Lesson Learnt

Recently learnt to knit from colleague. Thought I'll try to knit a scarve/muffler/watever-you-call-tat. It was difficult to start the first row of knitting cos' I kept making mistakes and had to undo and redo... Repeat tat process 10 times and I felt like throwing the needles (preferably at someone I hate! Bwahaha...) and giving up... Well, it turned out tat I din throw my needles at anyone... (sound effect: Geez...) and I tried again. Tat time I got it and it was easier after tat and my scarve/muffler/watever you call tat is progessing nicely. The morale of my story, is tat tis time, I truely felt wat it means by the Chinese idiom, 'Wan Shi Qi Tou Nan'- (for my non-Chinese frens, it simply means tat it's always difficult to get started). I realised tat if I could push myself to persevere beyond tat point then things become much easier and you'll see results. I know I should apply tis to exercising! But tat's a whole different ball game... heehee... I'll try... :)

Will probably start to jog at the park near my apartment once winter is over. But the thing about exercising is tat I find it easier to do it with someone else... But I've got no one to exercise together here! Oh well, I'd just hafta TRY to do it alone. Cos' I can feel tat weight tat was only just gone comin back to haunt me! Arghhh!!! Gotta eat less and exercise! - My New Year resolution :S

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City of Old

Was walkin along river Seine on Xmas day and was awed by the innumberable old and gorgeous buildings there are in Paris. So much so that everywhere I go, I see buildings and places I want a photograph of. So different from Singapore, where everything is quite new and modern. I guess if one looks hard enuff, there are some places in Singapore that are old and pretty. Guess it's just cos' it's the country I spent twenty odd years in so things just don't appeal to me tat much.

Talkin about takin pictures, I went to Versailles (a town in the suburbs of Paris) with 2 of my colleagues on Xmas Eve and it was a quaint (in a nice way) place. We visited an old palace, now a museum and I took so many pictures until the batteries in my camera went flat. I was quite sad cos' there were still quite a lot of things I wanted capture (almost wrote 'on film' but realised it doesn't apply to my camera). I'll probably go back there again sometime. Saw a nice painting of the crowning of Josephine by Napoleon. And many many other nice paintings whose names I'm not sure of.

Well, so Xmas Eve was kinda nice. I say kinda even though I liked Versailles quite a bit cos' the company I had weren't exactly great. They were colleagues (FULLSTOP). Not really people I click with. Sometimes when I'm at certain places, I'd wish my frens were with me to admire and do the 'ooh-aah...' together. Frens who enjoy the same things as I do. Arghhhh!!! Seems like in every entry I'm talkin abt missing my frens... Guess I can't haf the best of both worlds- be in a fasinating city like Paris and haf my frens with me too. I noe, I noe, I shouldn't be greedy... but surely one can grumble??? keke...

I do haf a couple of colleagues who's ok with me here. But they haf toured many places in Europe already (since they haf been here 8 months before me). As I'm writin, one of them is touring Rome... *envious* O_o

Gotta go back to my Scan-Co... (X-ray machine for scanning bones) Later!

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Reflecting...

Seems like I've only been whining about my work in the previous entries... (though it is still quite a pain, sometimes, but am getting better at things.) Realised I never mentioned how lucky I felt (before I came... well, maybe now too...) that I got the opportunity to come out here to learn and live in a new environment on my own. I've been reminded by my supervisor and colleagues dozens of times how lucky I am to have gotten this job. Cos' I'm the only one in tis training programme (there are 9 of us) who does not have any work experiences in a lab (there's another guy who's a fresh grad too but he's a Masters' so he's much better!). And I just heard yesterday that one of my colleagues (an Indonesian girl who got her degree in Perth then came to Singapore to work) has a 1st-class! Wow... couldn't tell... hmm... but sometimes, I do wonder if it's true wat people say, tat it's easier to get a 1st-class in foreign universities. heh... There are 2 other girls who only haf a bachelor's but they are a year before me and haf been working as research assistants before. And the other 4 are PHD holders... Ugh... I feel very stupid sometimes... O_o

But I've learnt to be more independent.For example, I could find my way around places on my own with a map... Ooh... Could never read a map properly in the past... or mayb cos' I just relied on my frens to find the place... heh... And I've gotta cook my own food and keep the house in order - my housemate just doesn't care! Appreciating now, how lucky I was to haf my mum cook and do most of the housework for me in Singapore. ^_^ It's still not easy gettin used to not havin my close frens to share stuff with... So tis is my only outlet...

