Science Fiction Festival

Last Sat we went to a science fiction festival organised by the Nantes Townhall in the Congress building. We saw a lot of family with young kids. I guess this is a good way to show them stuffs related to science. We watched series of short movies from around the world about science fiction. I loved one of them: A guy received a weird machine. Basically whatever he put inside the machine will appear from the sky in a gigiantic size, and he can take the stuff outside of his house from the machine and the stuff will be in smaller size. He got inspired, and took the whole polluting industry lot from the machine, which transform into a toy size lot. He then put his flower plant into the machine. Eh voila, he saw a big plant outside his house!


The organiser invited several people from different countries to discuss about democracy. Weird ah, democracy in a science fiction festival? Some of the panels were speaking in French with very strong anglo-saxon accent and some French were laughing at then. I wonder whether I had been made fun of my French when I speak? With Malaysian accent?


There are a lot of games prepared for the public, especially the young. I found it to be a very healthy culture, where people with different age ranges just sit down and play a game that will make you use your mind. It's better for them to go drink and get drunk all the times.


This is a game called Loups-Garous (wildwolves). We played it several times at home.




There are science fiction books for sale and some of the authors are present. We bought a book and the author signed for us.


Comic is very popular among the young French. There are several authors present and there are long queue to wait for their signatures. It's not only a signature, they will draw something on the book you buy and personalize it for you.

Free Hugs

Free hugs is started by an Australian who went on the street, holding a sightboard, asking people to give him a hug. It's now spread in the world, including China. The news in China said that the campaigns in China was failed, as the volunteer who gived hugs was taken away by a police. A lot of the Chinese can't accept this concept as they think that hugging openly is in western culture. Netherless, I saw the free hugs campaigns video taken in ChangSha, I would say that it was a success. I saw the young man hugged many women, that's already a big achievement considering that most of the Chinese don't even hug their own parents when they grow up.

Notice this map. The white flags refer to where the FreeHugs campaigns presented. See it's absent in South East Asia, and most importantly, the Middle East. Will Muslim accept hugging openly, between man and woman? This operation is aimed to bring peace to the world, but this western public embracing action might not be accepted to certain countries who see the contact between man and women openly as some kind of taboo. They have campagnes in Israel too, but Israel is heavily influenced (or controlled) by the American that I won't consider them as one part of Middle Eastern culture.

All Saints Day and All Souls Day

1 November is All Saints Day and 2 November is All Souls Day. However, only 1 November is public holiday.

In Nantes, I didn't see any festivals organised for the Halloween, so I think it's really something American. In France, people go to the cemetery to offer flowers to their deceased relatives. They usually offer chrysanthemums. This kind of flowers were originated from China, and it's offer to the dead during Qing Ming festival, when the Chinese go to the cemetery to pray their ancestors.



It's it a coincidence that in the French and Chinese cultures (I'm not sure about other cultures), chrysanthemums are offered to the dead? I remembered watching a movie, in which an American was trying to impress his Asian girlfriend, by offering her chrysanthemums during her birthday. Big mistake!





Why is there no photo on the grave? So one day when the grand grand children come visit their grand grand mother, they won't even know how she looked like. Chinese graves always have a photo about who is buried there. Also, in this cemetery, every small place is for a family, not only one person. While in Malaysia, for the Chinese, I usually see only husband and wife share the same grave, but not the whole family.



My professor told me that not everybody in France goes to the cemetery in all souls day. It depends on the family culture. It's true, my boyfriend has never been to his grandfather's grave even since his grandpa was dead 2 years ago.

Tell No One (Ne le dis à personne)

Tell No One is a book written by Harlan Coben. It's now out in the cinema in France. Weirdly, they made it in France and the people speak in French. Harlan Coben even appear in one of the scene.

It's a story about a couple who knew each other since childhood. Each year they go to a lake to celebrate their "kissing"anniversary. One year, they went again to the lake, but the wife was killed. The husband was basically destroyed from then on.

8 years later, the husband received an email, where it provided a link. He opened it and saw his wife! He started looking in the possibility that his wife is still alive. That's where the story started to get very exciting.

I wonder whether this movie will be shown in US.

Air Travel: New mesures of security for all passengers

As of 6 November 2006, and from that date only, the new security measures decided by the European Commission will be applicable in all European airports.

Passengers wishing to carry on liquids, pastes, gels, creams and aerosols exceeding 100 ml will have to buy them in duty free shops. In some cases, their purchases will be placed by sales personnel of Boutiques Aéroports de Paris in transparent sealed plastic bags.

