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After cleaning my room i went out to have lunch at Part Dieu... people mountain people see cos its the winter sale... which reminds me, i got to buy some clothes... otherwise i would be wearing the same things over and over. but then again, i prolly shudnt since i spent nearly S$1000 already... very very alarming i noe. but i dun actually spend alot. i keep telling myself they are for admin stuff so it wouldnt be so high in weeks to come.

The guy at the kebab store had to change a new slab of meat so they asked if want to wait one hour... duh of cos not. So we changed our orders to meat patties instead. After that we went to Stade de Gerland... but its closed so that was a big big bummer. Apparently this stadium is for the apparently very famous Lyonnaise soccer team, which APPARENTLY i have no idea about... no surprises there. The most surprising thing, however, was i (actually all of us) bought tickets to watch a match this wednesday: Olympique Lyonnaise vs Le Mans... er i have no idea which league they are playing or even if the first team is playing but yeah its for 8euros so thats fine. And i hope we get to watch some good soccer.... Contrary to popular belief, yes, i do know how to appreciate soccer when i am forced to watch.

Later in the evening we went to Bellecour for dinner, but not before we trying out the giant Ferris Wheel! the view was amazing.... u can see everything! haha but it was quite ex for 5euros... i shud really cut down on unnecessary things. I AM TRYING.

had an early night... slept at ard 11plus and i think i am going to nap again... there is really nothing to do here on sundays... but i shud really check out the market next sunday, if i manage to get my ass outta my room. its just such a chore to get up, wash up, get dressed when its so freakin cold.

Anyway just some everyday things that i hate about Lyon (or France in general):

1. their pillows are square so i really miss my rectangle pillow... and the bolsters are damn friggin small

2. they have really tiny things, for people who are quite big size... i can barely bathe and turn without touching the cold walls of the shower

3. they dun have "door close" buttons in their lifts... and i find that really really retarded.

4. They charge really expensive for vegetables.... i really need my greens man. 2euros for a pac of vege is madness... so i have to settle for fruits and fruit yoghurts for my fibres.

alrighty now.. dun think i will be blogging about today since i wun be doing anything. so... see ya on monday!

MERLION-ED....

Yesterday, Martha turned 21 and it was a friday so we decided to throw her a party or sorts. Luis, JoseMiguel and Andreas bought her a cake and gave her a surprise party during lunch.

Martha the Birthday Girl

Luis, Andreas, LuisMiguel and Martha

the whole gang

Anyway at nite we had a party at my place (which turned out to be a completely big mistake). We bought cartons and cartons of beer, nearly 15 bottles of champagne, red and wine wine and all for just 5euros per person.

At the party we all sang Happy Birthday in all the different languages: Mexican, Chilean, Brazlian, Columbian, German, Chinese, English, Finnish and of cos French. It was a memorable experience to say the least. And since we didnt have candles, they used my lamp as a substitute.

Blowing the lamp

People...

people...(Antoine on the left, who saved my ife)

and more people

Drink Drank Drunk

did i mention there were people?

And more people?

Yeah i think i drank too much as usual... and i was totally talking crap. People were shoving me with drinks... i think they think Chinese people dun drink but they are SO wrong. HENCE i merlioned like never before... i dunno why i also put myself into this merde... i merlioned in the toilet, in the bathroom, i merlioned downstairs in the park, i merlioned at the garbage area, i puked again at my balcony. ARGHHHHH ta ma de.

I was lucky that Antoine, Andreas's roomate accompanied me all the way and helped me get water and stuff. And i barely even knew him. So, i am eternally grateful. I think there were almost.....20 odd pple at a point in time and they were blasting music at 2am in the morning. And that let to the big shocker of the week..... I WAS KENA COMPLAINED and campus security came and took down my name... and as usual i didnt know what they were talking about.... but Antoine helped me translate and he said i have to go meet with the Director of Residence and apparently they would give me a warning... i dunno how true that is but yeah.

So everyone had to leave... which was a good thing. cos i really needed to rest. i dunno who complained... maybe it was my 3rd roomate Mathieu.... if it was it would be sooo friggin awkward. When Victor and his frens came back and saw me in my misery they were laughing their asses off. i think they were high themsleves, hence the incessant laughing. i guess i wud have laughed at myself too if i were sober enough.

and this morning i woke up at 10 and began a MASSIVE area cleaning. i cleaned the entire house like never before. i cleared the bottles, i wiped the tables, i boiled water and emptied them in the sink and the bathroom, hoping that that would clear the choke (apparently it didnt work), i mopped the floor and i scrubbed the sink in the toilet and scrubbed the bathroom, i washed the kitchen basin and i finished all these in 2 hours. My parents would be so proud... becos in Spore i NEVER EVER needed to do all these. And somehow in some wierd way, it was damn theraputic.

