This morning I brought the document specifying the details of my France bank account to work. First thing was to try and book the remaining 2 airlines using my France credit card. There were some problems yesterday and probably because of my billing address. I followed exactly what was stated in the document and this time, the transaction went through. Happy that now the entire plan is off my mind. Then suddenly I received emails rejecting my bookings for the 6 hostels; all booked using the France card. Another 2 hostels were booked at another website using POSB debit and hence there were no problem (so far). I guess the problem lies in the billing address and so I resent the details. The admin replied me and said they have made the necessary amendments and recharged the card. If it went through successfully, I would receive an email. If it failed again, I would also receive an email telling me that the all the bookings are canceled and I have to rebook them. Either case, I was told that I would receive the email at the end of the day. Gosh. Just when I thought that the tour planning is over. Yi Bo San Zhe. Hope that I will know the outcome at least by tomorrow so that I have enough time to rebook using my POSB card if necessary. If this issue drags over the weekend, I might lose my hostels esp. for London and Paris.
Today, the lab was quite lively. I saw Anatole as early as 9am which was very rare. They were preparing for some meeting and there would be presentations later to some outsiders. It seemed like Anatole and Vincent were in charge of receiving the guests. Probably because of their good command of English. Anatole said he would see me at around 4pm. A while later, I heard some Japanese voices “muzugashii neh” (difficult). So they have Japanese guests! Really sound exciting. I hope I get the chance to do such things next time. Welcoming outsiders to the company, esp. foreigners. I think I really have changed. In the past, I would want to have min. meeting with other people. As min. as possible. At lunch time, only a few of us were left. The not so important people were left behind. The rest were entertaining the guests. We went to the same marche that we had gone to yesterday. But this time we had sandwiches.
There was this bakery where we could purchase sandwiches with our tickets. Each ticket can normally buy 2 sandwiches, but the total must not exceed 7 euros. That was quite worth it because my ticket was only 2 euros. Each sandwich cost about 3 euros. Hence I bought 2 long sandwiches, about 50cm each. The rest of the guys bought one long one and a small normal looking triangular one. Then we drove back to our cafeteria and had our sandwiches there. It took me 1 hr to finish the two 50cm sandwiches! Should have followed them and bought 1 big and 1 small. They must be shocked to see a small guy like me eat so much. It was super filling and best of all, it was very tasty. Every bite was filled with stuffs. Lots of mayonnaise. Lettuce, tomatoes, chicken, and the best part was the sesame seeds on the crispy bread! Wah. Think I wouldn’t go to the STAR restaurant and eat alone anymore. Will eat sandwiches for this period of time.
At the cafeteria, I picked up the French paper and tried to read the article about the new Pope. 2 of my colleagues began to talk about work again and I wasn’t really interested; moreover they were speaking in French. I left the table early and went back to work. Along the corridor, I smelled a stench coming from my room. Like a corpse was in there. It was Ahad. This old man really has strong BO, esp. on hot days like today; 16 degrees. And when Laurent came back, it was old man BO vs. young man BO. Gnn. These 2 people should go and bathe. I super buay tahan BO. From time to time I had to escape and go to the toilet. I wanted to open the windows but think it wouldn’t help much. Maybe for me to jump down. I began to read about the difference between Catholic and Protestant Christian and have some idea now. But shall not share it here because this is a non-religious blog.
Then I went on to read about “how to write a good scientific research paper”. After reading a lot of sites, I decided that I shall start writing tomorrow. It is really a lot of work. On average, the writer has to redraft about 10 times before submitting the final one. Choice of words also must be precise. Although good command of English no doubt is a bonus, it doesn’t guarantee good choice of words. Really admire my French colleagues who had to write English papers. No wonder when it comes to writing papers, all of them looked super tired. So tomorrow I shall start to come out with the outline. Halfway through, my angel Mathilde came frantically and started speaking to me in French. I told her to hold on and got Laurent to translate. She was saying that there was this Chinese on the line and she couldn’t understand what he was saying because of his poor English. Come on baby, u sama sama lah. Anyway she wanted me to speak Chinese to him. ok. I do anything for u.
So I was on the line and said “wei?” And asked him what does he want. He said he wanted to speak to Anatole. So qiao! Want to talk to my boss? I told him Anatole isn’t in his room and asked him for his email. And this was when the nightmare started. First he gave me his name, Zhong (clock) Ming (bright) Jun (soldier). Then he began spelling his email. The first letter he said “ammo”. I asked again and he said “ammo”. Then I asked if it is “m” for mother and he said yes. And the rest took about 5 min to come out from him. In the end, I guess his email is maginzhong@yahoo.com.cn. It was quite embarrassing for me because I kept wanting to speak English. And for each letter, I had to say “a” for apple, “g” for god (of all words I chose god, perhaps because the article on Christianity was still on my mind). For “i” the word idiot just flashed through my mind. And worse, I almost couldn’t find a word for “n” and wanted to say nabei. Not that I am a very vulgar type of guy but I was very distracted by Mathilde who was giggling behind me. After the torturous 5min, he asked me to pass a message to Anatole. I said ok and “zai jian” to him. I turned to Mathilde and asked “you wanna speak to him?”, with a sly grin. She immediately raised her hands and said nonononono.
