Goodbye My (Billie) Holiday
My holiday ended yesterday, 12 Oct. It had lasted for more than 5 months, probably the longest holiday I have ever had. And it was real good. So good that it was given a 10min moment of silence this evening which I used to reflect on what I had done during this extended hols.
The Camsouviet trip deserves a mention. It was my first backpacking experience and it won't be the only. I can't quite remember now why I had even agreed to go with Jeff on the trip. It must have been the adrenalin rush after the exams. I hadn't been offered my Teaching Award then and saving money for France was top priority. However, adventure had its day over pragmatism and I jumped on boat. Tat soon followed.
Jeff and Tat made for dream travelling companions. A good mix of sensibility and spontaniety and we all share a thirst for bad-boys' streak. Or was it only me? I had a little secret from the trip that even Jeff and Tat were kept in the dark. I brought it with me to France but do remind me to disclose it when my feet touch Singapore soil again because keeping secrets is not my thing. The trip gave me some good stories to tell my grandchildren in the future. The video Tat made, I like it so much that if I were to die tomorrow (touchmu), someone buries me along with the dvd please. Most photos from the trip have been posted on my Flickr account, and I shall just attach one that we took at the Ho Chi Minh post-station which, though isn't the most representative of our trip, is one that I quite like.
After the trip, I started working part-time because I thought I should earn money to pay for my trip, and also because I had nothing else better to do. Kenny and Weijie were the ones who roped me in to clean LCDs and I am grateful to them for that. As one grows older, you wonder if you would ever get another chance to part-time. At least I do wonder. And if cleaning the LCDs was to be my last part-time job, it was enjoyable and memorable enough for me to leave the part-time scene sans regret.
The pay was 8 dollars an hour which was relatively high for a part-time job in Singapore. We were treated to all our lunches and the lunch hours were counted as working hours. How good is that man? And because almost everybody on the job was from Sheares, all the cleaning lcds sessions were more like talking-cock sessions. The only reservation that one can probably have of the job is the excessive exposure to methane, which isn't supposed to be too good for the body. However, it screwed up my system enough to inspire the inspiring statement that 'the only thing in the world that does not require mathematics is happiness' and I am thankful to CH4 for that.
I departed for France on 12 July and touched down on the 13th. 14 July, I was in Paris to witness the Bastille Day's Parade and 15th I moved to maison des mines. My french immersion started on the 17th.
I realised I haven't shared much about my classmates on the immersion. Basically, my classmates were of various nationalities, which is what you almost always get when you're a Singaporean on exchange. There were the omnipresent PRCs and there were also Brazilians, Iranians, Vietnamese and Swedish.
This is a photo of the 3 NUS-ians being treated to dinner by our 2 Vietnamese friends, who are now at ENPC with us. Are you able to tell who are from NUS and who are from Vietnam? Anyway, this was probably the first time I had rice in Paris after almost 3 weeks and I sweared I almost teared when I was returning to my room after dinner. Now that I have rice almost everyday at ENPC, I kind of miss those days when I missed rice.
This is me with Lida and 3 chinese girls. Photo was taken at the farewell party of our immersion the evening before our last day of school. The slightly blurred man on the far right is an Italian called Luca and he was trying to make it into the photo with us. He did. Lida was still single one week ago. Now he's attached with the girl in the middle. Another couple brought together by the romantic french air.
The Iranian contingent. They were the most active in class, really ji1 ji2 sia. I used to believe, thanks to Straits Times, that the Iranian government was really developing nuclear bombs. After knowing the Iranians from my class - even though I still have my reservations about the Iranian government - I could better understand why Iran needs to develop nuclear power. The oil beneath their land will be exploited to its last drop one day and if they do not have nuclear power, then the country will be in for some serious economic shit. Anyway, if all Iranians are like these 5 in ENPC, then Iran will have some bright days ahead.
My brazillian classmate called Thiaggo. Not all brazilians play soccer but here is one who really joga bonito. I played soccer once in France so far, me and a chinese, with south americans from brazil, argentina, bolivia, peru etc. That game was really memorable. We played on an artificial turf, which was quite like the chinese high central field. And it was drizzling that day. I ended the game lying on the ground, looking into the night sky. The feeling was just great and unforgettable. And even though I was the lousiest player on the pitch, my team won. Because I was with the brazilians=)
The good thing about language immersions is that they organise visits to museums. Here is one at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris where they exhibit scientific instruments from past to present. The guy in the front, called Yin Heng, is a Teochew from Santou, China. In other words, my tong2 xiang1=)
And here is us playing this very-french game called pétanque. The game is usually played in french parks by lao rens, but I confirm chop from my personal experience that it can really be quite addictive for the young ones too. The rules of the game is very much similar to that of playing marbles. Maybe I'll bring back some pétanque balls when I return...but probably just say say only because they'll add more than a few kilos to my baggage.
I finally arrived at ENPC on 1 sep. Roy arrived only on the 3rd. Before he arrived, I watched hana yori dango (which translates in chinese to liu xing hua yuan) all day. I used to bi3 shi4 people who watch liu xing hua yuan because I could never understand what can be so nice about a show revolving around 4 pretty boys. And I found the answer after having watched the japanese version.
Here is a photo of Shangcai and Shancai. If you are interested in finding out what drew so many people to F4, just drop me a mail and I can send you the videos.
I completed my additional one more month of french immersion at ENPC last week and lesson had begun yesterday with economics.
I will soon be burying myself into the textbooks, trying to get to know tensors, lesbegue integration and what not that my brain somehow has difficulty infusing. It's like feeding char kway teow to someone who's already burping. I feel that my brain is already quite information-packed but there is still so much more human-incomprehensible stuff waiting for me to learn.
