The French Connexion

2011-05-06T21:24:00.002+08:00

Dear blog,

I've been neglecting you much.

So many things to talk about.

I think I may need therapy.

Last day of practicum today! next goal : get my driver's licence! I must do it. I need a lot of practice, but I am determined to get my licence before the june holidays are over.

Tomorrow is going to be an exciting day. I am voting for the first time. It feels extraordinary to be taking part in the democratic process, finally! Finally I feel like I have some sort of stake in this country. That my voice counts. Though I don't think the miw will be overthrown, perhaps they may start listening to the people whom they are supposed to serve more. The general discontent has been brewing since the last election. Social media has played a huge role this time around. I feel like i'm living in an exciting time for Singapore. It is from now on that things will change. For the better, we all hope.

F and I have been going through tough times, I do not know where we stand and what our future will be. together or apart? ah how it breaks my heart to think about our situation.

2011-02-20T16:52:00.001+08:00

Practicum starts tomorrow!
I can't bloody believe it. So fast.
I wonder if anybody reads this blog anymore. I sure don't think about it much nowadays.
Poor bloggie :(

2010-11-01T10:24:00.001+08:00

Been back in Singapore for three months now.

It's strange.

Things have changed a lot here.

I feel even more alienated than when I left five years ago.

It's so crowded, on the roads, in the trains, in the ubiquitous shopping mall

this blog has served it's purpose. I will print it out and bind these pages one day.

I'm thinking I should keep this blog alive, but change the topic. Reiki maybe.

2010-07-18T02:08:00.001+08:00

A five year ride draws to and end. Tu me manqueras, la France. :( :(

2010-06-17T07:58:00.000+08:00

an excerpt from a convo with Elizabeth

other examples of french thinking: if i say, in asia, meat is not the princial element of a meal, they will reply, oh, cos asians are all poor
not because, for hindus and buddhist for example, meat is prohibited and meals aren't just designed the same way
If i tell them, for the chinese, people usually eat at resttaurants in big groups, and there are communcal dishes which everyone is meant to share..they will say, oh, that's cos china is overpopulated
if i say, in singapore it's customary to take of one's shoes before entering the hosue, they will say, oh , that's cos your roads are all made of mud, ur shoes must get very dirty
if i say ' there is not much old film documentary about singapore in the olden days', they will reply, ' that's cos himidity doesn't conserve film well' ( they think that it's so bad that our clothes don't even dry, and our cds rot)

2010-05-23T00:15:00.001+08:00

Just 8 weeks left. And I'm extremely upset about it today

2010-04-07T18:59:00.002+08:00

François and I have booked our air tickets back: it's official, we will be back in Singapore of the 22nd of July!

It's starting to sink in that i'm leaving and I'm starting to feel sad about it. France can be a really frustrating place to live in, but I have grown up so much here, and it has taught me much, shown me new ways of thinking, broadened my outlook. At the same time it has made me prouder of my country, my asian identity, made me realise that singapore is not so bad after all.

The good pastries and cheese i'll miss. the pretty buildings, countryside, history, the fact that I will not have to think about $ problems...

At least I'm bringing back a real live Frenchman as a souvenir. :)

2010-03-08T07:18:00.002+08:00

back from scotland safe and sound!

it was an awesome holiday! the rugged beauty of the highlands, the haunted underground vaults, the castle, and the hills of edinburgh, the great hostel, doing whatever I wanted when I wanted, eating whatever I wanted!! traveling alone for short periods of time is great. hahaha.

2010-02-12T04:18:00.000+08:00

2010-02-12T03:57:00.002+08:00

Hello all!!

i'm in a good mood today! actually i've been in a generally better mood these past few days! suddenly france seems a lot less sucky and i'm starting to appreciate things more.

perhaps it's the realisation that i'm going back to Sg in a a few months? Perhaps it's because I know winter is coming to an end soon? One wouldn't be able to tell though,what with all this snow. Yesterday it snowed( big light flakes), the sun came out, it snowed again ( strange compact snow, like the sugar granules on chouquettes), the sun came out again, and then it snowed again!

I love how snow seems to fall in slow motion :) beautiful.

I wish Francois could be here for Valentine's day. but hey, everyday should be valentine's day no?

It's also Chinese new year this weekend. And the screening of Sumpah Pontianak, a 1958 malay movie, at Beaubourg. For once, I have something to do this weekend, and I actually feel like going out isntead of hibernating in my room! Friday: CNY dinner with Julie, Thomas and other friends. Saturday night: sumpah pontianak, and perhaps a guided walk through the marais, or the sewers of Paris. Sunday: CNY parade, dunno which one though, there are 4 here.

Paris is defnitely a lot more culturally diverse than Lyon. but lacks that small-city charm. and the beautiful quais. the banks of the Seine are no match. Sorry.

*muacks* -Kavita

2010-01-27T03:14:00.004+08:00

just another regular day in the flat! the first semester is officially over.

i've been surfing the net, reading, helping out with dinner: on the menu tonight is a stir fry of julienned turnip and carrot, a few pieces of broccoli thrown in, and a few lardons ( bacon, but in small rectangular pieces)

tomorrwo i will go for my fourth yoga lesson. I'm pretty much used to the sun salutations now, but they still hurt my shoulders like hell. good news is that i sweat and my heart rate is up for at least 30 mins during each class. that's what i need.

I bought myself 10 pieces of chocolat from jeff de bruges. dark chocolat with coffee ganache, pistachio ganache ( not so yummy), all sorts of other stuff.

for those of you not aware, france is going to ban the niqab. in all places where you can get 'public services', meaning city hall etc, including in public transport. meaning a woman who get on a bus with her face covered can legally be kicked off the bus.

liberté, égalité, fraternité, you ask? i suppose it's a good thing that france is one of the few european countries that openly talks about the place of islam in society. the sad thing is, the usual conclusion is that islam has no place in france. or a place not equal to those of other religions. aiyah

and i thought singapore was bad.

2010-01-11T07:51:00.002+08:00

11hours and François will be here :):):):):):):):)

2010-01-05T06:59:00.001+08:00

Happy New year!!!

I can't believe it's 2010! a few years ago, I was 19, arriving in france for my first year. and now i am almost at the end of this very long journey

Have I told you guys about my dreams. I have the weirdest dreams. Typical ones, like my teeth falling out, that's apparently a common dream theme. Flying too. or taking giant leaps, like in the Hulk movie. but i also have stranger dreams. last night i dreams of weird, greay aliens with pear-shaped bodies hunting me and my family. I've also dreamt of having a phone that would transport me into a parallel universe, where everything was like in the twiligt movie. dark, moody, supernatural beings everywhere.

I wonder what the nature of one's dreams says about a person. Cos i definitely have some scary, weird ones.

2009-11-27T18:11:00.002+08:00

My poor blog has been neglected. I'm not sure any of you out there still read it. haha.

It's been three months since I got to Paris. I know most of the tourist spots. so i haven't been out exploring much. Worst thing is, I don't even feel like going out and exploring non-touristy things.

The sorbonne is over rated.

Big party tomorrow in the apartment! Xmas and new year's soon. Should i go to F's grandparent's place and have a horrible time like last year, or not? On the one hand, it would be kinda rude not to go, they'd expect me to be there i think. On the other hand, if i do go, people will all be really weird around me, they'll have to make me special dishes cos I don't eat beef, it'll be awfully cold and when I (inevitably) get a cold, everybody will start talking about the difference in climate btw 'my country' and theirs, and talking about how much they hate the humidity, mean aunties will mke mean remarks and stare at the way i cut my food, uncles will make racist jokes, and I will feel so awkward I will want to cry!

aiyahhhhh

2009-09-15T00:29:00.003+08:00

I think i had some kind of OBE last night.

Out-of-Body Experience.

I had been having trouble sleeping, thoughts keeping me up.

But then i finally did get to sleep. In the middle of the night, i suddenly felt like i was floating, on my back, slightly above my body, like maybe 10 or 15cm above it. I was lying on my back in bed too. I slowly started descending towards my body, all this while it felt like I was vibrating at an incredible frequency. Pretty scary but awesome sensation really. When i'd sunk bank into my body, I woke up.

Had a whole lot of crazy dreams too. One i remembered when i woke up after this crazy OBE, but don't rmbr anymore. All i remember is that it's a dream i've had before. In another dream i was in a field full of cacti. I was trying to manoeuvre my way out of the field without scratching myself. I believe this is my mind's metaphor for living in France. haha.

2009-09-11T19:40:00.002+08:00

so much has happened since my last post

i have moved to paris for my 5th year at the sorbonne.

i found myself a room in an apartment i'm sharing with 6 other people, 5 french, one algerian. It's a nice apartment, in a nice neighbourhood. It's got a washing machine even! hahaha. wireless internet, a big fridge, most everything i need except double glazed windows in my bedroom. But that doesn't matter very much, seeing as how my room is facing a large courtyard, which is usually pretty quiet.

The only thing that's missing is Francois, who is back in Lyon. :( I love you stinky!!!

paris is a beautiful city, i only wish it were cleaner, less polluted, less expensive and the weather were better. oh yeah and i also wish the people were nicer.

Im back in lyon till tuesday the 15th. Lyon feels like home. I love this apartment of ours. Sadly we will have to give it up. But we are trusting it to a good friend of ours, who will be moving in in October.

Sometimes I wish i could just give everything up, run away with Francois, and live happily ever after, just me and him and nobody else.

2009-06-30T19:46:00.001+08:00

I actually do have a pet fish like the one on my blog background---->
his name's Fishy! haha

2009-06-15T18:39:00.003+08:00

i guess that it's too much to ask that a post office here be open on a Monday morning! hurghhhhh

Trip to normandy next week! i can't wait! i've always wanted to see the Dday beaches. thinking of getting geared up for it by watching old Dday movies. We're getting a private Dday beach tour and everything- omaha and utah beaches, american cemetery, arromanches..second day we will be left to our own devices in bayeux.

we're going to watch Drag Me To Hell tonight! there's only one cinema here that's showing it in english and that cinema has only two showings a week of the movie. hahaha

2009-06-06T04:25:00.002+08:00

Hello hello from me and Ahmed here in Lyon!!
we just came back from dinner at a brasserie where Ahamed had snails for the first time! hahahah
I had this lemon sorbet for dessert, soaking in a strong german liquor. yum.

tomorrow we are leaving for barcelona. gaudi architecture and tapas here we come! :)

ps Ahamed talks like a 'cheena meena', thanks to all the NTU people she has been spending the past few years with.

2009-04-13T05:49:00.002+08:00

Pretty spring flowers

today's Easter lunch entrées, F's parent's place

My birthday party!!!!

mmm royal couscous-lamb chicken merguez, carrots turnips and zucchini, on couscous with a spiced broth

2009-03-19T21:08:00.002+08:00

HAHAHAH stupid Inf****on, you knew you didn't have a case against me!

Time to plot my revenge

2009-03-14T02:37:00.001+08:00

hello, it's been a long time

what's new? In*****on, a school that i was considering doing an internship( a compulsory one i have to do for school) with starting April, is threatening to sue me for breach of contract and ask for compensation for 'emotional and material damage' that i supposedly caused them because i decided to go do my internship at another association.

Thing is though, the contract was not signed by the 3 parties involved, me the uni and that school, which means it is NOT valid. I did not submit it to my uni cos i had heard about how they ill treated their interns, made them work too much, didn't provide enough guidance, and about their horrid working environment.

