I began to hate the idea of sharing toilets and bathing area, not because there was no more “chiobu”, but because I felt it inconvenient. This morning while bathing halfway, some idiot switched off the lights and it was so dark I couldn’t see what I was washing. And the toilets always had their seats down. That meant only 2 things; one was the users were mostly females; second the males were sharp-shooters and could pee without dirtying the seats. Anyway, whenever I needed to shit, I would wipe the seat first before sitting on it. The common telephone along the corridor was also annoying because sometimes it would keep ringing and no one would answer it. And my room was just beside it. I guessed I just don’t like the idea of having things being shared, so I bought my own pot for cooking.
It seemed pretty routine now; the things that I do everyday are more or less the same. Sometimes, I do have a feeling of Groundhog Day; waking up at 830am; eating my cheap cornflakes (and I know why it is so cheap because once mixed with the hot chocolate, it disintegrated into almost powder form); then go shit; then bathe; then put moisturizer, lip bum, wear sweater, wear boots, wear coat (this took quite long); and take a 15 min long walk to work. And at work, I would check my mails, chat a bit online, and then start work around 1030am. I would work until 1215pm and go for lunch.
Today I was eating alone again because Anatole had to attend a meeting. Before he left, he told me that the algorithm for the code that I was supposed to write was really easy. He thought about it and said it was a simple task. Thanks for the encouragement man. I spent quite some time thinking about that and now still had some bugs with the code. This guy is really hard to please I think. I think in order to impress him, I must really do better than what I am doing now. Still I don’t think I should overwork because I am paid so little, and so went for lunch. By the way, there was this new guy who was in my room today. He was here yesterday and I thought he was just using the PC temporarily so I did not introduce myself. He seemed to be working for an old man next to my room. Anyway, I would introduce myself tomorrow. And he might be my love rival here because I saw him talking to Mathilde.
Lunch was fries and a drumstick. I shared table with an old man who was kind of weird. He didn’t finish most of his food, the main course as well as the side dishes. Then he took out a plastic bag and emptied all the leftovers into it! I don’t think he was saving for later consumption because the orange skin that he peeled was inside too. Here, when we finished our food, we would bring the plates to an area where the cleaner would collect them. (And today there was a beautiful Chinese girl doing the clearing up. Normally it was a grumpy short brown French. Hope I can see her again tomorrow.) Perhaps the old man wanted to make it easier for the cleaner. So I saw him carry that plastic bag and walked out of the restaurant. Maybe he was planning to give the food to the beggar near IRISA building. There was this beggar that I was quite afraid of. He slept at a dark corner at my building, and during the first week, I would pass by that area because I didn’t know any other routes. Now I found a shorter path to my office and so need not go pass that part of the building. But whenever I walked pass there, he would stand next to the wall and even though I dared not look at him, I swore he had his eyes fixed on me. One day, I saw him standing in the middle of the carpark and was looking afar. At that moment, my perception of him changed. He looked like those “Gao Ren” in the movie, unperturbed with his surroundings and full of wisdoms, indifferent to the happenings of the world, standing tall in the wind as if the world revolves around him. He was a black by the way, and had long unkempt hair. But I never saw him ever since that day.
Back at the office, Mathilde was laughing loudly along the corridor. I wondered who she was flirting with. When it was near 5pm, Anatole came into my room and said he was finally free to fill up the DPA30 form together with me so that I could fax it to Michel Pasquier. This is when I had a clearer and bigger picture of my purpose here in IRISA. As I had perhaps mentioned before, there was already a code that can simulate human’s touch on textures by accelerating or decelerating the cursor according to whether the texture is a hole or a bump. What I had to do was to remove the acceleration of the cursor (for the moment), and replaced it with variation of the cursor size. Then 4 experiments would be conducted. One by using just the size; one by using the acceleration; one by combining the 2 techniques; and lastly had the 2 techniques conflict each other. So in the end, we would analyse the results and see whether it is the variation of the size or the speed of the cursor that would be most helpful to users to perceive whether the terrain is a hole or a bump. Complicated? I thought so to. But still it was pretty exciting because he said I might have a chance to meet some psycho-physic experts from Paris who would come and analyse the data for us. They specialize in quantifying perceptions. Anatole gave me an example of determining stiffness. To determine whether an object is stiffer than another, there must be a 22% difference in perception between them. I don’t quite understand that but it sounded real cool. And he said that at the end of my attachment, I would write my first paper. This is not like writing a lab report! He said it is a real paper and would probably take me a month.
