Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Well guys, I guess it's time for me to upload my photos. Have been having it with me since long, but I'm just sooo lazy to upload it. Hehehehe.... Sorry2... But here they are:
View of my school, SUPELEC (the left ones).
The most right is my residence building. There are 3 actually, but mine is separated from the other 2. So whenever I wanna c my frens, I gotta walk, in the cold, especially at nite (quite interesting though :D), for about 5-10 min.
<- First shopping (2nd day) at Carrefour, the only supermarket selling utensils!! Was 1.5 hrs travel just to go there. U gotta buy plastic bags, coz they dun give u. So we decided to just use the laundry basket we bought. Hehehe.... 
Chun Jian, the NUS student who was kind enuf to bring us to the freaking far Carrefour...
My room!!! Yeah, well... it's actually nice... For all of u who haven't known, I got a studio! Haha... Well... it's ex, so I tried to change actually, but they didn't have another one. So I gotta settle for this one.. :) --> The kitchen where I cook. Yes, I DO COOK here people. Anyone who wants to challenge my cullinary skill can ask me once I got back later. LOL... But at your own risk ya... Hahhahaa.... The last 3 pics are the view from my window. Not bad huh? But well... Supelec is THAT isolated, dat's practically all u see around here. Fields and trees with no leaves. Hehhee... Kinda like it though.
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Upon arrival at Supelec (my uni), we met the international relation people. So, here is the point where everything starts going haywire for me. My French is not up to standard yet and they just talked normally in French. The thing is, Luc’s first language is French. So his French is damn good. He did all the talking. I just listened. I mean, listening alone is sooo hard. Really, no other words to describe. They gave us a tour and introduced to many staffs. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy. But I was soo tired and still have to give my full concentration trying to catch what everybody was saying for the whole of 2 plus hours almost continuously.
Having Luc with me is both good and bad. It’s such a blessing he cud help me, translate some things, ask things, get us around, etc because his French is so fluent. But at the same time, it’s so demoralizing. Almost everybody, except for a lady talked to him. The fortunate thing is, most of the time I can catch the main point. So the rest of the blank puzzle, I either asked Luc here and there or leave it blank. The later being the more popular choice.
After lunch we met the Singaporeans Archana introduced to me. They were sooo nice. It’s sooo nice to find people like us. 2 indians, and 1 chinese. They were so helpful. They are here for a double degree program. So they’re gonna stay here for 2 years. They told us, it’s super difficult here at Supelec. It’s the school for the best out of the best. Even the stupider people here is still very smart. Like all the Dean’s list in NUS only. And the standard here is even higher than NUS. I swear I had no idea of that, otherwise I wudn’t come here man. And they also said, no holiday here, except for Easter (2 weeks) and another one I forgot (1 week). Good luck to me!! Once exam is finished, the next day is school. Not only that, let’s say there is exam in the morning, the afternoon classes is still on!!!! And the lab, the teacher won’t help us AT ALL. In NUS, we’re at least given explanation at the start rite, here is not. Do it by urself kind of thing. Damn it! Azuraaaaa…. How???
OK, honestly. I’m really really scared. Sigh…. One of them said “It’s a mistake for me to come here, to come to any
Then we went to our rooms. I was quite hungry actually. But all I wanted to do is just bathe and then sleep. No strength even just to eat. So guess wat, I slept from 7 back to 7 again. LOL 12 hours. Now I’m refreshed!!! LOL
Ok, so here goes my first day: (actually now is already second day. It’s 8 o’clock in the morning now and I’m eating instant noodle for my breakfast. LOL).
Basically, first day didn’t really go well, but it wasn’t so bad too.
