Ça doit être dur, non?

Il y a une question bizarre que les Français aiment demander: Ça doit être dur, non, de rester loin de ta famille?

Et comment est-ce que je suis censée répondre? Ah bien sûr, c'est dur, je pleure tous les soirs parce que ma famille me manque trop. Ou sinon, Non, non, pas du tout, et comme ça j'aurais l'air de quelqu'un de trop froid qui n'a pas d'émotions.

Je crois bien que c'est une des questions qu'on peut classer sous la catégorie des questions stupides.

Donc finalement, qu'est-ce que je réponds dans cette situation? Je dis que je suis habituée. C'est plus facile...comme ça j'ai pas besoin d'élaborer.

About temperature and "boyprens"

Okay, now for lighter stuff. You know, it's 7°C outside right now. (it's 8.30pm) And earlier in the afternoon it was 9°C. Just this morning (and last night) it was around freezing temperature! (literally, I mean) What’s going on?

Not that I'm complaining...I've had enough of cold weather in Prague, I don't think the temperature there was ever above freezing point all the while I was there! (good thing the hotel room was very well heated...we could even say too well heated)

To continue from the earlier post, here are two more videos:

Boypren
The characters are Christine, her parents, her aunt, and her cousin Minnie (yes, all played by the same person) And there's Minnie's boypren, of course ;)



Speechless
Well, Minnie wants to meet her boypren, but her mother doesn't want her to...

Assumptions

[intro] A rant. I'm not angry, just pretty irritated when this happens. It's just a "sort-of" response to some remarks made to me that I find out of place.

[start]
Please don't think that all Facebook users are the same.

What, just because I'm on Facebook pretty often doesn't mean that I'm on it 24/7, doesn't mean that I don't have time to do anything else, doesn't mean anything! You're not there, how would you know what I do with my time? And why would you care anyway?

Just because you know a few things about me, it doesn't mean that you know more than that. So stop making assumptions, 'cos it makes me mad!

Don't think you can read into hidden meanings, what do you know anyway?

Sometimes I say something and some people think that they understand what I "really mean". So they reply as if I had said that thing that they thought I "really meant". But guess what? You're wrong! So if you don't know what I mean, just don't assume anything! In short, just don't assume anything, period.
[end]

[sources] Based on real events.

Anyway, I find it strange that some people don't know pretty "basic" stuff about me. But these same people would make those assumptions as if they knew me very well and could read into my mind. And well, they end up making the wrong assumptions.

Quand on ne sait pas, on laisse libre son imagination. Et qui sait où elle emmènera? Peut-être conduirait-elle vers la vérité, mais plus souvent vers l'erreur.

Youtubing

Here are a few pretty entertaining videos:

First, one about stupid questions. This guy is so funny, you can check out his other videos here.



And when he doesn't post a video in a while, his fan club (KFC) goes to check what's wrong...(hilarious!)



And here's a funny Christmas jingle by HappySlip.

Prague trip

I’m back from my trip to Prague!

Frankly, it didn’t start off very well. I was supposed to fly from Lyon to Munich, then from Munich to Prague. The original plan was to leave at 12.55pm and to reach Prague at 4.40pm. But upon checking in, I was told that my flight was half an hour late. However, they assured me that I would have enough time to catch my connecting flight, since I had (originally) a little more than an hour (1 hour and 5 minutes to be exact) between the two flights.

So I went through security and waited for my flight...and then they told us that it had been cancelled :/ At first they weren’t even sure, they were telephoning around for information. It turned out that the weather was too bad in Lyon (I did notice when I arrived at the airport that it was terribly misty) and that the plane had landed in Geneva instead. They told us that we could take a bus to Geneva and there, they would put us on other flights to get to our destination.

But in the end (I have no idea why) it didn’t turn out that way; we had to get our luggage and queue up at the Lufthansa (that’s the company I was using) counter to check our options. Since Prague was my final destination, and not Munich, they offered me a direct flight to Prague with Air France, which was leaving at 3.25pm and would arrive in Prague at 5pm. So I ended up arriving only about 20 minutes later than planned.
(The weird thing is that when I checked in with Air France, they told me that I was on the waiting list – what, it isn’t confirmed?! – and that they would let me know at about 3pm. Good thing I did get a seat in the end.)