Realised it takes being away from the things I've gotten used to to appreciate them in my life. My family & frens of cos, and my country too. Now I understand why people always say Singapore is very clean. I din used to think so. To me: 'it's not very clean wat, just normal lor...' Well, I've gotta admit, most other countries I've been to are not as clean as Singapore, such as Malaysia, America, China etc. But by far, Paris is THE worst! The streets are usually full of spit and dog poo! Eww! So one has to be careful where one steps...

Haha... so, tat's a lot of thought for 1 day... :) Could spend time writin these past few days cos' my supervisor is on leave. Yeah!!! So am eating a bit of snake before he comes back. *Big Grin*
The horrible thing is I've gotta come back to the lab to do injections tomorrow (Xmas Eve), Xmas and the day after tat (Sun). Sighz... But well, I don't haf much to do tis holiday too... Probably will go to the suburbs with 2 of my colleagues (the Malaysian girl & the Indonesian girl). Am looking forward to the New Year holidays though, cos the 3 of us will be goin to Belgium to visit Brussels, Bruges & Antwerp. Merry Xmas & a Happy New Year to my frens!

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It's SNOWING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's snowing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And on the official first day of winter! (I foolishly tot winter had started already, with the weather being quite cold in my standards, but it was just autumn...) It's so BEEEEEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!! My french colleague came in and announced tat it's snowing and me and my 2 colleagues (the China man and the Malaysian girl) dropped everything we were doing and ran out of the office. It's indescribable, seeing, feeling and tasting (I caught some snow flakes with my tongue :p) real snow for the first time...

I wasn't feeling too well tis morning (visited the toilet 4 times!) but the snow made my day! I'm feeling much better now. Maybe it's snowing today cos yesterday was an unbelievably cold day. I checked the weather reports online and it was about -1 degrees celsius. For the first time since I got here (about a month already, how time flies!), I felt really really cold... and it was as if I were pricked by needles in all parts of my body. It was a very horrible feeling...

Niway, the snow stopped after a short while... guess it's still not cold enuff yet... But it was amazing while it lasted... The sad thing is, I din bring my camera with me to work today!!! Sighz... I'm praying tat God will let it snow again tomorrow... :)

Last weekend was a pretty quiet weekend. Saturday was the kind of day one hardly gets in autumn- a lovely sunny day with blue skies and white fluffy clouds, I met up with an French ex-colleague and went to Sacre Coeur (a church I went to the first Sun I got here but tat day was cloudy and rainy, which wasn't a very good day to see the place) and the Montmartre area, where artists gather to sell their wares (mostly paintings). Am glad I went to see the church again cos the view tis time round was much better. Sun, I did my marketing and chores and went to church with some frens. After service we went caroling in the area around the church and it was a lot of fun cos I've never done tat before. A group of us went to Cité Université for dinner (cafeteria food... eww... but the company was good.) and after tat I accompanied one of them to Champs Elysees to see the lights. We went into a Renault showroom (tat surprisingly was still open at 10pm) and took a picture with Santa Claus. I felt like a kid... sitting on Santa's lap and getting a candy afterwards... :p

So, tat was my weekend... gotta go back to my work now!

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Great weekend!!!

So, finally can write about some nice stuff... I had a great weekend last week. Went ice-skating for the first time with my Singaporean colleague and her frens. My first time ice-skating! and imagine tat! open-air in the centre of Paris! amidst all the old, beautiful buildings! It was amazing! Though I fell down on my butt twice... hehe... glad I din break anything (read: not just my bones, the ice included). I was really nervous at first but my frens guided me along and held on to me for a bit before leaving me to try moving myself... When I got tired of trying to move clumsily, I stop, take in the atmosphere and watch the experts skate gracefully around the rink.

