dance

The performance wasnt that bad, but it wasnt the best either. the salsa and ballet dances were quite decent cos can see that some of them got dance background.... but the rest were well, amateur to say the least. And i was sooo embarassed for one chinese girl cos she OBVIOUSLY didnt know how to dance.... erm but oh well.

Last nite reminded me so much of Dance Uncensored.... i suddenly felt pangs of sadness. I miss my dancer friends. i hope they are doing ok althou when i read their blog they are always upset and complaining about being tired and all. Be strong... let's be optimistic for each other's sakes. heh

Before i leave for Germany tomorrow, here's wishing everyone Happy Valentine's/Friendship Day and an early CHINESE NEW YEAR!!! Gong xi gong xi!!! Ben3 ming4 nian2!!!!

Update!!! (part treize)

this is indeed a depressing week for me.... argh if u dun already know why please look at previous post. Anw here is just an update for the current state of things:

1. Sundeep FINALLY arrived! Brought him up to the Fourviere and showed him around. He is only taking a few courses but doing some research project thingy.


2. OK here is the lecture theatre where i wll be spending at least 60 hours in.... very very retro with the black board (seriously... europeans are obviously still living in medieval times). The screen for projection is so high i feel like i am sitting in the front row of the cinema.


3. 2nd day of lectures but i am still not getting anything. i am not usually pessimistic but i am very sorry to say this to my parents but the likelihood of me failing some modules is extremely high. if dun fail can buy toto.... ARGH i sense i'll be spending a LOT of time in the library. And please be prepared to send some of my old notes over.

4. On a much lighter note, i just got back my french test results which we had a week back and i am glad to say i was 7th out of 15 students.... and i freaking haveat least 4 ECTS worth of credits to take back home!!! YES!!! (that less than 4MCs by the way). Here's the breakdown of the scores:

Listening compre: 6/22
Grammer: 55/98
Compo: 65/80
Total: 126/200

ok listening was quite tough, even the prof said so and the average was around like... 10 so. ok.... I was never a big fan of grammer shit and i didnt exactly study a lot for this final exam so i passed for this part and i am happy. BUT i got 3rd highest for compo!!! WOOTS!!! (sorry let me brag a little. need to boost my self-esteem after a miserable first week in school). Engineering is so not for me.... what have i been doing for the past 2 1/2 years??? WHAT THE EFF am i doing in engineering.... i should be in eff-ing arts!!!

sigh... but i still don't understand what the lecturer talking about... how?

5. Random post but the weather these few days have been really good... good as in warm. Actually i dun mind not seeing snow already. I've seen it once.... and that's pretty much enough. PLEASE give me back my sun so i can start wearing tshirts and flip flops and berms again.

Sorry ah ding.... stole your inspiration

6. Going to watch a dance performance later in school.... i havent been dancing, legs and hands a bit itchy. so when i saw the poster for the performance i was like "hell yeah i am going"... and it cost 2.50euros only. I hope its good.... so dancer frens, please dun complain i am not dancing.... ok i am still not but at least i am watching.... and imagining i am dancing in my head... so sorta got practice la.

7. ok i managed to ao1 guo4 2 days of lessons this week. and i am so glad i am free for the rest of the week to wallow and mope in my bed and cry. i've seriously never ever been so worried and lost in my life.... Hopefully things will work out in the end.... like how my life always seems to fall into place by itself even if i don't think i have tried hard enough.

GERMANY HERE I COME!

first day of class

There's good news and there are bad news.... let start with the good

GOOD

1. i understood the words in the powerpoint slides

BAD

1. i understood almost nothing when the prof was speaking

2. it's exhausting to concentrate so hard on listening.... and if my mind wanders off for more than 3secs, i am basically lost

3. the lecturers talk NON STOP for 2 hours and there is no break in between. and almost no one went out for toilet break... which led me to infer that french pple have HUGE bladders... OR they don't drink much, which explains the bad breath some of them have

4. i had to copy notes from scratch today... this is sooo JC. my hand was almost cramping and copying in french made it worse. i have yet to translate it.

5. i think i am pretty much screwed.... just PLEASE dun let me da bao.

(Mega) UPDATE!! (part douze)

GENEVA

Nearly missed the train to Geneva cos Martha woke up late but fortunately we made it at the last last minute. And the first thing we ate at Geneva was.... Macs. I'm sorry but nothing was opened, we were hungry and that was the first noticeable eating place we saw. hehe. Walked around a bit and i realised Geneva is quite boring. Its too cosmopolitan with nothing much to see.... besides the Jet d'eau (meaning jet of water) and the older part of the city.