There are six of us who went on this trip to Prague; two arrived in the morning, and the three others arrived in the afternoon, a few hours earlier than me. Upon reaching Prague, I found that the three of them were waiting for me to arrive before leaving for town. By that time, it was already dark, so we didn’t have much plans for sightseeing that night. So we went to the hotel (one of them had booked it in advance) to leave our stuff and then went out for dinner. We went searching for a Czech restaurant (recommended by the hotel receptionist) but we couldn’t find it and ended up going into another restaurant we came across. (serving Czech food as well)

After dinner we walked a bit and stumbled upon the old town square (Staromestske Namesti). Not knowing where we were, we just took a few photos anyway, since the square was well lighted up (though all the stalls were closed; it was close to midnight) We even passed by the astronomical clock (on the left) but it was too dark to even look at it properly, let alone take a photo. (well, for me, at least :P) We went there again in the daytime, so here are two photos for you to compare:

At the back is Tyn Church

Personally, I find that Tyn Church looks better at night. In the daytime it’s just another building. And here’s a closer view of the astronomical clock:


The next day we went to Wenceslas Square, which is probably the biggest square in Prague (it spans two metro stations!) There are also a lot of shops on either side of the square (it's a "long" square, not a "square" square ;P) At the bottom of the square there is the Christmas market:

See the giant “rolled” pastry on either side? There are stalls selling it all over Prague. They roll the dough on a metal cylinder and slide it off after cooking it. (so yeah, it’s empty inside) The outside is slightly crispy and they roll it in sugar. It is sooo delicious, I still want some! There were also a type of crispy wafer and a sort of pizza (it was the same thing as the fried bread I tried in Hungary, but here there was no translation), but nothing compares! (to the rolled pastry, I mean)

Edit: you can see a picture of the pastry on Yieng's blog, or directly here.

This is the top of Wenceslas Square, looking towards the bottom of the square.

And turning around, we see the national museum and the St Wenceslas statue.

As you can see, we went to the bottom of the square in the daytime, but to the top at night. We didn’t spend the whole day there, though! We went walking along Charles Bridge before returning to the square (not that we knew it was the same square, at first...:P)

Prague Castle and Charles Bridge by night; I took a lot of photos but most of them are rather blurred :/

towards the start of the bridge (on the old town side)

towards the end of the bridge (on the castle side)

The next day (Christmas Day) we walked around a lot, hunting down monuments and taking photos. There were a lot of locals (as well as tourists) walking around as well, and visiting the Christmas market. I didn’t find many of the monuments very interesting or pretty, though, so I’ll pass on the photos.

Here’s another square that we visited both by day and by night. It’s the Republic Square (Namesti Republiky) I think it looks nicer at night simply because it’s Christmas...


You can see the tram lines beside the square...we only used the metro in the beginning, but later we "discovered" the trams and it was a lot better (to me) 'cos we could see where we were going. Once when we were waiting at a tram station, we even had a couple of tourists ask us how to get to their hotel. We didn't know the hotel, but they knew at which stop they needed to get off, and it so happened that I had seen the name of the stop while checking for our destination, so we (I, hehe, since I was the one "in charge of" tram planning) could tell them where to go.

We went to the Prague Castle as well, but I won’t be posting any “close-up” photos, ‘cos I think that the best photos of the castle are from a distance.

On the last day we took the funicular up Petrin Hill, and when we came back down and were looking for a restaurant for lunch, we saw a church and went in. It turns out that it was the church where the Infant Jesus of Prague is kept (the site where I got this information says that it’s world famous; does anyone know about this? ‘Cos I’ve never heard of it before...)

And finally, let’s talk food. Our hotel room came with breakfast included, so every morning we had a buffet breakfast.
There were essentially sausages, ham, eggs and cheese. There was also bread, and of course, stuff like jam and butter. And corn flakes...and I was surprised to see that they had thick yoghurt (or cream cheese, I'm not sure) to go with it, instead of milk. But it was pretty good (I had to add sugar to make it taste nice :P) So we were pretty full after breakfast each day, making us take pretty late lunches.

