Did I mention how lovely Mathilde was? I probably had done so a million times. I shall talk about her in a while. The weather was getting unbearably colder and colder now. The rain was gone but what replaced it was far more ruthless. Icy wind kept pouncing on me relentlessly and I had to brisk-walk to my office. Normally I would walk slowly because this reduced energy consumption and that meant I would not get hungry too soon. Now I had to almost run for shelter. But the rest of the people walked rather normally, indifferent to the wind. Must have very thick skins I guessed. I reached IRISA and located the office without a problem. I had finally conquered the labyrinth. Yes, this building was so much like a maze that the people here called it a labyrinth.
I had some problems accessing some pdf files from the web. As it was not very urgent, I decided to leave it and do something else. Then I remembered Anatole mentioned that for any computer problem, I could approach Alain who was the expert and who helped to set up my account in IRISA. Initially I was “paiseh” to ask for his help and wanted to wait for Anatole to come back. But I do not want him to think that I was useless and had to wait for him to solve such trivial issue. So in the end I went to look for Alain, but before that as usual, I went to Mathilde’s office to see if she was around. Disappointment again.
Alain was very approachable and tried his best to help. Although in the end nothing was solved, I was still very grateful for his time. One thing I noticed about the people here was that they were all experts in Linux. A lot of commands that they used were alien to me and they seldom use the mouse to click on the icons. They just kept typing and typing in the terminal. This was very disadvantage for a window-user like me. Currently, for my work, I was still trying to finish the papers that Anatole asked me to read. Only one word could be used to describe these papers that had been submitted for national conferences in France: “Chim”.
I planned to finish all these papers and understand them; try to comprehend Laurent’s code (which I would do tomorrow); summarize all these in my logbook (for my NTU tutor Michel Pasquier to see); and come out with some ideas on how to enhance Laurent’s code. All these to be done before the weekend. Soon it was lunch and I had to eat fast because I had an appointment with Ms Chebourou from the Societe Generale Bank at 2pm. Back in Singapore (I almost spelled Singapore as Singapour in French), I seldom go to the bank. It was always mum who manages my account so I was very unfamiliar with La Banque. Can’t imagine now I had to open a French bank account on my own.
Lunch was very crowded at 12 noon sharp. I normally go for lunch around 1230pm and there would be no queue. I guessed everywhere there are “Kiasu” people. Anyway there weren’t enough seats at the staff area and so I had to sit with the students and from now on I am going to sit there because of the babes! French girls generally are not fat, but also not lean. There were no “Gu Gan” (bony) girls around but neither were there “Bui Mui” (fat girls). Their sizes vary; there were short, medium and tall. Most were taller than me. As for the boobs, I did not take much notice most of the time because those were things that I don’t normally look out for, unless they are very, err… you know, protruding.
While having my meal, the sun was shining from the top on my back. The restaurant had a glass roof and the feeling of warmth for the first time was beyond description. I had not perspire for a long time since I had arrived ( except for day 1 when I had to carry the stupid 30kg luggage up and down the stupid metro stairs). I tried doing some circuits in my room like push-ups, sit-ups, dips, etc but still no sweat. Of course I dared not overexert because I do not want to get hungry too fast. Conservation of energy was my key to survival here. I sometimes saw people jogging around the campus and thought they must be damn fit. The wind was so strong and the ground was so slippery. It was madness to jog.
Back to the girls in the restaurant. All of them had sharp features and big eyes with long eyelashes. They were all very attractive. More than 60% of the girls I met here were considered attractive, according to my standard that was. Suddenly I saw a juicy sight! (Please don’t say I am very “HumSap” because I am NOT).A girl stood up after she had her meal and half of her panties was in sight. Apparently she did not do that on purpose, unlike the girls in Singapore who like to wear their pants low to reveal little bit of their panties and yet were very self-conscious and kept pulling up their pants. That French girl later put on her red coat and the magnificent view was gone. So I guessed since she would have her coat on most of the time, she just could not care about the little bit of exposure.
As I had mentioned, lunch was always good. I had a full plate of fries and a piece of meat. It was a kind of breaded fish fillet with another meat and sauce stuffed in between. Thinking of it now makes me hungry again for I just had a piece of bread an hour ago for my dinner. Too bad the fillet was too small. I also took a French loaf and although it was tasteless and hard as rock, it was filling enough. People here generally had strong jaws because I had muscle ache while finishing the loaf. Also they had strong fingers (same for the girls) because you had to tear the bread apart. I tore them without much trouble of course, perhaps just a bit overexerting. But I saw some girls tearing them like tearing paper. They must have been playing carom quite frequently.
