This morning as promised, I introduced myself to my “love rival”. His name was Jeremy and he was here also for training which was a criterion for his Master. And he was working under the old man next door, called Yves Beckker. This 2 were always earlier than me in the office. My supervisor was always here after 11am. Jeremy spoke adequate English. We didn’t chat much before we went back to our work and he was definitely more hardworking than I was. Often I would peep at what he was doing and it was always work. For me, I did spend some times surfing the net of course but I was not in the least guilty of that.
I went to look for Mathilde because I needed to fax something but she was not around. I noticed she would only be present around 2pm. I also asked Jeremy if he knew of any Chinese community here and he said he did not know of any but will find out for me from his friends in INSA. I bet he would forget. Soon it was lunch and just as I thought I would eat alone again, Jeremy “jio” me to eat with his friends. So we went together and on the way, I passed by Anatole’s room and asked if he would like to join us. He said he already bought sandwiches because he needed to rush off at 3pm. Good to hear that your boss was always not around. Outside the student restaurant, I met his friend Selina who gave me a motherly kind of feeling for she was a bit plump. She greeted Jeremy with kisses but just shook my hand of course. She spoke poorer English than Jeremy but it was okay with me. Poor English is better than no English. Then there was this guy on an electric wheelchair coming towards us. He looked like those with Down Syndrome, err… a bit mentally retarded that kind. I don’t know what words to describe so as not to sound too offensive. At first I thought he wanted money from us but Selina kissed him also and chatted with him. He was a cheerful guy and another girl came and greeted him with kisses. This guy is popular man!
Later from Jeremy and Selina, I found out that this guy was very famous in the campus. He was a “Chuan Qi Ren Wu”, those that is eligible for Extraordinary People. He would often go south, cross the border to Spain and visit a holy place there where miracles are said to happen. And he would go on this journey alone which was very tough because if the weather was good, he would sleep in his tent; but sometimes he had to seek shelter under others’ roof, provided they let him in. And he had to find places to charge his electric wheelchair. Why did he do this, I do not know.
After we waited for about 10 min, Jeremy’s other friend finally came. He was Pierre Francois and was a rather cool guy for he did not talk much to me. So the 4 of us had lunch together. As usual, they would converse in French and I would listen dumbly. But as I said before, I didn’t mind at all. To eat alone or eat with a stranger is worse. So hopefully tomorrow Jeremy would ask me for lunch again and maybe introduce some more new friends to me. I guessed as long as my circle of friends grows larger; one day I would definitely find some friends who speak English. Jeremy said that he was getting something like 600 euros for what he was doing now, plus some government funding. I was a bit embarrassed to tell him that I was getting 858 euros. But I had to pay the rent. After lunch, he and Pierre went on to the cafeteria while I went back to work.
I was reading the Straits Times online when Anatole came into my room and said I had a letter but was put in his mailbox instead. I opened it and it was in French so I asked him to translate for me. It was a letter from EGIDE, a government organization that provides funds and scholarships in France. So this is the body that is paying me in fact. Also I am covered with social assurance here in France, which meant that all medical fees, hospitalization fees would be fully reimbursed. In case of death, there would be some coverage also and my family would benefit. This was just the gist of it because the details were lengthy and that I had to read it myself. What I had to do right now was to fill up the form and send it back. It seemed like I was well covered in France and the travel insurance that I bought for $360 before I came was useless. But it did cover emergency evacuation, lost of luggage and other stuffs.
So in the afternoon, I went to find Mathilde again and this time she was there. She had red sweater today. I told her I needed to post something and needed an envelope. She said that I could take anything I wanted in her room. No need to ask. I wanted to ask, “can I take you then?” but of course I kept my mouth shut. She also taught me how to use the fax machine. I don’t understand why a clerk speaks such lousy English like hers. Simple sentences took her ages to construct. But I enjoyed every minute. Hahaha. While I was working my code, Jie Hua MSN me. Finally I heard from him! He had been to Italy for a month and it was really “yin xun quan wu” from him until now. I was actually quite worried for him because I knew now that it could be quite dangerous alone in a foreign country, especially one that does not speak your language. But he was actually enjoying life man! He had 3 Singaporean girls with him. And I am all alone here. But he said he would rather not have any friends with him in the beginning so that he would go all out and make new friends. Ok pal, let’s swap position then. Anyway, I was glad that he was fine.
