I woke up early as usual but went to work late. Because I spent another 30 min in the room rehearsing one more time. When I was in the office, I didn’t want to look at the powerpoint anymore. Xiaopei replied my email and said that it is inconvenient for me to bunk in her place and if I am still interested in going Berlin with her, she can find some good hostels for me in Munich. I replied and said alright I will still go. Then I went to check the air tickets. I was planning to go Munich on the 8th and return on the 13th. I was shocked to see that the price went up by 40 euros! Hence, I decided to shift the date to 9th and return on the 14th. The price was back to normal. But I didn’t want to book first because I thought I should inform Anatole first; after my presentation later. If I flopped badly later, I wouldn’t dare to ask for offs. But I am set to go Germany. Even if xiaopei changed her mind (it is still not confirm confirm that type), I would still go. Hence, I began writing my paper, hoping I can finish earlier.
At lunch, it was just me and Nicolas Mollet (not Pronost who always play soccer with me). I had never eaten lunch with him one on one. He said he never speaks English except when I am here. Ok. Good for him. Still we chatted a lot and I was able to help him with some English translation when he was telling me some French words like “couloir” means corridor. Then I talked to him about some of my Chinese friends feeling ostracised in INSA. He said when he was a student, he was very eager to meet foreigners. He had a Spanish friend and they mixed very well. I told him that’s probably different. What I meant was students from Asia. What is the general mentality of French students of the Asian students. He defended the French students by saying that these students are not confident in English and hence dare not speak to Asian students. And he said among all the Asians he had seen, their English has a strange accent (Chinese, Vietnamese) that he couldn’t understand. Except for Singaporean English, he said. I am the first Singaporean he had interacted with and he had no problem understanding my English, as far as pronunciation is concerned that is. I was trying to see both sides of the story. I feel that both their stands are partially correct. We chatted until it was 130pm. Gosh, my presentation is at 2pm. If I had the time, I would probably chat more with him (or debate) on this issue. Anyway, he is as free as me because he just finished his PhD thesis.
It was already 145pm back in the office and I didn’t have time to go through my slide one more time. I packed my laptop and went with Anatole to the conference room and setup my equipment. The temperature was 27 degrees and with no air-conditioning, it was hot like hell. I guess a lot of people would doze off later. While setting up, I played some Irish music and thought of using that as the beginning. Anatole said it was a brilliant idea. The music was great. Then Stephane, the boss came. Anatole said I will not present first. Stephane will debrief the team on some results and then will call me when he is done. So it will be more nervous for me. Because I will be waiting for my name to be called while the briefing was conducting; in French. Shortly, the whole team came. And I meant almost everyone who was here today turned up; like 30 people. Even those interns and trainees. I went and sat with Jean-Marie and waited for Stephane to begin and going through my line.
Suddenly, Anatole came and said you are presenting first because some people are not here yet and hence Stephane didn’t want to do the briefing now. Kao! I took a deep breath and went up front. Some close colleagues started to applaud to encourage me. I was really nervous. I presented my work step by step, emphasising important points which I want the audience to remember. I really was making conscious effort in making them understand right from the beginning, making sure they follow. Then I went into the various experiments and discussed the results. So they must understand the concept first before they know what I was talking about for the experiment. In the middle of the presentation, a little incident happened. Someone was moving some kind of metal pipes outside the room and was making a lot of noise. I was distracted immediately and stumbled a bit. In the end, I decided to pause to wait for the noise to pass. Don’t panic, I told myself. Someone closed the window for me to block the noise and it was much better. I thanked him and continued. The important people were seated right in front; Stephane, Anatole and Kadi. I was just too glad to come to the conclusion slide.
