Last day! I never thought things would move so fast. I continued to work on the amendments in the morning. Having done the bulk of it, I suddenly thought of going to the bank to withdraw most of my money. This is because I am restricted to withdrawing just 200 euros per week from the ATM and from the experience in Germany, some pubs do not accept VISA. Hence I went to take the bus to town centre. I had one unused bus ticket and didn’t want to use it. I wanted to use it on my last day, which is tomorrow when I take the bus to the train station. 2 stops before my destination, 5 or 6 men in black suits hopped onto the bus and said, “ticket sil vous plait” (ticket please). SHIT!!! Never had I seen these people in action before and I started to panic.
I didn’t even have to chance to alight before one of them asked for my ticket. I gave him my unpunched ticket praying that he would overlook. But he didn’t. He asked why I didn’t punch and that’s when I started to act blur and pretend not to understand. He was persistent and asked me to get off the bus. There were 2 more guys who got caught. That man in black said I had to pay 25 euros fine and I just kept acting blur. He then asked where do I stay and still acted as if I don’t understand. I showed him my empty wallet and he asked me to go and withdraw money. Before that, he demanded I surrender my student card. No choice, I gave him and went to withdraw money.
On the way, I wanted to just ran off and never return but my student card will be with him. In the end, I still guai guai pay up the fine. 25 euros!!! Super suai. I remember chatting with XP about cheating the bus and metro in France/Germany. She said it is always on the last days when people would be caught. She got friend who also gana like that. Herself had similar encounter. She was with friends in Paris and they cheated the metro. But on the last day, they decided not to and that’s when the conductor appeared. Haha. She really very accurate. That’s what I got. I had cheated about 20 times and that meant I had saved 22 euros. Paying that fine meant I paid 3 euros more. Still, I felt dulan about it but can only blame myself.
Back in the office, I told hui about my unlucky experience. Once again, I felt worse after telling him that. He always has the “talent” of making me feel more miserable than I already was. He kept telling me that 25 euros was not worth it. Come on, which FINE is worth paying? For the 50 euros taxi fare which I paid, he even converted to 120 SGD just to spike me perhaps. I don’t know. Being a sensitive person, I thought he should be good enough to care about my feelings. But apparently, he doesn’t. It seems as though it makes him feel better when I feel worse. I don’t know. I hope I am wrong to judge him that way. But to prevent myself from being hurt by him further, I wouldn’t want to share my worries and woes with him in future. Just happy things and my joys.
It was my last lunch here and I ate with the 2 Nico and Mr. Giant. Halfway through, Anatole came and said we never “jio” him. In fact, they did but he was on the phone. But still we didn’t wait for him. After lunch, Anatole came and talked to me about the cleaning up of my work. Once again he praised me that I had done a really great job. He said that some of the guys were asking him, “what is this guy doing after his attachment? Is he coming back?” I am so glad to see my work being appreciated and recognised once again. There is one last important work I had to do which is to ask Sebastien about the installation of MEZUL. I have to document it so that future students can benefit from it.
I went to see Mathilde a few times to borrow some stationery. She asked me if her English has improved and I said I noticed that. She was really delighted. But still she said “furniture” instead of “stationery”. Halfway through my work, I went to call home and told them that it is hard for me to call them now and then while travelling. But I will send an sms to my dad whenever I get to a new place. I told mum that I am a bit reluctant to come home. After talking for a while, I went back to office and sent out a final departure email to everyone; not just those from Project Siames but also all the other people whom I met while conducting the experiments. I also gave them my personal email so that they can contact me if they were to come to my region. Some of them even added me to their msn which means we can still continue to stay in touch.
Many of them replied saying that it was fun to have me here and would definitely call me up if they ever come to SG. Surprisingly Mathilde replied and said she will contact me if she comes to SG. At the end of the day, I went around taking pics of the people and of course Mathilde. She said she will add me to her msn and say we can continue to stay in touch like this. Great. I will miss her because of her bubbly personality. It was really a sad parting moment as most likely I wouldn’t be able to see them in the near future. But still I have to leave. At the end of the day, Seb was still very busy with his work and I asked him if I can see him tomorrow morning. He said sure. Means I have to come back and work in the morning.
After saying goodbyes and taking some pics, I went back to INSA and started to pack my luggage. At around 10pm, I went to the soccer field to look for the rest of the guys. After they finished their game, most of them came and wished me bon voyage and they felt it was a pity that I didn’t play soccer for one last time. Even those people from other project groups wanted me to play for the last time. But really I don’t want to risk an injury and also I needed to pack my luggage. Even for those guys whom I never really know much came and bid me goodbye. Jean-Marie apologised for not speaking to me often because he really dislikes speaking English. Haha. Never mind. I told the guys again that if they were to be in SG for conference, do not hesitate to call me up.
I left with Anatole to the Irish Pub. In the end, only a few turned up because my invitation was too last minute. There were Nico, Mr. Giant, Vincent Gramoli from another team, Anatole and Fabrice who came quite late. Vincent Quester from my team who agreed to come didn’t turn up in the end. Julien Perret too, didn’t turn up because he had 4 articles to review by tomorrow. It was really an amazing feeling at the pub. I talked about my experience here, how wonderful things are. Anatole wanted me to speak freely about him. The only complain was he was always not around and I would sometimes be quite lost in my work. I then asked him to speak freely to me about my personality and anything that I can improve on. He said everything I did was perfect and he had nothing to worry about when supervising me. The only thing he felt I can improve on is he realised that I needed clear instructions in order to perform my task. I told him I realised this too. I should start to think more on my own than to rely on him for orders. Well quite typical SG style. Spoon-feeding.