After my meal, I boarded the same bus 16 that I took on Saturday, and went to Republique. This time, I punched my ticket after I bought it and sure enough, the time was printed on it. On the bus, I saw some more pretty girls and there was one with dark black eyes and black hair sitting directly opposite of me. I guessed she was about 1.7m. Soon I reached the city centre and I had about an hour before my appointment. I decided to walk around but not wander off too far to get lost. Republique was very different on weekdays as compared to weekend. There were not many people and some of the streets were even deserted. It was a pity I did not have my Pentax with me but never mind, “Come Day Square Long” (Lai Ri Fang Chang which means there is still plenty of time).
There were quite a number of bars around and I even saw a Chinese restaurant selling Shanghai dishes. Apparently the patrons were French and that was why it was very expensive. I probably had mentioned before, restaurants here are synonymous to eateries or food courts back in Singapore and not some high-class eating place. There was also a Cambodien restaurant and I guessed there must have a MacDonald somewhere because I saw people drinking from MacDonald Coca-cola cups. I heard from my French teacher that his sister forbids her children to eat MacDonald. I also heard from Anatole that some years ago, there were people who were so against MacDonald that they tore one down in Rennes. Lucky I wasn’t pro-American. The French felt that MacDonald and Hollywood movies were an evil way to colonize the world. But of course not all French think as such because I just walked past the cinema and there was a poster of the movie “Aviator”. Probably because of the lead actor Leonardo Di Caprio who I guessed is not American because of his name. Also there were posters of “Resident Evil” in my Campus. Again perhaps Milan Jovovich is not American.
Anyway it was 2pm and I went to the bank. Before I entered, I saw on the door that the opening hour starts at 1345hrs. So banks were closed in the morning here, contrary to what is being practiced in Singapore. Ms Chebourou attended to me shortly after she finished her phone conversation. She was on the plump side of the scale but that was okay because with every part of her body being larger than normal girls, so were her…ahem… yes, boobs. Combined with her sharp-featured face and attractive OL (office lady) wear, she was sexy.
Madam Marie, the Madam Nice Woman that I mentioned before, said that Ms Chebourou spoke very good English so I need not have to worry. After speaking to her, I think Madam Marie was really a Nice Woman; she overestimated Ms Chebourou. Anyway not that I mind because then I would have more time with Chebourou in her office. I found out that ATMs here were called distributors. After explaining to me all the terms and conditions, she said that my account would be ready in a week’s time and I would have to return and collect my card, password and cheque book. I asked if I had to see her again and she told me that it was not necessary and I could just ask from the information counter. What a waste.
With my mission accomplished, I walked back to the bus station. On the way, I saw 2 beggars. One man was sitting along the roadside mumbling at passer-bys with his hat on the floor. He definitely looked stronger than me. Perhaps I should take his place since I had not really been eating well for the past few days. There was another lady in her middle age kneeling on the street and she indeed looked pitiful. I took a peep at her hat on the floor and saw a few coins in it. Of course I did not give her any coins. It was never my policy to take pity on beggars. There were 3 youngsters by the road playing some drums trying to earn a living out of that. The music was very nice and definitely worth some money from my pocket, if I had any that was.
I was back at the office again at 3pm and went to find Mathilde again to give her my bank account number. At last she was in her office and she was wearing blue turtle-neck sweater. So sweet. (Argh!!!! My neighbour is playing that stupid samba music again!!! How I wished I had my Chinese songs in my laptop. I will play One Night In Beijing back at him!) Anyway forget about that idiot and come back to sweet Mathilde. In France, I often see young people kissing one another on the cheeks with that “tsk tsk” sound when they met. How I wished I could do that with Mathilde. Whenever she was lost with her words because she can’t speak English well or was thinking about something, she would look at the ceiling and made a “choo choo choo” sound with her mouth shaped like a kiss. Very cute!!! We didn’t talk much and she asked me, “Ca va bien?” which meant, “Is everything going well?” After a brief talk I went back to work.
On MSN, I saw Heng Yang, my hallmate when I was in NTU. He asked if I was fine and I told him I was having a hard time adapting here. I hardly had anyone to talk to. He asked if that’s because I was unfriendly and I answered no. I must admit that I am not very sociable but to make friends here, you had to be more than sociable; you had to speak French. He said that I must do Singapore proud and don’t let the AngMohs think that we are weak. He was always good at encouraging people. Well I guessed he had a better psychological development than I do. After all, he is a Guards officer. I guessed he probably would adapt much faster than I do if he were to be in my position. For now I think I was coping with life quite well, much better than I was on Day 3 when I almost broke down. Just hope that everything goes smoother as the days pass. As what Michel Pasquier had said in his email: “French naturally speaks French so of course you would have problem staying here. However, this is all part of the fun, isn’t?” Yes, let the fun go on!!!