I have no legal obligation to work with them, and my teacher confirms this. The idiots have no case against me! they are just trying to intimidate me sending a letter threatening legal action. Oh and, this letter, which accuses me of being irresponsible and having no morals, was also sent to two of my teachers, the pres and the vice pres of the uni!!! WTF!!! what an overreaction!!!!!!!!

some people here are completely nutso.

So i talked to a teacher about this, he brought me to see an admin person who is suppsoed to call them to settle things. She told me not to worry, that i have no legal obligation as long as the contract was signed by only 2 of the 3 parties involved.

I just hope she calls them quickly, cos the director of that place demands a reply by tuesday 17, failing which he says he will ' alert the authorities'

Right.

I dunno whether to be scared, or to laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation. It's not like i gave them short notice, i told them one whole month in advance for god's sake. i didn't start my internship, decide it was not for me, and decide to do my internship somewhere else. and most importantly, there is NO official contract!

Heck, i should sue them for emotional damage. This situation has me highly stressed.

ahlalalala, on n'est jamais tranquille dans ce pays

2009-02-04T20:20:00.002+08:00

The french government is trying to convince young people that becoming a farmer is hip.

Check out these ads!! HAHA

2009-01-23T16:30:00.001+08:00

Off to the montains for the weekend. If i don't post photos within the next week, it means i either died in an avalanche or am too lazy

2008-12-09T00:46:00.002+08:00

OMG I am so swamped with work this semester!

I have projects to do for practically every subject! dammit!

My last fête des lumières boohoo. Lyon is indeed a pretty city. even though i complain about them alot, i must applaud them for their pretty architecture.

2008-11-30T20:27:00.002+08:00

I'm famous!!!

hehehehe

But on a more serious note, it's high time someone started talking about this.

From today's ( 30 Nov 08) Sunday Times, an article about the group I set up on facebook after countless experiences with service staff who can't speak English!

"Service Grouses Spill Over to Facebook" - Gracia Chang

They are irate customers and they have found a way to air their grievances - on Facebook.

Some 2,000 people have joined a group called 'I am Singaporean and tired of service staff who can only speak Mandarin' on the popular social networking site.

At least 20 establishments - from big-name supermarkets and foodcourts to retail shops - have been singled out by members who have come forward to share frustrating experiences at these outlets.

Started in August by undergraduate Kavita Devi Thamilselvam, 22, the group has drawn many non-Chinese as well as Chinese who are not fluent in Mandarin.

'It's as though non-Mandarin speaking customers are not valued. It makes us feel like foreigners in our own country,' Ms Kavita told The Sunday Times.

Another member of the group, Ms Nor Hafiza, 28, said she once had to approach four different sales assistants at a supermarket before a Singaporean employee was able to answer her queries.

The early childhood educator was surprised one of them even asked if she could speak Mandarin.

'When you are serving a multiracial community, it's important to have employees who can speak English,' she said.

Most members in the group said they are not against hiring foreigners, but are frustrated at the lack of English training given to them.

Ms Kavita said she had initially set up the group so that like-minded customers would have an outlet to vent their frustration.

But she now wants to take the group's feedback to the establishments. Industry watchers empathised with such sentiments.

'This sends a clear signal to the operators that it is important to ensure the competency of their service staff,' said the president of the Consumers Association of Singapore, Mr Yeo Guat Kwang.

Singapore Retailers Association executive director Lau Chuen Wei felt that English tests may be a good idea to ensure a minimum level of English proficiency.

'If such tests can be implemented for domestic helpers whose contacts are largely confined to the families that they work with, what more for those whose contacts are with the larger community?'

First-time maids have to sit for an English entry test to ensure that they have basic numeracy and literacy skills to do household tasks and adapt to life here.

When The Sunday Times did its own tests on five big businesses listed on the Facebook group, three - Giant, Kopitiam and Food Republic - did not fare well, while two - Haagen-Dazs and Takashimaya - passed with flying colours.

When contacted, all except Takashimaya said they have already been conducting some form of English classes for staff.

Companies explained that recruiting English-speaking service staff in both F&B and retail industries is already challenging enough, as many people shun such jobs.

Most added that employees from China form barely 10 per cent of their total staff strength. Service-sector companies are allowed to employ foreign workers on work permits - up to 50 per cent of the company's total workforce.

Said a spokesman from supermarket chain Giant: 'It will take some time for them to learn a new language...We hope the Facebook group can give our staff a bit more learning time.'

2008-11-15T03:30:00.003+08:00

Protest at Vichy against the new EU immigration laws.

Riot police. they were out in force. dogs, helicopters, teargas and all.

Protestors scale the fence to get a look at the protestor-police confrontation outside

The idiots confronting the police try to create a barricade, others try to stop them

Freedom for everyone. Happiness for everyone. Love for everyone. Papers for everyone. Or no papers at all.

Delinquents who joined the protest decide to burn cars

Meeting point at Lyon. About 100 lyonnais joined the protest at Vichy. Police tried to take our identities before boarding the bus that would take us to vichy. Journalists were called. The cops lets us board without taking our identites, which they do not have the right to do anyway.

2008-10-12T19:43:00.002+08:00

After a recent run in with a skinhead and the laundromat, i can't help but thinking that france is all about facades.

Lovely buildings that hide their racist tenants, pretty monuments to hide a colonial past, 'liberté égalité fraternité' but for rich white people only, well-dressed women who hide their xenophobic sentiments.

but then singapore's like that too isn't it. I left singapore thinking i had had enough of its hyprocritical government. multiculturalism my ass.

only to arrive in france and be confronted with a system that's even more hypocritical! 'pays des droits de l'homme'? you gotta be kidding.

everywhere i go, no fucking escape, when will people stop judging others by the colour of their skin? when will light-skinned people stop judging darker-skinned people? never i say, never.

I hope i am born alien my next life. yes, i do believe people have alien lives. i do not want to be human. humans are the worst of the worst. pond scum.

I am planning to take a day off school on nov 3 to go protest against an EU meeting at Vichy ( of all places!). France wants the other EU countries to adopt the same (racist) immigration and 'integration' ( in france integration means assimilation, the foreigner gets metaphorically run over by a steam roller so all his differences get squeezed out of him, and he becomes like everyone else- eating pot au feu and stinky cheese on crusty bread) policies it's currently using.

Doing so is one of Sarkozy's priorities while he is president of the EU this year.

I hope i dont have an exam on that day but yeah, i will try my best to get there. we'll all prob get tear gassed and charged at by riot police, i will definitely get my papers checked since i have brown skin ( yes such wonderful BROWN skin i have never been prouder of!), and there'll prob be skinheads there taunting us.

but i am so determined to go there

in other less depresssing news, i've been hosting couchsurfers! we signed up online and so four have hosted twice. this weekend there's an english girl and a canadian girl. they'll be leaving later this evening. very nice people. :)

2008-09-20T19:40:00.000+08:00

http://www.fuglysingapore.blogspot.com/

Sorry to those of you to hate to be reminded how ungracious singaporeans can be..

2008-09-20T19:16:00.003+08:00

I've never been prouder to be Indian than since i've been in France.
The longer i stay here the more i realise how Asian civilization has offered so much more to the world than European civilization has, and that europe's dominance of the world is only due to their violence and disrespect for fellow human beings.

I've been reading this book called The Story of India by Michael Wood.

Amongst the many interesting facts in the book :

- Economists estimate that before the 1500s, when europeans decided to colonize other lands, India alone controlled 30% of the world economy
-Most European philosophers' ideas can trace their roots to Buddhist philosophy born in India
-an Indian astronomer discovered 1000 years before Copernicus did that the earth revolved around the sun ( and he was not persecuted for his ideas)
-India never declared war on other nations outside the subcontinent. Ashoka, who'd fought many bloody wars with rival indian kingdoms, realised the folly of his ways and became an advocate for peace and non-violence. europeans are still trying to figure this out i think. Ashoka's legacy lives on till today.
-India has been a country where diversity has thrived for millenia. Muslims , hindus , jains, and buddhists have lived in (relative) peace for a long time.
- The kamasutra was written in the 4th or 5th century ( i cant rmbr when exactly), whilst europeans, who have for most of their history been preoccupied with denying humans' sexual nature, only came up with such a book in the 1960s

2008-09-12T20:05:00.003+08:00

Elizabeth and I were talking about setting up organic food co ops in our neighbourhoods.

We found this site www.greencircle.com.sg . An organic farm in Lim Chu Kang.

I was browsing their website and came across some comments that sounded rather xenophobic, so i decided to email the webmaster,

Here's the email i sent, and the horrid reply i got.

Dear S**,

My friend and I have been doing some research on organic food farms in singapore with the aim of setting up an organic food co op in our neighbourhoods and came across your website.

Whilst you have an informative site and I applaud your efforts in promoting organic farming, I was very dismayed reading your ' This week' section. You write "Do you know that Lim Cho Kang area, where we are, is one of the very few places without Dengue fever, even though we have lots of mosquitoes and foreign workers living in our midst.

Do you mean to imply that foreign workers cause or spread dengue fever? Perhaps you have come to this conclusion after reading reports in the press about foreign workers contracting Chikungunya? . Furthermore you use the expression ' living in our midst' which seems to imply that foreign workers are unwelcome. This expression has a rather negative overtone and is one that we often associate with spies, pedophiles or drug dealers!

Your remark comes across as being rather xenophobic( and we all know xenophobia is very unfortunately becoming a big problem in Singapore), and I would appreciate it if it were removed.

Regards,
Kavita Devi
___________

Dear Mdm,

Your feeling is not my concern. I will write what I believe. You don't have to read it.

Amen

S**

I am dismayed, disgusted, embarrassed, and disappointed to call someone like him a compatriots
And i do not understand why he has to end his email with 'amen'.

2008-09-11T23:46:00.002+08:00

Hello!!

Long time no update!

It's been almost 2 weeks since i've come back to lyon and im getting back into the swing of things.

Just got back from the meeting at uni that's meant for all people doing my course this year! Classes aound very interezsting this year - some anthropology, including a class on the integration of immigrants, some didactics, some linguistics.

So i'm quite excited!

I've got classes every day except for the first seven weeks though, when i have mondays off. which means i have to quickly plan some weekend getaways!

yippeeee

In other news, my bro is going to Tekong tmrw, i set up a group on facebook that has been quite successful so far, Francois may be getting a nice new job which will look good on his CV, i'm going to the beaujolais this weekend and also going BUNGEE JUMPING on sunday!!

so big photo update soon!

2008-09-07T02:53:00.001+08:00

I got so drunk last night it wasn't even funny.

2008-08-27T01:10:00.000+08:00

I'm sad it's gonna be my last year in France boohoooo :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :(

2008-07-20T12:22:00.002+08:00

Randomness

2008-06-22T17:57:00.002+08:00

Fête de la musique- 21st june, summer solstice.

I think this group had the best music. they were stationed in front of an african restaurant in the street just next to our building. I love France in summer!!!

We went to see what was going on at the Amphithéâtre des 3 Gaules, 5 mins from our place. it's a small ancient roman amphitheatre. in my own neighbourhood! the most interesting thing in my neighbourhood in singapore is...the coffeeshop?

Later in the night. I knew i shouldn't have mixed cold medication and beer...

I love the colours. Another band, at the Montée de la Grande Côte. 2 mins from our place. I love my niehgbourhood.