By April, I am supposed to be conducting the experiments with him and in May to begin writing my paper. Hui was impressed by this when I told him. I was too but right now, I can’t even get the code right. But it was already 6pm then, and this was the latest time that I had stayed in the office, so I left immediately. Before I went down to the supermart, I checked my letter box and there it was! My VOCALIA code! Which meant tomorrow I would be able to check my account balance. For those who are reading my blog, maybe I should leave my address here. Perhaps I might receive a CNY card as a surprise!!! (Buay Hiao Bai)
INSA
Chambre BS020
20 AV DES BUTTES DE COESMES
35043 RENNES CEDEX
FRANCE
At the supermart, I had with me a shopping list (with just 6 items though). The first thing I was looking for was a broom. Not that my room was very dirty, there isn’t much dust here in fact, but I thought it would be nice to have one in my room. I wasn’t really looking for those full size brooms. What I had in mind was those small little brush with a small dustpan attached to it. I didn’t buy one in the end because it cost nearly S$10 and the brush looked horrible. I bought a pot however, a small one which was just nice to cook my noodles. It was cheap, only S$7. I also bought a jar of jam and yes finally I can stop eating Nutella. I had so much chocolate here that I am really sick of it. I had chocolate bars, Nutella, chocolate cookies, chocolate powder. But I realized good things don’t come cheap and the jar of jam I bought was the cheapest. It was very watery but still it was better than Nutella.
On my way back to INSA (by the way, INSA is the hostel I am staying and IRISA is where I work. French likes abbreviations a lot), I realized that I had been here exactly 2 weeks. Although it was only 2 weeks, it seemed as if I had been away from home for a very long time. The day when I was at the airport checking in, when I said goodbyes to my family, when I was waiting at the Coffee Bean, all these seemed so far away. It was pretty lonely taking that long path back. Only one side of the road here had lamp posts and I was walking on the side that doesn’t have. It was dark and I was the only one on the pavement. On my left, cars were zooming past as people were rushing home for dinner perhaps. On my right were the cottages, with their insides dimly lit and the burning smell of firewoods in the air. How long would it be before I could get home I thought? 147 days more. I know I am growing stronger everyday but I don’t exactly know where that strength came from. From within perhaps. Or maybe from without. Yes, definitely a big part of my strength comes from without. From those friends who had been asking me on MSN about my life here. From those who had been reading my blog and dropping comments (thanks Carol and Zipin). And from those who had emailed me. I really appreciated that.
It seemed pretty routine now; the things that I do everyday are more or less the same. Sometimes, I do have a feeling of Groundhog Day; waking up at 830am; eating my cheap cornflakes (and I know why it is so cheap because once mixed with the hot chocolate, it disintegrated into almost powder form); then go shit; then bathe; then put moisturizer, lip bum, wear sweater, wear boots, wear coat (this took quite long); and take a 15 min long walk to work. And at work, I would check my mails, chat a bit online, and then start work around 1030am. I would work until 1215pm and go for lunch.
Today I was eating alone again because Anatole had to attend a meeting. Before he left, he told me that the algorithm for the code that I was supposed to write was really easy. He thought about it and said it was a simple task. Thanks for the encouragement man. I spent quite some time thinking about that and now still had some bugs with the code. This guy is really hard to please I think. I think in order to impress him, I must really do better than what I am doing now. Still I don’t think I should overwork because I am paid so little, and so went for lunch. By the way, there was this new guy who was in my room today. He was here yesterday and I thought he was just using the PC temporarily so I did not introduce myself. He seemed to be working for an old man next to my room. Anyway, I would introduce myself tomorrow. And he might be my love rival here because I saw him talking to Mathilde.
Lunch was fries and a drumstick. I shared table with an old man who was kind of weird. He didn’t finish most of his food, the main course as well as the side dishes. Then he took out a plastic bag and emptied all the leftovers into it! I don’t think he was saving for later consumption because the orange skin that he peeled was inside too. Here, when we finished our food, we would bring the plates to an area where the cleaner would collect them. (And today there was a beautiful Chinese girl doing the clearing up. Normally it was a grumpy short brown French. Hope I can see her again tomorrow.) Perhaps the old man wanted to make it easier for the cleaner. So I saw him carry that plastic bag and walked out of the restaurant. Maybe he was planning to give the food to the beggar near IRISA building. There was this beggar that I was quite afraid of. He slept at a dark corner at my building, and during the first week, I would pass by that area because I didn’t know any other routes. Now I found a shorter path to my office and so need not go pass that part of the building. But whenever I walked pass there, he would stand next to the wall and even though I dared not look at him, I swore he had his eyes fixed on me. One day, I saw him standing in the middle of the carpark and was looking afar. At that moment, my perception of him changed. He looked like those “Gao Ren” in the movie, unperturbed with his surroundings and full of wisdoms, indifferent to the happenings of the world, standing tall in the wind as if the world revolves around him. He was a black by the way, and had long unkempt hair. But I never saw him ever since that day.
