also time. And another benefit I got from the game is that I got 2 more people to do my exp. And Vincent also taught me how to use the office phone to dial to ext number, which meant I could dial straight to the House of International and asked about Singapore society. Also, I could call up the Office of Tourism and ask about the guided tour for the Forest. Waiting for the email reply is simply a waste of time.
I am looking forward to the next soccer game, which sadly would be Mathieu’s last.
PS: After the game, the guys would go around shaking hand and said “bien juene” which meant “well played”. I really like this kind of gentlemanly gesture and good sportsmanship.
PPS: when I took out my socks, I realized I had a black toe nail (2nd toe on my left foot). Damn, soon the entire nail would drop off. Hope I can still play soccer.
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