So...how did u spend your Friday nite?

Field Trip

Today we didnt have class in school but had a mini treasure hunt at Vieux Lyon which was really quite interesting. Started off at Place de Bellecour and the entire treasure hunt was done within Vieux Lyon.

Louix XIV, some king some time in the history of France

A smoking hot statue, literally

The other side of the Soane... which is really quite nice, Dunno why i didnt notice it the other time

Oh god i seriously need to try all these things before i leave... argh. WHY AM I NOT A MILLIONAIRE!!

Some produce at a marché that we chanced upon

The market we saw

Zodiac clock in a church

more mouth watering stuff.... big fat sigh

in the traboule!

i finally saw the secret passageways i saw on Passport to Europe with Samantha Brown during the treasure hunt. Its a traboule or simply a passageway within a residence quarter for easy access to the other streets and roads. And it can be only found in Vieux Lyon. You can only use these passageways if u know the codes for the doors (stupid rule) and within the traboule u can really see where a normal Lyonnaise stay and stuff. and it looks really medieval, an eye opening experience.

i love this picture

small courtyard within a traboule

There werent any classes in the afternoon so i went to meet Derek to get my mobile number and open my bank acct.... and apparently u need to make an appointment if you want to open one (stupid idiotic rules of Europe in general). I didnt know and Derek didnt tell me so when we went to the first BNP Paribas, the person wasnt around so i was quite du lan. So we went to the branch at Charpennes instead.

on the way there derek was saying how in france u need to make appt for everything.... even if u want to see doctor also must make appt 2 days in advance. its seriously warped up, their thinking. HENG there were 3 persons available at that branch to help me open an acct. So i guess i was quite lucky. And i was fortunate to have Derek with me who helped me translated everything the woman said... otherwise i will die jialat jialat. haha.

Yeap. Anw my mobile number is to the right. If u are calling from Spore or other countries (besides france) you dun have to press the 0. CIAO!!!

PARTAYYYYYYY!!!

ok last nite i left hurriedly becos of this party thing... normally the pple here drink at someone's house first before going to the pub or wherever because it costs more to drink there (abt 3euros for a pint). They came to my room cos we cudnt find anywhere else... and hahah they were all so amazed that i have a balcony.

Shot of Luis, JoseMiguel and Andreas

Here so yeah drink, drank, drunk... its funny how when we get tipsy, all the french spew out like no tmr. The wonders of alcohol....

Group shot.... again

Group shot.... again and again

The three ladies, Dalibel, Martha and Isabela!

Yeah so we left my place at around 11plus and by then most of us were talking nonsense. And Fernado came up with this crazy group system to get into the pub/club cos apparently they dun like big groups and we have like 10 pple in total. He was totally talking trash the whole nite. wahhaa.

The party, which was for international students, was super fun. Had there been slightly lesser pple and lesser smoke it wud have been better. The smoke smell was seriously super potent. Smokers rejoice and all get lung cancer together man. Until now my clothes still smell of it. The songs they play are 1000 times better than in MOS.... and the crowd is so much livelier.

the party ended at 230am? and me and Andreas seriously wanted to try and take the VeloV back to school but we didnt know how to work the stupid machine and some of the other pple werent too keen, it was cold... so we took a cab in the end. whahaa ok la. not toooooo expensive. Considering i didnt buy anything at the pub. Slept at 3plus... woke up at 820am and realised my room now looks like this....:

After i came back from class today i did some serious housekeeping... threw all the bottles away and cleaned the toilet and bathroom and now the room doesnt smell anymore!

Tmr going to Vieux Lyon (again) for language class!!!

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Second day of class and it've been quite a blast. ok... not really, its not bad but 3 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon is un peu long for me to take.... cos i am used tot aking naps... and i dun get to take naps till 330pm.... and actually i havent been taking ANY naps for the past 8days so i am quite proud of myself. wahaha ok anw.

today we had a new guy from US.... he's from Missouri and he has the WORST etiquette, super eager beaver... even worse than Siwei (wahaha) and argh i had to sit beside him. argh


anyway this is wat i ate for lunch... i shud seriously stop taking photos of wat i eat man before the rest of the intl students think i am crazy. whahaha. ok i am laughing a lot cos i am going out to party soon!!! WOOOOOTSSS!!!