When we got ready to part ways, (me and my colleague goin to a housewarming dinner and her 2 frens goin off for their appointment), I was poked in the shoulder from behind. When I got ready to turn back and shoot the person one of my 'wat do u think u are doin' looks (my close frens would noe wat tat is :p), it turned out to be another of my colleague who came by to meet us and go for the dinner together. Said he actually wanted to capture candid shots of us skating, too bad we got off the ice already... (more like he wanted to get a shot of me fallin down... tat evil pig! :S) Niway, it was good that he caught us before we left for the metro, else he would haf had to go to the dinner on his own.

Before we went to the dinner, we decided to buy some chips for everyone so we walked around our colleagues' place (where we are having the dinner) looking for a supermarket (we walked so long but couldn't find any). Then my colleague received a call to ask us to get some bagettes too (cos they cooked chicken curry *yum*). So we continued walkin until we FINALLY found a supermarket and a bakery. There weren't many shops around their place as it was quite a posh and centralised area (more hotels - probably cos' of the tourists - than anything else). And it was very cold! He bought 4 bagettes and they were still warm out of the oven so we ate one as we walked back. It was great to be eating warm bread when it was so damn cold! Dinner was not bad... a mix of French food (cheese & wine) and asian food (chinese sausages, chicken curry, rice & stir-fried vegetables).

After dinner, a colleague (a fren I found in an unlikely person - but tat's another story for another time) and I went to Champs Elysées (kinda like our Orchard Road) to see the X'mas Lights but it was disappointin. Their X'mas lights are nowhere near what Orchard Road has. It was just a whole bunch of lights along the trees tat line the road. So it was nothing impressive. But I had fun still, jus absorbin the X'mas feel. So tat was my Saturday.

I slept in on Sunday {sleep, glorious sleep! :-) } Went to the market. Called home!!! Talked to my mum and sis :) Did laundry. Watched TV, more like lookin at the pictures cos' all the programmes are in French (Duh!). (Can't wait to start my French classes in Jan- it's horrible not understandin a thing they say here) Then I went to a X'mas dinner hosted by an American Chinese couple from the International Church here that my colleague brought me to and it was a nice, homely, chinese dinner. It was jus 5 of us and we had a good chat...

So tat was the whole long story about my weekend. I've gotta get out of the office! It's 615pm now and everyone has left. And it's my turn to cook dinner tonight! So Bonsoir!

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Much ado about nothing....

Hafnt written for a long time... Just finished surgery and castration of some rats... did my first castration today... 3 poor rats... they are gonna be killed tomorrow... am feeling pukish now... must haf been the combination of the champagne I had during lunch (today's lunch was a Xmas lunch so there was free champagne, and they said I had to finish it... so no choice...) and the castration procedures I had to do... It was kinda disgusting... pulling the balls out of their sacs... I can't imagine myself doin this if I were a guy... And there was a problem of me not being able to find the 2nd ball after pulling out the 1st one...

okay, enuff of the gross stories... I've had a good weekend last week and wanna write about it but I've gotta rush off soon so I could go see if I could find some nice and cheap sweaters to buy before the shops close (shops here close real early... about 7plus) so I think I'll hafta wait till tomorrow to write again... Gotta run!

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All in a day's work

Remember I talked about decapitation a while ago? That time I only had to observe, not do... Today I had to kill a rat to 'graduate', so my supervisor says... so I did... It was a mess cos I din chop the head off fast enuff... the blood spattered a bit... and the legs continue kicking after the head is chopped off (a nervous system response)... seemed like something out of CSI... Also had to cut the heads of quite a few mice today... I din do some of them very well and the blood din come out readily... well... I've gotta practise, they say... The good thing is that I probably wouldn't haf to kill any more rats cos my supervisor says, traditionally that's a men's job. Phew... But... I'd still hafta kill mice...

