One semester One post
The curtain to my semester was drawn to a close on Friday and its end was celebrated in style over a sizzling dinner of Seah's Bak Kut Teh bee hoon with Lida at Noisy Champs. The semester had been a busy one - even though I was still always able to make time for Grey's, Prison Break 3, The Golden Path, Hui zi Hui, Heroes, Lost and Yeejia (she might begged to differ=) ) - which explained for the dearth of post on this blog over the last 3 months.
En effet, I signed up for an ENPC pre-MBA course at the start of the semester and had lessons one weekend per month in Paris on essentially business modules such as Management of Organizations and Marketing. The course had been pretty useful so far in that the contents of my daydreaming in class had been of, in my opinion, rather high substance. For instance, I came up with a plan during one class to write an algorithm on C++ to optimize the value of my team on "The Official Fantasy Game of the Premier League", which, if successfully implemented, might lend me a free dinner courtesy of the participants on the S22 league in 2009. I also came up with an idea of implementing an incentive system in my future classes, whereby students will be involved in teaching and their grades will hinge on how well the rest of the class does for the test on the topics they teach. Essentially, by implicating a student's grades with that of her (I am still holding out hope for a posting to an all girls' school...haha...) classmates, students' with better grades will be encouraged to help out students who don't do that well academically and this, theoretically, should improve the overall learning process of the class.
The last semester also see me taking 2 sponsored trips to London in my bid to secure an internship across the Channel. No internship has yet been secured though and the prospect of being stuck in Paris till December is becoming ever more likely. On top of my core modules, I also took classes on French, Spanish and Arab. Knowing more languages should have made me more international, but I realized I am still very much Singaporean at heart when the pride I felt on learning that Singapore had secured the first Youth Olympics was so tangible I could lick it. On a side note, God, please let me be born with the ability to roll the 'R' if you are reincarnating me on two legs.
The semester was also littered with trips to Munich for the Oktober Fest and to Tuscany for trekking. The highlight for the last five months would be Yeejia's visit from Singapore in December, which saw our kitchen becoming cleaner, dinners becoming nicer but the room becoming more cramped. The two of us spent four or five days above the Arctic Circle, paid 25euros for a photo with Santa Claus but caught no glimpse of the Northern Lights. Our New Year's Eve was spent at Harapanda, a Swedish town situated at the Swedish border with Finland and fireworks were continuously launched by residents from both riverbanks (Swedish and Finnish) from 7 till midnight, which I thought was a really lovely gesture from both sides. I wonder if there will come a day when Singaporeans and Malaysians would do the same from both sides of the Causeway on New Year's eve. I pretty much suspect no because any Singaporeans who light up a firework will be round up by our men in blue.
The semester concluded with one intensive week of examinations, when I had one of the toughest papers in my life. I would be pleasantly satisfied if I can just get five out of 20 for it. May life be good on those with low expectations.
I now look forward to my last semester in France, when I will be taking much lesser modules than I had in the previous semester, and should be able to spend more time at the cafe talking cock with friends. I look forward to flowers blooming in the trees beneath my balcony. I look forward to spring.
En effet, I signed up for an ENPC pre-MBA course at the start of the semester and had lessons one weekend per month in Paris on essentially business modules such as Management of Organizations and Marketing. The course had been pretty useful so far in that the contents of my daydreaming in class had been of, in my opinion, rather high substance. For instance, I came up with a plan during one class to write an algorithm on C++ to optimize the value of my team on "The Official Fantasy Game of the Premier League", which, if successfully implemented, might lend me a free dinner courtesy of the participants on the S22 league in 2009. I also came up with an idea of implementing an incentive system in my future classes, whereby students will be involved in teaching and their grades will hinge on how well the rest of the class does for the test on the topics they teach. Essentially, by implicating a student's grades with that of her (I am still holding out hope for a posting to an all girls' school...haha...) classmates, students' with better grades will be encouraged to help out students who don't do that well academically and this, theoretically, should improve the overall learning process of the class.
The last semester also see me taking 2 sponsored trips to London in my bid to secure an internship across the Channel. No internship has yet been secured though and the prospect of being stuck in Paris till December is becoming ever more likely. On top of my core modules, I also took classes on French, Spanish and Arab. Knowing more languages should have made me more international, but I realized I am still very much Singaporean at heart when the pride I felt on learning that Singapore had secured the first Youth Olympics was so tangible I could lick it. On a side note, God, please let me be born with the ability to roll the 'R' if you are reincarnating me on two legs.
The semester was also littered with trips to Munich for the Oktober Fest and to Tuscany for trekking. The highlight for the last five months would be Yeejia's visit from Singapore in December, which saw our kitchen becoming cleaner, dinners becoming nicer but the room becoming more cramped. The two of us spent four or five days above the Arctic Circle, paid 25euros for a photo with Santa Claus but caught no glimpse of the Northern Lights. Our New Year's Eve was spent at Harapanda, a Swedish town situated at the Swedish border with Finland and fireworks were continuously launched by residents from both riverbanks (Swedish and Finnish) from 7 till midnight, which I thought was a really lovely gesture from both sides. I wonder if there will come a day when Singaporeans and Malaysians would do the same from both sides of the Causeway on New Year's eve. I pretty much suspect no because any Singaporeans who light up a firework will be round up by our men in blue.
The semester concluded with one intensive week of examinations, when I had one of the toughest papers in my life. I would be pleasantly satisfied if I can just get five out of 20 for it. May life be good on those with low expectations.
I now look forward to my last semester in France, when I will be taking much lesser modules than I had in the previous semester, and should be able to spend more time at the cafe talking cock with friends. I look forward to flowers blooming in the trees beneath my balcony. I look forward to spring.
posted by le chye at
4:18 PM
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