Easter Break Part 2
Thursday, April 26, 2007
We went to Nice on the next day, but after that we separated with the guys coz they were going somewhere else. It was very hot in Nice, a little hotter than Spore. We felt like going from winter (in Paris) to summer suddenly there without going through spring. The days spent in Nice were very relaxing. There weren't many things to see except for some historical sites, the beach and market. It's just nice strolling through the streets or sitting on a bench looking at the sea. And we ate ice cream! Coz the weather was so hot, the ice cream tasted sooo delicious.Oh, there was one time when we got quite bored since we've finished visiting all the places, so we just sat on a bench in a quiet, elevated street. We were just talking when suddenly we saw on the street below a group of people fighting. A girl and 4 guys. They made quite a scene that a policeman approached them and asked them to fight not in public. LOL. So the gal walked angrily and in tears towards the inner street, which was right in front of us, but still below. A guy followed her and grabbed her hand but she pushed him away, then she slapped him, then hit him dunno how many times. The guy just let her. Then his friends came to his rescue and scolded the gal. But that guy scolded his friends instead. She stopped hitting and cried. Then they all just stand around quietly. The 'show' went on for quite long. Me and Dingying were really enjoying it. Well, we were so bored before then suddenly there was this thing. So we made a scenario. Dingying said the guy cheated on her, the gal just found out, the guy still likes her and wanna apologize but she refused. I agreed and added tt the guy cheated on her with her bestfriend, seeing how angry she was. Dingying agreed, then we both laffed. But suddenly we realised those guys were looking at us. We guessed they knew they're being watched. Then they went up towards us. I was asking Dingying whether we should leave and run now, but she said it'll be too obvious. So we just stayed there. Wah, scary sia. They really came, but only ask for a cigarette. We said we don't smoke. Then they sat on the bench just beside us. We thought they're gonna say something else but they didn't, until we finally left.
Next destination was Monte Carlo. Now, this is the place for rich people, really. Me and Dingying were joking tt our mission that day is to charm a rich man each and bring them back with us. Haiz... Mission not accomplished, people. Damn! I'll still have to walk up the Supelec slope. LOL. But seriously, staying in Monte Carlo just makes us feel poor. Hahaha... Everywhere were rich people, the hotels and shops were exclusive ones. So many people driving Ferrari and other luxury cars. Nothing much to see there actually, we just went to the palace for a while, had a great view from the top of the city. It's really quite small, then visited the casino but only the smaller one coz it's free. We played and lost 15euros. :( Next month is the Formula1 race in Monte Carlo, so I saw them preparing for it, the stands were being installed etc. I also visited the famous hairpin :D Finally we ended up with nothing to do, so we bought ice cream and sat at the harbour there where yachts were parked. U all know what? While we were sitting and talking, a guy approached us and said "Hey, my friend over there (he pointed to a yacht) needs girls to work on his yacht. Are u interested?" What the hell man!!!! They think we're what??? Damn them! We just turned him down. Our train that night got delayed for an hour, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Because of that, we got the chance to see Monte Carlo at night. It was beautiful with the lights, we saw it from the palace which is on a hill. So the view was fantastic. :D
The final visit was Cannes. If u all have watched Mr. Bean 'The Holidays', u should noe it. Cannes is famous for the film festival. But strangely, the building used to hold the film festival is really ugly. If not for the posters and the red carpets, it wouldn't look like that kind of building at all. Anyway, when we're walking, a woman emerged from the crowd behind us, then walked so sexily past us. YeeJia commented, "Hey, is she catwalking?" We were like, yeahh, think so.... It's only a few minutes earlier we realized they were shooting a film. LOL. No wonder she walked like that. Hahaha... Oh wells...
Not much to say about Cannes, not much to see also, we just ate ice cream again. Oh, the beach is nicer there, coz it's sand. In Monte carlo, Nice and Marseilles, it's stones. And yeah, for the guys, I'll answer your question: there were nude gals. LOL. (Everytime I said I went to Cote d'Azur for Easter break, the first thing the guys ask is that *roll eyes*)
Hmmm okieee... That's about all for my Easter break. Overall, I think the places were good but not excellent. But the whole trip was very relaxing, fun and really really enjoyable coz of the companions :D
Meanwhile, I've only uploaded half of the photos of the trip ( the link's on the left ). Took so many pics, so had to upload in steps. Haha...