Me and Nanami, at the top of the montée.

panoramic view from the montée. you can see the river Saone, St Jean Cathedral, fourviere up on the hill..

The African restaurant near our place had set up tables outside on the pavement, where we sat down to have chicken yassa, before heading out to listen to some music.

2008-06-19T01:58:00.004+08:00

my arms felt like jelly after this

.

me going down the giant zipline!!! so fun!!

The aftermath:one slightly bloodied finger

one badly blistered finger and several mildly blistered ones ( = lots of tears and stinging pain)

and a hole burned through my shirt by the rope i slid off which was the cause of all of this....

2008-06-06T15:51:00.003+08:00

aiyoh the weather has been shit. for the past two weeks it's been grey and raining. with short periods of blue sky in between. i guess the weather can be like that in singapore too, but at least in singapore there's no winter! here you come out of winter and though the temps go up, you get shitty weather like this! no fair. oh well, as long as my hands and feet aren't cold and i don't have to turn on the heating and cover myself with a blanket whilst watching tv to keep warm, i'm not complaining.

an**a, my thoughts go out to you. over there in glacial toronto.

My kinésithérapeute whom i see twice a week to work on my ankle, seems pretty cool. she talks about how racist france is and how aweful that is for her, says she doesnt want to grow old cos for her old=stupid, especially in france, how everyone in france has a very colonialist point of view of everything. see i knew i wasn"t the only one to think that. mind you, she's white and french born and bred! makes for some interesting discussion for our 30 min sessions.

but i guess there are other things i appreciate about this place. government subsidies for everything. ( even for people who don't deserve it, but that's another story). nice architecture. my neighbourhood is fullo f restaurants and bars. the lack of humidity. how people in general are better looking than singaporeans. freedom of expression, even if that freedom means racists have the right to say whatever they want. history. the fact that even though alot of people judge you by the colour of your skin, they do admit that my brown skin is pretty! cheap alcohol. desserts galore. cheap dairy products. good food despite the lack of variety.

yesterday went to gary's bday party which was...awkward. he has some strange friends. oh and we also had crepes suzette for dessert yesterday yummmm

whilst watching the Tudors on my lappie, as Henry VIII walked through his immaculately tended english garden, with its angular hedges and teardrop-shaped bushes,i was reminded of how i've always thought that though man feels the need to be surrounded by the beauty of nature, he / she still feels the need to have have some control over it. prune and cut and crop, kill weeds and build boundaries so nothing grows beyond. the irony.

anyway the tudors is a fantastic series!! so is my name is earl. and the big bang theory! teeheee

ok byeee

2008-05-12T17:08:00.000+08:00

2008-04-29T15:44:00.002+08:00

random conversations with Elizabeth.

IMPATIENT! says:
i notice something about MAC. they used to have descriptions of their brushes going "goat hair..." but now it just says "high-quality" that's all. hmmm
Kavita says:
OMg u know sometimes when class gets really boring, i find myself thinking about thosai and horfun and all that good food, and i start salivating
IMPATIENT! says:
HA@
IMPATIENT! says:
HAHHAHHHHH salivating!
Kavita says:
really!!! i can feel all the saliva collecting at the back of my mouth
Kavita says:
hmmm goat hair-high quality eh... do goats shed their hair? or do they have to pluck it off the goat
Kavita says:
hahah
IMPATIENT! says:
hahaha i think maybe when the goat dies or something man
IMPATIENT! says:
man probably due to heir new anti-animal cruelty campaigne.
Kavita says:
good what
IMPATIENT! says:
good
IMPATIENT! says:
but then the brushes seem to the be the same
IMPATIENT! says:
so that means still made of goat hair what
Kavita says:
or maybe they found a real good synthetic substitue for goat hair
Kavita says:
you have mac brushes??
IMPATIENT! says:
dammit man the next time i get to the airport i'll kill to get the giorgio armani products!
IMPATIENT! says:
yeah i do have some
Kavita says:
the only brushes i have are cheapo ones from sephora and i barely even use them, seeing as how i rarely put on make up other than the concealer powder ritual
Kavita says:
giorgio armani products?
IMPATIENT! says:
goat hair is the only one which is truly hypoallergnic. the fella said they take loose hairs and make these brushes so i was thinking then okay la. cause last time got pony hair also!
IMPATIENT! says:
yeah giorgio armani foundation is like, the BEST
Kavita says:
POOR PONY
Kavita says:
i need to buy foundation.
________________________________________
IMPATIENT! says:
eh if you dont' talk t me
IMPATIENT! says:
would you have little chance to use English
IMPATIENT! says:
?
Kavita says:
no i know a few english-speaking people here.
Kavita says:
a couple of americans, one french girl who speaks very good english ( rare)
IMPATIENT! says:
ah (rare)
IMPATIENT! says:
ahahahaha
Kavita says:
but it's thanks to you that i 'speak' english everyday
IMPATIENT! says:
thank god
IMPATIENT! says:
hahaha
IMPATIENT! says:
i think i shall speak in proper english to you now
IMPATIENT! says:
help each other maintain the standard
Kavita says:
hahah but our english is already way better than the average singaporean's
IMPATIENT! says:
still.
IMPATIENT! says:
mustn't rest on our laurels.
IMPATIENT! says:
hahahahaha
IMPATIENT! says:
must be, as tan k k often reminds us, "on the ball!"
Kavita says:
( hahah i'm imagining that you're saying all that with a british accent'
Kavita says:
but the tan K K part i can only imagine with s'porean accent

2008-04-27T17:04:00.000+08:00

L'image très dégradée de la France en Afrique
LE MONDE | 26.04.08

2008-04-19T01:08:00.004+08:00

Ok the video was screwing up my alignment so i deleted it.

Check it out here Engineer's guide to Cats :)

2008-04-19T00:55:00.001+08:00

Hi guys!!

I will be back in Singapore 1st July-28 Aug! And F will going to sg with me for the first three weeks! :)

2008-04-08T16:01:00.002+08:00

My ultimate birthday wish-list ( complete fantasy, i know i won't ever get most of the things on my list, but i'm bored, and making lists is fun)

1. Six Feet Under Box Set

Tickets to see M.I.A in concert

A Lifetime's supply of Saint Albray

A lifetime's supply of chouchroute garnie, from Brasserie Georges!

My own tropical island, in the caribbean or in the indian ocean.

I've always loved the ixus series.

2008-04-08T15:19:00.002+08:00

I had strange dreams last night.

Of i can't remember what, i just woke up feeling weird. A strange ominous feeling, like i know something bad is gonna happen, but i don't know what exactly.

Luckily, it didn't last too long.

Oh did i tell you guys that françois and I have bought a Shisha pipe? yes i know you all are gonna tell me shisha is worse than cigarettes, but half an hour of that nice shisha high once or twice or thrice a month can't be that bad can it??

En avril, ne vous découvrez pas d'un fil has proven to be true, with one or two days of sunny and warm weather bracketed by about 4 days of cold dreariness.

oh yes, it's my brithday soon!!! On friday!! muahaha.

je me demande qu'est ce qu t'as prévu F heeheee

all this olympic flame nonsense is getting on my nerves. France looks like it's trying to bully China into giving tibet and it's people more freedoms. oh this gloriously hypocritical country, which was not so long ago taking slaves, who's currently kicking out as many imigrants as it can, and yet whose media and people love throwing the title ' pays des droits de l'homme' around all the time... i'm not saying singapore is any better of course. we have no freedom of speech, no right to assemble, and all that but at least we don't go around saying we promote human rights..

F and I attended a talk about sexism and racism in france, an event which was organised for the festival Décolonisons, denouncing neocolonialism. the debate was very unstructured, but some interesting points of view were brought up. one of the speakers, a lady of arab origin, said that she thinks that white people don't like it when they are called 'white' because they think they are 'normal', the norm, and that it's people of other colours who should be labelled. she likened it to putting a label on god- god should not be labelled, for he/she/it is superior, omnipotent. François agreed, not with everything though, but he did admit that white people dont like being called 'white', though they themselves use the label ' noir ' 'arab' 'asiatique' etc freely

A very well-spoken man also said that the law Chirac passed forbidding muslim girls from wearing headscarves to school was done to placate the Americans, to show them that despite not supporting them in the war in Iraq, the French were not terrorist-loving cowards, and that they were still capable of being islamophobic, much like the Americans themselves.

And we also learned that the law preventing all ostentatious signs of religion in school is meant to apply only to teachers, not to students!

dammit i think it's raining :(

2008-03-22T17:38:00.002+08:00

Hello!

I will be back in singapore this summer and francois will be there to for a couple of weeks! So i need you guy's suggestions on where to bring him!

Of course i'll be doing the standard tourist destinations which aren't too lame. ie, the zoo, little india etc; asian civilisations museum, thian hock keng temple, sultan mosque and sri mariamman temple...

And other spots like Arab street, Orchard Road, Macritchie to see the monkeys, maybe Ubin for a bike ride, Geylang for the durians, all the good food places, Sentosa cos i've not been there in ages...

Suggestions please!

2008-03-19T16:01:00.001+08:00

Oh and it's a beautiful sunny day out today! Almost justifies my having skipped my 8am class today. Don't worry, i'm going for the other 3 later today.

2008-03-19T15:51:00.002+08:00

I dont know if you guys have heard of the Singapore PAranormal Investigators.

They have a website, www.spi.com.sg, and sometimes i browse their forum. Most of the time there isn't anything very interesting, so I amuse myself reading their members' horrid english. take a look at this.

i got problems going near taoist mediums when their are so called "in operations". I got bounced back once when i go down to see what is it like mah, cuz join and have a look... end up got bounced back, any similar cases???

note:
CKT and al care to advise mi on this, or share with mi why? Cuz of some magnetic field of some rejections due to my vows and 5 precepts?
-----
Maye the operations does not want others to see.
-----
This is the first time in life that is happening like this...
in the past, all such events, i nv got the chance to get in touch cuz i veri sensitive to it last time. easily sick when touched those things. but juz dunno how come got protected, maybe is my vows that helps mi along bah...
------

OMG!!! I should become an english teacher instead of a french teacher, it seems like singapore needs english teachers more!

In other news, I talked with Ahmed yesterday on MSN. She's the one person i know who never fails to crack me up ( intentionally or not), and for that i am very grateful. At one point during our convo, she said ' Hey gtg, gotta watch a documentary on chimpanzees on animal planet, doing a presentation on them' HAHAHAHAHAH. i couldn't stop laughing.

2008-03-16T16:44:00.003+08:00

It's 945am Sunday morning. F is still asleep but i woke up at about 9am, because comme d'habitude, my annoying body clock told my brain it was time to wake up, thus ruining my chances of faire-ing la grasse matinée.

I have again been plagued by worries. mostly concerning my Master next year. what if i don't get through the selection exam. Fuck. will i stay in Lyon to do a Master 1 in Sciences du Langage; isntead of FLE, even though that would interest me much less? do i leave this magnificent apartment of mine behind, and go to another city to do FLE, and hope that F will find a job there and we'll find a decent apartment?

I am worried sick. But i figure the only way to reassure myself, is to start revising for that damn selection exam. of course, its format and content changes year to year, so you never know what to expect. but i'm concentrating on two main things. Grammar, and writing synthèses, which everyone says is a gruelling exercice. you must adhere to a certain structure, failing which, structure-obsessed french teachers will think ' this girl doesn't know how a synthèse works! she shouldn't be allowed into Master FLE next year!' . I haven't done a synthèse in my life, but let's hope the entrance exam won't be that.And if it is i'll give it my best shot.