I seriously don’t think the Chinese spoke very lousy English because he was trying to apply for doctorate or something like that. How can a PhD don’t know English? I felt that perhaps I could even speak English to him. The problem really lies with Mathilde, who until now still tries to speak French to me despite the fact that I can’t understand. In the end, she thanked me and gave me a pat on the shoulder. Wah! She touched me! A hug would be more deserving I feel. I just saved her from disgracing the organization because of her poor command of English which is very unforgiving for a secretary. At 6pm, there was still no email from the hostels. Anatole was no where to be seen also. I think he must have gone home because he had a busy day and probably had forgotten about me. Well, we could still chat tonight after the soccer game. And before I left, I checked out the town Vannes which is by the sea. Saw some really nice pictures from the web and there is a Butterfly Garden there! Great! I chose Vannes for this Sat trip because of the accessibility as well as it is rather small hence wouldn’t be too tiring for me. Most importantly it is at the coast and so it wouldn’t rain. I need the sun to give me energy.
Tonight we played until the lights in the soccer centre were off. Super long and tiring game. And I was the top scorer of my team; 4 goals in my pocket. Let in 2 goals when I was the keeper. Because I was the keeper for only one time. The Italian keeper, Toni was superb as usual. But I beat him 4 times. At the end of the game, Anatole sent me home. I told him about this Chinese calling him in the afternoon regarding his application for post doc. Anatole said in fact there were a few applicants for him to choose and one of them is from NTU! He said he would let me see the name of that person. He wanted to know if it is a guy or a girl. Then we talked a bit about the Japanese that he met today. He said he was a bit tense because he had heard so much about the hierarchical society of Japan. He felt that he might be disrespectful. On the other hand, Vincent was a natural joker. He asked me if it was alright for him to behave like this or should he be friendlier. According to my understanding, the Japanese are friendly people and moreover the people he met were in their 30s, same category as he is. So I think it is ok to be a bit casual and relax.
Then he said next week during the weekdays, he asked if I would like to have a dinner with him in one of the restaurants here. I said sure, why not. And I told him I would treat him the Chinese cuisine on my birthday. After that, he began to talk about work. He told me what are the guidelines to follow when writing a paper and he got more and more enthusiastic when talking about it. Halfway through my mind had already drifted away. I wasn’t really interested in listening as I was tired and bored by the topic. But still he is the boss. He told me not to worry and just write my 1st draft when I am ready. He would help me out. We have to send the paper to a reviewer before getting it published. And Anatole himself has been a reviewer for lots of paper and so he knows what to look out for. Great. But still I must do a super duper good job for my 1st draft because there is another masters student writing a paper at the same time too. And he is also under Anatole. But his command of English is poorer. Hence, I cannot lose to him. No way.
Today, the lab was quite lively. I saw Anatole as early as 9am which was very rare. They were preparing for some meeting and there would be presentations later to some outsiders. It seemed like Anatole and Vincent were in charge of receiving the guests. Probably because of their good command of English. Anatole said he would see me at around 4pm. A while later, I heard some Japanese voices “muzugashii neh” (difficult). So they have Japanese guests! Really sound exciting. I hope I get the chance to do such things next time. Welcoming outsiders to the company, esp. foreigners. I think I really have changed. In the past, I would want to have min. meeting with other people. As min. as possible. At lunch time, only a few of us were left. The not so important people were left behind. The rest were entertaining the guests. We went to the same marche that we had gone to yesterday. But this time we had sandwiches.
There was this bakery where we could purchase sandwiches with our tickets. Each ticket can normally buy 2 sandwiches, but the total must not exceed 7 euros. That was quite worth it because my ticket was only 2 euros. Each sandwich cost about 3 euros. Hence I bought 2 long sandwiches, about 50cm each. The rest of the guys bought one long one and a small normal looking triangular one. Then we drove back to our cafeteria and had our sandwiches there. It took me 1 hr to finish the two 50cm sandwiches! Should have followed them and bought 1 big and 1 small. They must be shocked to see a small guy like me eat so much. It was super filling and best of all, it was very tasty. Every bite was filled with stuffs. Lots of mayonnaise. Lettuce, tomatoes, chicken, and the best part was the sesame seeds on the crispy bread! Wah. Think I wouldn’t go to the STAR restaurant and eat alone anymore. Will eat sandwiches for this period of time.
At the cafeteria, I picked up the French paper and tried to read the article about the new Pope. 2 of my colleagues began to talk about work again and I wasn’t really interested; moreover they were speaking in French. I left the table early and went back to work. Along the corridor, I smelled a stench coming from my room. Like a corpse was in there. It was Ahad. This old man really has strong BO, esp. on hot days like today; 16 degrees. And when Laurent came back, it was old man BO vs. young man BO. Gnn. These 2 people should go and bathe. I super buay tahan BO. From time to time I had to escape and go to the toilet. I wanted to open the windows but think it wouldn’t help much. Maybe for me to jump down. I began to read about the difference between Catholic and Protestant Christian and have some idea now. But shall not share it here because this is a non-religious blog.
