I spent a bulk of my morning clearing some issues with Marie-Claude, the in-charge of foreign students in IRISA. I waited patiently in her office as she was talking over the phone. After she was done, I told her about my departure date. She asked why I don’t want to work until 30th of June and instead want to leave on the 18th June. I told her that my VISA would expire on 11th July and with just 11 days, it is not enough for me to visit whole of France. (Actually I wanted to visit more of other EU countries) Then she asked me, “So, the real reason is you want to travel and have fun right?” I told her that I have to be frank with her. With just 11 days, I wouldn’t be able to appreciate how marvelous France is. With that answer, she broke into a broad smile and said that is true and would see what she can do to make me leave on the 18. With a sweet tongue, one always gets the job done. She brought me to see another admin officer and she said that as long as my sup gives the green light, I can leave on the 18th or I can work till the 30 if I want. In any case, my allowance would still be paid until the 30th since the EGIDE assurance letter states as such. Marie-Claude said that if I leave on the 18th, I would have more money in my pocket to travel. (extra 300+ euros for me from 19th June to 30th hahaha)Then I asked her about my VISA problems. She said that as it is written on my VISA: “+1 TRANSIT SCHENGEN”, it means that I can only travel to one of the 15 Schengen countries (mainly in EU) and re-enter to France once. After that, if I were to exit France, I wouldn’t be able to come back again. Then I asked her what about the MULT status for the re-entry part on my VISA. She said something about going to Singapore and back to France multiple times. Lastly, for the expiry date, she said that it is definite that I cannot stay in France after the stipulated date. The last issue I cleared with her was about closing my bank account. She said that I could tell the bank to close my account at a later date and withdraw all my money out using the credit card when I am back in Singapore. So I don’t have to be in person to close the account on that day. After taken her so much time, I thanked her and she said if I got anymore questions, I should go and look for her straightaway.
Back in the office, I discussed the issue with hui and we were still not very clear about the multiple entry problem; but at least now we know that there is a Schengen thing. Somehow, I felt that the French Embassy in Singapore should explain to us the terms and conditions and the meaning of the things written on our VISA. Still a trip to the prefecture is inevitable. I also emailed Jiehua asking if he has such problem. It seems like he met no problem at all in Italy, always enjoying. He had even been to Nice and Monaco which is in France! Someone drove him there. And he felt sad because some of his flatmates whom he is closest with are moving out, leaving him with some other not so close ones. The contrast is really huge; he got to choose between close and not so close flatmates; I got none to choose. After settling all these admin issues, I only began work after lunch.
After writing the codes for exp4, I decided to leave the testing till tomorrow. I would only start to write the programs for the other 2 techniques next week. When it comes to Thurs, I would always have no mood to work because it is near the weekend. Unlike most people, I do not have Monday blues. In fact, the first 3 days of the week would be the most productive days for me as I would be very motivated to work. But when it is Thurs, the email inbox would be flooded by emails from the soccer guys, declaring war with one another, who would score for the game tonight, etc. So today, I spent rest of the afternoon chatting with friends over msn and also double checking my small itinerary for Sat trip. For most of the time, I was talking with Gary about hall stuff. It seems like I should be able to stay on in Hall2 if I want to next sem. But in the end, I decide to stay at home. I chatted all the way until 530pm and decided to leave early. To prepare for the match tonight, which would be Mathieu’s last. Anyway, I had no mood to work either. Before I left, I drop an email to my Spanish friend asking her if she would be in Quimper in April because I am planning to go there. I have almost forgotten about her. Hopefully I can spend a night at her friend’s place so that next morning I can take the coach to Point du Raz to see the coast. I think I should be able to save enough for the end tour, and so I should spend more now, and travel more or else there won’t be anymore chance to do so once I leave Brittainy.
At 0025hrs, I am still typing my journal as I had just returned awhile ago from soccer game. Tonight was Mathieu last game with us as he is leaving IRISA next week for Grenoble. Hence, I brought along my camera. I took a few pictures at Vincent’s place and then we moved off to the soccer court in his car. On the way we picked up another guy whom I had never seen before and Vincent introduced me to him by calling my Chinese name. I was quite surprised when he called me Zhixian instead of Chee Hian. Back in Singapore, some people can’t even remember my Chinese name but he actually can pronounce it.
Although I was not in form tonight, I still managed to squeeze in a goal and hit the post once. Our team really was fighting for honor because for the past few games we had been losing quite badly (most probably due to me) and since it is Mathieu’s last game, we wanted to win. So that goal of mine was for him. However, I let in 2 unbelievable goals; goals only Man U keeper would concede. That’s right, letting the ball roll between the legs. Not once but twice. I was super embarrassed by the blunder and requested to change and move up as a forward. Because of my stupid mistake, our team lost again but no one blamed me of course. It was just a game and when we go round shaking hand, they would only compliment the goal that I scored. Outside the court, it was a round of photo taking as a souvenir. Then we went up to the bar and watch the last 15 min of the match between Auxerre and Lille on TV.
After the match, on the way back we stopped by a hotel. The guys had always wanted to take a picture of this hotel which looked more like those “larp Sarp” motel. It had green neon lights all around it and was along a very secluded road. They said that it looked exactly like the one in a movie which I had forgotten the title. While we were taking pictures, I think my flash attracted the attention of the ladies inside and they were standing at the door looking at us. Then suddenly, they off all the lights of the motel. With nothing much to do, we make monkey faces in front of our cars with the headlights as the background and took some pics. The car ride back made me giddy because Vincent likes to speed and he was having a little car race with Nicolas along the way. Especially after the game, I felt like throwing up when he made a turn. This time, he didn’t send me all the way back to INSA but drop me at his place. I had to walk to the bus stop and take the bus but that was alright as I don’t expect people to drive me home everytime. It was 11 plus and the street was quiet. A lady wearing those luminous vest, rollerbladed past me. Here, rollerblading is quite popular. Last week on our way to the soccer court, we saw groups of people night-blading, something like night-cycling, with marshals.
Tomorrow I shall wake up late. So glad I have such flexible working hour. Also it is time to pay the rent again and the office only opens after 1030am. Sigh, another 236.97 euros gone… 
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