love hate relationship with french classes - 1

Despite the usual post-holidays blues
I returned to class on monday
sadly, the usual shit is still shit
there is no heater in class,
apparently the building didnt pay.
there was only 4 students,
including me.
Before you start thinking is great
to be in a small class
I must say I hate this class to be small
because we finish more assignments
since we do it faster
but end up we are constantly 
Responding to the teacher
that I felt I have no time to think
before it was my turn again
or another topic.
then again,
I dont know why the rest are not coming
maybe because no one really like the teacher

New happenings...
the toilet lights dont work
the electrical sockets dont work
and no toilet paper
-.-"

By noon,
another classmate decide she was leaving
she felt cold and 
that she wasnt learning
So the teacher decided to end the class
instead of 3pm
she decided that class is too small
and room is bad
that we should go to another location for class
that she will text us by evening
of the new address

End up no news from her
and she finally called after I texted her
talk about being responsible
-,-"

So new changes,
apart from changing location
Which will take me 45mins to go,
the hours will be 9-5
And days to be mon, tue, wed, fri
and a new teacher!
I was pissed at the last minute change
the hours are longer than before
and I am lucky that I took off from work
cant imagine if im still working..
and my friend was coming
I planned to meet her on wed,
which I cant because of the new schedule
but the teacher assured that 
our group will be together
and I can inform the new teacher about wed

I guess the idea of a new teacher
sounded so good
that I decided to try the new place..

Thats when the nightmare starts..

Paris syndrome

I recall reading an article
about paris syndrome
which is depression etc caused by
expectations differences
when people arrived in paris
yes, it exists
and apparently affects mainly asians
I think japanese

I guess I did have high expectations of paris
like how husband always wonder
why there are so many pictures of effiel tower
used on notebooks, cups, etcs
to indicate love in singapore
subconsciously, we are to think
paris is the wonderful city of love
or the place to be??
anyway, for my first few trips here
I admit im facinated by the city,
language and culture

But now, coming to a year
of living as a normal citizen
I guess most of the fascination wears off
despite of scary stories from friends,
my sister's encounter,
my personal struggles, 
experiences
and my constant struggles with the language
I think I kinda of fitted into life here

when friends are paranoid 
when they are here,
people giving my contact to friends on trips
in case of emergencies,
When my classmates speak
about negative experiences,
It surprised me how im starting
to defend paris. Haha

Well, it may not be the safest city
in the world,
I still get shit from people,
and I cant stand the inefficiency
but hey,
im starting to get used to this home!
thats a good news right??

I guess maybe 
I didnt had the paris syndrome..

Ps to anyone reading this
im not complaining 
about stop being paranoid here
because you really must be cautious!
Dont stop giving my contact to people
im still very happy to help anyone
just that im glad I got over
some parts of my own paranoid
Yay to that!! 

Our short trip in bordeaux

I was really looking forward
To a short break from school
Although im not working
Well at least for this month
The daily school
And mandane daily activites
Do tire me out
So came the opportunity
For us to take a short trip
To bordeaux to visit grandparents
The last time we saw them was for our wedding
And is my first trip with mother in law

I have no idea what to do in bordeaux
Except to eat canalles
But thankfully mil is our guide
That husband and i just follow
For the 3days trip
Haha

Strangely we sleep and wake up early
I guess when in rome
We do what the rome do
husband even woke up at 7am for breakfast
When normally he cant even wake up 
At 8am for work...
Ehh i only woke up at 830am
Im fine to miss the cozy 7am breakfast..
Haha

We didnt do much exploration
Except visiting the city centre
Big shopping mall beside us
Christmas market
The quay
And the random streets
Christmas lights everywhere!

Is not my first time to visit christmas market

I been to a small one in paris

And another in compiegne

But the one in bordeaux is the biggest i have been

But sadly,

It was selling more clothes, jewellery etc

Than christmas stuff

I guess is like sg pasar malams nowadays

Where you can find more handphone stuff

Than traditional stuff and food...

But we did have a nice hot spiced wine

On the way back

Husband and i were excited to see 

The shelock holmes pub!