I had some problems accessing some pdf files from the web. As it was not very urgent, I decided to leave it and do something else. Then I remembered Anatole mentioned that for any computer problem, I could approach Alain who was the expert and who helped to set up my account in IRISA. Initially I was “paiseh” to ask for his help and wanted to wait for Anatole to come back. But I do not want him to think that I was useless and had to wait for him to solve such trivial issue. So in the end I went to look for Alain, but before that as usual, I went to Mathilde’s office to see if she was around. Disappointment again.
Alain was very approachable and tried his best to help. Although in the end nothing was solved, I was still very grateful for his time. One thing I noticed about the people here was that they were all experts in Linux. A lot of commands that they used were alien to me and they seldom use the mouse to click on the icons. They just kept typing and typing in the terminal. This was very disadvantage for a window-user like me. Currently, for my work, I was still trying to finish the papers that Anatole asked me to read. Only one word could be used to describe these papers that had been submitted for national conferences in France: “Chim”.
I planned to finish all these papers and understand them; try to comprehend Laurent’s code (which I would do tomorrow); summarize all these in my logbook (for my NTU tutor Michel Pasquier to see); and come out with some ideas on how to enhance Laurent’s code. All these to be done before the weekend. Soon it was lunch and I had to eat fast because I had an appointment with Ms Chebourou from the Societe Generale Bank at 2pm. Back in Singapore (I almost spelled Singapore as Singapour in French), I seldom go to the bank. It was always mum who manages my account so I was very unfamiliar with La Banque. Can’t imagine now I had to open a French bank account on my own.
Lunch was very crowded at 12 noon sharp. I normally go for lunch around 1230pm and there would be no queue. I guessed everywhere there are “Kiasu” people. Anyway there weren’t enough seats at the staff area and so I had to sit with the students and from now on I am going to sit there because of the babes! French girls generally are not fat, but also not lean. There were no “Gu Gan” (bony) girls around but neither were there “Bui Mui” (fat girls). Their sizes vary; there were short, medium and tall. Most were taller than me. As for the boobs, I did not take much notice most of the time because those were things that I don’t normally look out for, unless they are very, err… you know, protruding.
While having my meal, the sun was shining from the top on my back. The restaurant had a glass roof and the feeling of warmth for the first time was beyond description. I had not perspire for a long time since I had arrived ( except for day 1 when I had to carry the stupid 30kg luggage up and down the stupid metro stairs). I tried doing some circuits in my room like push-ups, sit-ups, dips, etc but still no sweat. Of course I dared not overexert because I do not want to get hungry too fast. Conservation of energy was my key to survival here. I sometimes saw people jogging around the campus and thought they must be damn fit. The wind was so strong and the ground was so slippery. It was madness to jog.
Back to the girls in the restaurant. All of them had sharp features and big eyes with long eyelashes. They were all very attractive. More than 60% of the girls I met here were considered attractive, according to my standard that was. Suddenly I saw a juicy sight! (Please don’t say I am very “HumSap” because I am NOT).A girl stood up after she had her meal and half of her panties was in sight. Apparently she did not do that on purpose, unlike the girls in Singapore who like to wear their pants low to reveal little bit of their panties and yet were very self-conscious and kept pulling up their pants. That French girl later put on her red coat and the magnificent view was gone. So I guessed since she would have her coat on most of the time, she just could not care about the little bit of exposure.
As I had mentioned, lunch was always good. I had a full plate of fries and a piece of meat. It was a kind of breaded fish fillet with another meat and sauce stuffed in between. Thinking of it now makes me hungry again for I just had a piece of bread an hour ago for my dinner. Too bad the fillet was too small. I also took a French loaf and although it was tasteless and hard as rock, it was filling enough. People here generally had strong jaws because I had muscle ache while finishing the loaf. Also they had strong fingers (same for the girls) because you had to tear the bread apart. I tore them without much trouble of course, perhaps just a bit overexerting. But I saw some girls tearing them like tearing paper. They must have been playing carom quite frequently.