Easter Break Part 1 :P
Hehehe.... Okok, updatesss. Sorry ya peeps! Hehe...Just had my Easter break during the last 2 weeks. Easter this year was quite lonely. I hate the feeling whenever I go to church and see everyone has someone to hug and kiss. Makes me homesick. Hehehe.... Oh wells, I'll soon meet my family again anyway :D Oh btw, in France they have Easter Monday holiday. First time I heard about it. That Monday I had some trouble with my clothes, they were stuck in the washing machine, but since it was a holiday, the office was closed and I had to wait til the next day to get it out. But!!! On Tuesday there was (mati lampu englishnya apa sih?) no electricity (:P) from morning til 12 pm. But I went to the office anyway to explain. The damn office guy accused me of breaking down the washing machine!!! I tried to explain that something was already wrong when I got there, but he wouldn't believe me. I was so angry!!! He scolded me in sarcasm for so long. He even said something like, "the students here think they are smart, but they can't even operate such a simple machine. Apparently their intelligence is not enough to operate such a simple machine" My blood was boiling man. If he understands English, I definitely would say something. I tried my best to remain calm coz I didn't want to make a scene also. I just gave him a super irritated look. The only good thing out of this incident is I made 2 new friends coz of that. They happened to be there also when the guy scolded me.
As if it was not enough for one day, the damn electricity only came back at 4 plus. 4 hours late!!! Haizz.... What's new? It's France, anyway. Couldn't even have my lunch coz couldn't cook. Couldn't buy also unless I travel all the way to town. It's a good thing I have biscuits. They had another electricity cut-off on Wed but only til 11 am.
Then that Wed evening I went over to my friend's place in Paris. I had to stay over at her place because our train to the south of France on the next day is very early in the morning. Yup, I went to the south of France: Marseilles, Nice, Monte Carlo, Cannes for 1 whole week during the Easter break. Went there with Dingying and Yeejia, but JiangHao and his fren, Zhengtong joined us for Marseilles and Nice.
Marseilles is the third biggest city in France I think. When we were there for 2 days, the weather wasn't nice, it was raining. So it's a bit hard to move around. Found an Arab street where they sell super cheap kebab. We ate there pretty often since it's cheap and not bad. We explored Marseilles on the first day. On the second day JiangHao and Zhengtong joined us, we went to an island nearby and played there for a few hours. I wanted to visit the island called chateau d'If which is featured in the story 'The Count of Monte Cristo' Nice movie. But because of the bad weather, they cancelled all trips going there. From the island we went and visit the first French HDB concept. It was not that special for me but it would be for an architecture person. From there we went for dinner, we decided to try the famous local dish "Bouillabaisse" It's a fish soup, quite nice but not that special actually and really expensive.
When we wanted to pay for the dinner, however, Dingying discovered that her wallet was gone. We all guessed the gypsies stole it from her coz earlier in the day, when we wanted to pay for the boat ticket to the island, 2 gypsies made a scene asking for money from her. One of them grabbed her arm so hard. Still, it's just a guess coz we didn't really see them taking it, though we can't think of any other reasons. Poor thing, she was so sad. We went to the police office to report it but nothing much can be done. But when we were there, there were a group of 5 Chinese who had just been robbed. The whole thing! They were in their rented car and were at a junction since the traffic light was red when 3 masked and armed men forced them out of the car and took the whole thing.