Here are the dishes from the first night's Czech restaurant:
The Chinese food in Prague is quite cheap (compared to other foods), so we went twice to a Chinese restaurant. Here's the first one...

In fact, we had difficulty finding an open restaurant on the night of the 24th, and this was the one we found after seeing several closed ones. So we just went in as quickly as we could before it could close! It seems that a lot of restaurants close early on Christmas Eve.

We had heard that a lot of the shops in Prague are closed on Christmas Eve and Christmas, so we went to a supermarket to buy food (bread and stuff) for the 25th. It turns out that we should have eaten that on the 24th (right after buying it) because more restaurants were open on the 25th!

Anyway, here are a couple of other dishes from another restaurant we went to:

roast rabbit

beef goulash

The white slices are bread dumplings, supposedly a Czech specialty. But it tastes like "mantou"... :P (which means pretty good, especially with all that sauce!) There were also potato dumplings from the earlier Czech meal; it looks about the same but more yellowish, I find it heavier, so I like it less. Another type of dumpling is the one you can see in the leftmost picture, also from the first Czech restaurant; that one is more like a dumpling and less like a "mantou" :P I believe that it's called Bohemian dumplings. (but I can't really remember the names of the dishes from the first restaurant)

Well, there you go, all in all, it was a good trip, if we forget about the first flight problem. The only small drawback is that it was very cold!! Half the time, our fingers and toes were frozen...which was why we went to McDonalds quite often for coffee! (or hot chocolate for me)

(click on the photos for bigger versions!)

A word riddle

Hey, I think it's been some time since I posted a riddle.

You start out with a clue word. Your job is to fill in the
blanks with a 4-letter word that matches the clue already
given. This 4-letter word must complete the 7-letter word
next to it.

1. Therefore = ? = V_ _ TI _ _
2. Whirl = ? = A _ _ IR _ _
3. Demeanour = ? = A _ B _ _ _ T
4. Shoestring = ? = G _ _ _ I _ R

I didn't understand it at first...I thought the second word had the same meaning as the first, and had another meaning shared with the third. But turns out that the four letters just fill in the blanks to form a new word.

I got the 2nd and 4th...try and see!










Answers:
1. Therefore = ergo => V e r T I g o
2. Whirl = spin => A s p I R i n
3. Demeanour = mien => A m B i e n T
4. Shoestring = lace => G l a c I e R

That clinches it!

I'm a fan! I believe that I have already posted a few videos of The Feeling, and here's a new song: I Thought It Was Over



I especially like the beginning. ;)

Malaysian fast food

Okay, I'm tired of this. I tried to upload the photo but couldn't. I don't know whether it's my connection or that the photo is simply too big. Anyway, here's what I wanted to share:


(click on it to enlarge)

It's from this blog.

I wish the French had this kind of system. It would be so great to be able to try a whole lot of different French dishes at a time... each time we go to a restaurant we have to just choose one dish. And we can't go there ten times to try ten dishes, can we? :/
(okay, so ten is exaggerated... :P )

Will be going to Prague during the holidays. Stay tuned for photos ;)

Empty lecture hall

There are 108 people in my batch. But guess how many people came to today’s lecture? 28. That’s a quarter of us, which means one group (we’re divided into 4 groups for tutorials) All that because there’s a report to hand up tomorrow.

(and don't think that there were a little more than a quarter of us; there are exchange students with us who aren't in the 108!)

Of hypocrisy

So...(fluff)Friends again.

Earlier, this application told us to send invites only to friends who would really be interested in adopting a pet (in this case, a fluffy friend) They even charged us 5 munny (their currency) to send an invite, and we'd receive 30 munny if that person adopts a fluff-friend. They said it was to discourage us from sending invited to everyone we know. Admirable, huh?

But guess what? Now they've decided to give us 2 munny for inviting a friend, and then if that friend accepts, we'd receive 5 munny. And what's more, there are bonus gifts (mini fluff-friends) when we invite 15 friends, 30 friends, ... What better way to make us start sending invites to every single person we know?