We have been huge fan of sherlock holmes

Since we watched the serial "sherlock"

Okay, husband been a fan since young

Reading the books

And me..just for the cute actor, haha

Too bad we were rushing home for dinner

Else, i think we will go in for a drink

I think the best of the trip is the food!

Grandmother in-law is a great cook

That i end up having 2nd/3rd servings

And is strange how she can make me finish

My garlic, leek and parsley

Because she make them taste so good...

Is really authentic traditional fremch food

Now i truly understand

The taste of grandma's cooking

Is better than any restuarant!

I have been cheated by husband's cooking

That i assumed that french food is often

Full of cream and cheese...

Haha

Is crazy how i put on 1kg in 3days!

I think it doesnt help that we take a nap

Straight after lunch

Hmm if we lived here for 3months

I will suspect is a conspiracy 

to sell us to a butcher

After making us fat!

But the good food is worth

The extra weight to bring home

Oh well, the winter weight 

To hide under the thick coats..

Tonight is our last night here 

husband and I are doing the usual tv surfing

That we do whenever we travel

Because we do not have tv channels at home

Okay time to enjoy our last moments

In bordeaux...

My first french exam - part 2

After a short drink
We returned to the exam halls
We will put in waiting rooms randomly
There are 7 examiners
Who went to the rooms and search for candiates
I guess they can reduce search time
If they have made us sat in certain order
Oh well

My appointment was 1130am
And i was called at 1140am
All was done by 1150am
It was really fast!
Unlike trial tests,
The examiner dont ask much,
Dont ask you to stop,
Or give any response
So you are to babble on
Till you say you are done for the question

I dont know is it im nervous
Or the question is hard
My grammar was all over the place
And i was struggling to continue to speak
I was really glad that it was over...

Since i need a total of 50/100 
I guess i should have no problem passing it
Even if i did badly for my oral
Oh well, shall see the results in january
By the way, in age of internet and rapid post,
We need to go down to collect our results..
Sigh

Anyway is holiday!
currently enjoying our short weekend
At bordeaux
Visiting grandparents
And stuffing ourselves with awesome food!

My first french exam - written

Finally the time came
For my first french exam
Well, the only compulsory one
For my visa.
I was feeling quite confidence
After scoring 93/100 on my trial test 
And now in class A2
Which is 2 level above the exam
But i knew that oral will be tough
Because i will be super stress.
Anyway husband helped me
To practice the oral questions
And i did 2 more trial tests at home
Thats all for revision!

For most of my classmates 
9am written exam at place A
4pm oral exam at place B
Lucky for me and class buddy,
We are having both exams at same place 
And before noon for oral
Means can get it over in 2hours!

As usual,
french admin never fail to surprise me
We were reminded to arrive early
So we arrived at 840am
We were asked to go to the respective rooms
Indicated on our letters
The room opened at 905am
We were asked to find our seats

The tables and chairs were placed so close
That i only have the width of the chair
Between 2 table
Basically the table is pressing on my tummy
And not because i have a big tummy
Oh and my row of lights were not working

After the examiner mark the attendance
One by one
And we waited till 9.30am 
for latecomers
Finally, the exam starts at 935am

I guess there are some students
Who are really not ready for the exam
Be it unable to understand the instructions,
Or not listening well,
For whatever reasons,
Is sad that the examiner was so impatient
Or maybe just being french
Opps

But she is like saying 
- you understand nothing, why you are here?
- i repeated 5times, all of you cant understand french?
Added by her impatient tone and look
I think she increased the anxiety
Of the students

But i guess she really want everyone to pass the exam
Because she is constantly repeating
The instructions
The questions
Sometimes even the answers
But to the last moment
When the next question was starting
So i found it so distracting

Anyway i found the questions
A little more difficult
Than the trial test
But im sure that i attained the 50/100
To pass even before the oral
The exam ended at 10.40am
So class buddy and i went for tea
While we wait for our oral exam...

Singapore wedding

With less than 3 months to our sg wedding,
the difficulty of long-distance planning
and a forever-cant-decide mum,
i really need to start work my ass off to start the preparations
Im glad that i managed to create the invitation card
and sent it to my friends 
i was giving myself a little too much pressure
to create a nice wedding invite
since i hand-drew the one for france
and didnt want to short-change sg wedding
despite all the hair-pulling moments
im glad that the final result was great!