After my meal, I boarded the same bus 16 that I took on Saturday, and went to Republique. This time, I punched my ticket after I bought it and sure enough, the time was printed on it. On the bus, I saw some more pretty girls and there was one with dark black eyes and black hair sitting directly opposite of me. I guessed she was about 1.7m. Soon I reached the city centre and I had about an hour before my appointment. I decided to walk around but not wander off too far to get lost. Republique was very different on weekdays as compared to weekend. There were not many people and some of the streets were even deserted. It was a pity I did not have my Pentax with me but never mind, “Come Day Square Long” (Lai Ri Fang Chang which means there is still plenty of time).
There were quite a number of bars around and I even saw a Chinese restaurant selling Shanghai dishes. Apparently the patrons were French and that was why it was very expensive. I probably had mentioned before, restaurants here are synonymous to eateries or food courts back in Singapore and not some high-class eating place. There was also a Cambodien restaurant and I guessed there must have a MacDonald somewhere because I saw people drinking from MacDonald Coca-cola cups. I heard from my French teacher that his sister forbids her children to eat MacDonald. I also heard from Anatole that some years ago, there were people who were so against MacDonald that they tore one down in Rennes. Lucky I wasn’t pro-American. The French felt that MacDonald and Hollywood movies were an evil way to colonize the world. But of course not all French think as such because I just walked past the cinema and there was a poster of the movie “Aviator”. Probably because of the lead actor Leonardo Di Caprio who I guessed is not American because of his name. Also there were posters of “Resident Evil” in my Campus. Again perhaps Milan Jovovich is not American.
Anyway it was 2pm and I went to the bank. Before I entered, I saw on the door that the opening hour starts at 1345hrs. So banks were closed in the morning here, contrary to what is being practiced in Singapore. Ms Chebourou attended to me shortly after she finished her phone conversation. She was on the plump side of the scale but that was okay because with every part of her body being larger than normal girls, so were her…ahem… yes, boobs. Combined with her sharp-featured face and attractive OL (office lady) wear, she was sexy.
Madam Marie, the Madam Nice Woman that I mentioned before, said that Ms Chebourou spoke very good English so I need not have to worry. After speaking to her, I think Madam Marie was really a Nice Woman; she overestimated Ms Chebourou. Anyway not that I mind because then I would have more time with Chebourou in her office. I found out that ATMs here were called distributors. After explaining to me all the terms and conditions, she said that my account would be ready in a week’s time and I would have to return and collect my card, password and cheque book. I asked if I had to see her again and she told me that it was not necessary and I could just ask from the information counter. What a waste.
With my mission accomplished, I walked back to the bus station. On the way, I saw 2 beggars. One man was sitting along the roadside mumbling at passer-bys with his hat on the floor. He definitely looked stronger than me. Perhaps I should take his place since I had not really been eating well for the past few days. There was another lady in her middle age kneeling on the street and she indeed looked pitiful. I took a peep at her hat on the floor and saw a few coins in it. Of course I did not give her any coins. It was never my policy to take pity on beggars. There were 3 youngsters by the road playing some drums trying to earn a living out of that. The music was very nice and definitely worth some money from my pocket, if I had any that was.
I was back at the office again at 3pm and went to find Mathilde again to give her my bank account number. At last she was in her office and she was wearing blue turtle-neck sweater. So sweet. (Argh!!!! My neighbour is playing that stupid samba music again!!! How I wished I had my Chinese songs in my laptop. I will play One Night In Beijing back at him!) Anyway forget about that idiot and come back to sweet Mathilde. In France, I often see young people kissing one another on the cheeks with that “tsk tsk” sound when they met. How I wished I could do that with Mathilde. Whenever she was lost with her words because she can’t speak English well or was thinking about something, she would look at the ceiling and made a “choo choo choo” sound with her mouth shaped like a kiss. Very cute!!! We didn’t talk much and she asked me, “Ca va bien?” which meant, “Is everything going well?” After a brief talk I went back to work.
On MSN, I saw Heng Yang, my hallmate when I was in NTU. He asked if I was fine and I told him I was having a hard time adapting here. I hardly had anyone to talk to. He asked if that’s because I was unfriendly and I answered no. I must admit that I am not very sociable but to make friends here, you had to be more than sociable; you had to speak French. He said that I must do Singapore proud and don’t let the AngMohs think that we are weak. He was always good at encouraging people. Well I guessed he had a better psychological development than I do. After all, he is a Guards officer. I guessed he probably would adapt much faster than I do if he were to be in my position. For now I think I was coping with life quite well, much better than I was on Day 3 when I almost broke down. Just hope that everything goes smoother as the days pass. As what Michel Pasquier had said in his email: “French naturally speaks French so of course you would have problem staying here. However, this is all part of the fun, isn’t?” Yes, let the fun go on!!!
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