I went to look for Mathilde because I needed to fax something but she was not around. I noticed she would only be present around 2pm. I also asked Jeremy if he knew of any Chinese community here and he said he did not know of any but will find out for me from his friends in INSA. I bet he would forget. Soon it was lunch and just as I thought I would eat alone again, Jeremy “jio” me to eat with his friends. So we went together and on the way, I passed by Anatole’s room and asked if he would like to join us. He said he already bought sandwiches because he needed to rush off at 3pm. Good to hear that your boss was always not around. Outside the student restaurant, I met his friend Selina who gave me a motherly kind of feeling for she was a bit plump. She greeted Jeremy with kisses but just shook my hand of course. She spoke poorer English than Jeremy but it was okay with me. Poor English is better than no English. Then there was this guy on an electric wheelchair coming towards us. He looked like those with Down Syndrome, err… a bit mentally retarded that kind. I don’t know what words to describe so as not to sound too offensive. At first I thought he wanted money from us but Selina kissed him also and chatted with him. He was a cheerful guy and another girl came and greeted him with kisses. This guy is popular man!
Later from Jeremy and Selina, I found out that this guy was very famous in the campus. He was a “Chuan Qi Ren Wu”, those that is eligible for Extraordinary People. He would often go south, cross the border to Spain and visit a holy place there where miracles are said to happen. And he would go on this journey alone which was very tough because if the weather was good, he would sleep in his tent; but sometimes he had to seek shelter under others’ roof, provided they let him in. And he had to find places to charge his electric wheelchair. Why did he do this, I do not know.
After we waited for about 10 min, Jeremy’s other friend finally came. He was Pierre Francois and was a rather cool guy for he did not talk much to me. So the 4 of us had lunch together. As usual, they would converse in French and I would listen dumbly. But as I said before, I didn’t mind at all. To eat alone or eat with a stranger is worse. So hopefully tomorrow Jeremy would ask me for lunch again and maybe introduce some more new friends to me. I guessed as long as my circle of friends grows larger; one day I would definitely find some friends who speak English. Jeremy said that he was getting something like 600 euros for what he was doing now, plus some government funding. I was a bit embarrassed to tell him that I was getting 858 euros. But I had to pay the rent. After lunch, he and Pierre went on to the cafeteria while I went back to work.
I was reading the Straits Times online when Anatole came into my room and said I had a letter but was put in his mailbox instead. I opened it and it was in French so I asked him to translate for me. It was a letter from EGIDE, a government organization that provides funds and scholarships in France. So this is the body that is paying me in fact. Also I am covered with social assurance here in France, which meant that all medical fees, hospitalization fees would be fully reimbursed. In case of death, there would be some coverage also and my family would benefit. This was just the gist of it because the details were lengthy and that I had to read it myself. What I had to do right now was to fill up the form and send it back. It seemed like I was well covered in France and the travel insurance that I bought for $360 before I came was useless. But it did cover emergency evacuation, lost of luggage and other stuffs.
So in the afternoon, I went to find Mathilde again and this time she was there. She had red sweater today. I told her I needed to post something and needed an envelope. She said that I could take anything I wanted in her room. No need to ask. I wanted to ask, “can I take you then?” but of course I kept my mouth shut. She also taught me how to use the fax machine. I don’t understand why a clerk speaks such lousy English like hers. Simple sentences took her ages to construct. But I enjoyed every minute. Hahaha. While I was working my code, Jie Hua MSN me. Finally I heard from him! He had been to Italy for a month and it was really “yin xun quan wu” from him until now. I was actually quite worried for him because I knew now that it could be quite dangerous alone in a foreign country, especially one that does not speak your language. But he was actually enjoying life man! He had 3 Singaporean girls with him. And I am all alone here. But he said he would rather not have any friends with him in the beginning so that he would go all out and make new friends. Ok pal, let’s swap position then. Anyway, I was glad that he was fine.
I had settled a large part of my code and was pretty relieved now. I read some of hui’s blog and I kept seeing my name being mentioned (he was using ZX). Well same here. You would find this mysterious “hui” guy appearing in my blog because he was also on the same attachment as mine but in another city of France. I felt lucky that I did not end up in his place because after reading his blog, I knew I would definitely not survive the cold there. Here it was still ok, about 5 to 10 degrees everyday. But I still hate the cold. Last night I was jolted out of my bed at 330a.m. because don’t know for what reason, I was feeling super cold suddenly and was shivering like mad. Maybe I didn’t eat enough I guess. But never mind, thinking that I would save enough for my tour at the end of my IA makes me feel good. I could not resist the temptation and went online to check some places of interest in Marseilles and prices of youth hostels. But I told myself don’t be foolish to start think about holidays so early. Anyway, I might not be able to have enough time to play because the EGIDE letter said that I was covered until 30th June which meant I have to stay till then in IRISA. But Anatole said we shall see what we could do about that. Hopefully he would give me some kind of leaves or offs then.
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