Went to a free museum and walked around the city a bit. The wind was ridiculously strong the first day and i did not like it AT ALL. freezing my ass off. Just look at the waves.... and we had to get lost on the way to find dinner. Well done la. Parted ways with the group to go look for Kenneth and this was wat he made for me for 2nd round of dinner:

Looks like freaking restaurant food right.... i also say. And he did it within 20mins.... i was too in awe for words. Talked a lot... gossip and stuff, while he kept stuffing me with food. And he said "you dun have to compromise on style even thou you are on exchange" OMG so so true....

the weather on the second day was so much better than the first... the sun was shining and we headed out for cafe at Place de Bourg-de-Four, enjoying the morning sun. Its good to just chill and absorb the surroundings... its a different kind of enjoyment as compared to visiting famous places and stuff.

Jet d'eau.... yeah, nothing much, just a super high fountain.... yeah thats it, but i had to do the Japanese and take pictures so... yeah.

The aforementioned beautiful weather.... it was so hot i sorta got heat rash.... sorta. Kenneth forced me to converse in French, which i tried, with absymal results.... i tried but his french is too zai. haha. trying harder.

WOOTS! Lunch!! ROSTI! All i have to say is if the banking industry doesnt suit you in the end, you can consider going into hospitality... cos i was treated like a king while staying with him. Gan Dongz....

Went to the library in the afternoon cos he had to study for his exams so i read french newspapers! and i understood what it was talking about! wahahah so smart! Maybe my body is not repelling french as much as i thot.

Met up with Kenneth's jap fren Fumi for dinner. She's doing her masters there and she's older than both of us but she sounds like cartoon character.

All in all, Geneva doesnt have a lot to offer in terms of monuments and stuff but the having a wonderful host certainly more than made up for it. THANKS KENNETH for everything. truly appreciate it!

LAUSANNE

After being pampered in Geneva, i wasnt quite used to scrimping and saving in Lausanne... But Lausanne was so much nicer and had more to offer compared to Geneva even thou its smaller.

Anyway if u are a gossip monger like me you would notice Beyonce latest pose a la mode, like this:

Now i know where she got her inspiration... right. whatever rocks her boat.

Back to main topic. Ok, at first everything was going well, until i went to the Olympic Museum and realised it was closed on Mondays... and that was at the bottom of the hill... So i had to hike all the way up again. By the way Lausanne is made up of slopes and all, like NUS terrain, but worse. yeah

And when reached the cathedral and wanted to go up the tower, i realised it was already closed... at freaking 430pm. Ok bummer no2. And i sorta got lost towards the evening... like seriously lost cos the map the hostel gave was super simplified and all i got to say is whoever did the urban planning for Lausanne shud be shot, dead, brought back to life and shot dead again. Its so confusing with the tiny alleys and all. It was dark, i was hungry and no where near the hostel. Until realised Kenneth gave me a detailed map of the city so once again, he saved the day.

The second day althou drizzling, was much better cos i basically knew where to go. I went back to the Olympic Museum and spent a good 2 hours there. Went back to the cathedral to get a view of the suckily planned city

When i went up, i was like "no wonder i got lost". After looking at this maze, I didnt feel so bad about my navigating skills after all. But the view was just spectacular la... and i found my inner peace and all.... and feeling so much happier

I swear i vaguely heard Tom Cruise jumping up and down a couch somewhere when i chanced upon this Scientology church... i quickly took a pic before someone from inside kidnapped me and fed me to their alien friends....

Met a Swiss guy at the hostel... Manuel's a "cabinet maker" and he is travelling around as well. He has been in Lausanne for like 10days. He told me he is going to finish using up his money travelling and see which city he's at and continue working there on out..... i seriously admire this kinda pple. its just very courageous and makes me wonder why am i wasting my time doing a degree i dun like just because it's the norm to do it. I would never have the guts to do anything remotely similar.

I was alone for this part of the trip and i didnt enjoy it one bit..... althou you get to spend some quality time alone, like visiting a musuem you like for 2 hours, but the loneliness was too much for me to handle. So i dun think i will be travelling alone anytime soon.

GRENOBLE

I arrived at nite and i was quite disappointed not to see any mountains anywhere budden the next morning, BAM BAM BAM. Mountains everywhere!! Grenoble is a town/city that's nestled within a valley. It's seriously 360degrees surrounded by ice capped mountains and its very beautiful. Althou there's nothing much to do there also

But as promised, Andi and Xiaowen, here are the pictures of Grenoble, your soon to be home! haha. Met up with other Singaporeans while there and i was surprised that there were more of them in Grenoble than in Lyon.... around 7 from NUS to be exact.