Today is the Printemps du cinéma. movie tickets at just 3.50. We are planning to go see Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis, a movie about the Ch'tis, people who live up north who have a curious accent

Ok gotta run. I am going to take a shower and then go down to the convenience store to get some croissants or pains au chocolat for breakfast before F wakes up.

2008-03-06T22:40:00.003+08:00

Hello Hello!!

I love my long weekends. I finish the school week on thursdays at 615pm. Which means i've got just about 2 and a half hours to go before it's all over yiippeeee.

After that i'll be meeting up with F cos we got tickets to watch Pauline Croze in concert! wooohoooo. I don't really know her music that much but i like what i've seen on youtube! It'll be my first real concert for the year! Aiyoh. compared to last year, this year's record is dismal. Last year i went to watch 2 big concerts, Muse and Placebo, and also Dobacaracol( one of the best concerts i've ever been too, the others being various WOMAD performances)

So i'm in a pretty good mood today!

Updates on my life :

François has finished his 6 month internship and his superiors have very good things to say about him. And i know he'll be happy that i wrote that on my blog :p 'cos i'm always telling him to stop blowing his own trumpet ( or is it horn? or both?)

I have started doing my own internship at the centre in my Uni where foreign students go to learn french. It's something I decided to do on top of my classes. Just 1 90min class per week, every thursday morning. There are 2 other internees in my group, and we conduct activities with the students. It's pretty cool, I pretty much spend 90 mins talking with the students, who are all OLDER than me, which is really weird!

F and I might be fostering a kitty! we found the website of an association that takes in abandoned cats ( not the SPA), and they said they were looking for people to temporarily shelter kitties. So we called the number on the site and the lady who answered said that she didn't have any cats for us to look afte, but that she'll call us as soon as she does! It'll only be for a few weeks to a month, so I better not get attached, though i know that's gonna be very hard.

OMG i have this sudden craving for indian rojak. you know, all those (re)fried things you can't really identify( except for the hard-boiled egg, potato, tofu, fish cake and maybe the prawn fritter) covered in that thick, oozing, unnaturally orange sweet potato-based sauce, that you buy from the mama stall at the coffeeshop around the corner with its ugly purple plastic plates and silver-haired, toothless( otherwise, greasy-haired and mustache-wearing ) prata man, who rougly chops up some red onion, cucumber and green chilli whilst keeping an eye on the items you chose that are now taking a hot oil bath in the fryer. MIAM.

The other day i got so distracted in class thinking about eating a piping hot plain thosai, with chilli, coconut and mint chutneys. My mouth is watering just thinking about it now.
I hate azerty keyboards cos the 'a' key which i usually hit with my left pinky finger, i know hit with my left ring finger, and that's really uncomfortable. Haiyah. Ill have to train myself to use my pinky more and my ring finger less!! my left ring finger is not made for typing.

My brother is going to NS in a few months, and has been making use of his remaining months of freedom to sponge off my parents even more than usual. Going to sentosa to lepak on the beach with his friends and expecting my parents to pay for his expensive meals, going to bloody thailand and expecting my parents to pay for his air ticket and everything else! what a lazy bum. He's even taking driving lessons, of which my sister and I were deprived because my parents didn't have any money. how fucking unfair!!!!!

It's March and it should start getting warmer soon. It better!

OH and my laptop died but i've since replaced it with a HP 6720 which is GORGEOUS, and CHEAP( for a lappie). I think i'm in love.

2008-03-03T23:35:00.004+08:00

Pour mes amis francophones.

Extrait du blog " Un an et demi loin de France" http://ofrancemi.blog.lemonde.fr/2008/01/28/

28 janvier 2008

En vrac comme à l’accoutumée

Je crois qu’une des particularités du Japon, c’est d’être à la fois un pays relativement fermé aux étrangers, et pour autant curieux des autres (si ce n’est de la curiosité profonde c’est au moins une recherche d’exotisme) tout en étant très riche.

Nul n’est prophète en son pays, et il est courant que des inconnus deviennent célèbres dans de petits pays car ils y sont les seuls étrangers parlant la langue et chaque pays est à la recherche de l’étranger à la fois exotique et familier qui lui donnera l’impression qu’il est le centre de toute l’attention mondiale.

J’ai plusieurs exemples de connaissances ayant rencontré du succès uniquement parce qu’ils étaient les seules blancs à savoir parler des langues rares de type ourdou. Mais cela resté limité car ces pays ne sont pas très riches.

Je l’ai déjà dit, le Japon fait une énorme consommation de gaijins, et la demande est parfois supérieure à l’offre. Pour un étranger qui parle japonais, le Japon peut être une belle opportunité.

Ce n’est rien, mais je pense à cela car mon ami et colocataire allemand a joué un petit rôle dans une série extrêmement populaire ici (encore plus que plus belle la vie en France !). Il y jouait un étudiant français d’ailleurs…

Je me suis rendu compte que parmi tous mes colocataires qui n’ont pour point commun que d’être issus de bonnes universités de par le monde et de parler plus ou moins bien japonais (le moins c’est moi), la plupart sont passés à la télévision. En tant que gaijin de service dans des émissions ou des séries, en tant que traducteurs, en tant que sujet même de l’émission. (comment ça vous êtes tchèque et vous parlez couramment japonais ? Mais c’est incroyable ! Venez nous parler de votre pays et de votre amour pour le Japon, que ça fasse du bien à notre égo national.)

C’est un peu le même phénomène qu’en France d’ailleurs, où l’on adore inviter des étrangers qui parlent français à qui l’on pose toujours les mêmes stupides questions du genre : “Qu’est-ce que vous préférez en France ?” simplement pour se panser notre orgueil.

Au Japon la question ultime reste “Oooohh mais vous savez écrire le japonais ?? Oooohh mais c’est que c’est compliqué, vous êtes fort !” Admiration inversement proportionnelle à la qualité de la calygraphie.

Un singe savant est amusant, sauf quand il est trop parfait, alors il en devient effrayant.

Tiens ça me rappelle aussi dans un autre domaine ces gens qui en lisant des auteurs africains s’extasient de la qualité de leur français, alors qu’il s’agit de leur langue maternelle…

2008-02-21T18:02:00.005+08:00

...Berlin post continued

So Prune left and the next day i went out to see all the big monuments of the city.

First stop, Alexander Platz with it's tower and universal clock.

Then i took the bus halfway to the Under der Linder, the big avenue that culminates at the brandenburg gate and is lined with lots of embassies. Right at the bottom of the avenue is the pretty Humboldt University:

The Brandenburg Gate through which Napoleon and his troops purposely marched through to humiliate the people.

And then i took a short walk to the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe. I visited the museum underneatch which is by far the best memorial museum i have ever visited. Very very well designed and very very moving. I loved how they had real testimonials from real people who survived the holocaust.

Next day was a short visit of the Ostbahnoff contemporary art museum. they had roomfuls of Andy Warhol silkscreens!

and finally here's some cool graffitti i saw in the city..

2008-02-12T16:07:00.000+08:00

Aiyah aren't bodyclocks annoying? I wake up automatically every morning around 9am even on days when i have just one class at 445pm( like today) and even on weekends. Today i was glad to wake up that early though, i'd had lots of nightmares... one involving my family visiting my aunt in NZ, who had a bunch of little cottages on her property to lodge each of us. I got this nice little cottage, which looked pretty from the outside, but had a scary dimly-lit basement and freaky tunnels below. eee. And then I had another dream where I had a plane to catch at 4pm, but was still at home and rushing to pack at 3.

So i woke up stressed out, missing my family, and for some reason kicking myself in the ass again for not enjoying my time here in France, and criticizing everything. I feel so bad that i hate so many things about this place, because i know when i get to singapore i will regret it all! But sometimes it's so hard. especially when you turn on the tv, and you hear about the problems with the 'jeunes' (youth) in the banlieue( suburbs), when you walk out in the street and you see cops harrassing young black and arab kids ( I have yet to see cops checking a white person's papers), when rude fuckers practically yell at you at the post office cos you didn't realise they were in the queue before you, when you read that non-european travellers will have to fill out freaking questionnaires before setting foot on EU (which i'm starting to believe more and more is just an exclusive club for whites and christians) territory, when you realise so many people have bad colonial hangovers and SUPERIORITY complexes, and when you go to Berlin and cops check the passports of only non-white travellers on your flight. There usually aren't any passport checks for EU destinations, but evidently that only applies to white people!!!!!!!!!!!!!! rrrrgghhhh.

That is a non-exhaustive list. If only i could look past it all. But it's so hard :( Makes me appreciate home more. I used to complain about racism in singapore, but dammit it's 10 times worse here!! In this land where multiculturalism is an unknown concept, people are TOO proud of their language and refuse to speak english even to tourists, Yes I know Francois, I shouldn't make sweeping statements as such, not all French people are asses, and ok i do agree with you on that but you have to admit that ALOT of them are! okok, HALF of them are. Sigh i've become so disenchanted with this country, and i hate that fact.

Ok so i promised photos of my berlin trip. I'll do things in chronological order.

Day 1-I arrived on Sunday and got to Lucie's apartment pretty easily with the directions she emailed me. I was pretty pooped. Prune had arrived three days before me. We left in the evening to visit a friend of hers, whose flatmate had just had a baby. We didn't get to see the baby ( no big loss for me haha) but we sat down for a while to talk. Then we went to the Kreuzberg Market area where we went to an awesome kebab plate and had lots of good vegetarian stuff. Falafel, grilled aubergines, hummous etc yumm

Day 2- Whilst Prune and I were having breakfast, I noticed a man dressed in black with a tophat standing on the roof of the building opposite. turns out it was a chimney sweep and it's really rare to see one still dressed like that!

Then we went to Checkpoint Charlie, the checkpoint that divided the American and Soviet sections of Berlin after the war.

Those are fake soldiers of course. They're just there for the tourists.

And then we went to meet up with Lucie at her University. This is the train station next to it.

which looks like this on the inside.

For Lunch we went to a soviet-themed restaurant, where I had an assortment of dumplings, stuffed with potato, turkey, and spinach!
And then for dinner, Prune and I met up with one of Lucie's friends at a restaurant where there is no fixed price for what you eat. Simple food of course, spaghetti and pesto with a cucumber salad. It was one of those co-op things, and the setting was funky, it was old-fashioned and tacky, but it worked! Old grandma deco everywhere, ugly still-life paintings hanging here and there, old beat up furniture and ratty couches. heeheee

Day 3- Prune and I went to see the biggest remaining piece of of the Wall. Note the omnipresent gloom.

We walked along the length of the wall and came across this pretty bridge.

The we took the train to i can't remember what station, and came out at this street lined with buildings built in the typical communist style.

Made a little detour to check out the painted facades of buildings being squatted illegally. How pretty! I have no idea how the people did it though. unless they somehow made their own scaffolding?

OK the rest will have to wait!

2008-01-31T00:33:00.000+08:00

Hallo from Berlin!

Today is my fourth day here!

My impressions-a very young city ( you rarely see old people), a population more diverse ethnically than i expected, grunge/industrial charm, history everywhere you step, weather is crap I dunno how the people survive, a very eco-friendly people ( letters from certain agencies printed on recycled paper, everybody recycles at home). Oh and the transport system is super, it's so easy to get around. everybody speaks english too! very convenient. though if i could i would speak german, speaking english everywhere is so american..