I can’t carry on typing now because I am a bit drunk now. Second, I can’t put the emotions I have now into words. I have an attached feeling for the place now but on the other hand, I wanted to return to SG soon. I am really quite torn apart. After so much bad experiences here, I didn’t know that I would still like the place so much and feel reluctant to leave. Must be the people of Project Siames. I shall stop here now because there is no way I can describe my feelings now in words.
I didn’t even have to chance to alight before one of them asked for my ticket. I gave him my unpunched ticket praying that he would overlook. But he didn’t. He asked why I didn’t punch and that’s when I started to act blur and pretend not to understand. He was persistent and asked me to get off the bus. There were 2 more guys who got caught. That man in black said I had to pay 25 euros fine and I just kept acting blur. He then asked where do I stay and still acted as if I don’t understand. I showed him my empty wallet and he asked me to go and withdraw money. Before that, he demanded I surrender my student card. No choice, I gave him and went to withdraw money.
On the way, I wanted to just ran off and never return but my student card will be with him. In the end, I still guai guai pay up the fine. 25 euros!!! Super suai. I remember chatting with XP about cheating the bus and metro in France/Germany. She said it is always on the last days when people would be caught. She got friend who also gana like that. Herself had similar encounter. She was with friends in Paris and they cheated the metro. But on the last day, they decided not to and that’s when the conductor appeared. Haha. She really very accurate. That’s what I got. I had cheated about 20 times and that meant I had saved 22 euros. Paying that fine meant I paid 3 euros more. Still, I felt dulan about it but can only blame myself.
Back in the office, I told hui about my unlucky experience. Once again, I felt worse after telling him that. He always has the “talent” of making me feel more miserable than I already was. He kept telling me that 25 euros was not worth it. Come on, which FINE is worth paying? For the 50 euros taxi fare which I paid, he even converted to 120 SGD just to spike me perhaps. I don’t know. Being a sensitive person, I thought he should be good enough to care about my feelings. But apparently, he doesn’t. It seems as though it makes him feel better when I feel worse. I don’t know. I hope I am wrong to judge him that way. But to prevent myself from being hurt by him further, I wouldn’t want to share my worries and woes with him in future. Just happy things and my joys.
It was my last lunch here and I ate with the 2 Nico and Mr. Giant. Halfway through, Anatole came and said we never “jio” him. In fact, they did but he was on the phone. But still we didn’t wait for him. After lunch, Anatole came and talked to me about the cleaning up of my work. Once again he praised me that I had done a really great job. He said that some of the guys were asking him, “what is this guy doing after his attachment? Is he coming back?” I am so glad to see my work being appreciated and recognised once again. There is one last important work I had to do which is to ask Sebastien about the installation of MEZUL. I have to document it so that future students can benefit from it.
I went to see Mathilde a few times to borrow some stationery. She asked me if her English has improved and I said I noticed that. She was really delighted. But still she said “furniture” instead of “stationery”. Halfway through my work, I went to call home and told them that it is hard for me to call them now and then while travelling. But I will send an sms to my dad whenever I get to a new place. I told mum that I am a bit reluctant to come home. After talking for a while, I went back to office and sent out a final departure email to everyone; not just those from Project Siames but also all the other people whom I met while conducting the experiments. I also gave them my personal email so that they can contact me if they were to come to my region. Some of them even added me to their msn which means we can still continue to stay in touch.
Many of them replied saying that it was fun to have me here and would definitely call me up if they ever come to SG. Surprisingly Mathilde replied and said she will contact me if she comes to SG. At the end of the day, I went around taking pics of the people and of course Mathilde. She said she will add me to her msn and say we can continue to stay in touch like this. Great. I will miss her because of her bubbly personality. It was really a sad parting moment as most likely I wouldn’t be able to see them in the near future. But still I have to leave. At the end of the day, Seb was still very busy with his work and I asked him if I can see him tomorrow morning. He said sure. Means I have to come back and work in the morning.
After saying goodbyes and taking some pics, I went back to INSA and started to pack my luggage. At around 10pm, I went to the soccer field to look for the rest of the guys. After they finished their game, most of them came and wished me bon voyage and they felt it was a pity that I didn’t play soccer for one last time. Even those people from other project groups wanted me to play for the last time. But really I don’t want to risk an injury and also I needed to pack my luggage. Even for those guys whom I never really know much came and bid me goodbye. Jean-Marie apologised for not speaking to me often because he really dislikes speaking English. Haha. Never mind. I told the guys again that if they were to be in SG for conference, do not hesitate to call me up.
I left with Anatole to the Irish Pub. In the end, only a few turned up because my invitation was too last minute. There were Nico, Mr. Giant, Vincent Gramoli from another team, Anatole and Fabrice who came quite late. Vincent Quester from my team who agreed to come didn’t turn up in the end. Julien Perret too, didn’t turn up because he had 4 articles to review by tomorrow. It was really an amazing feeling at the pub. I talked about my experience here, how wonderful things are. Anatole wanted me to speak freely about him. The only complain was he was always not around and I would sometimes be quite lost in my work. I then asked him to speak freely to me about my personality and anything that I can improve on. He said everything I did was perfect and he had nothing to worry about when supervising me. The only thing he felt I can improve on is he realised that I needed clear instructions in order to perform my task. I told him I realised this too. I should start to think more on my own than to rely on him for orders. Well quite typical SG style. Spoon-feeding.
I can’t carry on typing now because I am a bit drunk now. Second, I can’t put the emotions I have now into words. I have an attached feeling for the place now but on the other hand, I wanted to return to SG soon. I am really quite torn apart. After so much bad experiences here, I didn’t know that I would still like the place so much and feel reluctant to leave. Must be the people of Project Siames. I shall stop here now because there is no way I can describe my feelings now in words.
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