Friday, November 30, 2007

-project mates-

this post is entirely to bitch about irritating project mates, which i'm sure everyone has encountered at least once. if u thought going on exchange means escaping lousy project mates, u are wrong.

guys and girls, cherish your fellow singaporean project mates! for we are really the most efficient of all. i understand that in other cultures, it is normal to talk and socialise during meetings, and in fact i was looking forward to being a part of it, but really, sometimes enough is enough. especially if all u need is 15 minutes at the most to complete the "economic" part in the PESTEL analysis, but u spend more than half an hour talking to other people u meet in the computer lab. and yet in the end, u send me some half past 6 work claiming your english is not strong enough to continue.

and i have another project groupmate (who is local) but she doesn't seem to care about the project at all even though she needs the grade. in the end, we gave her a small part - PESTEL analysis (out of an entire business plan). we gave her 1 week to do it but when we called her yesterday and told her to give it to us by 3pm because we (meaning I) really need to compile it, she said ok, but it won't be good cos we are pressuring her. WHAT pressure?????
but here's the worst part- when i read thru her document, the english was obviously not written by a local student. so we did a google, and guess what, she simply copied and pasted an entire article, and it had no PESTEL analysis in it.
we had to redo her work (meaning mostly I).

i swear, i did about 80% - 85% of the entire project.

And the real kicker is, if I'd done the project myself, it'd have been so much faster and of a better quality too. no shit.

and i'm not the only one facing this shit here hahaa.


------ Sunday, November 25, 2007

oooh i am in bratislava, capital of slovakia now! sounds exotic right? actually, this place is not undeveloped, scary, dangerous or ulu at all. it is not as pretty, nor as developed as the other western european countries, or prague and vienna of course, but it's actually quite alright. the city itself is in a state of contrast.. a building in a state of disrepair next to an open stage where open-air performances are held; the brand new bridge (aptly called "New Bridge") across the River Danube next to an abandoned-looking bus station; and plenty of wifi-enabled cafes selling traditional slovak food and cheap beer.. everything is juxtaposed in this city that is moving forward, yet preserving its roots.

huiting and i came to this conclusion that "traditional slovak food" really means food meant for the peasants. it's not being rude or demeaning, it's just an observation. an example of a traditional dish consists of dumplings with sheep cheese and bacon. it turned out to be potatoes mixed heavily with flour and corn starch, and the "bacon" is actually pieces of pork lard with no meat. the potato with flour fills u up very quickly, and lard keeps u warm.. we figured that was how people ate when they were poor. makes sense right?

anw, ever since the spain trip, we seem to run into circumstances every time we travel.. some funny, some amazing, some unpleasant, but all memorable. i will relate the latest one we faced since it's still really fresh in my mind:

Bratislava-Vienna trip:
we were due to fly out from Paris Orly airport to vienna on 23 nov at 9.20am, meaning we have to reach the check-in counter by 8.40am at the latest. we spent the previous nite at a friend's place in paris, and we left her place at 6+ am, giving ourselves 2 hours to reach the airport after taking into consideration of the transportation strike in paris. we got to bibliothèque françois mitterand station to catch RER C5 line in good time.

however, RER lines are most affected by the strikes and the screens at the train station did not show which platform we should board the train from to get to the airport. we decided to trust the signs at the escalator but unfortunately, it turned out to be RER C3 line as it did not turn towards Pont de Rungis at Choissy le Roi station (RER lines a bit complicated to explain). so we got off and took the opposite direction back to Choissy le Roi.

by the time we reached back to choissy le roi, it was already about 7.45am. a list of expected train timings as a result of the strike was posted at the station, and our train is expected to reach at 7.58am, and another one at 8.06am. just about enough time to make it to the airport. unfortunately, both trains did not arrive! knowing that we are running out of time, we decided to take a cab to the airport. it's gonna be an obscene amount, but it'll be better than missing our flight.