Then it was Q and A; and some bombardments. Someone asked me about the accuracy of a particular experiment. It was something which I couldn’t explain within a few minutes and I invited him to discuss with me offline. Very professional words I felt. Then Mark, the American asked another question and I answered well for that. I was looking at him during the presentation for most of the time because he was sitting right at the end. Some thing for me to focus. Kadi asked another question which was really complicated but I rephrased it for him in a simpler manner. It showed that I understood his question. Before I can explain, Anatole stepped in and explained for me because it was a rather difficult question. Julien asked another question which was really what I was waiting for because I got some good points to say about that. Stephane asked another similar one which gave me further rooms to talk about my work. Lastly, Kadi made some suggestions to further enhance my work. I said that was a very good point which will be considered for future work. He said I will come back and continue that future work.
At the end, I thanked everyone and rounds of applaud from the audience. While I was closing the slides, my wallpaper was revealed, with a picture of me with 2 thumbs up at Perros Guirec. Everyone said “Wow” because the scenery was really beautiful. Kadi asked where that was and I said Perros Guirec. Anatole said the presentation was excellent and I just blushed and thanked him. He said he meant it. Really it was fantastic. Most of the guys left after the presentation. Only a few people stayed behind for the briefing. 2 guys came up and discussed with me on my work because they found it interesting and wanted to know more. While exiting the room, some colleagues came by and congratulated me for a good job done. One of them said he could even help me publish my paper but I said I have to leave that to Anatole because this is my first paper. He was surprised that this was my first paper and said that it is good that I would have a paper published even before I graduate. He said it is good to accumulate lots of papers so that in future if I want to do PhD, it would be easier to find a sponsor.
I went back to my office and was in a super delighted mood. This presentation was so important to me. Because it represents everything about me here. Some of the colleagues didn’t even know who I am. They just know there is a SG guy in the team. But I have some interactions with majority of the guys. Therefore, this presentation is the only chance for me to talk about my work. My worth here. My five months. My everything. I see this presentation as ME. That’s how strongly I felt about this presentation. If I flopped this presentation, people might think that SG people are not good enough to be here. As what Loi said, don’t make SG malu. A bit exaggerating but somehow people would associate my capability with SG because I am the first and only one SG guy in the team. Actually I am keen to find out about the previous SG students in IRISA, which project group they were in, how well they did, etc.
Anatole came and said well done. It was simply good. He said 3 people came up to him and said that this was one of the clearest presentations they ever had. And they were saying that I was speaking very good English. Wow!!! I was on cloud nine. Anatole said he had nothing to say but congratulations. Then I seized the opportunity to ask for 3 days off to go to Germany. He said why not push back a little later so that I can leave earlier. I told him I need to combine with that weekend because of my friend’s timing. He said whatever I wish. Just don’t get into any accidents over in Germany because I am still under his responsibility. Yuppy! With that settled, I went online to book the air tickets. To my horror, the price went up again for 9th June. In the end, I had to settle for 10th June and pushed further the return date to 14th. Which means I would return to Rennes on the 14th. Go back to work on the 15th and 16th then fuck off on the 17th. Might as well leave a week earlier. I think I would ask Kadi to help me to organise a farewell dinner on the 15th because lately I found out that he is in charge of foreign students here in the team. Jaro was under his care. The 2 Americans now were under his care. Anatole never told me about this. He probably thought that I mixed so well with the rest of the colleagues that I do not need Kadi’s help. But he is really like a fatherly figure whom I can depend on.
I was chatting again with Chris and also Bob who is in Sweden now. We were talking about travel plans. Shiok that now everything is off my mind. Only thing is the paper. But Anatole mentioned before that he needed me to work on some other programming if I have time left. I will make sure I look damn busy for these last 20 days. I went back to INSA at around 7pm and at 730pm, I went to the soccer field in the campus for a game. I saw Nicolas at the carpark and we waited there for the guys. He said that my presentation was very clear. We waited for 20 min and decided to walk around and realised that we were waiting at the wrong place. The rest of the guys were already there. We played for 2hrs, from 8pm to 10pm but it wasn’t tiring at all. The guys were damn tired and almost dehydrated because at 8pm, the sun was still very hot. I felt nothing. Really, at 27 degrees, I felt warm. To them it was hell. It was a boring game because the terrain was uneven and they shifted the goal post until the field was so small. Not much running. I don’t think I would play there anymore.
