benz in chrome. simply breathtaking eh?

now that your eyes are enticed by e beauty, here's some random ramblings to change things around.

i just came back from school. sat for a 4hr math exam. its one of e toughest paper that ive sat for. could have saved the time last nite by not studying for it, since it didnt help much. and the 4 hrs were damn long. requires a good bladder control and efficient pacing. haiz.. shall just hope for e best. thankfully, most of e ppl found it hard too.

3rd wk of sch just ended. and its sooo tiring. lessons end at 530pm on most days. and after that, i have 'colles', which are oral tests conducted in groups of 3 with one professor, and a board. such a mode of assessment is said to be common thru'out europe. they shld adopt this method in singapore. so the teachers can watch the students falter and fumble awkwardly in front of the board.

basically, we 3 are each given different sheets of paper with different questions on it. and then we solve it real time on the board with the prof eyeing us like a hawk. and e moment a person writes a single mistake, he wld swoop down upon e poor soul and start grilling him with additional questions.

its capable of making u sweat like a pig despite e ambient temperature of 15 degrees. if ure using e blackboard, the chalk powder becomes sludgy in your hands as u shuffle ur feet and try your best to answer the questions posed; or if youre using a marker on a whiteboard, ure suddenly aware of it becoming very slippery in your hands. also, u silently thank god when the prof moves on to the other 2 ppl and leaves u in peace. and this lasts for an hour. ive twice of that weekly. so i have to be on my toes and revise my work every nite. boohoo.. i miss gg to paris to club and play on wkdays.

other than that, classmates are alright, though theres far too few girls. well i guess i cant complain much. shld be thankful that the atmosphere has warmed up considerably since the first week, where everyone was particularly autarkic and cold. and as with last yr, you know things are improving when the girls come up to u and do the cheek-kissing thing (la bise), and the guys wld come for handshakes.

i cant stand the handshakes at times. when u arrive in sch and chance upon a whole gang of them, u begin the ritual, and, starting from one end, you shake hands all the way till the other end. at times im too shy to do that so i wld go to some other place hah. same thing with girls, and for e latter its more tiring. u still have to pucker up ur lips and do the 'muakz' sound. but its nice all the same, esp in contrast to spore or any other asian society where theres minimal physical contact. then again, i wldnt fancy doing the cheek-kissing thing with sticky sweaty cheeks, esp in hot sunny spore.

and ive started talking to more of them, especially during lab periods. speaking of which, i must master lab talk. more technical jargon to learn. and i must improve on my comprehension. whispering comprehension that is. its really amazing, the french that e youths speak isnt tt heard on radio or tv, theirs is a completely new breed of french tt requires u to throw in as many words as possible in a minute. and when they speak in hushed tones to avoid e prof from hearing, i really find it inaudible and incomprehensible.

ok i have to go buy groceries now, cook and then clean up my place. i feel like part-time maid. till e next post.

im so excited! school starts tomorrow and this time round i wld be formally and properly inducted into e system. wld no longer be the pseudo-freshie that had the luxury of attending only some lectures and having a lighter timetable. and i cant wait to explore e campus and meet new people. okay, actually im not that excited. its very daunting and scary having to make new friends all over again while grappling with schwork. and philo. gdness, i hope i can crap out something decent for those abominable essays. still, its fun knowing that i dunno whats in store, haha, and then handling them the best i can. i wish myself lotsa luck.

its fun to be back, though the initial pangs of 'adjustment syndrome' set in on the first day while unpacking. but all was well once i went to sch to photocopy some stuff before going out to meet friends. have been going out everyday and spending too much, oops. but i reasoned that once sch starts, i wldnt be going out so often heh.

flight back was uneventful. krisworld sucked this time round, i only watched ~3 movies, compared to e 6 on my return trip to spore earlier in jun. and so i slept for about 5-6 hours, which was good as it was actually much needed. had planned to take a taxi back to my place, but T wanted to take e train instead; which was ok, considering that i would save about 40 to 50 euros, even after splitting e fare. but the luggage was soooooo heavy i nearly died dragging them around and up to my room. my profs had better appreciate the mooncakes i bought for them. TEN SILLY INTRICATELY CRAFTED MOONCAKES WITH PRETTY BOXES TO HOUSE THEM IN. so damn heavy. ok i exaggerate.

i noticed that all the trains are spruced up over summer, which is good. they even managed to remove all the graffiti and introduced several new trains. i just hope they stay that way. paris looked much cleaner to me too on the first day, which was surprising as tourists were everywhere. however, i changed my mind when i went to chatelet les-halles, the central interchange in zone 1, where the black people seem to like to congregate. i certainly dun mean to be racist, but seeing scores of blacks congregating together and talking so loudly in their loud clothing and dreadlocks just dun make me feel good. and some of them love to stare or shout out 'ni hao' or 'konichiwa'. i felt like shouting 'mandela!!' or 'kumbaya' back at them. irritating trouble-makers..

bah, im turning in now. hopefully i can blog soon.