Some good news... I found a nearly perfect apartment!!! :) I moved in last Sun and am quite settled in now... It's a beautiful apartment, newly refurnished, with an antique and country style which I love! And the shower! OMG... It feels like I'm using a hotel's shower... there is 1 big shower head attached to the bathroom wall and then there are 6 nozzles below that and beside the big shower head attached to the wall, there's another big shower head which can be removed from the holder. It makes bathing my favourite activity of the day! :) The only not-very-perfect thing about it is that I dun haf a great flatmate... My flatmate's the China guy I mentioned a few times before. He's an ok guy, just not very clean and not of my wavelength and very nerdy... Wish I'm staying with someone I could talk to... But well, nothing's perfect... The other thing is that the apartment is just beyond the borders of the City of Paris, so it's considered the surburbs. But that's not very important cos the metro is a very convenient if I need to go to the city.

Well, I gotta go... it's 5pm now and everybody's gone home... The french go off work very on time, you see (actually they go off earlier than 5... about 430)... and that's probably the only time they are early... :)

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Fear Factor!

Had to learn how to take blood from rats on Tues. It was very difficult to make myself do it. Cos' guess how we take blood from rats??? From their eyes!!! A long thin glass pipette is poked into the corner of the one of the eyes of the anaesthesized rat and you turn the pipette until you feel a tiny bone break, thus, breaking the blood vessels around it. Blood is then sucked up thru' the pipette. One of my colleagues, a chinaman with a PHD (read: permanent head damage), kept one of the rats in the gas chamber for too long and killed it. My supervisor and senior assured me that rats are very hardly animals and they will recover. Well, I couldn't imagine anyone, anyone, poking a glass pipette into my eye... 2 drops of tears escaped my eye in the animal holding lab that day as I watched my colleagues bleed the rats. Some of the rats didn't stop bleeding until after quite a while. It hurts to see them like that. But no matter how uncomfortable I was with the procedure, I had to do it. So, I decided to try to do it as fast and as well as I can so that they wouldn't continue bleeding even after the procedure. And I managed to do it after a few tries.

Yesterday (Wed), my supervisor showed us how to do a menisectomy (a leg surgery where the meniscus in the knee joint is cut) on rats. I haven't tried it yet but am feeling a little stressed at the prospect of doing it. Am afraid I won't be able to do it properly and will cause the rat to hurt very much afterwards. Am also afraid that I don't cut the correct thing in the joint (it's not easy to find the meniscus when there's blood oozing out and lots of muscle covering the joint) and thus screw up the experiment. Well, I guess I'll get better with practice... hopefully...

My supervisor also showed us how to castrate the rats (by removing the balls)... (guys-Ouch!) I haven't done it yet. Maybe today. When I master this technique... guys, ya'all better don't offend me! *evil laughter* :p

Hmm... suddenly feel like my blog is turning into some sort of Fear Factor diary...
I think after all these, there's nothing much else that can make me squirm...

Will be going to view 2 apartments today after work, so wish me luck! :)

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Problems!!!!!!!!!!!

So far, Paris has not been good to me... There have been tons of problems, even before we got here (what with the continual delay in our visas etc...) and even more so now. Probably the only good thing happening to me is that I'm losing weight. Not been having a good appetite cos' probably still acclimatising to the weather and surroundings.

Just went to the Card de Sejour (where we get our visas extended cos' our current visas are only valid for 3 months) place this morning. My colleagues and I were there at 8.20 and had to wait till 9 for them to open when they were actually supposed to open at 8.35. They were happily chatting and drinking coffee while we, and some others waited outside. This is the French's style of working... and I hate it! They take eons to get things done and they don't care, so long as they get their $. When we finally got in, they told us that we couldn't make an appointment cos our visas say scientifique and not étudiant (student) and now we have to go to another place tomorrow and see if we could get an appointment, wait for that appointment date to arrive and go there and wait somemore.

well, and im still looking hard for an apartment...

Tell you a weird thing in Paris... all their lifts, besides being VERY VERY tiny (usually can only fit 1 or 2 persons at any one time), there's no button to close the lift door... tat means one has to wait until the lift door closes on its own... this would never work in Singapore... everyone can't wait for the lift door to close and MOVE...

well, i gotta go move my luggage from the hostel and shift to my colleagues' apartment till i find a place... sighz...

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