And there's Good cheap food available everywhere, just like in singapore! Turkish, chinese japanese, indian, italian, french, vietnamese etc..

I havent really taken a liking to their bread though.

Yestreday i met two of Lucie's german friends, Christine and ______, who are really sooooo nice to talk with. it's rare that i say that of people!

Today i visited the Brandenburger Tor, the memorial to the murdered jews of europe and the new synagogue. The memorial is very well done, you get to see stories about whole jewish families and all. Very moving testimonials. Spent a good 2 hours there with the audio guide. No matter how many times i see images of the holocaust, i'm still as shocked. What inhumanity. Walking along the streets here you sometimes see little gold plaques embedded in the pavement in front of certain buildings, with the names of people who used to live there who got deported by the Nazis. Very very depressing.

The only thing that has pissed me off is the shitty weather and the fact that when I arrived at the airport, the only people whose papers the cops checked were all non-white. Me, a few chinese, a couple of arabs, as we were waiting for our baggage. What a nice way to welcome people. there usually arent any passport checks for passengers arriving from an EU destination. The longer I stay in europe, the more i feel that being coloured here is a crime.

So far I've been to checkpoint Charlie, seen the longest stretch of the Wall left behind, been to a communist-themed russian restaurant, another no fixed price restaurant filled with lesbians and foreign people, walked around the niehgbourhood where people squat buildings and paint their facades with random things, seen the prettiest bridge ever, Alexander platz with the tower behind and the universal clock thing, walked along Unter den Linden- along avenue that leads to the brandenburger tor....

Photos and a nice write up when i get back to Lyon, promise.

2008-01-12T02:07:00.000+08:00

Waiting waiting waiting.

Earlier today i spent more than an hour waiting at the doctor's office. Seems like i spend a lot of time waiting rrgghhhh. For people to turn up, at the fucking prefecture, for exams to start and end, for this and for that aiyah.

Turns out that the random back pain i've been having now and again is cos of some slightly compressed nerve! So the doc recommended I do some back-strengthening exercises and wrote me a referral to see a physical therapist.

I should be studying but i have absolutely no mood to study.

2007-12-30T05:31:00.001+08:00

Wintery beauty- The lake at the park half-frozen over

2007-12-18T20:17:00.001+08:00

oh yeah and i forgot to tell you guys that yesterday, when i walked out of class at 6pm, it was -2 deg! brrrr

2007-12-18T17:28:00.000+08:00

I hate groupwork.

I really really do.

Especially when one of the other two group members thinks she works 10 times more than you do, but in the end, doesn't contribute that much to the project.

And then when the same group member very pessimistically says that our presentation is shit just before we have to present it to the whole class, you really start to regret having decided to work with her. If you thought the presentation was shit, why did you say the powerpoint we sent you was ok? you approved everything goddammit. as though talking in front of a bunch of judgmental, too-cool-to-talk-with-foreign-student french girls isn't stressful enough.

oh and excuse us if we
don't have enough native francophone friends who wanted to participate in the experiment. All you have to do is ask your family and you've already got at least 5 participants. Add to that all their significant others and you've reached your target. But what about us poor foreign students the average french student never approach?( I bet they think we have strange diseases, smell funny, look funny, and dont understand a word of french) I have maybe 5 native francophone friends, and not all of them i could get hold of to participate in the experiment we had to do. All my other friends are foreigners ( not singaporeans mind you)> Francophones, but non-native, so they don't qualify. And also don't forget that we have ZERO family members in this country. What did you expect us to do? Go ask people in the street? I even went to the fucking laundromat once hoping to ask random strangers if they would do this experiment for me whilst they waited for their clothes to get washed/dry, only to find the laundromat empty!

Fine, I admit that we let things drag a little, that we could have done things earlier, but why didn't you tell us that we'd forgotten to do some stats tests 1 hr before we were supposed to present out experiment?? We'd already sent you the damn stats, and you said everything was alright.

And even if you thought our powerpoint was crap, you didn't have to verbalise it 5 mins before our presentation did you?!?!?! for god's sake.
Aiyah. Even if we do get a lousy mark, which isn't sure yet cos the presentation doesnt count for very much, we still have to do a write up, which will be done properly and the way I ( yes ME MYSELF MOI) say it will be done, since you've proven yourself to be rather incapable, there's still another exam to do for this semester! the experiment doesnt count for the whole mark! just half of it! aiyah.

Group work is the bane of my existence.

2007-12-09T02:36:00.001+08:00

Fete des Lumieres 2007

The louis XIV statue turned into a snowglobe

Theatre des Celestins

Place des Jacobins

A telephone booth turned into an aquarium!! With real fish inside!

Gare St Paul

2007-12-07T20:10:00.000+08:00

2007-11-26T16:12:00.001+08:00

our new fish, Fishy!

The British Museum lobby

trees still wearing their autumn colours, at the courtyard of the Musee des Beaux Arts here.

2007-11-23T21:22:00.000+08:00

Bonjour a tous!

it's been a long time! MY uni has been on strike since last Monday! Students are protesting against a new law which would introduce selection at universities, and increase school fees by a lot. I can see both sides of the argument. I'm definitely against the law, but i dunno if i'm for having students occpy the uni and not letting other people go to class. Oh well. Two weeks of forced holidays. I went to London Thursday-Sunday, and stayed with Shafa. IT was a great trip! I went out with Sonya Thursday night to a funky gay club, and then the next morning, after just about two hours of sleep, I forced myself to get up and go to the Brit Museum to see the Terracotta Warriors Exhibition. See, I've always wanted to see them for real in China, and when i saw a report on the french news a few weeks ago about this first-ever exhibition in a foreign country of China's precious terracotta warriors, I was wishing I had some excuse to go to London. And it all worked out in the end! the Temasek Forum organised by the Sg students at Cambridge in London! MOE decided it would sponsor my trip there. :) The exhibition was awesome. The warriors are so real it's freaky. I could imagine them waking up at night almost. eeek. very impressive. All the work put into making each soldier.It was explained that the heads of each soldier was mass-produced, but the facial features were worked on individually, such that no two soldiers look actually alike. You could make out different ethinicites even; the emperor of Qin having unified warring states into one big territory. I am so glad i went to see them. well worth the 12 pounds. Liangsi and I also went to watch LOTR the musical! heeheeee! we got lousy seats with our halfprice tickets- had to sit on the edge of our seats to get a full view of the stage, there was no air-conditioning where we were seated, and to top it all of, one of the brits in front of us had horrible BO- but I enjoyed the show. The guy who plays Gollum did a really good job, and the sets and costumes are great. The wizards were rather disappointing though. But all in all, a great experience!

I think the strike will be over Monday, but i dont wanna go back to school! I feel like such a lazy bum, i've not done any work, just been hanging around at home, playing computer games. Francois and I bought this new game, called Crysis. It's supposed to be the best FPS ever-created, and it does live up to it's reputation! I've been having fun blowing helicopters out of the sky and ordering air strikes on enemy targets.

We also bought the latest extension of FEAR, called Perseus Mandate. Haven't started playing that though.

Francois and I are thinking of buying a goldfish! We'll put it in a clear cylindrical vase that F's mom gave us. I want to name it Elmo, and he wants to name it Captain Igloo, a brand of fishfingers here. What do you guys think?

2007-11-02T19:35:00.001+08:00

Some Long Overdue Pictures!

Yesterday's early Deepavali Gathering! you can't see all of them, but there's Clarence, Bea, Wei, Prune, Sham, Francois, and Kia. Food turned out good! thanks to F for all the help :) :) :)

F on one of the barstools! hee

Me and F at his Graduation ceremony. I was wearing the black punjabi suit my mom bought me when i was back his summer. everyone thought it was really pretty :) :)

MY apartment! The awesome bar, with the kitchen behind it. I even have a normal-sized fridge.Note the pretty wood flooring and stone walls!

The shower!

The Kitchen. Look at all the luxurious space! Two sinks, A GAS stove with FOUR burners of different sizes, and a goddamned OVEN. OHMYGOD. We lucked out!

The Living Room, seen from the kitchen, with our giant Porto Cruz poster

We haven't really figured out what this area is supposed to be, for now it's a study.

The bathroom sink, with lovely blue and white tiles. Please ignore the smudges on the mirror.

2007-10-25T15:06:00.000+08:00

OK.

I've been stressed as hell the past two days. Why? cos i can't stop thinking about Master FLE ( francais langue etrangere aka French as a foreign language) next year. They are really selective. And i have to do an entrance exam, which includes a synthese de documents, and some other stuff. I'm not good at doing syntheses, nor the other stuff. I haven't written an essay for years! Really. Apparently they accept only 40 people. And there are about 100++applicants per year. The only thing i have going for me is that i already have a job waiting for me when i get back to singapore.

So what happens if i don't get into Master 1 FLE? I'll do Master 1 Sciences du Langage. But what happens when i get back to singapore? i dont know if i will be qualified enough. I know a certain ministry doesn't have a choice but to accept me, but but but. The other girls say that they'll be applying to other universities too, where it's easier to get into Master 1 FLE. but leaving lyon is not an option for me, not only will i have to be apart from F, i'll also have to move, find lodging, get accustomed to a new city ( which i will prob find much less interesting than Lyon!)

I tell you if i have to go back to sg at the end of this year, i will cry. i'm not ready to leave france yet. The thought of leaving I find just sooo saddening.

(But what's with me lately? I never used to be like this. I dunno, perhaps living on my own for the past two years, independently, has turned me into an (even more) hot-tempered, negative being with depressive tendencies. Anyhow i've become very conscious of that fact and i'm making an effort to turn things around. I can't afford to be angry and depressed anymore. I hate being that way. Not to mention F often has to bear my nonsense. Sorryyyyyyyyy!!!!)

The only thing i can think of doing is working my ass off practising doing syntheses, working on all my linguistique francaise stuff, to give myself the best chances of doing decently at that entrance exam. You know, if i were in an english-medium uni, i know i could beat the other girls easy peasy. but i'm doing everything in french, which is a bit of a handicap. Sure i speak french as well as a native francophone would ( at least half of the time i hope!), but i know i could do a lot better if everything were in English.

Moving on to other news.

the whole of France has been under a cold spell for the past 10 days or so. Morning temps hover around zero, and afternoon temps around 11/12 degrees. We've started to put the heating on.

The cold and wind has of course sucked all the moisture out of my skin, prompting me to slather even more Nivea Soft moisturing cream all over myself. My scalp has been shedding too. ungodly amounts of dandruff. Grossssssssss

My camera is broken! fucking lousy worksmanship. Two screws came loose! and now it goes off every now and then. I can still take photos, but i can't review them. cos everytime i hit the button to review, the camera goes off! WTF!!!! SHIT!

Aujourd'hui a 18h15, je serai officiellement en vacances! That's right, I have the few pious catholic french left and the french people's unwillingness to change traditions to thank for one week off school. It's All Saints Day some time next week. yippeeee.

Tomorrow is Francois' graduation ceremony. He will officially be a holder of a degree in hotel and restaurant management from the Institut Paul Bocuse! I am very nervous about have to meet his uncle and grandparents (!!!!!!). But happy that i will get to dress up in a punjabi suit ( the black one, one of two my mom bought me when i was back in singapore). And looking forward to the international crowd. Not looking forward to all the fake bourgeois though. Hopefully my camera will be nice and not decide to totally break down on me.