Tomorrow I would still go to work as usual and put in lots of effort in my paper writing. If all the compliments given to me were true (the colleagues might be very kind because I am a foreigner), then I should write a very good paper to maintain the record. It is also for my own good of course.
At lunch, it was just me and Nicolas Mollet (not Pronost who always play soccer with me). I had never eaten lunch with him one on one. He said he never speaks English except when I am here. Ok. Good for him. Still we chatted a lot and I was able to help him with some English translation when he was telling me some French words like “couloir” means corridor. Then I talked to him about some of my Chinese friends feeling ostracised in INSA. He said when he was a student, he was very eager to meet foreigners. He had a Spanish friend and they mixed very well. I told him that’s probably different. What I meant was students from Asia. What is the general mentality of French students of the Asian students. He defended the French students by saying that these students are not confident in English and hence dare not speak to Asian students. And he said among all the Asians he had seen, their English has a strange accent (Chinese, Vietnamese) that he couldn’t understand. Except for Singaporean English, he said. I am the first Singaporean he had interacted with and he had no problem understanding my English, as far as pronunciation is concerned that is. I was trying to see both sides of the story. I feel that both their stands are partially correct. We chatted until it was 130pm. Gosh, my presentation is at 2pm. If I had the time, I would probably chat more with him (or debate) on this issue. Anyway, he is as free as me because he just finished his PhD thesis.
It was already 145pm back in the office and I didn’t have time to go through my slide one more time. I packed my laptop and went with Anatole to the conference room and setup my equipment. The temperature was 27 degrees and with no air-conditioning, it was hot like hell. I guess a lot of people would doze off later. While setting up, I played some Irish music and thought of using that as the beginning. Anatole said it was a brilliant idea. The music was great. Then Stephane, the boss came. Anatole said I will not present first. Stephane will debrief the team on some results and then will call me when he is done. So it will be more nervous for me. Because I will be waiting for my name to be called while the briefing was conducting; in French. Shortly, the whole team came. And I meant almost everyone who was here today turned up; like 30 people. Even those interns and trainees. I went and sat with Jean-Marie and waited for Stephane to begin and going through my line.
Suddenly, Anatole came and said you are presenting first because some people are not here yet and hence Stephane didn’t want to do the briefing now. Kao! I took a deep breath and went up front. Some close colleagues started to applaud to encourage me. I was really nervous. I presented my work step by step, emphasising important points which I want the audience to remember. I really was making conscious effort in making them understand right from the beginning, making sure they follow. Then I went into the various experiments and discussed the results. So they must understand the concept first before they know what I was talking about for the experiment. In the middle of the presentation, a little incident happened. Someone was moving some kind of metal pipes outside the room and was making a lot of noise. I was distracted immediately and stumbled a bit. In the end, I decided to pause to wait for the noise to pass. Don’t panic, I told myself. Someone closed the window for me to block the noise and it was much better. I thanked him and continued. The important people were seated right in front; Stephane, Anatole and Kadi. I was just too glad to come to the conclusion slide.
Then it was Q and A; and some bombardments. Someone asked me about the accuracy of a particular experiment. It was something which I couldn’t explain within a few minutes and I invited him to discuss with me offline. Very professional words I felt. Then Mark, the American asked another question and I answered well for that. I was looking at him during the presentation for most of the time because he was sitting right at the end. Some thing for me to focus. Kadi asked another question which was really complicated but I rephrased it for him in a simpler manner. It showed that I understood his question. Before I can explain, Anatole stepped in and explained for me because it was a rather difficult question. Julien asked another question which was really what I was waiting for because I got some good points to say about that. Stephane asked another similar one which gave me further rooms to talk about my work. Lastly, Kadi made some suggestions to further enhance my work. I said that was a very good point which will be considered for future work. He said I will come back and continue that future work.