Back at the office, Mathilde was laughing loudly along the corridor. I wondered who she was flirting with. When it was near 5pm, Anatole came into my room and said he was finally free to fill up the DPA30 form together with me so that I could fax it to Michel Pasquier. This is when I had a clearer and bigger picture of my purpose here in IRISA. As I had perhaps mentioned before, there was already a code that can simulate human’s touch on textures by accelerating or decelerating the cursor according to whether the texture is a hole or a bump. What I had to do was to remove the acceleration of the cursor (for the moment), and replaced it with variation of the cursor size. Then 4 experiments would be conducted. One by using just the size; one by using the acceleration; one by combining the 2 techniques; and lastly had the 2 techniques conflict each other. So in the end, we would analyse the results and see whether it is the variation of the size or the speed of the cursor that would be most helpful to users to perceive whether the terrain is a hole or a bump. Complicated? I thought so to. But still it was pretty exciting because he said I might have a chance to meet some psycho-physic experts from Paris who would come and analyse the data for us. They specialize in quantifying perceptions. Anatole gave me an example of determining stiffness. To determine whether an object is stiffer than another, there must be a 22% difference in perception between them. I don’t quite understand that but it sounded real cool. And he said that at the end of my attachment, I would write my first paper. This is not like writing a lab report! He said it is a real paper and would probably take me a month.
By April, I am supposed to be conducting the experiments with him and in May to begin writing my paper. Hui was impressed by this when I told him. I was too but right now, I can’t even get the code right. But it was already 6pm then, and this was the latest time that I had stayed in the office, so I left immediately. Before I went down to the supermart, I checked my letter box and there it was! My VOCALIA code! Which meant tomorrow I would be able to check my account balance. For those who are reading my blog, maybe I should leave my address here. Perhaps I might receive a CNY card as a surprise!!! (Buay Hiao Bai)
INSA
Chambre BS020
20 AV DES BUTTES DE COESMES
35043 RENNES CEDEX
FRANCE
At the supermart, I had with me a shopping list (with just 6 items though). The first thing I was looking for was a broom. Not that my room was very dirty, there isn’t much dust here in fact, but I thought it would be nice to have one in my room. I wasn’t really looking for those full size brooms. What I had in mind was those small little brush with a small dustpan attached to it. I didn’t buy one in the end because it cost nearly S$10 and the brush looked horrible. I bought a pot however, a small one which was just nice to cook my noodles. It was cheap, only S$7. I also bought a jar of jam and yes finally I can stop eating Nutella. I had so much chocolate here that I am really sick of it. I had chocolate bars, Nutella, chocolate cookies, chocolate powder. But I realized good things don’t come cheap and the jar of jam I bought was the cheapest. It was very watery but still it was better than Nutella.
On my way back to INSA (by the way, INSA is the hostel I am staying and IRISA is where I work. French likes abbreviations a lot), I realized that I had been here exactly 2 weeks. Although it was only 2 weeks, it seemed as if I had been away from home for a very long time. The day when I was at the airport checking in, when I said goodbyes to my family, when I was waiting at the Coffee Bean, all these seemed so far away. It was pretty lonely taking that long path back. Only one side of the road here had lamp posts and I was walking on the side that doesn’t have. It was dark and I was the only one on the pavement. On my left, cars were zooming past as people were rushing home for dinner perhaps. On my right were the cottages, with their insides dimly lit and the burning smell of firewoods in the air. How long would it be before I could get home I thought? 147 days more. I know I am growing stronger everyday but I don’t exactly know where that strength came from. From within perhaps. Or maybe from without. Yes, definitely a big part of my strength comes from without. From those friends who had been asking me on MSN about my life here. From those who had been reading my blog and dropping comments (thanks Carol and Zipin). And from those who had emailed me. I really appreciated that.
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