A cousin of mine is engaged to be married. On my mom's side. In a few generations, i'm convinced the indian genes on my mom's side will be almost non-existent.What with all the mixed marriages. Not that that's a bad thing, i'm all for mixed marriages! heck i would't exist if not for them. i'm 3/8 tamil, 3/8 chinese, 1/8 telugu and 1/8 sth else from uttarpradesh, and very proud of it! My 8 great grand parents had 4 different mother tongues amongst them! :)

Ok so that's all that's been happening with me lately!

Byeeee

2007-10-24T16:05:00.000+08:00

I've been neglecting my poor bloggie!

Promise to post something significant over the next few days!

2007-10-03T20:26:00.000+08:00

I now have internet at home and that means i am no longer cut off from the rest of the world once i leave the uni campus

And in a few days the phone and the cable tv will be up! which means free unlimited calls to Singapore and tens of free cable channels for free for a month!! woootttt

Today is our one year anniversary! One whole year! i cant believe it! yiippeeee :) :) :) :) :)

Oh and since i have internet at home, i can finally post pictures of my new apartment. Once i get it clean enough of course.

Have not been making enough of an effort to keep on top of my work at school. Better get started before it starts snowballing. It's only the third week of class so i should be able to catch up.

Tomorrow I'm meeting Clarence for dinner at Indocafe, which has awesome an vietnamese buffet. Yum. can't wait.

2007-09-24T20:39:00.000+08:00

Hello all!!

just now i was the the uni cafeteria getting lunch. the lunch lady was obviously PMSing. the boy infront of me asked what was in a particular tray ( it was a mysterious reddish mix with pieces of some veggie floating on top), but she refused to reply, instead she kept asking him what he wanted! " This is the 3rd time i'm asking you what you want!" she was saying. how does she expect him to make his mind up if she doesnt even want to tell him what choices he has? bloody BIATCH. the boy was totally pissed and told her she could try to speak to him nicely.

then it was my turn. she said bonjour. i looked at her and smiled and told her my choice of side dish. she repeated. bonjour. i repeated my choice of vegetable. she, again, said bonjour. I realised she was insisting i say bonjour as well. so i did. then she went on a tirade! " when you walk into a shop do u say bonjour? well here its the same! you have to say bonjour!" of course this caught me totally by surprise, i was expecting to leave the q with a tray of food, not a tray of food and a verbal attack. at this point of time, various expletives in english were flooding my mind, none of which would have been useful in this situation. i was of course talking to a bitch lunch lady in france, who i seriously doubt has any notions of english. so instead i told her franchement, you've got a problem; ( to which she retorted 'non, il y a pas de "franchement " ' ) and stomped off with my food.

FUCKING HELL. only in france do people talk to you with such disrespect. and who is she? and what did i do to her? i fucking SMILED at her ugly face! at those overly-lined eyes! so fucking ugly! smiling is a form of greeting! don't take it out on me if you're stupid and/or screwed up your life and ended up a lunch lady! perhaps she's jealous of us university students cos we actually have prospects! god all these french people have no idea what being polite means. whoever tells you the french are not rude are freaking liars. because i've lived here two years now and i have had many, many encounters with rude people. people who work in the service line and are supposed to be polite. i have come to the conclusion that being polite 7 hours a day ( i remind you that the french only works 35 hours a week) is too much for the average french person in the service line.

Aiyoh.

I am pretty proud of how quickly i calmed myself down after the incident though! usually an incident like that would have left me seething for at least a good hour. hurray for meditation techniques. :)

2007-09-19T20:55:00.000+08:00

Hello everyone!

My first post since coming back to Lyon.

I know i promised photos of my new apartment, but it's still a big mess and im too embarrassed to put pictures of it on my blog!

The gas finally got turned on yesterday!! after 2 appointments which the Gaz de France technicians did not turn up for...so i finally have hot water and can take nice hot showers! we just got to figure out how the heating system works now, and quickly, before it becomes cold and i die

As it is im already coughing my lungs out and im wheezing so bad i could hardly sleep last night. Every time i inhale my chest hurts and every breath is so effortful.. god i hate being sick!

Classes are more challenging this semester. and there seem to be more interesting ones! hope im up to the challenge. I better be up to the challenge.

If not same old same old, lyon hasnt changed very much, but the new H & M has opened yayyyyyyyyy. its like 10 mins away from my place. heeheee

The Rugby World Cup is on in france at the moment..everytime i turn on the TV there's a ton of rugby-themed ads for all sorts of things ( from Mcdonalds to Peugeot) that are really annoying.

Here are some photos i took over the weekend at Francois' family's summer house.

2007-09-04T10:47:00.000+08:00

Aie my vacation is almost over.

I'm leaving tomorrow night!

Putting things into my suitcase slowly but surely. I hate packing, it's awfully tiring and stressful.

It's been a satisfying holiday though. I got to do alot of things! like go to WOMAD, watch Summerslam, go on a cemetery tour with Azny and my brother, watch the national stadium closing ceremony with my family, eat crab at No SignBoard hahah... and i think i spent more time with my Mom this year compared to last year. Still not enough though :(

In other news, i have a bad flu ( it's been about 2 weeks), and the doctor says it's because i'm not used to singapore viruses any more. He said the next time i come back to singapore, i should get vaccinated! Vaccinated! against the goddamn flu! WTF. my immunity system is really giving me trouble. The other day my mom and I went to buy health supplements that are supposed to boost my immunity. Hope they work. My nose has been blocked for the past 10 days or so and i've been coughing up green phlegm. yuck.

Got my hair cut and coloured yesterday. But they blew it weird at the end so now it looks strange. Nvm, i'll just blow it myself again the next time i wash. I'll also have to condition alot longer than usual cos my poor hair is a little dry now!

I am not looking forward to the plane ride back. It's gonna be hell, considering i'm sick. And they prob won't let me on with a water bottle, so i'm gonna be really dehydrated and get sicker. Everytime i wanna drink i'll have to get up and get a glass from the little refreshment corner. of course they won't have bottles. And my mouth and lips will be really dry. I swear if any of those AirFrance stewards/stewardesses gimme shit this time, i'm gonna snap back at them. Bloody RUDE french people. And i also swear that if i can help it, the next time around i'm not flying AirFrance. I've had nothing but problems with them. Lost baggage, rude and patronising stewards and counter staff who never EVER smile, planes arriving at wrong terminals ( have you ever heard of that!?! only in france!), waiting 20 mins and stressing for the goddamn shuttle to arrive at the plane to pick you up and bring you to the terminal...urggghhhhh.Not to mention CDG is a disaster. ( Sorry F :p).

I finally got my allowance! wooooohoooooo!

Ok i gotta go take me meds now and continue packing.

2007-09-01T14:13:00.000+08:00

My poor bloggie's being neglected since i discovered the mindless joys of Facebook.

I'm leaving on Wednesday nd i am sooo not ready to leave. I just want to spend more time with my mum and my friends!!!!! but dammit, have to go back to school. URUGGGHHHHH. At least i can look forward to living in a nice new place with F. teeeheeeee. I told my mum she doesn't have to worry so much about me this year because I'll be living with F and he will be there to look out for me. So I hope she's a little reassured, because though I know it's natural for her to worry about me, I don't want her to stress out so much! And i really hope she will visit this year!

My updated shopping and to-do lists!

~~1.new pair of glasses~~
~~2.next year's supply of contact lenses~~
3.sandals
~~4.camera battery~~
5.pair of black pants
~~6.external hard drive ( my parents are going to pay for that for me yippeeee!)~~
~~7.bras!~~
8.handphone
9.gifts for people in lyon
~~10. nose stud~~
~~11.new tank tops~~
~~12.curry powder and pappadam to bring to lyon~~
~~13.pen refills~~
~~14.jacket~~
15.make up
~~16. skirt~~
------------
17.cut and highlight hair
~~18.get eyebrows threaded~~
19.take passport-sized ID photos
~~20.go to chinese physician about my ankle~~
~~21. go for final check up at dentist's~~

2007-08-27T13:31:00.001+08:00

The Big Photo Update

Dinner at No Signboard Seafood Restaurant

From this

To this!

Bullfrogs! eeeeeekkk

WOMAD 2007

Youssou N'dour baby!

Youssou again!

2007-08-27T01:29:00.000+08:00

Lately i've been thinking so much about leaving that it's getting me depressed. I hate the idea of leaving my Mum behind!!! because i will miss her soooo much. and the pets too. :( it's like how i felt before leaving the first time. ok i'm definitely exaggerating. This time around will not be half as bad, because there's no element of venturing in the 'unknown', a city i'd never visited, not knowing anyone there.

And im also getting a bit worried about my third year. will it be as easy as the first two? gosh i hope so. though they say it isn't. but for the french EVERYTHING is hard. somethings are so easy peasy but the french girls will still say it's hard. anyway if my sister could do it, then so can I! anyway i have to. i plan to devote more of my time to studying this time around. I think i might buy a voice recorder so i can record lectures even, that way i can make note of everything the teacher says at home, and still afford to daydream a bit in class. it's hard keeping concentrated for 1 and a half hours! especially when the lecturer is talking about something highly abstract that doesn't really interest you much.

but whatever it is, i do not plan to just study in lyon! my life for the past two years has been so much more than that ( that means you, F. Going back to Lyon would mean so much less if it weren't for you! :):) ) and i absolutely want to keep it that way. I didn't travel half way across the globe to just stay at home and study, i can do that in singapore.

sigh blogging is cathartic, i feel happier already!

I went to No Signboard with my family for dinner earlier this evening! it was awesome and expensive. We had chilli crab, oat-covered prawns, oyster sauce kailan, fried baby squid and steamed sea bass with lots of ginger soya sauce and spring onions. YUM. and to top it all off, a mug of Tiger! heeee. it was really to die for. My bro, sis and I went over the the area where they had all the tanks with live fish in them, and I took pictures of the prawns and crabs and poor bull frogs. :( i wonder if the poor creatures know they are living in the same place they are soon gonna be slaughtered at. and that the people walking in front of them are gonna be eating them soon. :( poooorrrr animals...i wanna go vegetarian some day.

I'll post photos of the seafood dinner and WOMAD with Anhua yesterday soon!

2007-08-24T16:54:00.000+08:00

Oh man Katong Shopping Centre's food court has got the best chicken rice ever! (No, i don't go shopping there, i was at the Chinese physician's at the building next to it, and decided to buy dinner at the foodcourt next door...)

My updated shopping and to-do lists!

1.new pair of glasses
~~2.next year's supply of contact lenses~~
3.sandals
4.camera battery
5.pair of black pants
6.external hard drive ( my parents are going to pay for that for me yippeeee!)
~~7.bras!~~
8.handphone
9.gifts for people in lyon
~~10. nose stud~~
~~11.new tank tops~~
~~12.curry powder and pappadam to bring to lyon~~
~~13.pen refills~~
~~14.jacket~~
15.make up
~~16. skirt~~
------------
17.cut and highlight hair
~~18.get eyebrows threaded~~
19.take passport-sized ID photos
~~20.go to chinese physician about my ankle~~
21. go for final check up at dentist's

2007-08-22T13:43:00.000+08:00

M.I.A's got a new album out, Kala!

hurray, finally some new tunes from one of the most original young artists around!

