Villard de Lans

Finally the sun decided to smile yesterday as I had wished it to be. So I went to Villard de Lans, a village south of Grenoble for an outdoor day out. This village is situated in the Vercors Natural Park which is one of the largest park in France. Over here, u can enjoy all sorts of outdoor activities. In summer, u can do hiking, canyoning, potholing, hot air ballooning, horse/pony-riding, paintball, road biking, mountain biking, etc. This place transforms into a ski resort during winter and I am definitely coming back here in the end of the year.

view of the small village

Just like last week, I took a Transisère bus and promptly reached my destination within 1 hour. The first thing that we did there was to head to the Office du Tourisme which was located just next to the Gare Routière (bus station). We were recommended a few hiking trails and we were off before long.

starting point

Our designated first stop was Pont de l'Amour (Bridge of Love). The trail was relatively easy and we reached there in less than one hour. I was expecting a very grand bridge but it turned out to be just a simple wooden bridge. In fact there was no need for a bridge there as underneath it was just a very narrow stream which I could cross with my new randonée (hiking) shoes. Not bad I tested my shoes under water and it was really water-proof!! Quite worth it for the 50 euros I paid! Carlos (my new friend from Samba country) and I stopped there for a quick lunch. It was so tranquil over there that u could hear very clearly the singing of the birds.

top (L-R): Pont de l'Amour, Moi testing out my new randonée shoes. bottom: Carlos and I with our lunches.

Our next stop was Roybon which I was not sure what it was famous for. It is located at an altitude of 1400 m above sea level. Climbing up there was no mean feat considering that I have not been doing any vigorous exercise since the end of last IHG in January 07. Basically the hiking trails here have been categorised into 3 difficulty levels: facile, moyen et difficile. The trail up to Pont de l'Amour was facile (easy) but the one leading to Roybon was rough. It was rocky, wet and steep. We were already panting like dogs 15 minutes into our hike.

L-R: on the way up..up..and further up, SHAGGED

About half an hour later, we noticed some white patches on a green field to the left of our trail. The patches were so long that I thought it was just some puddles of water. Carlos, convinced that it was not water, climbed down to the slope and then it dawned on us that those patches were melting snow! We were expecting to see snow but not this early into the hike. I was very excited cos this was the first time I touched a real snow, not some artificial snow in Snow City Singapore. Hopefully I would get to feel snow falling before I return to Singapore.

The first great discovery

top (L-R): Carlos et moi, leaving our mark. bottom: sceneries

After playing enough with the snow, we continued hiking and after just 50 m, we discovered even more snow along the trails. And when we reached Roybon, we were greeted by a breathtaking view of snow-covered mountains and fields. It was an amazing feeling seeing a single small hut on the mountain with snow all around it. It felt like a cartoon scene that I watched in my childhood. Haha.

View at Roybon

We were contemplating if we should continue going up to an altitude of 1700 m where the path will be fully covered by snow. However, we decided against it as Carlos was not equipped with the right shoes to thread the snow. We then took a different way down. The trip down was less eventful but we managed to have some fun taking stupid photos.

L-R: Lost, On the way down

Once we were back in the village centre, we went to the bike shop. We paid 3 euros for a simple bike for 1 hour ride. This was my first road cycling experience out of Singapore and now I understand why Jeremy loves to cycle so much. It was just so...SHIOK!! nice view except till the part when u have to cycle a long stretch of uphill road...DIE..break leg! the most suay thing is that the chain of my bike broke and i had to push it all the way back to the shop. luckily the lady owner was kind enough to give me a new one to cycle for another 20-25 minutes.

L-R: on the road, shagged.

overall a very eventful trip with brand new experiences. definitely tiring but i am raring to go for more.

gloomy week

the past week has been gloomy and cloudy. literally and figuratively. i started the week down with a flu and cough. no thanks to the fact that at 1/4 of the class are down with the flu bug. no thanks also to the fact that it has not stopped raining since monday till the point i write this post. what a way for the sky to celebrate the first week of autumn. afternoon temp has been averaging from 10-15 deg and evening temperature fell as low as 2-3 deg occasionally. i never thought that i would wear my long johns this early. today i wear 4 layers when i go outdoor: long john, t-shirt, a sweater plus a windbreaker. tmr is predicted to be sunny. i hope the weather forecast is true so that i can go down to Vercors Natural Park, south of Grenoble, to do a little bit of walking and hiking. i just bought myself new hiking boots because my shoes stink from all the rain!! hopefully i will get to use it tmr!

academic content is just getting heavier each day. the more i go to class, the more my french vulnerability is exposed. i just dread going to school more and more every day. i am quite lucky that i only have 3 modules at the moment; the other 3 will only start in early November. nowadays mr google also doesnt seem to be able to help much. there are many terms which are "truly french" which cannot be translated directly to english, which makes it really hard to find relevant information online.

yesterday nite i went to play vball for the 2nd week in a row. last week was really bad because the ppl i played with practically did not know how to play. they couldn't even receive the ball. yest was slightly better because at least some of them knew how to dig, set and spike. but...it was so cold (even indoor) that i didn't perspire even after 2.5 hrs. then walking back at 11 pm from the sports hall to my hostel was a disaster. it was drizzling, cold, and i forgot to bring my umbrella. great. when i reached the hostel, all i wanted was a hot chocolate or coffee. but i realised i had no water boiler. and the hot water from tap is just not drinkable. they call it hard water with very high mineral content, esp copper content. there was one time when one of my friends put hot tap water into her water bottle and when the water cools down, there was white solid (chemistry students call it precipitate) in the water.

ok till the next post!

Lac Laffrey

Last sunday was spent exploring the region in the vicinity of Grenoble: a short day trip to Lac Laffrey with Jeremy and Letch. We took a Transisère bus at 11 am and reached our destination within 45 minutes. Well, there's nothing much u can do over there, but we managed to have a good time in the simple pleasures of sitting by lake, munching our lunch and just chatting away. Not forgetting the ever-so-relaxing pedalon. It did not fail to make my day although this was not my virgin ride (my first ride was at Annecy last year).

The calm, pristine lake

L-R: Jem, La Plus Belle Femme et Moi, Lunch

L-R: (Pretending) to feed the ducks, Jem throwing frisbee

L-R: Jeremy & Letch pedalling, my turn

L-R: the 3 of us, the bus we took

My new best friends

Guess who my new best friend is? Mr. GOOGLE!! Thank you very much, Sir! I think you are really gonna save my ass in France. Thanks to Mr Google I managed to understand at least half of the material so far. Another best friend of mine? Mr. Word Reference! You faithfully and patiently translate all the words i dunno...

Studying is really a chore here. Firstly, I am still on holiday mood. Come to think of it, when was the last time I studied? Hmm..early May which was end of exams.. that was almost 5 months ago! Secondly, I have to take double or triple the time to understand sth over here. In class, firstly I have to listen, then take down notes. When I thought I understood what the lecturer said and tried to write down, I forgot what he said cos he already moved on to another thing. When they ask me to speak, I have to think in English, translate to French and then pronounce it out correctly. Argh. When u wanna study the rare few lecture notes, u have to translate the terms with the help of Mr. Word Reference. If u still dun understand, I have to approach Mr. Google for the ultimate solution. But sometimes Mr. Google gives u too much information that u spend half of ur time scanning which ones are relevant to ur subject. Then...u go back to ur notes to see if u have really understood it..

Arhhh..and it's not helped by the fact that I am always distracted by other friends. Mr. Soccernet always tempts me with his latest update from the footballing world. And Mr. Easyjet as well as Mr. SNCF always tell me without fail to ask me to find cheap tickets for my holiday. So when I spent 6 hrs in front of my laptop yest, effectively I spent only 1 hour studying. Well done.

I should really be just a little bit more focused. I know I cannot afford to fail at all. All the more because my exams only 25 jan. by then nus would already have a 2 weeks headstart. I am telling myself that I have to leave on 26 jan..so i really cannot afford to have any re-exams!!

Anw just a thought that strikes my mind of these days: have the Singaporeans (and I) in any way mistreated/misunderstood the PRCs? This came to my mind as I thought the French perhaps are looking at the Asians the way most Singaporean students look at the PRCs. Ok, perhaps it's not that bad. Some of the French are nice. It's just that it's difficult to strike conversations because of the language barrier. I personally wanna interact more with the locals, but I always found myself dumbfounded when they were talking in rapid TGV french. I put myself in the shoes of the PRCs who came to Singapore to study. I was thinking: do they really not want to interact with the Singaporeans? Maybe they do, but they just don't speak that good English and hence, they have a tendency to be more reserved in the presence of the locals. I think I was like that when I first came to Singapore but I forgot how it felt like ever since I got used to the system. So I am telling myself this: the next time u meet a PRC, do not judge him/her. Go back to my past 7 years ago and put myself in his/her shoes. They deserve benefit of the doubt.

school started!!

ok finally classes have alr started for me. i have an average of 10-12 hrs of lessons per week. sounds slack? well ít's really not that easy actually. i understood almost nothing in class and it didn't get any better each day. the lecturers all spoke at TGV speed!! word of the week for me: STRUGGLE. i think as much as i wanna play i should still study... don't wanna end up dabao-ing any of my modules.

anw, here are a few differences i have noticed in the school system with that of Singapore:
1. they use blackboard and chalk. very few rooms with whiteboard and marker.
2. most of the lecturers do not provide lecture notes. u just have to copy whatever they write on the board.
3. the french have a cursive handwriting style which is damn hard to read. and they use a lot of incomprehensible abbreviations.
4. the lecturers talk for 2 hrs non stop (yes no break at all!).
5. all my lecturers wear t-shirt and jeans to class so far.
6. the french students are very punctual. in small-sized classroom, almost everyone is present 5 minutes before the lesson. if the door is locked, everyone rushed in excitedly when it is opened to get front seats.
7. the french students asked a lot of questions in class. they are much more vocal.
8. the lecturers do not use microphone even if the lecture is held in LT.
9. the french use square mathematic papers to take notes instead of foolscap paper.
10. there are more girls in terms of proportion. unfortunately, one thing is universal: there are close to no eye candies in engineering school. HAHA. =P

asian cuisine festival

the singaporean group decided to organise an asian cuisine night for the angmohs to have a little try on our specialties. originally it was intended to be for the french in mich's floor but in the end, words spread like fire when we were preparing the food and it turned out to be a super-crowded party. we started preparing at about 4 pm and the food were all ready before 8 pm. i cooked 2 indonesian specialties: beef rendang and soto ayam!!

clockwise (L-R): ingredients, boiling potato, RENDANG! and SOTO AYAM!

Iron Chefs: Eugene with his Sushi et Moi!

Clockwise (L-R): Sushi, Soto Ayam, Sushi again, Soto Ayam again, Rendang, Fried Rice.

L-R: More sushi & Gateau au chocolat

Everyone having a little bit of everything, except Jem who can't stop eating

After-effects of tasting wasabi.

Everyone at the party!

in the end i think it was a pretty successful event, except for the fact that the guard caught us partying for the 3rd time in a week. it was a good opportunity for all of us to get to know each other better. somehow all the angmohs did not look that intimidating to talk to yest nite. haha.