Thus, I'm blogging one last time before sun sets...
and before I go into the almost forgotten super-forcused-chinese-high-chye mode.
The Camsouviet trip deserves a mention. It was my first backpacking experience and it won't be the only. I can't quite remember now why I had even agreed to go with Jeff on the trip. It must have been the adrenalin rush after the exams. I hadn't been offered my Teaching Award then and saving money for France was top priority. However, adventure had its day over pragmatism and I jumped on boat. Tat soon followed.
Jeff and Tat made for dream travelling companions. A good mix of sensibility and spontaniety and we all share a thirst for bad-boys' streak. Or was it only me? I had a little secret from the trip that even Jeff and Tat were kept in the dark. I brought it with me to France but do remind me to disclose it when my feet touch Singapore soil again because keeping secrets is not my thing. The trip gave me some good stories to tell my grandchildren in the future. The video Tat made, I like it so much that if I were to die tomorrow (touchmu), someone buries me along with the dvd please. Most photos from the trip have been posted on my Flickr account, and I shall just attach one that we took at the Ho Chi Minh post-station which, though isn't the most representative of our trip, is one that I quite like.
After the trip, I started working part-time because I thought I should earn money to pay for my trip, and also because I had nothing else better to do. Kenny and Weijie were the ones who roped me in to clean LCDs and I am grateful to them for that. As one grows older, you wonder if you would ever get another chance to part-time. At least I do wonder. And if cleaning the LCDs was to be my last part-time job, it was enjoyable and memorable enough for me to leave the part-time scene sans regret.
The pay was 8 dollars an hour which was relatively high for a part-time job in Singapore. We were treated to all our lunches and the lunch hours were counted as working hours. How good is that man? And because almost everybody on the job was from Sheares, all the cleaning lcds sessions were more like talking-cock sessions. The only reservation that one can probably have of the job is the excessive exposure to methane, which isn't supposed to be too good for the body. However, it screwed up my system enough to inspire the inspiring statement that 'the only thing in the world that does not require mathematics is happiness' and I am thankful to CH4 for that.
I departed for France on 12 July and touched down on the 13th. 14 July, I was in Paris to witness the Bastille Day's Parade and 15th I moved to maison des mines. My french immersion started on the 17th.
I realised I haven't shared much about my classmates on the immersion. Basically, my classmates were of various nationalities, which is what you almost always get when you're a Singaporean on exchange. There were the omnipresent PRCs and there were also Brazilians, Iranians, Vietnamese and Swedish.
This is a photo of the 3 NUS-ians being treated to dinner by our 2 Vietnamese friends, who are now at ENPC with us. Are you able to tell who are from NUS and who are from Vietnam? Anyway, this was probably the first time I had rice in Paris after almost 3 weeks and I sweared I almost teared when I was returning to my room after dinner. Now that I have rice almost everyday at ENPC, I kind of miss those days when I missed rice.
This is me with Lida and 3 chinese girls. Photo was taken at the farewell party of our immersion the evening before our last day of school. The slightly blurred man on the far right is an Italian called Luca and he was trying to make it into the photo with us. He did. Lida was still single one week ago. Now he's attached with the girl in the middle. Another couple brought together by the romantic french air.
The Iranian contingent. They were the most active in class, really ji1 ji2 sia. I used to believe, thanks to Straits Times, that the Iranian government was really developing nuclear bombs. After knowing the Iranians from my class - even though I still have my reservations about the Iranian government - I could better understand why Iran needs to develop nuclear power. The oil beneath their land will be exploited to its last drop one day and if they do not have nuclear power, then the country will be in for some serious economic shit. Anyway, if all Iranians are like these 5 in ENPC, then Iran will have some bright days ahead.
My brazillian classmate called Thiaggo. Not all brazilians play soccer but here is one who really joga bonito. I played soccer once in France so far, me and a chinese, with south americans from brazil, argentina, bolivia, peru etc. That game was really memorable. We played on an artificial turf, which was quite like the chinese high central field. And it was drizzling that day. I ended the game lying on the ground, looking into the night sky. The feeling was just great and unforgettable. And even though I was the lousiest player on the pitch, my team won. Because I was with the brazilians=)
The good thing about language immersions is that they organise visits to museums. Here is one at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris where they exhibit scientific instruments from past to present. The guy in the front, called Yin Heng, is a Teochew from Santou, China. In other words, my tong2 xiang1=)
And here is us playing this very-french game called pétanque. The game is usually played in french parks by lao rens, but I confirm chop from my personal experience that it can really be quite addictive for the young ones too. The rules of the game is very much similar to that of playing marbles. Maybe I'll bring back some pétanque balls when I return...but probably just say say only because they'll add more than a few kilos to my baggage.
I finally arrived at ENPC on 1 sep. Roy arrived only on the 3rd. Before he arrived, I watched hana yori dango (which translates in chinese to liu xing hua yuan) all day. I used to bi3 shi4 people who watch liu xing hua yuan because I could never understand what can be so nice about a show revolving around 4 pretty boys. And I found the answer after having watched the japanese version.
Here is a photo of Shangcai and Shancai. If you are interested in finding out what drew so many people to F4, just drop me a mail and I can send you the videos.
I completed my additional one more month of french immersion at ENPC last week and lesson had begun yesterday with economics.
I will soon be burying myself into the textbooks, trying to get to know tensors, lesbegue integration and what not that my brain somehow has difficulty infusing. It's like feeding char kway teow to someone who's already burping. I feel that my brain is already quite information-packed but there is still so much more human-incomprehensible stuff waiting for me to learn.
Thus, I'm blogging one last time before sun sets...
and before I go into the almost forgotten super-forcused-chinese-high-chye mode.
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