This is a random shot of Andreas the German and Christiano from Brazil. Super cool guys and yeah ok. back to the main points. In the afternoon class, Barbara, my tutor taught us the history of the 3 kings or something and the way to eat the galette. (ok now i noe frangipane in french is actually almond paste... not the flower)

You shud noe by now that there is a piece of ceramic or coin in the galette so usually they will choose the youngest to hide under the table and randomly assign a piece to a person so no one cheats haha yeah so Martha who is 20 (turning 21 on friday) was the youngest. And the person who gets the

This is with Barbara my tutor... they are just super nice la. i am lucky in a way i guess... to have a group of nice, people-who-dun-dislike-chinese kinda pple. yeah. whahaaha okok anw i have to go thats all i have for u today!!! WOOTS!!! ziggy--------out

First Day of School!!!

I was quite excited this morning cos school is starting!!! Woke up at 730am... which is even earlier than in Singapore and walked to the restaurant. i was quite glad to see the Columbian and Miguel cos they are familiar... its funny how humans are seriously creatures of habit. In foreign land, once strangers meet, you tend to stick with each other for dear life.

Yeah so anyway, i forgot to take picture of the breakfast but it wasnt anything spectcular. Just bread, cheese, butter, jam, yoghurt and we can just press watever we want for drinks. I later realised that the rest of the gang are already eating together so we joined them too. After, we walked to the classroom for our first class.... well it wasnt actually a class... IT WAS A FREAKING TEST!! so that they can put us into different classes (actually only 2). There's a written and oral test. So of cos me, being the gan jiong spider, was semi freaking out. Cos i havent been taking french for the past 7 months and i didnt do revision of any kind before coming.... All i said was... "oh god please dun let my memory fail me"

And of cos it did... i forgot the most basic conjugation for present tense(!!!) and the best i could remember was passe compose (not even l'imparfait).... but i mean i crapped my way thru the test, hoping for the best. I mean even if i get posted to the lousier class i dun mind too, its a good chance for me to refresh anw.

After the test (ard 10am) we had break till 130pm so we all thought of going to do get student card. or at least thats what we suppose was supposed to happen. Th french administration, as usual, blur like fuck.... they were like "who are you pple?" and we were like "we are exchnage students and we want to collect out student card" and they were all like "d'accord, j'arrive tout suite" which mean i will be right back..... den one check with another, and another and another about what to do with us.... seriously i wanted to slap them in the fucking faces. Apparently the person in charge of the 3rd years is not around... i mean if you know students are coming, why the hell do u wanna take leave on that day right??? so irresponsible.

Luckily i am in my 4th year. so i could do (yeah it wasnt done yet) my student card.... take digital photo, fill some forms and was told to go pay 189 euros for my social security shit stuff before collecting. So by the time i finished all these it was already 12plus and the place i was supposed to go pay the money was closed for lunch already (!!) and wudnt be opened till 1pm and it closes for the day at 3pm. like wat the shit, might as well dun work la seriously.

Anyway this is what we ate for lunch.... quite good right... at first i tot we need to pay but we didnt. The german guy said "hey as long as i get to eat i dun care." which is quite true actually. But i think the bill will come with the monthly residence bill la... so yeah. its some beef thingy (i think) with long beans and super dry rice and some lasagne thingy (i think... i seriously duno what i am eating), bread, fromage and apricots!! it taste better than it looks actually. MY FIRST decent meal in days.

By the time we finish our meal there was no time to go the money. so we HOPED class wud finish before 3pm.... the prof was super nice and the language course went quite well... but of cos it ended at 330pm. so no student card and no personal internet access for today. So disappointing. but at least i got my restaurant card.... and i will be meeting derek to help me open bank acct on thursday afternoon since thats my only free time.

Anyway this is dinner,,,, some pork chop thingy with peas and potato, a pastry, some foie gras looking thing and yoghurt... so all is good. i am eating well. just need to settle ALLLLLL my admin things den i will rest in peace... literally. Ok now for homework!!!!

Around Lyon

Yesterday’s weather was really very good. The best I have seen so far. The sun was shining and the sky was blue. It was a magnificent day to go out walking! In the morning, I toured around the school campus…. It was quite uneventful… I mean how exciting can a school campus be. I caught the main points of what Francois and Xavier were saying, but as usual they were talking too fast.

