Updates
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Okieee, first of all, I know it's been such a long time, but this time I have a valid reason. Last week was pretty busy for once and I just finished my exams 2 days ago. So there u go!Anyway, not that many exciting things happened during the past 2 weeks. Just met up with a family friends last last Saturday. It's my dad's old friend, his wife and the children. I was really spoilt there, really so nice of them. They took me to a Jap resto for lunch and steak resto for dinner. A luxury in one day that I can't afford on my own here. Huehehehe.... Not to mention giving me some food to bring home, lend me a rice cooker and took me all the way home. Reminds me just of my beloved mom. She would've done pretty much the same as what that aunty did. Oh, she also gave me some simple recipes actually, which I tried very hard to remember but apparently forgotten on the very same day. Yeah Ross, like I said before, I think I need a husband who can cook. LOL. But u all noe wat?? I actually have a cooking and recipe website bookmarked!!! It's such a big step for me you know! Huehehehhee....
Had my French exam last Thursday and then my Sofware Engineering exam on Mon. The software engin was an oral exam. There were 2 parts, the first was presenting facts and should be easier as long as I studied, and yes, I did. How could I not when I'm scared stiff? The second was application question. I was given 30 min to prepare and then present for the next 30 min. Hmm, I'd say I didn't feel bad when I got out of the exam room, but seriously I'm not sure. I just hope I'd be able to pass. I hope the examiner understood my lousy French. My vocab was limited and my grammar was terrible. That's the thing I hate most about oral exam, I barely have time to think about the grammar while presenting my answer. I know I said a lot of what in English would sound like 'we has' or 'I does' except that it sounds even worse in French I think. LOL. Oh well, I just hope if my answer was bad, she was actually distracted by my lousy French and therefore missed my mistakes and then thought "Oh well, my fault for not listening to her carefully, let me just pass her" (*yeah riteeee, dream on!*) LOL
And last topic: Daylight Saving Time. I know, I know. I've always been ignorant and yes, it's my own fault. But this time, my ignorance really almost got me screwed up. So here's the story: Last Sun, I went for the Sunday mass at the church downhill. When I got there, however, I was surprised how come it was already so full and it has already started coz I always reach a little bit earlier and it's usually not that full yet at that timing. So I just went in quietly and joined at the back. Took me a while to realise that it's actually going to end already. I was late for almost 1 hour!! And to think the mass is only around 1 hr!! So yeah, I only caught the last 15 mins or so. I wondered so hard if they changed the mass timings or not, so when the mass had ended, I went and ask one of the warden when the mass started. He tried to explain some things, but despite his enormous effort to explain slowly and clearly (he was half shouting actually towards the end LOL) I only understood that for the whole summer, the mass starts 1 hr earlier. So, OK, I went home, cursing the French for changing schedules as and when they please.
The next day was my software engin exam. I should reach school at 12. 15. So I woke up at 10 and not long after that my friend called me, telling me to come for a project meeting. I told him I couldn't coz I'll have an exam at 12. So he said alright and hung up. 5 min later he called again, asking "btw, do u noe it's 11 o'clock now?" I told him, no, it's 10. Only then he said yesterday the time was changed, it's pushed by 1 hr coz of the daylight saving. Realising I only have less than an hour to have my lunch and get ready, I thanked him quickly and did whatever I needed to do. I mean, oh my God, if he hadn't been so kind as to bother to call me again, I'd be doomed, missing my first real exam in France!!! My friend told me that looks like God really cares about me even though I came one hr late for the mass. LOL. And so I told him it's a good thing I didn't forget to apologise and ensure God that I didn't come late on purpose. LOL :p But yeah, seriously, God must have saved me coz there wasn't supposed to be any project meeting actually, yet the night before they decided to have one. And if not because of that, my friend wouldn't have called me. Phew...
And so out of my curiousity, I went and checked on daylight saving time (DST). Apparently in Europe, DST begins at 2 a.m on the last Sunday of March. And I checked on the incidents due to DST also. Some of them are funny. According to them, DST does really save oil and electricity consumption, and also lower crime rates. But there're lots of confusions caused by it, too:
-In the spring, there are no babies born at all between 2 to 3 a.m.
