have been pretty busy. french intensive classes have started. 5 freaking hours of french class/day. My class is made up of mainly spanish speaking people; 1 colombian, 2 mexicans, 2 brazillians, 1 swede, 2 singaporeans, 1 chinese. Ben and I usually are closest to the mexicans because they speak english.:P

I know this is completely random, but below are some snapshots of my dorm.
I got the studio appartments, meaning I have my own ammenities (toilet, kitchen, shower)


My cooking area.


Toilet


My desk


My bed with the duvets. This room, unfortunately, costs a bomb. 375euros/month = 800sgd. This does not include food. agh.

13 janvier 2008
Ben and I woke up tres early to visit the famous sunday market at tonkin.


It was fantastic because everything was so cheap.

I managed to buy 12 oysters for 4 euros. The dude even let me sample one on the spot. Amazing huh.

My shanked oyster. I had shank the oysters, which is SUPEr easy to do. Don't listen to all the crap about how shanking oysters is a skill. Total bullshit man. All you need is a swiss army knife and you're on your way to eating fresh oysters.


fresh fruits


I also managed to buy a lipgloss made in spain for 1 euro. And it's the best lip gloss I've ever had because it is actually GLOSSY thanks to the metallic bits added.

On the way back, ben and I were really tired from all the walking (its a 30 mins walk from Insa), so we sat down at a tram station, ate our mandrin oranges and watched cars go by. Yea, there is really nothing to do on Sundays because all the shopping malls are closed. And we didn't have our passwords for our internet so there was really nothing to do. zlich. I guess in france, sundays are family days.

We headed over to Le parc de la Tete d'or in the afternoon. This park is like a free zoo, about 20 minutes way away.

Me, Fengxue.

We ta-paoed our lunch and had our picnic lunch in another small park beside Tete d'or.


Me with the food. It was reeeeeeeeally cold though, so my hands got numb just eating the food. And the food got cold really quickly. Even the wine didn't help much.


Ben holding the wine against the clear blue skies.

Pictures from Parc de la tete d'or:

Lions. Some animals were hibernating.



Wide open spaces.


Big lake.


Some.. furry animal.


Ben and his mini candy floss. The great thing about eating candy floss here is that the candy stays nice and puffy for a long time.

14 janvier

Photo of the nus exchange students who arrived last week: me, ben, fengxue.


Moet and Chandon sold at the supermarket. 33 euros. HA!

15 janvier
The Insa exchange student club organised a get together event. IT was also a "galette des roi" thingy. Galette des roi is a tradition observed in western households. Even the south americans have something like this.

The youngest kid of the house will seat under the table and decide who gets which slice of cake. There is a little doll embedded in one slice of cake, and whoever is lucky enough to get it will be the king of the day.

I played this "game" twice and both times I didn't get to be the queen of the day. BOOHOOHOO.


Ben and I and our mexican classmates, Roberto and alexandra.

After the Galette des rois event, we went to the insa pub.

biereeeeeeeeee.
I saw the Insa postman who is supposedly drunk 24/7. He was freaky man. He was seating at one corner of the bar wearing a cow hat and talking to an imaginery friend. I heard that there was once he crashed his car into the tram because he was drunk, so now he doesn't have any car and has to use the Insa van. He drives at 10km/h and occassionally delivers the wrong mails. There was another time he stood on the stage in the pub and talked on an imaginary handphone for half an hour.

ok this ends my long post. till next time!