14 March - No Singapore Society (Day 55)

For the first time here, I was almost late for work. Although I do not have a fixed reporting time here, for the past 2 weeks, I have to make sure that I get to the office by 930am as my first experiment is scheduled at 10. Today, the alarm didn’t go off at 8am because I had forgotten to set it the day before. Luckily, at 9am, I instinctively woke up and felt that something was amiss. I took a quick breakfast and left the room without bathing. I still managed to reach the office before 10 and did some personal stuff on the net. I received a reply from my sup telling me to get all the participants that I need by hook or by crook; either I get them from INSA along my corridor or go to the restaurant and grab people. I hated doing this kind of thing. Going door to door asking people for help. After the exp, I went to the admin office to borrow DVD and also to buy my food tickets. When I gave the lady 40 euros, she said it wasn’t enough as the 20 tickets cost 41.40 euros. I told her I have been paying 40 for the past 2 months and she said that couldn’t be. Maybe the price has gone up I thought. As I walked back to office, I recalled that for the past 2 months, I have been buying the tickets with 50 euro note. And the woman would always return me the change in notes and coins. I never count the change and assume that they amount to 10. I even wonder why doesn’t she just give me a 10 euro note. It was another incredible stupid feat of ZX again. The notes and coins amount to 9.60 euros. I always never count my change here or back in Singapore.

At lunch, I ate with Mr. Giant, Nicolas and 2 other guys from the project team whom I have not seen before. I was also new to them and so they asked me about Singapore. They were surprised when I told them that besides English, I can also speak Chinese. To them, only people from China speak Chinese. They find it interesting when I told them that announcements in our MRT (their metro) are made in 4 languages. I told Mr. Giant that the Office of Tourism for the Forest replied me and said that I need a car in order to visit the entire site. I can however rent a bicycle there. But they never answer my question regarding the English guided tour. Jaroslav said that it is actually quite rude for them to reply in French when I sent out the email in English. Mr. Giant then said that when the weather turns warmer, he wouldn’t mind going again with me to the Forest. WOW! That would be his 3rd time there! He said he really likes the place and maybe we can plan this trip at some later date. He also promised to bring the whole set of “.Hack” anime tomorrow for me. Big Friendly Giant.

Hui also sent me an email on the reply that the French Embassy in Singapore gave him. It seems like the re-entrance to France should not be a problem. As for the 90-day tourist status after the expiry date of the VISA, the French guy (Florence Huchet, I remembered his name. He is also the one who cock up our VISA and delayed our application) said that there would be a 6-month buffer. Then he told hui that he wasn’t sure and best that we check with the prefecture in France. The reason why we decided to make international call back to Singapore (and hui had to wake up at 3am to do that) is to avoid the trouble of going to the prefecture. I really expect that stupid Florence to know the rule. Maybe I should lodge a complaint to MFA. Well, if I can finish all the exp by Fri, perhaps I would “harden my head skin” (yin zhe tou pi) and go back to the prefecture and ask.

After 2pm, I went out of the building to a phonebooth and called up The House of International. I was told that I should speak to a Miss Corinne Dimajo because she speaks English very well. When I was connected to her, I find that she speaks okay English and I asked about Singapore Society in Rennes. She said she has heard of none and apologized for not being able to help. Then I told her that I have some doubts on my VISA and she said I should go to the prefecture. But I told her that would be the last place I would like to go and she could understand why. She said she would ask someone else about the issue for me and ask for my office number. However, I do not have it with me at the moment and asked her for her email address so that I can email her my particulars as well. She had problem spelling the address and stopped at “accueil” and said it is too complicated to give over the phone. She said I should call back on Wed then. Alright.

By the end of the day, I have got myself a few more participants for the experiments but I still need 5 to 10 people more. In fact 5 is the min. to finish everything. I wanted extra 5 more so as to run more trials. I didn’t want to ask the people along my corridor in INSA because they were outside the lab which means I have to meet them somewhere else and bring them over. Also, it is kind of weird to knock on their doors asking them to do exp. Lastly, these students are “clean” since they are not from IRISA, they wouldn’t know about the technique. I was thinking, maybe I should use them for the extra exp 4 which I need another 10 “clean” people.