At the end, I thanked everyone and rounds of applaud from the audience. While I was closing the slides, my wallpaper was revealed, with a picture of me with 2 thumbs up at Perros Guirec. Everyone said “Wow” because the scenery was really beautiful. Kadi asked where that was and I said Perros Guirec. Anatole said the presentation was excellent and I just blushed and thanked him. He said he meant it. Really it was fantastic. Most of the guys left after the presentation. Only a few people stayed behind for the briefing. 2 guys came up and discussed with me on my work because they found it interesting and wanted to know more. While exiting the room, some colleagues came by and congratulated me for a good job done. One of them said he could even help me publish my paper but I said I have to leave that to Anatole because this is my first paper. He was surprised that this was my first paper and said that it is good that I would have a paper published even before I graduate. He said it is good to accumulate lots of papers so that in future if I want to do PhD, it would be easier to find a sponsor.
I went back to my office and was in a super delighted mood. This presentation was so important to me. Because it represents everything about me here. Some of the colleagues didn’t even know who I am. They just know there is a SG guy in the team. But I have some interactions with majority of the guys. Therefore, this presentation is the only chance for me to talk about my work. My worth here. My five months. My everything. I see this presentation as ME. That’s how strongly I felt about this presentation. If I flopped this presentation, people might think that SG people are not good enough to be here. As what Loi said, don’t make SG malu. A bit exaggerating but somehow people would associate my capability with SG because I am the first and only one SG guy in the team. Actually I am keen to find out about the previous SG students in IRISA, which project group they were in, how well they did, etc.
Anatole came and said well done. It was simply good. He said 3 people came up to him and said that this was one of the clearest presentations they ever had. And they were saying that I was speaking very good English. Wow!!! I was on cloud nine. Anatole said he had nothing to say but congratulations. Then I seized the opportunity to ask for 3 days off to go to Germany. He said why not push back a little later so that I can leave earlier. I told him I need to combine with that weekend because of my friend’s timing. He said whatever I wish. Just don’t get into any accidents over in Germany because I am still under his responsibility. Yuppy! With that settled, I went online to book the air tickets. To my horror, the price went up again for 9th June. In the end, I had to settle for 10th June and pushed further the return date to 14th. Which means I would return to Rennes on the 14th. Go back to work on the 15th and 16th then fuck off on the 17th. Might as well leave a week earlier. I think I would ask Kadi to help me to organise a farewell dinner on the 15th because lately I found out that he is in charge of foreign students here in the team. Jaro was under his care. The 2 Americans now were under his care. Anatole never told me about this. He probably thought that I mixed so well with the rest of the colleagues that I do not need Kadi’s help. But he is really like a fatherly figure whom I can depend on.
I was chatting again with Chris and also Bob who is in Sweden now. We were talking about travel plans. Shiok that now everything is off my mind. Only thing is the paper. But Anatole mentioned before that he needed me to work on some other programming if I have time left. I will make sure I look damn busy for these last 20 days. I went back to INSA at around 7pm and at 730pm, I went to the soccer field in the campus for a game. I saw Nicolas at the carpark and we waited there for the guys. He said that my presentation was very clear. We waited for 20 min and decided to walk around and realised that we were waiting at the wrong place. The rest of the guys were already there. We played for 2hrs, from 8pm to 10pm but it wasn’t tiring at all. The guys were damn tired and almost dehydrated because at 8pm, the sun was still very hot. I felt nothing. Really, at 27 degrees, I felt warm. To them it was hell. It was a boring game because the terrain was uneven and they shifted the goal post until the field was so small. Not much running. I don’t think I would play there anymore.
Tomorrow I would still go to work as usual and put in lots of effort in my paper writing. If all the compliments given to me were true (the colleagues might be very kind because I am a foreigner), then I should write a very good paper to maintain the record. It is also for my own good of course.
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