Then I went on to read about “how to write a good scientific research paper”. After reading a lot of sites, I decided that I shall start writing tomorrow. It is really a lot of work. On average, the writer has to redraft about 10 times before submitting the final one. Choice of words also must be precise. Although good command of English no doubt is a bonus, it doesn’t guarantee good choice of words. Really admire my French colleagues who had to write English papers. No wonder when it comes to writing papers, all of them looked super tired. So tomorrow I shall start to come out with the outline. Halfway through, my angel Mathilde came frantically and started speaking to me in French. I told her to hold on and got Laurent to translate. She was saying that there was this Chinese on the line and she couldn’t understand what he was saying because of his poor English. Come on baby, u sama sama lah. Anyway she wanted me to speak Chinese to him. ok. I do anything for u.
So I was on the line and said “wei?” And asked him what does he want. He said he wanted to speak to Anatole. So qiao! Want to talk to my boss? I told him Anatole isn’t in his room and asked him for his email. And this was when the nightmare started. First he gave me his name, Zhong (clock) Ming (bright) Jun (soldier). Then he began spelling his email. The first letter he said “ammo”. I asked again and he said “ammo”. Then I asked if it is “m” for mother and he said yes. And the rest took about 5 min to come out from him. In the end, I guess his email is maginzhong@yahoo.com.cn. It was quite embarrassing for me because I kept wanting to speak English. And for each letter, I had to say “a” for apple, “g” for god (of all words I chose god, perhaps because the article on Christianity was still on my mind). For “i” the word idiot just flashed through my mind. And worse, I almost couldn’t find a word for “n” and wanted to say nabei. Not that I am a very vulgar type of guy but I was very distracted by Mathilde who was giggling behind me. After the torturous 5min, he asked me to pass a message to Anatole. I said ok and “zai jian” to him. I turned to Mathilde and asked “you wanna speak to him?”, with a sly grin. She immediately raised her hands and said nonononono.
I seriously don’t think the Chinese spoke very lousy English because he was trying to apply for doctorate or something like that. How can a PhD don’t know English? I felt that perhaps I could even speak English to him. The problem really lies with Mathilde, who until now still tries to speak French to me despite the fact that I can’t understand. In the end, she thanked me and gave me a pat on the shoulder. Wah! She touched me! A hug would be more deserving I feel. I just saved her from disgracing the organization because of her poor command of English which is very unforgiving for a secretary. At 6pm, there was still no email from the hostels. Anatole was no where to be seen also. I think he must have gone home because he had a busy day and probably had forgotten about me. Well, we could still chat tonight after the soccer game. And before I left, I checked out the town Vannes which is by the sea. Saw some really nice pictures from the web and there is a Butterfly Garden there! Great! I chose Vannes for this Sat trip because of the accessibility as well as it is rather small hence wouldn’t be too tiring for me. Most importantly it is at the coast and so it wouldn’t rain. I need the sun to give me energy.
Tonight we played until the lights in the soccer centre were off. Super long and tiring game. And I was the top scorer of my team; 4 goals in my pocket. Let in 2 goals when I was the keeper. Because I was the keeper for only one time. The Italian keeper, Toni was superb as usual. But I beat him 4 times. At the end of the game, Anatole sent me home. I told him about this Chinese calling him in the afternoon regarding his application for post doc. Anatole said in fact there were a few applicants for him to choose and one of them is from NTU! He said he would let me see the name of that person. He wanted to know if it is a guy or a girl. Then we talked a bit about the Japanese that he met today. He said he was a bit tense because he had heard so much about the hierarchical society of Japan. He felt that he might be disrespectful. On the other hand, Vincent was a natural joker. He asked me if it was alright for him to behave like this or should he be friendlier. According to my understanding, the Japanese are friendly people and moreover the people he met were in their 30s, same category as he is. So I think it is ok to be a bit casual and relax.
Then he said next week during the weekdays, he asked if I would like to have a dinner with him in one of the restaurants here. I said sure, why not. And I told him I would treat him the Chinese cuisine on my birthday. After that, he began to talk about work. He told me what are the guidelines to follow when writing a paper and he got more and more enthusiastic when talking about it. Halfway through my mind had already drifted away. I wasn’t really interested in listening as I was tired and bored by the topic. But still he is the boss. He told me not to worry and just write my 1st draft when I am ready. He would help me out. We have to send the paper to a reviewer before getting it published. And Anatole himself has been a reviewer for lots of paper and so he knows what to look out for. Great. But still I must do a super duper good job for my 1st draft because there is another masters student writing a paper at the same time too. And he is also under Anatole. But his command of English is poorer. Hence, I cannot lose to him. No way.
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