BUT

we walked out and didn't see any taxis at all. so in my broken french, i asked a passerby if there is a taxi stand nearby and to my horror, he said there's usually no taxis there! he told me to take a bus and gave me directions to the bus stop.
we headed to the bus stop and in my broken french, asked the bus driver of the first bus that comes along how to get to the airport. by sheer luck, that bus does go to the airport. we all got up and in my broken french, i asked the bus driver to let us know when to stop. it was about 8.15am.

the bus driver can't speak english at all but he was really very patient with my broken french. when it was time to stop, he and another commuter tried their best to explain to me how to get to the airport. i think they were explaining a short cut, but i couldn't really understand them very well. they said to cut across a parking lot and a building and pointed the general direction to me. we got off. it was about 8.25am.

we cut across the parking lot but were lost by now. we see a car parked nearby. the driver was in it. in french, i asked him how to get to the airport. and to my horror...
him: l'aéroport orly? c'est un peu loin! (translated: orly airport? that's a bit far!)
me: (horrified look) loin?! (translated: far?!)
him: oui, mais (you can walk there).. tout droit, tout droit, tout droit. (translated: yes, but u can walk there.. go straight (emphasised))
me: pour combien? (for how long?)
him: deux kilometres! (2 km!)
me: (totally horrified) pouvez-vous nous aider? nous sommes en retard (can u help us? we are late)
him: (i am waiting for a friend...)
i can't understand the rest of what he said. it was a little past 8.30am.

we begin to frantically flag down any moving vehicle. by our 2nd stroke of sheer luck, a taxi appeared and stopped for us. the driver agreed to take us even though it was a short journey. we sped towards the airport.

we reached the airport, and huiting ran towards the check-in counter while we pay the cabbie and lug our bags. we made it. it was about 8.37am.


what an adventure. not one i'd want to repeat though!


the 2-kilometre, less than 5 minutes cab ride costs us 8euros in case u are wondering. that's how expensive cabs are in paris. the driver asked for 10 euros and we just paid him that cos we really didn't have time to disagree with him!


but we made it in the end, we managed to check in our baggage and we got on to our plane. and as a real kicker, the plane got delayed for half an hour before being able to take off due to bad weather in vienna. talk about ironies!


------ Thursday, November 08, 2007

thanks, everyone, for remembering 8 november. i'm really touched.

i received a package early this morning in my room.. my family fedex-ed my birthday present to France! there was a damn nice birthday card, my aunt gave me a scarve, my dad gave me a small massager and my mum sent me pocky snacks hahaa.. i was so touched i couldn't stop crying..

anw thanks to all my friends who remember my birthday too..

desmond, huiting, huiying, chris, marcus, yingwen, dawn, zixuan, peiyan and shan'er, thanks for the surprise birthday celebration, it really was a surprise!
desmond, thanks for the musical box that plays the french national anthem.. allez les bleus!!!

and everyone who wished me on msn and on facebook.. thanks a lot!


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yes yes on request:
I am in Rouen again. I went to Spain last week - Madrid, Zaragoza and Barcelona. The weather is nice in Spain: there is sun! And also, the shopping in Spain is very good! But besides that, I think that there is nothing much to do in Spain.
The best thing - I met Alvin and Stella. In fact, we stayed in their appartment in Barcelona. It was good to meet Alvin, and the trip was fun for me because of them (and their appartment haha)..

i am leaving for berlin on thursday night, will be spending the night at paris orly airport - the 4th airport that i'm gonna sleep in. the others being paris cdg airport, prague airport and barcelona girona airport. haiz it's tough.
i'll only be back on wednesday, spending the night at orly again, before maybe heading to amsterdam on thursday night. transportation strike in paris next week sigh. maybe i should forsake my amsterdam trip at the rate things are going.


------ Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Je suis à Rouen encore. Je suis allée en Espagne la semaine dernière - Madrid, Zaragoza et Barcelona. Il fait beau en Espagne: il y a du soleil! Et aussi, les courses dans Espagne sont très bonne! Mais en plus de cet, je pense que la Espagne n'a rien à faire.
Le meilleur chose - j'ai rencontré Alvin et Stella. En fait, nous avons logé dans leur appartement dans Barcelona. C'était très bon à rencontrer Alvin, et je me suis bien amusé à cause d'eux (et leur appartement hahaa)..

ok i really hope that came out OK, hope the french wasn't too broken. i basically constructed that with the help of my french-english/english-french dictionary hahaa. part of revising for the french test tomorrow i suppose.
if u do not understand french, try to guess.. think should be able to guess the gist. my french is not that fantastic.

then again, if u do understand french, u might not have understood what i've written anyway HAHA.


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