Distractions~

 

Been rather distracted of late. Alot of things have been running through my mind. Good things though. I can't seem to focus at work, though I've not much of it. My professor "tua" me alot of times today. I was supposed to see him to discuss about some problems I had while trying to model the vibrational frequency response of a 2 Degree of Freedom system. And so I went to his office at 10 am this morning, but he was having a discussion with 3 other students and told me to come back 15 minutes later. So I went back to my office and bobbed around for 15 minutes and then got out of my office with my notebook in 1 hand and my pencil in the other and trooped to his office. The door was closed, and sounds of discussion was penetrating the door. So I trooped back to my office, and bobbed around again. This happened every 15 minutes from 10 am to 1130 am, and i think Hugo and Zaki (my officemates) must be wondering what in the world was going on with me. And when I went to his office at 1130am, I heard no sound and breathed with a sigh of relief, only to find the door securely locked when i tugged at the handle. WTH. So off to Brazil my professor will go and leave me here with virtually nothing to do for the next week. Unless he decides to reply my emails which he never does because i suspect that he prefers to see his students in person and answer their questions. 

There's so much to think about other than work. Badminton tournaments and sessions, trip planning, concerts, football matches, administration, bad french, skiing, museums and the interesting weekend to come;) Haha..sounds fun but it can be very very draining if it happens every weekend. The body has no time to recover, and that's when you start getting distracted..that's when you start to think too much.......

These Little Wonders~

What a weekend~

This picure sums up le fabuleaux weekend. The pervertic smile on WJ's face, a side of him that we dumbfoundedly discovered while we were on the trip. He is an example of a "Singaporean H***** uncle".  The smile on my face, describes how much I enjoy travelling with the guys. It is quite amazing how 6 random people can come together and travel and get along rather well. I would like to say I haven't met quite an outstanding individual as Yokhian (the one taking the picture..). He is a walking wikipedia with amazing memory and is so much fun to visit museums with because of his vast knowledge about art, history, architecture, science etc etc...The smile on Victor's face depicts the expression of the marvel of the Gothic Cathedral in Strasbourg, one according to Yokhian, is 2nd best to the La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. We were blown away by the sheer size of the cathedral, and the outstanding gothic design that stood proud in a town littered with all kinds of styles of architecture, from the 12th century to the 21st century, the variety and the diverse nature of the buildings are enough a reason to visit this town. The expression on Kartik's face on the contrary, tells the story about the rather curious dinner of Kartik Buddha. It tells about an Alsacian dinner of foie gras, escargots, saurkraut with seafood, german beer and dessert with rum. The dinner was no doubt as exquisite as its price, but Kartik had reservations because of the psychological impact he had when eating goose liver and the fact that he wasn't used to eating prawns with shells. And lastly, the backdrop of buildings in Petite France spells out PRETTY, BEAUTIFUL and PHOTOGENIC right in your face. Le weekend derniere?? C'est tres bon et Strasbourg est une tres jolie ville :)

Strasbourg~

So, we are heading to Strasbourg this weekend, 4 hours north from where we are, to enjoy what seemed to be the week of the holidays, but only 2 days for us. So this little town of Strasbourg is somewhere in Alsace, just next to Germany. Apparently in the town u have some people speaking french, and some people speaking German. Finally, Elvin can unleash his german power upon someone. Haha. We'll be taking the morning train at 721am tomorrow, and us being us who always seem to delay our departure time by about half an hour due to unforseen circumstances, have to leave INSA at 6 tomorrow. So we would probably leave around 630 and brave the cold morning breeze on bikes to Part Dieu just in time to catch the train. 

This week was particulary dreary. Cos everyone seemed to be on holiday, no one seemed to be at work and being one of the few who report to work this week, there wasn't much of a working environment. Nevertheless, I'm glad that i managed to meet my own deadline of submitting the matlab codes to my professor by the end of this week and in fact, just at the last hour because i really ran into some really thick, pesty walls. Perseverance paid off I guess. I think I would miss the tranquility of school during the school holidays, and the express queues we had during lunch and dinner, and the extra food we could take during breakfast cos the staff were all slacking as well. I would also miss the double deluxe bedroom as my roommate should have came back from Paris when I return from Strasbourg. But what the heck. Oh and I met a german girl, Jana while playing badminton and she plays kickass mixed doubles. Makes it so simple for me it feels like mens doubles. Makes playng mixed doubles so enjoyable. I think girls in Singapore should learn how to play mixed doubles properly!! 

Sorry for the deviation...Strasbourg...will be the 1st of our few trips we will be embarking on. The longest we will take ever since touching down on Lyonnais soil. The others are namely the Loire Valley, Rennes, Normandy, Marseille, Cannes, Nice, Monaco, Toulouse and not forgetting Paris. Research attachment or holiday? I think its  a mixture of work hard and play hard, and an example of exemplary time management...haha!!!

Settling In~

I'm kinda well and settled in Lyon after almost one month now. I've finally started work which seems to become a new challenge everyday day. I have found a badminton club which is pretty near school. It used to be a 20 minutes cycle on the velo'v, but now its just a 5 minutes car ride away thanks to Clement, a new found french friend from the Badminton Club de Villeurbanne. Playing pretty intensive badminton here, because there are some pretty good players around. Soon, I'll be playing my first tournament here. Victor and I went to the English speaking Anglican church last Sunday, and we made some new friends there as well, but the service was not something I expected. The sermon was rather short and hasty but it could be due to presentation about some counselling service that followed suit and maybe communion. We'll see how it goes next week. 

So, there's the few guys I will be travelling with (and yes NO girls, I had my fair share of experience). Kartik, Yok Hian, Wenjun, Elvin and Victor(sometimes) would be conquering France during the long weekends and public holidays. Elvin, Kartik, Wenjun and myself will be conquering Spain, Italy and Switzerland after our attachment. Planning has well started for the trips and it is important because its not easy to get travel tickets and accomodation during the holidays and the peak season. 

Ok gtg for french class now....Will update more about work in another post:)

Aicha~

An addictive french song...

Le Weekend Derniere~

Skiing was AWESOME. After 3 years of inactivity, I still managed to get my Wedge and my parallel turns right. Tried to teach some of the guys how to ski and the basics of skiing, but it wasn't really that easy. I was mostly skiing with Teijo, a Finnish exchange student who we got to know during the french course. Teijo was like going "This is great. It is so relaxing. I can do this everyday." And I was like aching and cramping all over and wondering how in the world is it relaxing?!? Guess I just wasn't used to skiing. I managed to conquer my first blue slope. The starting part was relatively easy, but when we got to the steep part, I almost choked. My current ability did not allow me to turn at fast speeds very smoothly, so when I got fast, my legs started running all over the place. It was so bad I just stopped in the middle of the slope and looked down at Teijo who was already down the slope looking up and cheering me on. Ultimately, I managed to overcome the slope and after that, I vowed that I will conquer a blue slope with ease the next time I shall ski. Skiing at the French Alps will not be the last for me that's for sure... :)

Wanted to attend the English speaking Anglican church  in Lyon, but the effects of skiing took over me and I only woke up at 1030 on Sunday morning. Spent the day watching movies, doing french homework and discussing our travel plans in France. This week is the last week of the french intensive course, and I will definitely miss it. Somehow I'll need to find the spark to kick start my research next week. Currently there's no momentum. I just feel like learning french all my 6 months here. Try to master the language (not master but at least be on a comfortable level of communication) I would say that my knowledge of the language has certainly improved, but still not proficient enough. Arh....