-Some trains in the US have to stop in the middle of their journey in order to keep their scheduled arrival timings and so the passengers got confused as how come their travel time gets lengthened by 1 hr.
- Riots coz of bar patrons who protested against the 1 hr reduction of 'drinking time'
- And: some terrorist set up time bombs but instead of killing their enemies, it ended up killing themselves coz they exploded '1 hour earlier' due to DST.
Now, how ironic is that?? Well, life does full of the unexpected, doesn't it?!
French version of Mr. Harry Potter
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
These few days have been much better. Although exams are just around the corner and it's starting to freak me out, I'm determined to just try my best. Not that I have other option, though. Hahaha...For the last 3 weeks of this sequence, I only have classes on Tuesday and Thursday, each is of 3 hrs only. Next monday I will have my last lab, though, the usualy 4.5 hours lab. But since my software engineering exam is happening in less than 2 weeks, I really have to start studying seriously now. That exam will be an oral exam, which is why I'm so freaked out. But according to my senior, it should be ok. I just hope he's right...
Oh, next week there will be the marketing presentation, too. Of course, I'm not worried about that. It's in English and therefore, the only class where I actually talk and participate in class discussion a lot. Hahaaha.... And the presentation, is almost exactly the same as the EE3001 I just did last semester, though the marketing part is deeper here. But well, it's supposed to be a 1 week-prepared presentation only, so it'll be pretty simple. I showed my EE3001 slides, and now they're considering to just use the slides hahaha... Oh well... Not that I mind.
Finally, to explain the title, there's one thing I've been wanting to mention but keep forgetting. There's this guy in my marketing class who looks really really like that Harry Potter actor, Daniel Radcliffe!!! Seriously, I'm not kidding! The thing is, he happens to be in the same project group as me. So, can u imagine, the first time I saw him, he was sitting right in front of me, facing me! It was really hard not to stare at him blatantly. It's a good thing I could control myself. If not... LOL. Everytime I look at him, I feel like laughing. It just feels funny. Hahahaha.... I really feel like asking, "Hey, has anyone ever told u that u look like Harry Potter??" Hahahaaha.... but I guess it's gonna be rude and weird asking that since I don't know him at all. Apparently I'm not the only one thinking that. But well of course, he DOES look like Mr. Potter. When I told the other Singaporean there, they all laughed in agreement. I wish I could take his pic and put him in this blog to let u all see. Hahahha....
Homesick...
Friday, March 09, 2007
Yesterday was not a very good day for me. A lot of things just seemed to go wrong. All in 1 day. I don't really wanna talk about it. But really thank you so much Azura for being there. I don't know how I would go through yesterday without you. It means so much to me, so here's a BIG thank you.And for all others who I know would have done the similar thing given the chance, thank you to u all too. U guys have always been there for me one way or another, ready to lean your shoulders for me to cry upon, to just listen to me or to cheer me up with all your crappy jokes. LOL. Really treasure u all so much. U guys know I'll always be here too for u whenever u need me, rite? :)
Knowing myself, I know I'm definitely gonna miss my family, my home, and my friends. I just didn't expect it to be this soon... I guess yesterday events kinda triggered my homesickness. Hahaha... I dreamt of the whole of my family last night, including my dear cousin Anya and some of my close friends. It seemed so real, so vivid. I guess I just miss u guys so much. Luv ya all!! Muacks!!!