My flights were both alright. I managed to sleep a bit here and there. My first flight from SG to Bangkok was 2 hrs and I sat alone. The only thing I had to struggle with is to fight the tears that were threatening to spill. I cudn’t help it lah, I was already missing u all so muchhhh and felt lonely all of a sudden. But it’s normallah ya… Hehehe… 5 of my frens and both my parents sent me off. It was such a short but memorable gathering. I love u so much, guysssss. Thanx for coming ya. Muacks! But dun worry, I only cried a bit, coz I was embarrassed, u see. LOL…
From Bangkok I went straight to Paris. It was a 12 hrs flight. Beside me were these 2 old French couple, quite nice actually. The only problem is they don’t talk much, so I cudn’t talk to them, too. I mean, come on, they even BARELY talk to each other throughout the journey. I don’t understand how a couple can be like that. LOL… The lady was most of the time sleeping and the guy was most of the time going to the toilet or just sitting. LOL…. But he was so nice to help me get my luggage up and down without me asking. God must’ve sent him to help me
So, I finally arrived so very on time. Took my super heavy luggage and tried to proceed to terminal 2 to look for Jean Luc, my Mauritian friend who’s going for exchange with me, too. Now I fully understand why Changi Airport is the best airport in the world, even though it’s not so big. But everything is designed for the utmost convenience and everything is in order. I asked the information how to go, and he told me to go to lift 20. But when I reach there, it was SOOO crowded then 5 min later a policeman came over and shouted some French sentence which I cudn’t catch. Until he said it like the hundredth times, I finally catch the word ‘vingt-quatre, s’il vous plait” (translation: 24, please) while pointing to the opposite direction. So I finally understood, I have to go to lift 24. But so many other ppl went the wrong way, too and were being stubborn, refusing to leave. I made the wise choice by following the instruction and going to lift 24, but so many other ppl didn’t, so finally the policeman got so fed up that he screamed like mad. The funny thing is, those many people then cheered at him in a mocking way. LOL… I just laughed to myself. Hahhaa…
Well, finally I got to the bus, and mind u, ALL BY MYSELF. I’m gonna tell my dad that his constant telling me that people will help me is not true. No one helped me. HUH! French ppl! I remember when we went to USA, people were more friendly and helpful. But, oh well. I somehow managed to get myself to terminal 2 and waited for Luc there. He came only after an hour plus of waiting. I’m so glad he came, coz we promised to wait til 9 for each other, if not we’re supposed to go by ourselves. And he came at around 8.50 like that. Oh, and there was one funny thing while waiting for Luc. Coz I was looking so intently at the info board, trying to estimate how much time Luc needed to get out. My face must have looked convincing, as if I understand a great deal what I was reading. LOL. A french guy (quite cute, actually. LOL) came over and asked me something. Then I must have given him the most blurred face, coz he suddenly stopped and said (in French), “do u understand French?” I answered a bit, then he started asking again. He spoke damn fast!!! Finally I just gave him an apologetic look and said “Je ne comprend pas” (I dun understand). A very useful phrase indeed! But I mean, I was the ONLY Asian there, and all around me there were so many French looking people. Why did he choose to ask me?? A very unwise decision, I guess. LOL. I’m sure he regretted it. Hahahaha… After that he went and ask another person, this time is a French. LOL
Hmm ok, then came Luc. Then we proceeded to RER station (it’s equivalent to MRT), we tried buying the ticket but it’s either using coins (which we not yet have) or credit card (but only credit card with pin, so we couldn’t use any of ours). So stupid!! Spore is much better! Luckily, a French guy offered to help, we use his credit card and pay him cash.
BUT!!! After getting our ticket, for some stupid reason I do not know, the machine rejected our ticket. So I just pushed my 2 luggages below the turnstile then I crawl under it. It’s damn stupid!! I cudn’t care less. If anybody caught me, I’ll just tell him I GOT my ticket (I paid 24 sing dollar for 1 trip btw) but got refused. But Luc didn’t dare. I told him just follow what I did. He didn’t want to, and went to ask a French lady who happened to pass by. She also didn’t know what’s wrong, so she told Luc to go with her, means 1 ticket for 2 people. That’s cheating too, but who cares. We’re not in the wrong.
It was damnnnn COLD out there. It was -3. I’m so glad I got my coat ready. Luc didn’t though, so he suffered more than I did. It’s only my hands that barely cud stand the pain from the cold, but I was lazy to take gloves from my bag. And u know wat??? They dun have down escalator. Freaking idiot!!! It’s MRT from AIRPORT, for god’s sake, yet they don’t provide lift or escalator. So, we had to descend the stairs manually, me carrying my 30 kg luggage. It was damn high. I told Luc, “Luc, u gotta help me, I can’t do it” I’m so glad I got him. Thank God. He’s very nice, helped me so many times.
We got off at a station then took taxi from there. U noe wat?? From that station, we gotta cross a damn tall bridge. So again, we went up then down the stairs. It’s so troublesome u noe… So difficult… So heavy… So cold… Somehow we got to the other said lah ya, then got taxi, which get us to Supelec. Oh, and do u noe how the taxi fare is? The meter increases 0.1 euro (means 20 cents) PER SECOND….
Hmmm ok, I think I should continue next time. Have to go in a while...