Well, so I guess I'm a little sore about this. Especially that there were a few limited edition mini-fluffs that were pretty cute. I don't care about the other mini-fluffs since we can buy them ourselves, and since I stopped gambling too much on fluff-races, I'm not broke (hahaha) and I can buy quite a lot of things.

Oh well, whatever. I'm not gonna start spamming my friends for this hypocrite of an application. I'd even leave it if I didn't love my Squirrle so much :P

Anyway for those who read French, here's something for you: Fumer des tomates?

World's highest tennis court

Do you know where is the world's highest tennis court? It's in Dubai! Here's a video of Roger Federer and Andre Agassi playing (for fun, not a match) there. (okay, maybe not exactly for fun...I suppose they were invited ;) )

Tennis
Uploaded by reelgood0008

From here.

Run

This is Run by Snow Patrol.
I didn’t find this song special at first, but the more I listen to it, the more I like it. But I wonder...is it about that motorcycle??
Whatever. Enjoy!

Spanish people are like us!

So it is cultural...

In my Spanish class yesterday, my teacher talked about how in Spain they would say hi to someone if they were in "something" together. And that's what I meant! And she said that the French don't do that... so I guess that answers my question...in a way. It still doesn't explain people who are friendly one minute and complete strangers the next.

Anyway, here's just something that amused me, it was in an INSA newsletter. There is a student association in INSA that "takes care" of student welfare, and here they are reporting on the washing machines in the different hostels in INSA. Bâtiment means building, or in this case, block. And what I found funny was that they spelt it correctly the first 3 lines, but not in the last three! (and another weird thing is that Firefox tells me that "spelt" doesn't exist :/ )

Bâtiment A/B : c'est parfait
Bâtiment G/J : Un lave-linge qui marche, on attend des devis pour les deux autres, il y en aura surement un à changer.
Bâtiment H : les deux lave-linge marchent, le sèche-linge a toujours son problème de porte mais la réparation va bientot arriver et il marche couci couça en attendant.
Batiement E : Un lave-linge qui marche, l'autre lave-linge et le sèche-linge sont à racheter, ça arrive ...
Bâtiement I : c'est parfait
Bâtiement F : les deux lave-linges marchent, le sèche linge est en cours de rachat.
(yeah, there are a lot of hostel blocks in INSA)

And these few days the temperature was around 10°C...it even went up to 14°C! So hopefully it'll be that high tomorrow! (tennis , remember? ;) )

Amy Macdonald

Lately, I'm hearing this song called This Is The Life very often. And when I searched for the video, I stumbled upon a gold mine: Amy Macdonald. I had already heard all these songs before, but never took much notice. They're all really nice songs, so here you go!

This Is The Life
It's a short clip (I couldn't find the whole video), if you want to hear the whole song you can see this video. The "video" is actually just a picture of Amy Macdonald, and there are two songs (I don't know what the 2nd one is)


Then there is L.A. which is supposedly about Jake Gyllenhaal...


Mr. Rock & Roll


Poison Prince, her first single

Repas de classe

One of my classmates decided to organise a class dinner. It wasn't very easy to get replies from everyone saying who was interested, but we finally managed it yesterday (Thursday). There are 26 of us, and 14 of us ended up going, plus 2 exchange students who join our class for certain subjects. Not that great...I think there were more people who came for our class dinner in my first year.

So, you can guess it, photos coming up!

far left, the organiser ;)

1st, 2nd and 3rd

I'm talking about the prizes for Lyon's table-tennis competitions. For those who don't know about it, I have been in a table-tennis association in INSA since last year, and we play in competitions several times during the year. Last week we played doubles. There were only two teams of girls (and both from INSA) and my team came in first. So we got a medal and a t-shirt each (better than the last t-shirt) Then this week we played singles. There were only three girls, two from INSA. I came in second, after the girl from another uni. (This year I am "generally" better than the other unranked girls from INSA) So I got a mini-flashlight. The girl who came in first got the exact same things I got last week, so the loss didn't hurt so much (it was a pretty close game)

And what about 3rd? Well, I came in 3rd once last year, and I got a mini-pen (they love mini stuff :P) And the prizes haven't changed at all, so I now have the whole array of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prizes. Here are photos:

the medal (it isn't very big, I told you they liked mini-stuff)

the back of the medal (champion d'académie 2008)

the top left corner of the t-shirt, where you usually have the pocket for collared t-shirts (it's the only thing printed on the t-shirt) On yeah, and this isn't mini, it's L-sized!

