I woke up early in the morning because I needed to settle some stuff before going to work. Waiting for the bus at 8am reminded me of going to the prefecture. Nah. Prefecture is history. I was going to the train station to buy my tickets to Tours. I arrived there and went to the counter. However, the man at the counter said I couldn’t buy ticket in advance here. The counter had a sign: Depart du jour. Depart of the day. So only for today. To buy ticket in advance, I had to wait for the information counters to open which would be in half an hour time. What luck. I purposely came early so that I would be able to buy the tickets and get back to work by 9am. Without a choice, I waited for 30 min. When the info counters were opened, I was the first and got to choose which counter to go to. I wanted to go to the one with a young lady serving but an old man behind another counter called me to go over to him. I wanted the young lady because I know for sure she can speak English.
As I had everything written out on a piece of paper, I showed him the details while speaking to him. He took a look and said the plan I showed him was no good. I wanted to depart at 0905h and reach Tours at 1335h, passing through Paris on the way. This was the best way I could find from the Net. He used his computer and found for me a shorter and cheaper route. He was quite insistent that I take his advice because it is the best. Of course I took his advice but I was surprised by his kind service. He explained in great detail the route, how should I change train, etc. I think because this was the information counter, so he probably thought that this was the first time I was taking the train. But I had taken the train countless times. Still I was grateful to him for shortening my travel time and making the trip cheaper for me.
Feeling happy, I went back to the office. The entire day’s work was spent on analyzing my results and making sure that the data I had was correct. Today, I would have to report my work to Anatole as he would be back in the afternoon. I had also brought my laptop for work because I really can’t stand the Linux Office which is really user-unfriendly. Anatole came at around 3pm but he only had time to shake my hand and asked about my Broceliande trip. Near the end of the day, I just got news that the soccer tournament was still on tonight. I had not heard news of it and thought it was canceled due to lack of players.
After work, I met Nico at his place at 1925h. This time the soccer game started much earlier at 2000h but it would end at 2200h. 2hrs of soccer. I would die at the end of that. Anatole as usual came with his MacDonald meal. My team consisted of Anatole, Jean-Marie, me and 2 new guys. I was the only one who played regularly in the team. There were 2 ladies joining us for the game because we were really running out of players from IRISA. In fact, we were supposed to find 20 players but in the end we only got 19. But the show must go on. There were 4 teams of 5 and each team had to play with the other 3 teams. My team played very poorly in the first game. This was because we had not played with each other people before. Jean-Marie played once in a while because any game after 22h was too late for him. Anatole was seldom around. And the 2 chaps were new. Although I played the most, I was the lousiest. So in the first game we were thrashed by Nico’s team who had regular players. But they had a lady in the team and she was in charge of guarding me. Really felt paiseh having physical contact with her. And Anatole was playing the keeper in the beginning with one hand still holding his burger. Really it was very humiliating for our first game.
After the first game, we had 5 min break and Anatole no doubt was the team captain. He told us we had to stay in position and play with tactics. For the remaining 2 matches, I think we won. I wasn’t sure of the scores because I never keep track. The last game was most tiring because we had to play 4 vs. 4. And my opponent team had that very rough black guy who liked to elbow and push people. And he still had his watch on! I should really fuck him for wearing his metal watch. The last game was all about stamina. At the end of the tournament, I heard from the others that my team won 2nd! Haha. I wonder if there is some kind of medal to be given to us. At least a souvenir for me. We stayed around the bar there drinking and resting. Thereafter, Anatole drove me back again.
I asked about his vacation and he said he went to Mont St Michel. He said he saw all those pictures I sent him and felt really jealous. Moreover, he felt that it doesn’t seem right because I had been here for 4 months now and I had been to so many places in Brittany and yet he hasn’t been to Mont St Michel. But he said his trip was better than mine because he had a personal guided tour. One of the guides was his gf’s friend and he had the keys to those secret chambers of the abbey. At the end of day, when all the tourists were gone, he opened up those secret crypts and rooms and showed them around. Those places not opened to public with paintings inside. He said I should be envious of that. He also mentioned that he was following the pictures of places I took and would visit them one by one.