The dog that followed us along the tour ard campus

the beautiful weather i was talking about

A mildly disturbing poster i saw along the way. Imagine if u see it at night and den when u turn the corner the auntie pops right out and wants to stab u, a la Pyscho

In the afternoon, when we were gathering to go to town area, I saw some Asians and I was so happy that all 3 were from NTU!! 2 were Singaporeans and 1 from China. It’s good to hear Singlish again! we toured around the nicer parts of Lyon, namely Bellecour and Vieux Lyon. Touristy stuff but hey… I am a tourist of sorts too. Made a big boo when I asked Manuel if the Hotel de Ville is still a Hotel, then he told me its actually the Mayor’s office…. Ok big boo boo. I am sure this was mentioned in French classes before but I probably wasn’t listening.

Some fountain at Place des Terraux

View of Vieux Lyon from Place de Bellecour

The other river that runs thru Lyon: Soane

The Basilica from the foot of the hill

Another church at the hill

The gang... the guy and 2 girls on the right sittin down are the pple from NTU!

Bellecour and the Hotel de Ville area is like the Orchard Road of Singapore. Quite nice la, but I mean I cant afford all the stuff they are selling anw. Den we walked up the hilly streets of Vieux Lyon and we could actually see the French Alps!! (and apparently Mont Blanc but I think was too blind to see that) Its not everyday that u get to see so far cos of the weather so even Xavier was getting all excited like a boy.

Can u spot the French Alps in the far horizon??

Vieux Lyon, literally Old Lyon is like the medieval part of the city which is built on top on a hill and it houses THE building of Lyon, La basilique Notre-Dame de Fourvière à Lyon. Inside Vieux Lyon are cobbled streets and shops that reminded me of the Europe I know, cos the part I am staying is really too modern and for the everyday people so it was a good feeling. There were also some Roman Amphitheatre there you could get a better view of the city below.

Note to self: next time dun tie my scarf that makes me look like an auntie or a big present (said Robson)

At the top of the hill, we had some flan which Xavier bought at Bellecour and we had a little picnic. By then it was nearly sunset and u could really just absorb and take in the scenery and the things that are around you. And flan is only available during this period and it’s a pastry made of like apples or frangipani. (dun ask me, I also tot frangipani is poisonous… or maybe frangipani in French is not the flower we know). And inside they hid this little piece of ceramic and if u find it, you get to be king for one day. They bought 3 flans and guess what, I friggin found 2….. but then I was so embarrassed I didn’t tell them I found it. They just thought that someone accidentally swallowed it (not a good thing). Haha I guess I was just too paiseh. Again. Otherwise I could be king for 2 times!! Haha.

And this is La basilique Notre-Dame de Fourvière à Lyon. Nice right? The light lit up when we reached the top so it was extra pretty. And u can see the streets of Lyon from up here too!! The whole evening was just very magical la, with the mini picnic and the view of the city. Next time someone comes to visit me, this is definitely one of the must dos!! And it’s completely free!!

Trees that remind me of the Whomping Willow!!


The view of the city below. This picture doesnt do justice to the view thou, you got to see it to believe it

The Basilica from the side

And from the front. Super pretty

After that we went to a small café at the bottom of the hill and talked some more. We were talking about studies and stuff. The Mexican girls asked me why I chose to be in engineering when I seriously hate it with all my guts. And it really stumped me…. Cos I am actually quite good at writing essays. Infact, this sem, all my top grades come from my writing modules. I guess I am just seriously aimless and dunno what I wanna do with my life. Like I believe in just making enough money and survive and then use the money u earn to do stuff that u really enjoy. Like traveling. And when they asked me if I had to do it all over again what would I do, I said I will probably go arts of something.

And then we talked about the different education systems of our countries. Apparently in Finland, the government pays u to study… so everyone at the table was like “ok I wanna be Finnish next time!!” And the Mexicans pay 4 times as much tuition fees as a Singaporean. So I guess we are quite lucky as Singaporeans. And den we talked about the weather. This is one of the warmest years of winter so maybe I wun be able to see actual snow falling so that’s a big big bummer. And in Chile, earthquakes happen so often that they dun care about it anymore… they jus continue to do their daily stuff.