Check it out on her myspace

2007-08-20T00:02:00.001+08:00

since i'm bored silly right now and i just finished sending Francois a nice long email, i decided to fill in one of those mindless questionnaires that people circulate through email.
This one i stole off Shaathanaa's blog.
1. How tall are you barefoot?
- 1.56m. don't laugh.

2. Have you ever smoked?
- yes

3. Do you own a gun?
- no, but i wish i did.

4. Do you hate someone right now?
- yes.

5. Do you get nervous?
-totally.

6. What do you think of hotdogs?
-gross. sausages are full of mystery meat and unhealthy nitrates. but once in a while, junk food is good...

7. What*s your favorite Christmas song?
- don't have one.

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning?
- fruit juice or a hot cup of tea

9. Can you do push ups?
- nope

11.What*s your favorite piece of jewelry?
- don't have one.

12. Do you like painkillers?
- what? is anyone supposed to 'like'painkillers?

13. What is your secret weapon to lure the opposite sex?
- this question does not apply to me! I have Francois!

14. Do you own a knife?
- yes. it's a kitchen knife and is sitting in a box somewhere back in Lyon.

15. Do you have HIV?
- í'm pretty sure i don't

16. Name?
- Kavita Devi Thamilselvam

17. Name 3 things u wanna do at this exact moment?
- 1. Go back to Francois
2. plug my nose somehow so it stops running,
3. go back to Francois

18. Name the last 3 things you have bought:
- purple pullover from Dorothy Perkins, contact lenses, and a nose stud.

19. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink:
- water, juice, ocassional soft drink

20. What time did you wake up today?
- 11am

22. Current worry?
- That I won't have enough money to buy all the stuff i need to buy before leaving.

23. Current hate?
- runny noses caused by cold showers caused by a goddamned heater whose repair is looonnggg overdue

24. Favourite place to be?
- wherever Francois is/ in bed under a warm blanket/ in a nice cafe having tea.

25. Least favorite place to be?
-at a hawker centre attempting to communicate with a PRC hawker's assistant who obviously thinks he can get away with speaking just chinese in singapore.

26. Where would you like to go?
- back in time. does that count? It would be fun to see what ancient cities were like. Rome, Egypt, Greece, India...

27. Do you own slippers?
- yes.

28. What shirt are you wearing?
- a pink and white baseball tee

30. Favorite color?
- red

31. Would you like to be a pirate?
- erm, no.... i don't think i could bear being on a ship all my life.

32. Last time you had an alcoholic drink?
- Last night. a mojito.

33. What songs do you sing in the shower?
- I don't sing in the shower.

34. What did you fear was going to get you at night as a child?
- the "Nenek gugugang" or the Hantu Tetek. hahah. all thanks to my grandma who

35. What*s in your pocket/s right now?
- Rien

36. Last thing that made you laugh?
-I watched Ice Age 2 on TV just now.

37. Last thing that made you cry?
-don't remember

38. Worst injury you*ve ever had?
- mildly-sprained ankle and stretched knee ligament

39. Who is your loudest friend?
- generally, if a person is loud, they are NOT my friend.

42. Who is your most silent friend?
- euhhh... dunno

43. Last movie watched?
- the simpsons movie

44. What is your favorite book?
- Gosh I dunno.

45. What is your favorite chocolate?
- semi-sweet, or fruit and nut, or anything with an alcohol centre

47. What song do/did you want played at your wedding?
- lHaven't thought about that yet.

48. What were you doing 12 AM last night?
- At Blujazz cafe with ex classmates

49. What was the First thing you did today?
- had brunch.

50. What was the last thing you did the day before yesterday?
- I dunno!!! i don't remember.

2007-08-18T14:53:00.000+08:00

19 days left in singapore!

I can't wait to get back to F, but at the same time i feel like i haven't had enough time to spend with my family and friends. tsk. damn attachment!

On the agenda today :
Shopping at Bugis Junction/Bugis St
Hang out with Elizabeth at her shop at haji lane
Dinner with classmates from VJ

yesterday i went to a chinese sinseh to get my ankle and knee fixed. the doctor cracked my bones back into place! and then did cupping on my ankle, and covered it in some kinda green/grey paste, and then wrapped it up in a bandage. It feels more flexible now. Got to go back next week for a follow-up appointment.

ttfn

2007-08-13T10:53:00.000+08:00

I've got about 3 weeks left in singapore, but my shopping and to-do lists are still so long.

1.new pair of glasses
~~2.next year's supply of contact lenses~~
3.sandals
4.camera battery
5.pair of black pants
6.external hard drive ( my parents are going to pay for that for me yippeeee!)
~~7.bras!~~
8.handphone
9.gifts for people in lyon
~~10. nose stud~~
~~11.new tank tops~~
12.curry powder and pappadam to bring to lyon
~~13.pen refills~~
~~14.jacket~~
15.make up
~~16. skirt~~
------------
17.cut and highlight hair
~~18.get eyebrows threaded~~
19.take passport-sized ID photos
~~20.go to chinese physician about my ankle~~
21. go for final check up at dentist's

The only thing's i've cancelled off my shopping list are a new laptop bag, a new pair of shoes, jeans, a new perfume, and off my to-do list, getting my last wisdom tooth extracted.

Looks like i'm gonna have a busy 3 weeks ahead.

I've been spending the past two days watching Southpark online, and have rediscovered how fun creating your own South park character on www.sp-studio.de is!

Guess who? teeheehee

2007-08-10T18:44:00.001+08:00

Here's some pics of my sister's friend's 3 cats! I couldn't stop smooshing them the whole time i was at his place :) heeeheee i love kitties!

There's Mimi, she's a ragamuffin. She's got the most yellow eyes i've seen on any cat.

Here's Muji, a Norweigian Forest Cat. He's the calmest one of the lot.

And then there's Moby, who looks like a giant fluffy cloud. He's a ragdoll, and is very very playful.

2007-08-05T22:05:00.001+08:00

HAHAHAH!

Here's a doctored poster making fun of Sarko's real presidential campaign posters. His campaign slogan was ' Ensemble, tout devient possible" or "Together, everything becomes possible"

but this poster reads, " together, without the impoverised, foreigners, minimum wage-earners, left-wing politics, extreme left-wing politics, communists, the 'contrat duree indetermine', homosexuals, temp staff, HIV positive people, the handicapped, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Culture, independant journalists, blacks, arabs, Yannick Noahs ( former tennis star turned singer, of mixed descent), Lillian Thurams (french national football player of african descent), and the man who stole my wife, everything becomes possible.

HAHAHAHAHHA

2007-08-04T22:37:00.000+08:00

Yesterday was 10 months that Francois and I have been together!

And in September, when i get back to Lyon, we, as a couple, will be moving into a gorgeous apartment we were lucky enough to find. As concubins, co-habiting.

I really don't care what people think anymore, judge me for all you want, the fact is I LOVE this wonderful man, and i can't picture living without him!

and i know my closest friends are open-minded enough to not have a problem with it anyway.

So there. :)

I am really excited about the prospect of us living together, getting to see each other everyday, cooking dinner, having movie marathons late into the night and falling asleep on our 60 euro second hand sofa.

yeah i know i sound really mushy, but that what happens when you meet s/b like Francois.

So in september you guys can look forward to lots of photos of OUR gorgeous new apartment.

voila, c'est fait, je suis contente que tout le monde le sache maintenant :)

2007-07-31T13:55:00.001+08:00

2007-07-31T09:29:00.000+08:00

I am convinced a lot of the French have selective memory.

They boast about their history, the great works of art or literature they have produced, their famous monuments, winning the world cup... they must think they are the most civilised people that exists because they eat with a knife and fork, and make a big show about food. ARTIFICES, if you ask me. Everywhere in France, for a few good months this year, all i could see was superficiality.

They conveniently forget what France and all of europe has done over the past centuries, and what they are currently doing in the world....If you want to call yourself french ( or european for that matter), it's ALL or NOTHING. you can't select historical events you are proud of, and conveniently deny everything else by saying ' i didn't do that, my ancestors did'.

well you didn't win the bloody world cup yourself either ( in fact a bunch of non-white players of immigrant descent did), so stop going on about it!

The biggest hypocrites in the world.

All this of course, because yesterday i recalled a certain comment made by someone i met in Lyon some time ago, a seemingly intelligent, worldy person with a respectable job who i was quite impressed with until this person suggested that a ' United States of Europe' be formed parce que finalement on est tous de la meme race.

' because in the end, we are all of the same race' .

And i was very disappointed by that comment. As though this person thought 'civilised' white people should stick together to combat the rest of us coloured barbarians.

Sigh, need to meditate somemore.

2007-07-29T13:31:00.000+08:00

So i've finally undergone the dreaded removal of my last wisdom tooth, and it was as traumatic as i expected it to be.

Not that it was particularly painful, what with the multiple numbing injections and strawberry-flavoured anaesthetic paste to numb the pain of those injections, but all the tugging and drilling and BLOOD is quite hard to stomach.

Eventually, the dentist plucked a gigantic molar with three curved roots out of my jaw, and a piece of gum to boot, leaving a gaping hole that required 3 stitches to repair.

Been on a soft diet, and next saturday, back to the dentist i go to get the stitches removed.

Aie.
_______________

Yesterday i went to watch WWE's Summerslam with my brother and father. i'm not really a big fan, i just went for the experience i guess! I didn't know most of the wrestlers who came out, except for Kane who has been around for ages, and Rick Flair. It was so comically exaggerated. the wrestlers i'm sure must take acting classes! I felt my neurones dying one by one as i watched, but it was fun nonetheless!

2007-07-27T15:30:00.000+08:00

Going off to the dentist's to get my last remaining wisdom tooth removed. Wish me luck :S :S :S

41 days to go

2007-07-26T14:34:00.000+08:00

Guess who just received the stuff she ordered from Victoria's Secret? hehehehe happy happy happy.

Just got back from a briefing which ended 45 mins later than scheduled, thanks to a few people who decided their questions were more important than everybody else's mental health.

Looking forward to watching Asian Boys 3 tonight with Anhua. I'm craving dimsum again.

Finally got to talk to Mr F last night, after a few days of not being able to talk to each other. Sigh. many many days to go before i'm back in Lyon.

( j'aurais prefere te tenir en suspens jusqu'au jour de ton anniv mais je voulais pas t'offrir un cadeau qui te plait pas! hehe)

2007-07-22T18:26:00.000+08:00

God, I've been blowing all my money shopping, when i'm supposed to be keeping some aside to pay for my apartment in Lyon, my wisdom tooth surgery, contacts, and a new pair of spectacles.

Today's haul : 50ml bottle of Bulgari Rose Essentiel -$48
Tunic from Island Shop-$59
Black ballerina shoes from Novo and foot petals- $52
2 no VPL panties from Marks and Spencer's -$20

And the other day i bought a $62 targus laptop bag. but that doesn't count, cos my last lappie bag's strap broke, so i NEEDED a new bag.

Ai yai yai...so much money gone, but it feels so good! aahhhh

Attachment at is ending next wednesday. I've got a week off, and then one week of seminars and workshops. ack. not looking forward to it.

Tu me manques enormement mon amour! Je suis perdue sans toi.

46 days.

2007-07-16T16:51:00.000+08:00

52 long days to go.