Here's a pic taken with Hoirul, my host and Kelvin (sans Sun Shine, no seriously, my fren is called Sun Shine) at the top of the Fort Bastille. You can basically see a panoramic view of the city from here and the treacherous climb up the mount was deffo worth it.

met up with Pema for dinner and it was nice to see so many singaporeans. Althou i have to say they are suffering a bit in terms of lack of internet and lousier accomodations but at least they have each other to depend on.

So yeah, thats it from my one week of break. I'm back in my room, never been happier to see my roomate and the familiarities of my room. Now i'm just looking forward to school next week.... only got lectures so i wun feel the full blast of 8-6pm lessons yet and i am having a winter break one week from now which coincides with Chinese New Year so i will be going to Germany to look for Siwei!!! So exciting!

La fin du cours Francais!

How often do you see alcohol in a classroom in NUS? More like never ever in our lifetime!!!

Anyway today is the end of the french intensive course. In the morning we had the one and only exam (which consisted of a 3 min listening comprehension... which i caught nothing) which i shud be able to pass since i think my compo was quite alright and i just need to pass to get my freaking credits.

In the afternoon, our prof bought some wine, cheese and bread and taught us how to appreciate wine.... ahahaha. while she was talking, i was like "COME ON, just let me drink the wine.... i wun remember what u just said in one hour anyway!!!" hahah but it was quite an experience... drinking diff types of wine and eating cheeses!! WOOTS!!! this is so french!

Wine, cheese and bread!

The winning team of the final game

Barbara! Our french prof!

CHIN CHIN!!

All wiped out

More wine pleaseeeee

i cant believe i have been in france for one month already.... its so fast. i've been to class 20 times and yet i dun feel like my french has improved tremendously. Prolly i just need more time.... But it has been a great experience with this bunch of pple... and i am glas more than half the class in continuing the french course during the real semester. Me included.

Been slightly sick the past couple of days... of blocked nose, flu and feeling a little bit of cough coming, but hopefuly that would happen cos i will be travelling from 3rd feb to 9th feb to Geneva, Lausanne in Switzerland and Grenoble in France.... So exciting!! Will be meeting up with Kenneth the cow in Geneva and be alone in Lausanne after.... then meeting up with another fren Hoirul in Grenoble! I am such a leech... and i love it! Wahahha okok. kidding.

So prolly i wun be blogging for the next week or so but look out for the mega update when i return!!!

Musee Lumiere

I had the worst night's sleep yet last nite... my nose was blocked and i can't sleep properly, kept fidgeting the whole night... and it didnt help that my roomate woke up at 5am to study for his exams today... it was bad. It's not that i'm sick or anything... no fever no coughs no sore throat...just sneezes and blocked nose. Guess my body just isnt adapting to the cold weather THAT well yet...

Had another field trip for class to the Musee Lumiere... wasnt all that fantastic. Had an odd, grungy looking guide, with about 68 piercings on her, to explain to us about the brothers Lumiere. Didnt really quite understand her since, well my french sucks. I could only catch a few concepts here and there....So when the rest of the class laughed, i faked-laughed as well. Lesson of the day: basically if not for the brothers Lumiere, there wouldn't be modern cinema

Acting attentive

Ms Grungy

Wife of one of the brothers. She is so ugly she looks like a boy

After visiting the musuem we went to a nearby restaurant for lunch and it was SOOOOO good. We all had the plat du jour which was saute pork with fries... Oh god, looking at the picture makes me salivate all over again... the sauce was kinda curry-ish and it kinda reminded me of food at home. And the dessert, which was some kinda chocolate cake with condensed-milk thingy, was totally to-die-for!

Sauted pork with fries

Chocolate cake!

Met a super nice japanese lady with her mum (who was wearing a jacket that reminds me of Xmas Tree) and an old french dude. I couldnt quite figure out the relation between the french guy and the 2 ladies... either one of them is the wife, i am sure. But it was kinda wierd. ANW, the japanese lady talked to us and Eric and i were surprised to know that she used to stay in Singapore for 2 years, donkey years ago, in Katong, before reclaimation started (now that u noe roughly how old she is, u can imagine the amount of wrinkles on her mother's face. QIAN NIAN LAO YAO Xmas tree... totally hilarious).

She commented that it is very competitive academically in Asia and noted that it is very difficult for Asians to learn french because of all the conjugasions and all. Barbara, our prof, told her that although Eric and i had some diffculties with expression at first , we have the most improvement in class.... which i TOTALLY beg to differ. This is not humility.... this is a fact. I have like ZERO talent in French.... a sad fact, i noe.

On the way back saw some ah peks playing the metal ball thingy which i forgot the name and captured toddlers crossing the road. Damn cute right??? reminds me of my cousin back in Singapore. Here's a shout-out to Qihan all the way from Lyon!!!!