Today is V Day, as I have no one to celebrate with, it shall remained just as a title for today’s journal and nothing more. I started out the day with a lot of works in mind to complete. But before that, I did other personal stuffs like uploading the past 3 days of journals, checking emails, checking fantasy league score, checking if my rental has been deducted from my account (it had L), etc. I received an email from my NTU tutor Michel Pasquier and was told that I needed to submit a report by next Fri on my work progress so far. This added extra burden on my already heavy workload for this week. But still I am confident that I can finish all these in time, within office hours. After all these, I began to fine tune my code and at around 1030am, I went to look for Sebestian. I needed him to run through the entire experiment and asked him to spare me 30 min of his time tomorrow morning. He said “why not?” He was very helpful.
I went with Jeremy and his friends (a different company of people) for lunch. It is now school holiday and so the student restaurant was closed. As such, we had to walk a longer distance to another restaurant. On the way, one of his friends chatted constantly with me but the topic was quite boring. He was talking about the economy of Singapore, of Asia and China. And he kept talking about China that I was afraid he might think Singapore is a city of China. As I mentioned, some of my neighbours don’t know where or what Singapore is. But this guy seemed to know quite a bit about Singapore, but it was still a very boring conversation. And it was quite difficult talking with him (as with most other French friends) because I had to guess what he was saying. I don’t blame them for not speaking English well. I understand that they only pick up their English in their secondary school and in a country where her own culture is so strong, they hardly have the chance to practice another language. I can’t speak Mandarin as good as they can speak French. I can give a list of people who can speak English quite well here:
1. Anatole
2. Marie-Claude
3. Julien
4. Jayhard (my neighbour but I can’t pronounce his name and he had moved away)
5. Vincent
6. Mr. Giant
7. Jean-Marie
8. lady at Rennes train station
9. lady at the bank information counter
10. lady from the office of tourism
Not in any order of course and for those names not mentioned, probably I haven’t spoken to you or there were small problems in the communication between us. Nonetheless, I still enjoy talking to everyone here.
At the new restaurant, it was super crowded and it took a long time to take my food. There were signs showing what kind of food is available and you just go to the respective counters. It was quite confusing so I just followed what my friends did. Because it was too crowded, I didn’t take the maximum possible amount of food that I can take but that is ok because I don’t think I can finish them in time. Jeremy and his gang would have finished their food, walked back to IRISA by the time I start eating the dessert. So I only had a plate of fries and breaded fish fillet, a yogurt and a plate of tomatoes. After lunch, I didn’t join them for coffee and went back to the office. There I met Mr. Giant and Jean-Marie and asked them where they have gone for lunch. They said they went to the same restaurant that I just came back from but probably wouldn’t go there tomorrow as they don’t like the food. For me I don’t like the crowd. They said they might go to the cafeteria and asked me to come along. I was not sure about that because it would definitely cost me more to eat in the cafeteria. Perhaps I would go with them if Jeremy is not around tomorrow.
For most of the afternoon, I was offline from MSN as I was test running my simulation. Even if I put my status as “busy”, occasionally there would be people msn me and the window pop up would cause my program to crash. If I am lucky, I could terminate half-way but will still lose my results. Else the PC would just hang and I have to reboot. In the past, if such things were to happen (people disturbing me when I am busy), I would some times scold that person. Now, I won’t because I have become more tolerable. I was still working in the office at 6pm, starting to type a bit on my report. Then the phone rang and I knew for sure it was for Ahad but he was in another room. So I answered it and spoke in English. I told the lady to wait and went to get Ahad but he was busy talking with Stephen. So I went back and said in broken French asking her to wait for 5 min. After awhile, I heard a click sound and knew she had hung up. Ahad came shortly and said that call was from his family. Then he chatted with me about his work and life and said that his family is here in Rennes with him. That sounds so good. And he would return to Iran 2 years later after he has fulfilled his commitment here. He is actually a professor in a university in Iran and is in charge of the graphics. He said he had created a virtual museum in IRISA, similar to the virtual campus that Alexei Sourin had done in NTU. He said when I am free he could bring me down to the lab and experience it. As it was getting late, I decided to go back. The weather has turned nasty again with rain and wind. And I don’t think I could go to St Malo this Sunday because the 2nd train is at 1230pm. Moreover, it is forecasted to rain coming Sunday. Guess I have to come up with another plan.
I went with Jeremy and his friends (a different company of people) for lunch. It is now school holiday and so the student restaurant was closed. As such, we had to walk a longer distance to another restaurant. On the way, one of his friends chatted constantly with me but the topic was quite boring. He was talking about the economy of Singapore, of Asia and China. And he kept talking about China that I was afraid he might think Singapore is a city of China. As I mentioned, some of my neighbours don’t know where or what Singapore is. But this guy seemed to know quite a bit about Singapore, but it was still a very boring conversation. And it was quite difficult talking with him (as with most other French friends) because I had to guess what he was saying. I don’t blame them for not speaking English well. I understand that they only pick up their English in their secondary school and in a country where her own culture is so strong, they hardly have the chance to practice another language. I can’t speak Mandarin as good as they can speak French. I can give a list of people who can speak English quite well here:
1. Anatole
2. Marie-Claude
3. Julien
4. Jayhard (my neighbour but I can’t pronounce his name and he had moved away)
5. Vincent
6. Mr. Giant
7. Jean-Marie
8. lady at Rennes train station
9. lady at the bank information counter
10. lady from the office of tourism
Not in any order of course and for those names not mentioned, probably I haven’t spoken to you or there were small problems in the communication between us. Nonetheless, I still enjoy talking to everyone here.
At the new restaurant, it was super crowded and it took a long time to take my food. There were signs showing what kind of food is available and you just go to the respective counters. It was quite confusing so I just followed what my friends did. Because it was too crowded, I didn’t take the maximum possible amount of food that I can take but that is ok because I don’t think I can finish them in time. Jeremy and his gang would have finished their food, walked back to IRISA by the time I start eating the dessert. So I only had a plate of fries and breaded fish fillet, a yogurt and a plate of tomatoes. After lunch, I didn’t join them for coffee and went back to the office. There I met Mr. Giant and Jean-Marie and asked them where they have gone for lunch. They said they went to the same restaurant that I just came back from but probably wouldn’t go there tomorrow as they don’t like the food. For me I don’t like the crowd. They said they might go to the cafeteria and asked me to come along. I was not sure about that because it would definitely cost me more to eat in the cafeteria. Perhaps I would go with them if Jeremy is not around tomorrow.
For most of the afternoon, I was offline from MSN as I was test running my simulation. Even if I put my status as “busy”, occasionally there would be people msn me and the window pop up would cause my program to crash. If I am lucky, I could terminate half-way but will still lose my results. Else the PC would just hang and I have to reboot. In the past, if such things were to happen (people disturbing me when I am busy), I would some times scold that person. Now, I won’t because I have become more tolerable. I was still working in the office at 6pm, starting to type a bit on my report. Then the phone rang and I knew for sure it was for Ahad but he was in another room. So I answered it and spoke in English. I told the lady to wait and went to get Ahad but he was busy talking with Stephen. So I went back and said in broken French asking her to wait for 5 min. After awhile, I heard a click sound and knew she had hung up. Ahad came shortly and said that call was from his family. Then he chatted with me about his work and life and said that his family is here in Rennes with him. That sounds so good. And he would return to Iran 2 years later after he has fulfilled his commitment here. He is actually a professor in a university in Iran and is in charge of the graphics. He said he had created a virtual museum in IRISA, similar to the virtual campus that Alexei Sourin had done in NTU. He said when I am free he could bring me down to the lab and experience it. As it was getting late, I decided to go back. The weather has turned nasty again with rain and wind. And I don’t think I could go to St Malo this Sunday because the 2nd train is at 1230pm. Moreover, it is forecasted to rain coming Sunday. Guess I have to come up with another plan.
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