2007-07-15T15:10:00.000+08:00

Sigh I wanna go back to Lyon. :(

2007-07-01T08:44:00.000+08:00

A couple more pics from Montagny

Does this tree not remind you of the tree in the Six Feet Under intro? that's F's garden by the way. so jealous!
_________________________

They say home is where the heart is, and right now a big chunk of mine is back in lyon with a certain Francois.

Honestly, like i've said time and again on this blog, if i had my mum and my pets and my girlfriends in Lyon with me, i don't think i would ever leave france to come back to singapore.

Sure the french can be ignorant, inefficient snobs who think they still rule the world, but i could learn to get over that.

Heck i could ever learn to live without singapore food.

What else is there in singapore other than a pseudo-democracy, 90 % humidity, materialism and a population denied the right to express itself and assemble freely ??

Ok, we've got a really low crime rate and good shopping, we're clean and efficient, but i could sacrifice all of that and i've never really been that much of a shopper anyway.

I'd like to have seasons ( but not too harsh a winter please), some freedom to think what i want to think and say what i want to say, an established arts scene, mountains and lakes and real forests and the opportunity to discover new things!!

Hell even my mum has been telling since as long as i can remember that we should get out of singapore.We've got all the comforts we need over here, and life could be great if you make 10,000 a month, but there's more to life than fucking shopping malls dammit!!!!!!

2007-06-29T22:39:00.001+08:00

Now you all will probably think i'm crazy, but i've always wanted to know what it's like to shoot a gun.

And this summer i actually fired a rifle! Yippeeeeee!

It was at F's country house in the mountains ( photos two posts earlier). His father's got an old russian rifle. So of course, i just HAD to fire it. There weren't many bullets left, but it was all worth it! On my second shot i almost hit the bull's eye! I am soooo proud! I brought the little paper target back with me to singapore. heheheh that's how proud i am.

By the way, I AM against violence. and hunting. especially hunting.

The 22mm bullets

We used a little step ladder for support whilst shooting, and the targets were placed on the heap of dead leaves and twigs about 20m away.

Boy am i proud.
______________________________________________

Me and Elizabeth hanging out at Pitch Black Cafe till late.

2007-06-27T05:55:00.000+08:00

Hello all,

I am back in singapore.

it's 556am and i'm up because i'm so jetlagged and cant get to sleep so i'm blogging

So i haven't done anything much since i got back, i've just been sleeping at odd hours, and watching tv and eating when i'm not.

It's weird, physically i'm in singapore, but mentally i'm still in lyon.

Chewie, tu me manques!!!!!!

When i walked out of the airport yesterday, it was so humid i felt like i couldnt breathe. Cursed equatorial humidity! one thing i dont miss about singapore!

My phone number's still the same, so please call or sms or email or tag.

2007-06-11T03:52:00.001+08:00

it's so weird that i'm gonna be back in Singapore in two weeks. URGH. i like being on vacation in france! no obligations, and a lot more things to do.

tsk. but i have obligations to a certain ministry...

Last week F and I spent two days at his family's summer house out in the mountains in Savoie.
Unforch the weather wasn't very good so we couldn't go out for a hike or anything, and we had to cut our stay short.

So this is what the region looks like! gorgeous isn't it! this pic i took whilst in the car.

There are cows in the backyard. I didn't realise how fly-covered cows were. Unforch these cows are destined for the butcher shop. Poor things...

The rest of the post will have to wait, the wireless internet connection at the Mcdonald's i'm in is annoyingly unstable!

ttfn

2007-06-04T21:54:00.001+08:00

Oh and i forgot to add that i am flat broke.

2007-06-04T21:47:00.001+08:00

For those of you i haven't informed yet, i will be back in singapore on the 25th of june

As for me, exams are over, results will be out in 10 days. weather has been strangely cold for early june. Keeping myself entertained as much as possible at home in the meantime.

I'm at mcdonald's now using their wireless. luckily they dont make you buy stuff to use their internet. The other day there was a guy sitting next to me who was eating 4 hamburgers. ok, i know hamburgers are small, but FOUR??? imagine all the salt and fat in those four burgers running in your veins YUCK!!!!!! and the ohter day, there was another guy was eating

1 filet o'fish
1 McChicken
1 box of chicken McNuggets
Large fries
and a large soft drink

OH MY GOD what are these people thinking??????

2007-05-24T20:51:00.000+08:00

Thanks to azny and Uncyclopedia, the content-free encyclopedia. You have to read this, it's hilarious. I especially love the T-rex at school assembly thing!

http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Singapore

HAHAHAHAH

Exam in 3 hours. Linguistic Sciences in English. Should go alright. But i'm trying no to be too confident og myself. Lappie batt is dying, gotta run!

2007-05-14T22:38:00.000+08:00

Hi guys,

sorry for the lack of updates, have been very busy with exams coming.

Photos of my new place will have to wait unforch.

2007-04-30T20:43:00.000+08:00

Just a quick note before i head off for class.

Have moved into my new place. everythings a big mess.

The place is a little bit dark because of the building opposite;and has rather badly insulated walls, which means i can hear everything my mexican neighbour says or does, and sometimes it drives me crazy and i wonder if i didnt make a bad choice moving into this place.and then i get all depressed cos regrets are the worst things to have ever!!!!

but otherwise, the apartment is fine, the fridge works and so does everything else except for the TV which has lousy reception. Will have a fixed line active in about a week, and internet in about 3 weeks from now. Shit, THREE whole weeks without internet at home!!! i dunno how i survived the whole of first year w/o internet.

ok gtg now.

will update with photos soon

2007-04-27T04:17:00.000+08:00

Tonight is my last night in this wonderful apartment I share with Miwa.

Tomorrow afternoon i will be moving to my new studio.

Sigh, lots of good memories in this place. Plus, it's so pretty. it's hard to let go of such a wonderful apartment in such a posh neighbourhood!

But hey, what am i so sad about??? Have to keep focused on the big picture! There are people living on the streets, going hungry, roasting under the sun in summer and freezing in winter, and here I am sad about moving? and not having internet for a few weeks? Got to keep things in perspective to keep positive! I've got so many things going for me. Plus Francois will be staying with me over the weekend to help me ease into my new apartment. So what the hell am i complaining about? I should be grateful i actually have a roof over my head.

I will take lots of photos tomorrow during the big move to post on my blog. To document the whole event. hehehe.
---------
It's amazing how much a phonecall to a girlfriend at home can be a mood-booster!

I talked to Elizabeth just now for about an hour. It was nice hehe. talking like we used to over smokes and drinks at the beach. She told me about the cafe she's working at which is haunted... Chairs moving mysteriously by themselves, lights dimming by themselves, mysterious footsteps, strange feelings.... eeeekkkkk. HAhah i love ghost stories!!!! It's been ages since the last good scary movie came out...which was what..the sixth sense?? That was ages ago! DAmn! I want a new good scary movie!

I'm watching La Methode Cauet on TV, it's the equivalent of David Letterman or Jay Leno but crazier and stupider, and everytime i watch it i feel my neurones melting one by one, but sometimes it's nice to laugh at silly things! that don't require any thinking!

lalala gtg now, this is my last post from this apartment!

bisous a vous tous!

2007-04-22T22:01:00.000+08:00

( the alignment for this post is screwed up for some reason) I just finished watching the last episode of 6 Feet Under! such a mind blowing and depressing episode. The last few episodes of the
season were so completely depressing.

Urgh i hate this whole 'emotional rollercoaster' thing. I hate that expression
but whatever. One second i'm on cloud nine and i feel like i have so many
things going for me and that i'm so lucky to have the chance to live
here in France on scholarship, completely independent of my parents in
a country with so many things to discover and experience, to have people
who love me back in singapore and friends i can count on, to have you,
Francois, and then the next second i feel so melancholic and depressed
and like the loneliest person on the planet and i'm crying my eyes out till
my head hurts, and my fourth chakra aches so bad that i just want to curl
up and die.

aiyah! I just want to go back to being happy 24/7 again. fuck. I don't
want to feel like this. I wanna be happy and appreciate everything I
should be appreciating! What is wrong with me?!?!? Do you think my
hormones are out of whack? This year so far has been one of extremes..i
can be soooo elated and soooo fucking depressed in the same day i wonder
if i'm not going nuts. TSK.
_______________________________________________

Anyway today is the first round of the presidential elections, as i'm sure
you all have already read. It's rather exciting, even though i dont have
the right to vote. But this has been the closest i've been to real elections,
real campaigning, real political parties and it is very exciting. Ha. At school
my french friends discuss the elections with such passion and fervour that
i can't help but feel like them too sometimes, even though technically i
have no stake in this country. but emotionally i think i do! I am very
attached to france, even though she can be a bitch sometimes, because she's
provided me so far with a year and a half of intense experiences, and so
many firsts. The first time travelling alone, live concertes other than
WOMAD, getting piss drunk, laughing till i cried and crying till i laughed,
living alone, being financially independent, lurve...and i think i've really grown
up here. (yah ok i know all you girls at home will say that's bad news cos i
already acted too old for my own good whilst i was in singapore...haha)

(HAHAH i'm talking to my sister on MSN now and she's saying that
the Miss Singapore Universes contestants were all cross-eyed or had buck
teeth. ahhaha)

yeah so anyway, i'm just hoping Lepen doesnt get into the second round,
'cos then i will seriously lose ALL faith in the french people and start
wondering what the hell i'm doing here studying linguistics so i can go
back and teach their language to more people. Yeah ok I admit french is
a lovely language, and sounds much better than english, but aiyoh, s
ometimes i look at the things french people do and have done, and i start
having doubts. haha.

And i'm seriously hoping Sarko doesn't get elected president .

Although i dunno if Sego would be good news for france either.

Like my friend JB put it, they have a choice between typhoid and cholera.
Gotta pick the lesser of two evils!

2007-04-15T02:22:00.000+08:00

Yesterday F and I visited Perouges, a lovely medieval village about half an hour by train from Lyon, in the Ain.

We were lucky enough to be blessed with good weather, warm-hot even later in the afternoon-and the sun was out.

Perouges itself is tiny, but filled with charming cobbled streets, little houses with beautiful doors.. visiting the place is like going back to the 1400's. Ancient and quaint and mystical in a way.

What is a medieval village without a resident black cat? this lovely kitty welcomed us at the top of the stairs leading up to the village from gravel path below.

One of many bakeries in the village, each making a fresh gallettes au sucre everyday, Perouge's speciality.

I also bought a bottle of Absente, a slightly midler version of Absinthe, that came in a gorgeous box and also with a real Absinthe spoon. :)

I wish everyday could be like yesterday. Carefree and leisurely and with F. Wish we could do that more often!

We finished touring the place in about 3 hours. Headed back down to the neighoburing village of Meximieux to catch the train back to Lyon. Then stopped at the Part Dieu to buy lotto, it being Friday the 13th, which is considered lucky, not unlucky, in France. We didn't win though. Ha. But it did provide some excitement for the day.

Got home, had a 2 hour nap cos we were tired from all the walking. Then had dinner, and went for the 10 o clock screening of Goodbye Bafana. Ralph Fiennes is excellent in the movie.

The neighours in the building across the street are having a big party and i can hear them from my room.

I have finally found a new place to stay. It's located right in the city centre, in a nice neighbourhood. Its a small studio, with a mezzanine. I'm happy i found a new place to live in. It's like a whole new adventure, a new neighbourhood to explore. But sad to have to leave Miwa and this wonderful apartment. mixed feelings indeed.sigh.