2nd prize: mini-flashlight (they gave an AAA battery as well)

3rd prize: mini-pen (it just ran out of ink recently)

The wonderful design of Carrefour

Familiar? It should be. It's the Carrefour logo. But do you know what it represents? It's not just two shapes...it's a C in a diamond!

I found out about this through a Facebook group...but the group is only open to those in the France network, and since I don't want to join country networks (they're too big, so it's kinda pointless) I can't join the group.

Did you know about the logo? And if you did, how did you find out? Let me know in the comments...

I love puns!

And these are great! (from the Star)

1. I wondered why the cricket ball was getting bigger. Then it hit me.

2. Police were called to a day-care centre where a three-year-old was resisting a rest.

3. Did you hear about the man whose whole left side was cut off? He’s all right now.

4. The roundest knight at King Arthur’s round table was Sir Cumference.

5. To write with a broken pencil is pointless.

6. When fish are in schools, they sometimes take debate.

7. A thief who stole a calendar got 12 months.

8. A thief fell and broke his leg in wet concrete. He became a hardened criminal.

9. Thieves who steal flowers from a garden could be charged with stalking.

10. We’ll never run out of maths teachers because they always multiply.

11. The professor discovered that her theory about earthquakes was on shaky ground.

12. The dead batteries were given out free of charge.

13. If you take a laptop computer for a run, you could jog your memory.

14. A dentist and a manicurist fought tooth and nail.

Impossible pairs

I admit it, I stole the title :P You can check out the article here.

There are some things we just forget...for example, The word “collision” is defined as an accident involving two or more moving objects, usually vehicles.
So we can't say “Six teenagers were seriously injured in a horrific smash last night, when their car collided with a huge gum tree on Quakers Road in Marayong in Sydney’s far west.” I've heard that before, but I had forgotten it...

And did you know that the correct expressions are either centre ON, or CIRCLE/REVOLVE around? (and not centre around)

The best one is this: “The audience’s response to the superstar tenor’s performance was so thunderous, their applause literally brought the house down.”
(Ouch!) Now this one I didn't forget; literally is a dangerous word and musn't be used unless if you really know how to! If you don't know what it means, you'd better look it up, 'cos that sentence pretty much describes a(n impossible) catastrophe!

*gasp* Remus Lupin!

Italian archaeologists believe they have found the cave where, according to legend, a wolf suckled Romulus and Remus, the twin founders of Rome.
[...]
Experts say they are "reasonably certain" it is the long-lost place of worship sacred to ancient Romans and known as Lupercale, from the Latin word for wolf.

From The Star.

(I'm talking about Harry Potter, for those who don't read it...)

Cold!

Okay, I was going to write this quickly on Thursday, but I forgot.

It snowed on Thursday. Only a little, but it was snow. And we had our class photo taken that day...outside!

And today it was -2°C when I went out at 10.30am! Thankfully the sun was out, so it didn’t feel that cold.

Smart...

Spiral staircases in medieval castles ran clockwise so that
attacking knights climbing the stairs couldn't use their
right hands -their sword hands- while the defending knights
coming down could.

I've also heard that the origin of driving on the left side of the road came from right-handed swordsmen; they could then use their right hand to shake hands with friends or fight with enemies they come across.

Is it a "culture" thing?

Note: This post is half rant, half musing.