Today's better, though. Resolved myself on a few things yesterday after much thinking. Just crossing my finger that I'll see through it. And of course, pray hard:-)
Winter break, Le Louvre & Eiffel at nite
Friday, March 02, 2007
Hahaha... Ross, for once, I was really busy this week. The stupid school wants to finish the whole module by next week, so for the coming 1 month, i'll be only left with 2 minor modules. Not that I mind it though...Anyway, some stories about what have happened in the past 2 weeks. I had a 1 week winter break last week. Yeah, people... 1 month of school and it's break already. When will NUS ever gonna do that? But no, I'm not gonna complain about NUS. After being here, I realise that NUS is not a bad place after all. The people are much less intimidating. The professors, even though lots of them sucks, they are somehow more approachable. But then again, maybe it's the language barrier. But my software engineering professor (yeah, I know, I must have lost my head for taking that module, knowing how much I hate programming), she gives lecture as if she's only talking to the person right in front of her. Without doubt, my sucky French level gives me lots of trouble catching whatever she says. But seriously, she literally speaks that way. Even Luc with that superb level of French says that, too, which is a relief for me of course knowing he feels the same way, too. She just refuses to use a mic, and she writes on the board as if she needs to conserve chalk urgently. Not only she writes superrrr small that only the first 3 rows can read, but also softly!!! More than half the students give up trying to 'guess' what she writes, some has protested, often to a short-lived avail. Anyway, she's just finished the whole module this morning, leaves me with one more lab and tutorial then....
Oya, about the winter break, I went to this place called Le Loire, it's in south of Paris, only 3 hrs by train, a region full of castles. There were 6 of us and we went for 3D2N. It was a nice visit overall, a really nice break. The first day we visited 1 castle, it was expensive and pretty disappointing coz it's not as good as what we expected. It's very small and the inside was empty. From outside, it looks nice, though.
The 2nd day, we visited 2 castles, one is pretty far, we had to cycle for 20 km one way just to get there, coz taxi would be too expensive. I enjoyed it, though it's really tiring, since in total it's 40km to and fro. Some of the guys keep complaining. I just don't understand why they can't just try to enjoy. I mean, come on, I'm the gal here and I'm not even complaining. It's no use complaining when we're already in that situation, makes everybody feel more tired and not helping at all. Anyway, other than the constant complaint from those guys, all was good. The castle this time was worth visiting. The scenery along the way was nice, the weather was perfect. A few tiring slopes here and there but I really enjoyed it. :)
The day after we returned, I went to Paris with DingYing to try getting this temporary card stay, which if we manage to get, will allow us quite a lot of benefits. I know the chance is slim for me coz of my type of visa but I thought it's gonna be different for her. To much her disappointment, it's the same case for her. She got rejected. Never mind we got rejected, if it's by law. But the way they reject us!! They're really really super rude, the way they chased us out. We were so angry. These French people, a lot of them can be really arrogant. And they're super inefficient. I miss Spore system. U noe just to open a bank account, it takes 3 weeks!!!! In Spore, they'll do it within 15 min!!!! Wth... And to make this stupid card, they need AT LEAST HALF A YEAR!!! I've really never encountered any system slower and more stupid than this. Even Indonesia would probably take only 1 month to process such simple and standardised procedure. My friends who applied for their cards, got it within almost a year. And the funny thing is, it expires in 1 year. So, by the time they got the card for that year, they already have to apply for a new one for the coming year. LOL... They were complaining like mad... Hahaha...
Another thing, nothing is certain here. One person can say A and the next minute, u ask another person, he says B. So u just have to give it a shot. Have to try, and that's just what i'm gonna do about my visa, no matter what some people have been telling me.
With my new boots!!! :p
We went inside Le Louvre at night with some other friends. Just for a while though, coz some of them really don't enjoy art works. Which brings me into question as why they've come in the first place. I saw that original Monalisa. Me and dingying were practically moving from the centre then to the left then to the right, just to prove if what they say about Monalisa's eyes are true. And it's really true!! It follows us wherever we goes. Interesting. Saw the famous finger painting by Leonardo, too and some other interesting pieces of art. As for the sculptures, I'm never able to appreciate them.
Eating mandarin oranges under Eiffel Tower... So happy arh? :p
Anyway, after that, we went and saw Eiffel tower at night. We walked sooo far that day that my feet with my new boots started to hurt. But Paris is even prettier at night. With all the lights, the river, the old buildings, the weather... When we saw Eiffel blinking at every hour, it's just amazing!!! Had a lot of fun taking pics, though the pic is nothing compared to the real scene...That pretty much sums up these 2 weeks :)