I told him next week it would be his turn to be jealous of me because I would be going to the Loire Valley. He said I am really impressive given the number of places that I had been to. He said I had really conquered Brittany. I told him I thought Monday was a PH but didn’t know that it was cut by the French government until I had everything booked. He said that’s ok, I can go anyway. I knew he wouldn’t mind me taking a day’s off. Till the end, we talked about some work again but said we would discuss more tomorrow in office. And we had agreed to have a dinner tomorrow. It is great to have an understanding boss like him.
As I had everything written out on a piece of paper, I showed him the details while speaking to him. He took a look and said the plan I showed him was no good. I wanted to depart at 0905h and reach Tours at 1335h, passing through Paris on the way. This was the best way I could find from the Net. He used his computer and found for me a shorter and cheaper route. He was quite insistent that I take his advice because it is the best. Of course I took his advice but I was surprised by his kind service. He explained in great detail the route, how should I change train, etc. I think because this was the information counter, so he probably thought that this was the first time I was taking the train. But I had taken the train countless times. Still I was grateful to him for shortening my travel time and making the trip cheaper for me.
Feeling happy, I went back to the office. The entire day’s work was spent on analyzing my results and making sure that the data I had was correct. Today, I would have to report my work to Anatole as he would be back in the afternoon. I had also brought my laptop for work because I really can’t stand the Linux Office which is really user-unfriendly. Anatole came at around 3pm but he only had time to shake my hand and asked about my Broceliande trip. Near the end of the day, I just got news that the soccer tournament was still on tonight. I had not heard news of it and thought it was canceled due to lack of players.
After work, I met Nico at his place at 1925h. This time the soccer game started much earlier at 2000h but it would end at 2200h. 2hrs of soccer. I would die at the end of that. Anatole as usual came with his MacDonald meal. My team consisted of Anatole, Jean-Marie, me and 2 new guys. I was the only one who played regularly in the team. There were 2 ladies joining us for the game because we were really running out of players from IRISA. In fact, we were supposed to find 20 players but in the end we only got 19. But the show must go on. There were 4 teams of 5 and each team had to play with the other 3 teams. My team played very poorly in the first game. This was because we had not played with each other people before. Jean-Marie played once in a while because any game after 22h was too late for him. Anatole was seldom around. And the 2 chaps were new. Although I played the most, I was the lousiest. So in the first game we were thrashed by Nico’s team who had regular players. But they had a lady in the team and she was in charge of guarding me. Really felt paiseh having physical contact with her. And Anatole was playing the keeper in the beginning with one hand still holding his burger. Really it was very humiliating for our first game.
After the first game, we had 5 min break and Anatole no doubt was the team captain. He told us we had to stay in position and play with tactics. For the remaining 2 matches, I think we won. I wasn’t sure of the scores because I never keep track. The last game was most tiring because we had to play 4 vs. 4. And my opponent team had that very rough black guy who liked to elbow and push people. And he still had his watch on! I should really fuck him for wearing his metal watch. The last game was all about stamina. At the end of the tournament, I heard from the others that my team won 2nd! Haha. I wonder if there is some kind of medal to be given to us. At least a souvenir for me. We stayed around the bar there drinking and resting. Thereafter, Anatole drove me back again.
I asked about his vacation and he said he went to Mont St Michel. He said he saw all those pictures I sent him and felt really jealous. Moreover, he felt that it doesn’t seem right because I had been here for 4 months now and I had been to so many places in Brittany and yet he hasn’t been to Mont St Michel. But he said his trip was better than mine because he had a personal guided tour. One of the guides was his gf’s friend and he had the keys to those secret chambers of the abbey. At the end of day, when all the tourists were gone, he opened up those secret crypts and rooms and showed them around. Those places not opened to public with paintings inside. He said I should be envious of that. He also mentioned that he was following the pictures of places I took and would visit them one by one.
I told him next week it would be his turn to be jealous of me because I would be going to the Loire Valley. He said I am really impressive given the number of places that I had been to. He said I had really conquered Brittany. I told him I thought Monday was a PH but didn’t know that it was cut by the French government until I had everything booked. He said that’s ok, I can go anyway. I knew he wouldn’t mind me taking a day’s off. Till the end, we talked about some work again but said we would discuss more tomorrow in office. And we had agreed to have a dinner tomorrow. It is great to have an understanding boss like him.
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