I don’t get it. When I see someone I know, I look at them and either smile or wave, depending on how well I know them. It’s just a “politeness” thing, something to say hey, I know you. It doesn’t matter if we’ve never talked before, if we’re in the same class, that’s enough! Is it a Malaysian thing? In Malaysia there was only one person who acted like I didn’t exist (just looked through me like I wasn’t there) and frankly, I didn’t think much of that person (the term stuck-up comes to mind) But in France, I find it very very weird. Some people do say hi and all, but some just act like they’ve never seen me before. The weirdest yet is this: there’s this guy who’s in an activity group with me, and during that activity he comes up (he actually takes the time to walk over to us) to say hi, but whenever I see him anywhere else, he acts like we’re complete strangers. (lately he does acknowledge me sometimes) There are really a whole lot of people who are in my class (or lectures) who always act that way. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, but if I see someone who’s always in the same lecture hall as I am, I would at least acknowledge him/her. Even if I see someone from INSA when I’m outside INSA, I would acknowledge them!

As a result, I don't acknowledge much people any more, seeing as no one else seems to... the other day I almost didn't acknowledge a guy who's doing sport with me (he was just behind me as we were going out of my department building to go to the tennis courts, and I caught a glimpse of him while going through the door) But then something clicked in my mind: hey it's not like I've known him very long (we'd just started classes a few weeks earlier), ignoring him would be getting off on a wrong footing, and it would be doing exactly what I'm condemning! So I did turn around and wait a bit for him...and I'm glad I did. 'Cos he's in my class and pretty close to another friend of mine, and that means I see him quite often. And if I had ignored him...I think I'd feel pretty awkward...

[Edit: I just thought of something...if I hadn't turned around...would he have caught up with me? If I had been behind instead of in front of him, would I have caught up with him? Or would I have felt "safe" ignoring him, since he wouldn't even know? I wonder...]

And a few days ago there was a little incident...I didn't really have time to muse over it 'cos I've been a little busy, but now it's given me something to think about! I was going to my department in INSA when I saw a friend of mine (who was in my class last year, but is now in a different department) waiting outside a lecture hall just beside my department. I usually pass quite far from the lecture hall, but when I saw him there, I decided to go over and say hi, since we hardly see each other now. He seemed surprised that I had walked up to the lecture hall, 'cos I didn't have class there, so I told him that I had walked over after seeing him there. And his reply? "Oh, that's nice." (c'est gentil) Thinking it over, I feel that it's a pity...it probably means that he wouldn't have done that himself. Whereas to me, I feel that it's the most natural thing in the world...when you see a friend and you have a little time, you walk over to say hi! I wonder whether it's a French mentality...anyone like to tell me what they'd have done in my place?

Seats in a train

I had almost forgotten about this photo.


I was in the train (to Grenoble), so to not attract attention, I took this photo with my phone. See the rounded seat with a table? We don't see that often...the last time I saw a TER (regional train) with seats like this was when we went to Limoges from Angoulême. I still remember those blue seats...we were busy posing like anything 'cos we were the only ones in the train!

So I decided to go digging out the old photos:

posing about in the train :P

the guys without cameras (I'm surprised I still remember that after all this time) and the other girls
(I haven't seen those biscuits for a looong time! Where can we find them?)

Ah...the good old memories...:P

Vous savez lire le japonais?

J'ai pris cette photo l'année dernière, je crois (certains pourraient reconnaître le bâtiment du 1er cycle)...mais c'était avec mon téléphone portable qui avait pas (et qui n'a toujours pas) de câble pour transférer des photos à mon ordinateur... Donc maintenant j'ai souscrit à i-mode pour pouvoir envoyer cette photo par mail! (ingénieux, non? lol)

Bubbles in Grenoble

(no, it doesn't, and is not supposed to rhyme)

I went to Grenoble yesterday. It's an hour and a half from Lyon by train, so I decided not to spend the night there. Gailene met me at the train station, and we just went walking around in the morning. After lunch (Pei Xin joined us for the meal) we took the bubble cars up to Bastille (not the one in Paris) where we could see the view of Grenoble. Unfortunately it was a little misty, so the photos didn't come out very clear. (understandably, since the view wasn't very clear! :P) But all in all, it was still really nice.

walking along the riverside (Isère)

Bastille seen from below (the trees are so colourful at this time of the year!)

a pretty interesting window display at a music shop

a fountain in town

going up to Bastille (half an hour's wait in the queue! The bubble-car trip itself was pretty quick); you can see the cracks on the "walls" of the bubble

view from Bastille (the river, Isère and the particle accelerator - the circular thingy, see it?)

bubble car, a little closer up (up-close and personal! :P) when we were about to go down

had a bubble to ourselves, because less people take the bubbles down (we can walk as well) But what's this? The (automatic) doors aren't completely closed!

Gailene and me, in our little bubble

And I found something in Grenoble. A 1€ lottery...and I won a Manaphy! Now if you're wondering what that is, just take a look at this:
I was hoping for a Pikachu (of course) but the Manaphy's pretty cute as well... The thing is, I didn't know what Pokemon it was, so I had to search on the internet to find out. (the last Pokemon is Buizel)

Okay, the "lottery" was one of those plastic egg machines, and the pokemon are actually handphone danglys (or is it danglies? looks weird though) There was a Hello Kitty machine as well, but each egg cost 2€, and that was rather expensive...if it had been 1€, I would have tried my luck as well. :P

Now I have to look for a place to put my Manaphy...

RFID passports

While doing research for a project (about RFID technology) I stumbled upon this passage on Wikipedia:

RFID tags are being used in passports issued by many countries. The first RFID passports ("E-passport") were issued by Malaysia in 1998. In addition to information also contained on the visual data page of the passport, Malaysian e-passports record the travel history (time, date, and place) of entries and exits from the country.

Hmm...I certainly didn't know that Malaysia was the first country to issue RFID passports!

Raya 2007 in Lyon

This is pretty much overdue as well, it was during the 2nd day of Hari Raya.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I'll just put a couple of pictures (and save myself typing 2000 words :P):

the food

the people

We actually took a lot of group photos, but most came out with one (or half) person missing. This is one of the best...though some people don't look too happy :P There's a photo with everyone looking happy, but unfortunately someone (ahem, ahem...) was looking somewhere else...

Spécial Angoumoisins

I've been putting this post off for quite some time.

I suspended my phone line during the summer holidays, and I got a letter from France Telecom to confirm my request. And here's the "signature":

Hehe, alors il existe bien un Marc Ricau... Mais pourquoi est-ce qu'il a pas signé? :P

(Marc Ricau was the name of the person to whom we made out our cheques when we paid the rent in Angoulême)

Foggy foggy morning

This morning when I woke up and looked out of my window, it looked like this:

8am

Two hours later...

10am

And finally, the sky clears...

1pm

Jeans

Did you know that the fabric of jeans came from Nîmes? That's why it's called denim (de = from)

Those who read French can check out more details here.

Crazy weather and table-tennis

For the past week it’s been really cold, you could say that it was as cold as in the middle of winter! On Tuesday I had table-tennis practice; usually I wear shorts, and it was so cold! So today when we went for a competition, I decided to wear long pants...and it turned out to be pretty hot, especially in the hall where we were playing, since there was no wind.

There were only 6 girls in my category (unranked girls) and all of us were from INSA. I came in second, which was pretty good, considering that the girl who beat me was actually ranked, but she said that it was a long time ago and that she preferred playing in the unranked category. It was surprising that there were no girls from other schools; last year there were several. They can’t all have graduated...

I got a t-shirt for coming in second place; the “prize” was the same for both first and second places. It was a volleyball t-shirt...weird, eh? Guess they couldn’t find anything else... I’ll try to take a photo and post it here another day. I doubt I’ll wear it though, ‘cos it’s black (I don’t like black) and too big for me. And as I’m really lousy at volleyball and the t-shirt is supposedly for the Championnats de France Universitaires (French University Championships, I guess you could say) it would be pretty misleading...:P

Well, I hope that tomorrow will be at least as warm as today, because I'm having tennis (outdoors, of course) Last week we were freezing...
(I'm learning tennis this year, because I thought that liking table-tennis and badminton as I do, tennis can't be too bad...and who knows, I might be able to try squash another time!)

Edit: here's the t-shirt! This is the back; the front is plain black.