The first thing I did in the morning was to take the recorded video and find Stephane. I had decided to ask the big boss for help because since Mr. Giant had already told me who to ask, and if I ignore it, it would look very bad on me. This is something I learnt from the colleagues here: if you have to do something, just do it. Even if it will embarrass you. Even if it takes a lot of trouble. Even if you feel “paiseh” to ask around. Like getting participants for example. Despite how much I thought it is impossible to get students of INSA to do the experiment, I still did it. Stephane was not around and I went to ask Mathilde since she is the secretary of the team. She has been reporting to work as early as 9am nowadays. Normally she would be at the admin block and comes over to our project team in the afternoon. But recently, she was staying from 9 to 5 here. I guess she knew I was leaving soon (vomit).
She said Stephane was in the cafeteria. Then she asked what is the title of my presentation because she needed to send an email to the team regarding the seminar. Seminar! They called it seminar here and it somehow gave me a bit of pressure. She said she has booked a room tomorrow from 1400 to 1530 hrs. After awhile, I went to look for Anatole since Stephane was still not around. Anatole came and went through the slides with me. As usual he was very detail and made some amendments. He said that the video I had captured using digital camera was adequate. Don’t bother with transferring the image from the view cam. It will take a day’s work. But he needed me to retake some of the videos using my digital cam again. After spending the entire morning going through the slides, he asked if I needed to rehearse with him in the evening. Of course.
At lunch time, I went to call the guys as I was damn hungry. Laurent said he would go to the toilet first. After gathering everyone for lunch, we waited at the staircase and Mr. Giant asked where Laurent was. I said he was in the toilet but he asked isn’t the toilet spoilt? I went and open the female toilet and shouted in, “Laurent you in there?” and he replied yes. The guys were shocked by what I did. I told them the men’s toilet was spoilt and so Laurent and I always use the female one. I jokingly said, “well can’t blame me. I don’t understand the word ‘femme’ (female)”. Mr. Giant said but I can recognise the lady drawing right? While laughing outside the female toilet, a lady walked past and heard and saw what I did. She was hiding her smile and looked embarrassed. I tried to give an innocent look. The rest of the guys were holding their breath and when she was gone, they just burst out laughing. I told them I wasn’t the only one who uses the female toilet. Nicolas Mollet too.
When we were finishing our lunch, the 2 funny Americans came and joined us. Mark had some round things for lunch and asked Mr. Giant what that was. He always liked to take food which he had not seen before. For me, I never take food that looked suspicious or I hadn’t asked my colleagues before. And whenever he had steak, we would say he will get mad cow disease and he will be damn scared. Mr. Giant said it was wheat which obviously wasn’t. Because the round things were too big. I went over to take a closer look. Round thing with a small dark line dividing the centre, bending it inward. Gnn. Barley lah. I told them it was barley. But it seemed they were not familiar with the word. But the Americans knew what it was. In the end, they were quite convinced that I was right. I went back to INSA to get my digital camera and decided to leave my sweater in the room. It was 25 degrees today! Freaking hot. At the corridor I met Emily, and her friend. Beautiful long hair, petit girl. Black, straight long hair. But I was too shy to ask Emily to intro.
Back in the office, after capturing some clips of my experiment, I chatted with Chris on msn. I asked him if I can go with him to Spain if I can’t go Germany. He said he is going to visit a friend. Then he said he might go back SG earlier because now he is a bit tired and his gf just went back. He doesn’t feel like travelling anymore. And he will be travelling alone now. But he still wanted to go to Germany, Prague and Budapest. Laurent is going Budapest tomorrow. Wish him luck with his Hungarian girl. Then I received emails about soccer tomorrow. The season at the soccer court is over now. We are going to play soccer in the campus tomorrow. Yeah! Free of charge. But the problem is: no one has a ball. Kao. Then I received another email from Mathieu. He said he has been looking at my photos and said I had become a great French traveller. Then he said he can’t help me with the luggage as he will be in Madrid in June. Luckily, hui said his supervisor was quite positive in helping us. Mathieu then said he might be in Rennes again some days and would come visit us. Lastly, he wished me luck for the presentation tomorrow and I guessed he must have heard the news from someone else.
In the late afternoon, I went to find Anatole to do the rehearsal. He told me that this presentation will not change anything since the assessment form, the final report had been submitted. So no pressure. I should take pleasure and be happy when presenting my work. He said I am only allowed 20 min to present. I took a deep breath, and began. I completely made a mess in that 20 min. I wasn’t sure what slide comes after the current one. I didn’t use the cue cards that I prepared which were almost empty anyway. I didn’t even know what to say at some points even though all these works were mine. As usual, he said it is good enough and it is natural to be nervous. Even the most experienced presenter is nervous when presenting. Being nervous shows that the work is important to you. But I still feel bad though what he said probably is true. Some consolation for myself: I only prepared it yesterday. Then he went through slide by slide what points I needed to take note and then globally how I should control my speech and breathing, etc. He has done numerous presentations for conferences. In the end, he told me to go back tonight and rehearse 3 times (I just did one) and tomorrow everything will be fine. This is the first time he had spent so much time in a day going through my work.
Back in INSA, I was thinking about what to say for my presentation while cooking. Then the great cook came in and started boiling his milk. He then went over and shared the stove with me because the one he was using was very slow. Then he started to chat with me; in French. He asked about my experiment and I said it was done. Really it was quite weird. He speaking French and I speaking English. But luckily he was speaking very, very slowly. He said he got a friend in Paris doing experiments on VR also, I guess. Lastly he said he was from Algeria. Kadi is from Algeria also. I guess it must be one of French colonies last time.