Apparently, Marseilles is really a very dangerous place. Actually a few people have warned us, but we just kind of think that it won't happen to us. It gives me a shiver to think that the previous nite, 3 of us gals only (coz the guys weren't in Marseilles yet) went to the Arab street to eat kebab for dinner. We didn't know the street is one of the dangerous places in Marseilles, but we did feel strange with the way the people there were looking at us when 3 of us entered the street. It's the uncomfortable stares and attention we were receiving. Even the person selling the kebab where we ate told us to be careful on the way back and to keep our belongings close to us all the time. Then at the place where we ate, we met quite a few weird people. One is an old senile guy, he kept talking to us. First, he tried French. Seeing we didn't respond (we actually understood him but we didn't want to talk), he tried English. But his English was very limited, then he switched to German. We finally gave up and talked to him, said we can't speak German. So he starts speaking French again but after a while he'll speak German again. Basically that happens throughout the whole meal. Haizzz...
Then another Arab young guy started talking to us also. He talks a lot man. First he told us that he's a famous boxer. We laffed. LOL. Seeing we didn't believe him, he showed off his T-shirt bearing his name. Then he took out some papers, some are newspaper articles about his victory. We all looked at it, discussed whether it's really him. Well u noe how it is with foreigners, many people look the same. Hahaha... So til now we can't b sure if it's really him. Anyway, we didn't give a damn, and just to shut him up we just nodded. Then since we didn't respond to him any longer, he started asking what type of music we like, then asked if we like Michael Jackson. LOL. He said he does, and that he believes he's innocent. Then it's another round of long talk of his theory about Jacko's innocence. Haizzz.... We just looked at each other in disbelief. But it's really quite funny actually. LOL
After that came a Vietnamese guy. The other guys there ask him to talk to us. He said he's Vietnamese, not Chinese so he can't speak to us. They still insisted, said it's the same. LOL. Oh I haven't told u all right. Here in France, having a Chinese face means either we're from China or from Japan. People on the streets who like to tease always say "Ni hao" If we ignore them they'll say "Konichiwa" If we still ignore, they'll say "chao" Then laff laff laff. I hate these kind of people. They think it's so funny, but actually they're the funny ones, but in an irritating way. Then another old man started talking to us also, telling us stories about China history and war and his old times when he used to fight.
Anyway, after waiting for almost an hour in that place for the rain to stop, we decided to just go home though it still rained heavily, coz we couldn't stand those people already. Luckily nothing bad happened to us that night. We walked very fast though coz we didn't feel safe, it was raining and it's already late.
To be continued... LOL (I'm sorryyyy, super sleepy now and the story is still long. I'll continue tmr, k?! :p)
And then the new sequence begins..
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
I'm officially already inside the second sequence of my exchange here. Another half to go. In this sequence, I'll be taking Analog Electronics and Projet de Synthese which I map to EE2001. I've completed 1 week of this sequence and from what I gather, the pace at which they teach Analog Electronics is damn fast. I just hope I can cope, whereas for the project, I really dislike it. But what to do, I couldn't choose it since I'm only joining an existing group. It's about optimisation. Sometimes I really wonder if I'm in the correct stream since I often feel so lost abt all these. Haiz.... Well... at least the readings are in English and one of my groupmate is quite cute and most importantly, friendly :P LOL. Mind u, finding a friendly French here is super rare. Almost extinct, I think.Last Tue was a disaster day. My laptop gave me trouble all of a sudden. I was chatting when suddenly it restarted and a blue screen appeared. Tried to repair it, but to no avail. In the end I asked the Spore frens for help. It strangely was OK again by the time I reached their place. But when I was back in my room the prob reappeared. Haiz... Since it was past midnite alr, I left it at that. The next morning I asked my neighbour's help. He said he'll intro me to his fren who's good at IT but coz I had a fren coming from Norway that day whom I had to guide ard Paris, I only met him at nite. He's my neighbour also apparently. He tried a lot of stuff and in the end it seemed OK, except for its slowness. But coz it was already 1 am, we left it there first. The next morning, it was worse, I couldnt do a single thing. So I called the IT neighbour for help again. He worked at it almost the whole day but to no avail. I felt so bad at taking so much of his time. So at nite I brought my laptop to another fren for second opinion also. He intro me to yet another IT genius, even better than my neighbour. We worked at it the whole nite til he confirmed it was a HDD failure. Asked my bro and sum other frens' opinion, they all said it seemed to b HDD failure also. Haiz.... But he's another nice person, he stayed up til 3 trying to save my files and thanx to him I managed to save the most impt files. For the time being, he taught me how to use linux to work with my comp. Whoa.... it felt so weird man. I don't like it. But it's better than nothing, of course.