At nite we all met in Luis’s room, that is actually below mine, for some drinking. MY FIRST DRINKING PARTY!! Haha. Talked a lot of nonsense. At one point everyone was talking in Spanish so me, Andre, Tutti and Andre’s roommate Antoine were like staring at each other cos we dunno what the rest was talking about. It was quite hilarious!! And later we all took out our IC and started comparing…. And they are super confused as to why I have 2 names, one dialect and one pinyin in brackets… I had to repeat the story like a hundred times to different people, and the fact that most of us were tipsy and drunk didn’t help at all. By the end of the nite, they were all like “so can I call u Cheong/ Chye/ Cheong Chye Tan/ Chen Cheong Chye/ Tan Changcai/ Changcai Tan?” or various other permutations…. Haha then I said “call me whatever you want!” hahahha

One other girl Sylvia (I think a senior) said she learned so much from me as an Asian in one nite than from her roommate cause she says her roommate is a superboring Chinese. So I am glad I helped to break the stereotype there, and upped the hip quotient of Asians in general. HAHAHA. And I got to drink for free!!! I am such a leech.

Yeah so anyway today I am just nuaing in my room, cos its raining outside as usual. So I took the time psyching myself up for class tmr. It shud be quite exciting! More abt that next time!!

Ma Première Soirée

Alright so, i had my first evening out. Every since i came to Lyon i almost nearly slept before 10pm... dunno because of jet lag or because my inner mammal needs to hibernate but yeah.

So anyway, i had my welcome tea thing at 5pm. I was a bit late and when i came in i realised i was the only friggin ching chong china there. And i was a bit offended cos after their presentation they asked me (only) if i understood what they just said. I'm like "erm yes". SO INSULTING. i know my french is very bad but i could at least catch the main points. And we were off to a bad start...

but as the saying goes, we shudnt judge a book by its cover. And that is so true cos they were actually all very nice and sociable and most of them can speak english as well. We've got a couple of Brazilians, 2 Chileans, 1 over-enthusiastic Columbian, 3 Mexican babes, 1 Finnish girl, and a guy that i never tok to at all (now i noe he is Andre from germany). Most of them said that by the end of the day their English will probably be better than their french since most of us spoke english the whole time. Even the 2 french hosts had to speak english to accomodate us sometimes. haha.

for the dinner, Francois, one of the french guy invited his China fren to join us so i was quite happy cos i can tok to him in chinese too!! He's Zhou Ze and he's doing his Shou Shi (i have no idea whats that in english... Masters?) and he arrvied 4 months ago so his french is quite good too.

Me being me, the whole nite i didnt really talk a lot. cos i dunno what to say at this kinda occasions. so i was basically listening the whole nite, trying to figure out what everyone is saying and chomping on pizza (we only ate like at 9pm... i was famished to say the least). Its like a mini United Nations. I spoke to the Zhou Ze in Chinese, sometimes Francois will speak with us as well cos he is like s friggin linguist (he noes French, English, German, Sign language and a little bit of Chinese).... den i spoke to the Mexican girls in English and they were mumbling spanish within themselves. And the Brazilians, Chileans, Mexicans and Columbian could basically understand what one another is talking about. Xavier, the other french host, was speaking in English with the Finnish girl. SO yeah. it was quite a sight.

Francois, Enthusiastic columbian (i think he is Costa??) in stripes, Skinhead Chilean Joseph Miguel, Mexican girl Martha in pink, Finnish girl Tutti in Black

Isabela and Alexandra from Mexico whom i sat opp the whole nite

Mr Zhou Ze

Guy i didnt talk to in the centre, Xavier with the thumb on the lips, Christiano and Fernando from Brazil and Luis from Chile who lives in the same residence and studies the same fac as me...

So anw, everyone couldnt really pronounce my name. Before coming i actually wanted to be known as Hubert (say ooo bear) since thats really my name. Not some funky name i gave myself. But in the end i just told them my chinese name instead cos i am quite proud to be a chinese (unlike a certain Ziyi Zhang). Most of them end up pronouncing my name as Shong Shy. Oh well wat the heck. fine by me.

We walked all the way back from the restaurant to Insa which took abt 40mins?? I nearly died but i didnt sweat at all and the weather was quite shiok. Spent most of the time talking to Miguel (cos his french sucks as well so english was the prefered language) and Xavier, who spent a semester in UK so his english is quite zai for a french man as well.

I end up realising that i am the oldest there... the rest of the exchange student were like 20 to 22... and they arent racist. at all. Latin Americans can pick up French faster cos apparently its almost the same... hence the abundance of Latinos and Latinas. and erm.... everyone speaks english. english ROCKS. (PS i promise to speak more french after the french course. i SWEAR)

A failed attempt at taking a pic of The Opera house. too cold my hands shaking.

So all in all it was quite a successful first gathering of the international student. And i just finished walking a tour of the campus. Later going to walk ard Lyon.... Lyon by day hahaha. Ciao!