I have 2 more rehearsal to do later on. Then I would drink some rum (which is really powerful. I drank a bit last night and I was drunk. Think I am just lousy) and sleep early. Got a SEMINAR tomorrow man…
She said Stephane was in the cafeteria. Then she asked what is the title of my presentation because she needed to send an email to the team regarding the seminar. Seminar! They called it seminar here and it somehow gave me a bit of pressure. She said she has booked a room tomorrow from 1400 to 1530 hrs. After awhile, I went to look for Anatole since Stephane was still not around. Anatole came and went through the slides with me. As usual he was very detail and made some amendments. He said that the video I had captured using digital camera was adequate. Don’t bother with transferring the image from the view cam. It will take a day’s work. But he needed me to retake some of the videos using my digital cam again. After spending the entire morning going through the slides, he asked if I needed to rehearse with him in the evening. Of course.
At lunch time, I went to call the guys as I was damn hungry. Laurent said he would go to the toilet first. After gathering everyone for lunch, we waited at the staircase and Mr. Giant asked where Laurent was. I said he was in the toilet but he asked isn’t the toilet spoilt? I went and open the female toilet and shouted in, “Laurent you in there?” and he replied yes. The guys were shocked by what I did. I told them the men’s toilet was spoilt and so Laurent and I always use the female one. I jokingly said, “well can’t blame me. I don’t understand the word ‘femme’ (female)”. Mr. Giant said but I can recognise the lady drawing right? While laughing outside the female toilet, a lady walked past and heard and saw what I did. She was hiding her smile and looked embarrassed. I tried to give an innocent look. The rest of the guys were holding their breath and when she was gone, they just burst out laughing. I told them I wasn’t the only one who uses the female toilet. Nicolas Mollet too.
When we were finishing our lunch, the 2 funny Americans came and joined us. Mark had some round things for lunch and asked Mr. Giant what that was. He always liked to take food which he had not seen before. For me, I never take food that looked suspicious or I hadn’t asked my colleagues before. And whenever he had steak, we would say he will get mad cow disease and he will be damn scared. Mr. Giant said it was wheat which obviously wasn’t. Because the round things were too big. I went over to take a closer look. Round thing with a small dark line dividing the centre, bending it inward. Gnn. Barley lah. I told them it was barley. But it seemed they were not familiar with the word. But the Americans knew what it was. In the end, they were quite convinced that I was right. I went back to INSA to get my digital camera and decided to leave my sweater in the room. It was 25 degrees today! Freaking hot. At the corridor I met Emily, and her friend. Beautiful long hair, petit girl. Black, straight long hair. But I was too shy to ask Emily to intro.
Back in the office, after capturing some clips of my experiment, I chatted with Chris on msn. I asked him if I can go with him to Spain if I can’t go Germany. He said he is going to visit a friend. Then he said he might go back SG earlier because now he is a bit tired and his gf just went back. He doesn’t feel like travelling anymore. And he will be travelling alone now. But he still wanted to go to Germany, Prague and Budapest. Laurent is going Budapest tomorrow. Wish him luck with his Hungarian girl. Then I received emails about soccer tomorrow. The season at the soccer court is over now. We are going to play soccer in the campus tomorrow. Yeah! Free of charge. But the problem is: no one has a ball. Kao. Then I received another email from Mathieu. He said he has been looking at my photos and said I had become a great French traveller. Then he said he can’t help me with the luggage as he will be in Madrid in June. Luckily, hui said his supervisor was quite positive in helping us. Mathieu then said he might be in Rennes again some days and would come visit us. Lastly, he wished me luck for the presentation tomorrow and I guessed he must have heard the news from someone else.
In the late afternoon, I went to find Anatole to do the rehearsal. He told me that this presentation will not change anything since the assessment form, the final report had been submitted. So no pressure. I should take pleasure and be happy when presenting my work. He said I am only allowed 20 min to present. I took a deep breath, and began. I completely made a mess in that 20 min. I wasn’t sure what slide comes after the current one. I didn’t use the cue cards that I prepared which were almost empty anyway. I didn’t even know what to say at some points even though all these works were mine. As usual, he said it is good enough and it is natural to be nervous. Even the most experienced presenter is nervous when presenting. Being nervous shows that the work is important to you. But I still feel bad though what he said probably is true. Some consolation for myself: I only prepared it yesterday. Then he went through slide by slide what points I needed to take note and then globally how I should control my speech and breathing, etc. He has done numerous presentations for conferences. In the end, he told me to go back tonight and rehearse 3 times (I just did one) and tomorrow everything will be fine. This is the first time he had spent so much time in a day going through my work.
Back in INSA, I was thinking about what to say for my presentation while cooking. Then the great cook came in and started boiling his milk. He then went over and shared the stove with me because the one he was using was very slow. Then he started to chat with me; in French. He asked about my experiment and I said it was done. Really it was quite weird. He speaking French and I speaking English. But luckily he was speaking very, very slowly. He said he got a friend in Paris doing experiments on VR also, I guess. Lastly he said he was from Algeria. Kadi is from Algeria also. I guess it must be one of French colonies last time.
I have 2 more rehearsal to do later on. Then I would drink some rum (which is really powerful. I drank a bit last night and I was drunk. Think I am just lousy) and sleep early. Got a SEMINAR tomorrow man…
No comments:
Post a Comment