I have recruited my siblings to help deal with my mum
but as expected, progress is slow
i have an estimated number of relatives to be invited
and no news about the food for the lunch...
anyway family is in Taiwan now
i shall pester them when they are back..

and im very thankful that my friend's husband
who is a professional photographer
is helping us with photography
at a nominal rate or i should say friendship price
i guess i will try to do free advertising for him
and try "lure" my friends to get him for their future shoots
haha

some stuff on my to-do list..

- book hotel for eve of wedding and actual day
I think we will end up in a budget hotel
that is near my brother's place
a bit strange for newly weds
but i rather save the money

- flowers
again, we will need to buy the flowers 
on valentine's day
arghhhh expensive flowers again

- home decorations
I have not been to my brother's new place
all i know is that it is bigger but older
since it is in a home
i do wish to make the decorations more interesting
so i need crack my little head for ideas
and maybe diy stuff to bring over
yet do-able within a day decorations
yes, we only have 1 day to prepare and complete the decorations

- finalised the actual day planning
although we are not doing gate-crash
there are still all the minor details to be planned out
by the control freak in me

- wedding photos and videos
i want to share with the guests on our france wedding
so i shall create a video summary of photos and videos
on what happened
another diy project...

- wedding car decorations
to be done on the eve of the wedding

Lastly, to hope that my mum dont get strange ideas
to add in at last moment....

School and Work

So officially on Monday,
I completed my required hours for my french class
Before i can enjoy my holiday
i received a call on Wednesday from my previous teacher
and she informed that we can continue for level A2
for 150hours for free!
and i was to attend the orientation on thursday

So after the orientation, the following was mentioned:
basically, all the foreigners are to attend free french classes
sponsored by the government (immigration dept)
after we attend the required hours, 
we are to pass the required exam
thereafter, if we want we can continue for higher level of classes
however, the gov only fund for a physical year
for me, it means only for 2014
anything after, i will need to pay on my own
so initally, im quite sure that i will be paying for future classes
since i will only sign up for classes after i receive my results
and after our trip back to SG

but apparently, the school was so keen to help us
which i think is more an attempt to take money from gov
the school requested for gov to fund us 
to continue the higher level of class
to the end of december 
I am definitely keen to continue the classes
but there are 2 concerns

first, the level A2 is much more difficult than what i attended
the teacher emphasized like 24541234654321 times
and we will be having the same teacher
ehh.. the one who never seems interested in teaching
and i never really learnt much since she took over
despite my classmates' complaints
it seems we have no choice

secondly, the class will require 4 full days per week
in order to complete 150hours by end of december
or rather before christmas
this reinforce my idea that the school just wants money
because they insisted that level a2 is really difficult
and after some calculation, 
i realise it is impossible to complete 150 hours before christmas
The classes will be 9am to 3pm
on Monday, tuesday, thursday and friday
since i will be working on tues and thurs
i can leave the class at 2.30pm.

However, i am really concerned my ability to work 
after a long day in school
well, the youngest girl under my care
still treats me like i killed her father
and im still getting super stressed up at the thought of seeing her
yes, im trumatised by a 3 year old girl
during my previous class,
i end class at 1pm and get to rest a little before my work
and i was still exhausted
so, how is it possible for me to attend a longer and more difficult class
and go straight to work?

I guess there are 2 choices
i quit my job or the class
and definitely the class is more important than my job
i admit im really happy if i can quit my job
and this seems like a good excuse
opps

so last evening, i told their mum
that i may not be able to work 
from monday to end of december
and to my surprise,
she offered to give me a month off from work till Jan!
She is such a nice boss 
when im just trying to quit my job...

i told her that it is unfair for her to be without a babysitter 
for a month
and i understand if she needs to hire a new babysitter 
to replace me
but she assure me that it may be alright
that she will speak to her husband
and confirm with me on monday

although, it seems i didnt get the chance to quit my job
and i will be stuck with the girls
im still looking forward to being just a student 
till the end of the year...