I officially declare this week to be my most hardworking week since I arrived in France in August. I have been working rather tirelessly to try to understand this "1st year" module called Mécanique Générale that started 2 weeks ago. I missed the 2nd lecture and the 1st tutorial so I was kind of lost. So...I spent close to 2 days trying to understand the notes and search for information..read again...stare...think...but I just could not seem to grasp it. It is either the module is very tough or I am very stupid. And when I went to the tutorial on Wednesday...the tutor went so fast that all I could do was to copy down everything he wrote on the board with zero understanding (I am not kidding you, I really understood absolutely NOTHING). LOW MORALE!!
And I spent the whole of yesterday afternoon..to be exact about 5 hours trying to solve this assignment that I have to hand in next week. And after 5 hours..I had something on my paper but I absolutely have no confidence in my solutions. I am starting to wonder if I could pass if this continues... In the end I had to miss a volleyball session yesterday because I left the library quite late...
A consolation for me is that life is getting slightly better in my residence. My french neighbours have started to warm up. Lucil, a 21-year-old French girl who is studying in Stendhal, is always in the kitchen talking to us and telling us what happened in the day for her. In fact, she is almost always the first to come out of her room whenever she hears Sinhui & I in the kitchen. And the first phrase that usually comes out from her: "Alors, qu'est-ce que tu racontes, Andi?" (So, what stories do you have today?). Julia, at 18-year old with her typical hiccups, is also a noisy one who makes cooking in the kitchen less of a routine. Both of them in particular are regular kitcheners, as are Sinhui and I. Occasionally, they will correct us as we speak and they also teach us familiar words that the young use. "Knacki" for example, is a familiar word for sausages, simply because it is a common brand. Also, the young use "bouffer" more often than "manger" to refer to "eat".
Anyway, Sinhui and I have stopped going to the restaurant universitaire (RU) for dinner ever since the sky gets dark at 17h30 2 months ago. Instead, we always cook simple dishes such as scrambled eggs with chili padi and sausages, or french beans, capsicum & mushrooms cooked in lard & soya sauce, or pasta in olive oil, or green salad with boiled eggs, ham bits, sausages and olive oil. Sometimes we get more "creative" by preparing "fried rice in tomato sauce". Basically, we fry garlic, onions, rice and eggs together. Then, we mix in ready-made tomato sauce and VOILA, dinner is ready!
L-R: typical ingredients for dinner; Lucil & I
On a side note, my laptop is dying on me. It takes close to 5 mins to boot up and I cannot load multiple programs at the same time. The blue screen of death has appeared several times as well. It hangs often. It takes very long time hibernate so sometimes I have to turn it off manually. My dear laptop, please do not fail me!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment