in another land

Life in Rabot and the people

yoohooo, i have finally settled down in Grenoble. For the first few days, I was completely lost. There were so many things to do like opening a bank account, getting a new sim card, mapping my modules, decorating my room etc. I got my room in a residence named Rabot. The taxi drove me all the way up the mountain. Some of my friends have arrived and they helped me out with my luggage.


As my life journal develops each day, I guess i will probably meet more new people or talk about some people i have met. So to start off, i shall begin by giving a brief summary of the people i know in Grenoble. Here in Rabot, we have five NUS mates, including me, letchimy, mark, gongming and xiaowen, all staying at the first storey. There is also Piaf from Germany, a tall and intelligent girl who speaks really well, and she has learnt french for 7 years. Sometimes, Peter from Belgium, the youngest among us all, will join us at night. Then there is a group of Indians at our level who are all very friendly and they always seem to have some activity at night. They do not speak french, and they are learning french here while carrying out an internship. There are some french students staying here, though i only met two named jeremy and Loha, who have been staying here for 6 months. A guy from Spain named Ado for short, is together with them. Got to know 2 girls from US and Canada during the party at Rabot, well, i didnt really enjoy the party as it was too noisy and i didnt think i profit any from it.. so we left after a short while... One of the better friends i met was Yoanna, a very pretty and petite gal who stays at the 4th storey, from the same school too, but doing masters. The other time, Yoanna, Claudia and me went to Carrefour for grocery shopping, and in european supermarkets, we ahve to bring out own grocery bag or buy a bag there. Luckily, Claudia who is more familiar around here, has a grocery bag, and she lent it to us. Claudia does not stay in Rabot but morre fortunately, with 2 french hosts. Another pretty gal, Nicole, whom we met in the kitchen, is also very nice. Peter' s friend, william, from England, is also from UJF (my university) and he is taking organic chemistry module too...while looking for sinhui at Condillac, I got to know Agitar(Agneshka) and Hana, from poland; Pabola and shelki from South america... Yesterday, with my Rabot friends, we walked up to the Bastille at the top of the mountain, and we met the people from Condillac there... one french guy we saw named Orielle, i tink, is quite good-looking and friendly... Once, a mexican guy came up to Rabot, but the office is still closed, and while helping him out, we got to know him as Kenneth . Yesterday, he joined us when we were preparing our dinner. Also got to know some people from China.. 2 guys joined us in our exploration up the bastille yesterday. One has been staying here for 6 mths, while the other just came, from hongkong, but from China university, and he is learning french now... there are also some girls from China, but havent got to know them personally yet

For the first few days, Sinhui and I were busy settling our module mapping and finding our professer. Now, my modules are more or less decided. i will be taking:

Organic chemistry
Electrochemistry
Biomolecules
Genetics
Science of the Earth (i swear i have no idea wad tis mod will be like)

There is another french module to improve my french. The workload is half of a module, so i wont be mapping this to a nus module, jus taking this for fun...
My timetable is very packed, it is a 5 day week from morning 8am to 5pm.. I will have lunch in school cafeterias, and most probably prepare my own dinner and breakfast at Rabot..Weekends shall be my free days, left for my own leisure activites or probably to recharge myself...

Yesterday, while cooking pasta, i learnt that people in Brussels will tear out a morsel of pasta and throw it on the wall to test if the pasta is ready. If it sticks onto the wall, it means it is ready; If it falls down, u know wad u shd do...haha..
when we go to pubs, there is a dress code too: Single and available means u r wearing green to the party, while red stand for - sorry, i m attached.

Today is Sunday, so all the trams, buses are not working, the shops are closed... and all of us are grounded in our rooms, so probably we will be studying french to get ready for the french test. This is a compulsory test for us to gage our level of french so as to separate us into classes of our level.

posted by Lynn @ 4:15 PM Comments: 0