On Sat I asked for Jianghao's help to look for a new hard drive. It's a good thing I got him to help me. We went to this place called Montgallet which is the French equivalent of Spore's Sim Lim. Hehehe... Got my new hard drive at a pretty good price! So happy!!! :D
Since the day was still young, we decided to go to Provins again coz Jianghao left his bicycle there and want to take it back also. So we went there again, saw watever we didn't get to see at the first visit and even saw a show there. It was interesting! A tiring but fun day!! As usual, I missed the last bus again, so had to walk up the slope again. Only this time Jianghao was so kind to take me home. Once I reached home, I asked my neighbour again to help me with my comp for the last time. And finally, it worked!! Though again, I had to trouble him til 1 am plus again. But it worked!!! I was damn happy, super happy!!! U guys dunno how stressed I was with the prospect of not having comp and internet even for a few days. I can die, can't do anything, can't communicate...
But u noe something?? Through all this comp trouble, one thing amazes me. How far those people go to help me. Some of them are not even my frens at first. To them, I'm just a stranger. Yet, they helped me seriously and let me trouble them late into the nite. I seriously am soooooo thankful to God for sending me all these kind hearted people. I was seriously very very touched. It just shows that kind people are not that rare to find after all. Here I am, in such a foreign country, with limited no of frens at first, but somehow managed to find so many helpful and nice people. I feel so 'xinfu' :D :D
Gotta b that kind of person also!!! :D
The last week for sequence 1
Went to this place called Provins on Sat, 31 March. I was supposed to meet my frens at 11 plus but because of those idiotic French officers telling me all the different things, including some stations and some trains that are not supposed to exist or operate, I could only reach there at 3 plus. Damn them. They really often don't know what they do. Like when I bought the ticket, I said, can I have the youth ticket from zone 1 to 8 please. The lady there said, no, we don't have it. Then I told her u shud have it. The she checked in the comp, found it and said, 'voila, we do have it' Haiz....Provins is pretty far from Paris, abt 1 hr plus from Paris. It's a hidden Medieval City. Quite interesting, but coz I reached very late, we didn't manage to finish the whole city. And I ended up missing my last bus again. But this time, I dared myself asking my kind neighbour to help pick me up at the nearby train station. It's a good thing I got him coz that day was super cold, I wouldn't make it back home alone, at nite, in that weather. It was my own fault actually, I didn't check the weather for that day and just assumed the role of weatherman myself LOL. I thought since the last few days have been hot, it should be hot, too dat dae. So I didn't wear my coat that day and ended up shivering almost the whole day. Jiang Hao, being kind and nice and gentleman as he always has been, lent me his jacket. The funny thing is, Dingying also wore too little that day, so Jianghao lent another spare jacket he brought to her too and ended up wearing only one layer for himself. He's really so nice!
Chatted for a while with the neighbour who picked me up at the station afterwards. He's also another kind soul who's been helping me with quite a few things. He even asked me to msg him whenever I need a ride from the station. But of course I don't do that often.
The next day was another first sunday of the month. And so, free entrance to museums!! So we plus 2 other gals went to Picasso museum. I really gave up this time. I totally can't appreciate his kind of art. It's a relief I was not alone. The rest felt the same too. Jianghao closed the visit with his conclusion that Picasso likes to dismantle women's body. Me and Dingying laffed like mad when we heard that. But it was literally quite true. After that we went and visit a park, listened to some musical performances along the way. They were really good! Loved the outing!
From there we went to Jianghao's place. He cooked for us dinner, a damn good Chinese food dinner. We really had a feast, complete with the wine and honey beer which tasted horrible, at least to me. But the dinner was really really nice. It was really such a fun day, except that I missed the bus again, and I was embarrassed to ask my neighbour again to pick me up. So I just walked up the slope.