Aéroports de Paris, the company managing Paris-Orly and Paris-Charles de Gaulle airports, is already preparing the implementation of these new security rules with all its partners.

Taken from Aéroports de Paris October Press release.


It seems that air travel is getting more and more rigid in terms of security. I usually put all my cleansers and toiletteries in my carry on bag. From Paris to Malaysia we are only allowed 25kg of luggages, and since toiletteries are usually quite heavy and breakable, I don't like to put them in the check in luggages.

I love the Free Chinese channels

Ever since end of August I had have the luxury to be able to watch 14 Chinese TV channels in France. They come with our subscription to Freebox, who provide the broadband internet connection, the digital TV and phoneline for 30 euros a month. Here's the list of channels:

180: CCTV4 (in Mandarin)
181: CCTV9 (in English)
182: CCTV Espagnol & Français (News in Spanish and French, other programs in Chinese with Spanish or French subtitle)
183: CCTV divertissement (in Mandarin)
184: China Movie (in Mandarin, mostly old films from 70s-80s)
185: Beijing TV (in Mandarin)
186: Shanghai Dragon TV (in Mandarin)
187: Jiangsu International (in Mandarin)
188: Hunan Satelit TV (in Mandarin but sometimes Hunanese)
189: Xiamen Star TV (in Taiwanese/Hokkien)
190: ZheJiang Star TV (in Mandarin)
191: Guangdong Southern TV (in Cantonese)
192: Phoenix infonews (in Mandarin)
193: Phoenix Entertainment and News (in Mandarin)

Bad news: At the beginning of November, most of channels will require payment. What leave as free channels are 180,181,182 and 193. I probably should pay the 8.88 euros per month for all the 10 channels.

I have been following a lot of the programs especially soup opera in Hokkien. I do not watch French TV here bcos they like to have political debat programs, or dubbed American programs. Basically the French TV programs are not interesting for me.

I know I need to watch French TV to improve my French, but at the same time watching TV is supposed to be an entertainment which I find more in the Chinese channels.

Goodman's bridge

Several weeks ago we went to visit the Goodman's bridge (Pont du Bonhomme).



It's a bridge consists of two big walls facing each other. At the peak of the walls stand a man and a woman who look at each other. It was pretty interesting but sad at the same time. It reminds me of Chinese Valentine's day that has a legend about a girl and a guy who are in love but can only see each other once a year (the 7th day of July in the lunar calendar) through a bridge form by birds.





We walked along the river and it's the season of chestnut again. It has a lot in the forest along the river. It's amazing sometimes that in France, there are so many things to see in an area. I have been to Lorient so many times but still I haven't visited every places worth visiting.

Blogmusik: Your online Ipod

My boyfriend played Faye Wong's songs for me. I was surprised where he got these Chinese songs. Well, he got it from:

http://www.blogmusik.net/

It's kind of like online Ipod where you can get the songs and play them instantly. You can find French and English songs too.

I recommend Faye Wong's "Eyes on me".

Carte Tempo

Now I can move around Nantes for free, taking non-TGV trains for a discount price.

Carte Tempo is provided by the mayor of Nantes, to Nantais who are unemployed. You are required to bring a photo, the letter from Assedic (the unemployment agency in France), proof of your domicile and your carte de séjour. You will get it the same day if you bring along all these necessary documents.

If you know you are not going to get a job any soon, I suggest that you register yourself with Assedic. I did it online, and they sent me the document on the second day. I didn't get used to being addressed by my bf's surname, so I put the letter aside thinking that it was for my bf.

Anyway, I missed the first appointment, and have to call them to set up another apointment, which is one week from the day I call.

The appointment just meant to register you with the unemployment agency, analyse whether you are qualified to receive any financial help, then you will need to go to the government job agency: ANPE. Through ANPE, you will be advised to get some more education or training to increase your chances in getting a job.

I'm now officially one of the unemployed person in France, a long with millions.

Why do they hate American

Today in our French class we discussed about whether France should legalise the consumption of marijuana. One of the Colombia started to get very emotional and said that he wishes that his country would legalise the drug trading, so that they can send all the drugs to USA and let the American get drown of the drugs.

He then explained why he hates US. Apparently that US has a very big political power in south American, that the businessmen from US would give pressure to the politicians in Colombia, to force the local enterprises to accept whatever trading conditions the American want. Basically it's big brother bullying his young brother because this young brother depends too much on the big brother.

Anyway, I was surprised to learn this information, but in the world of capitalism, it's not unheard that people use the political power to influence the business conducts. I warned my classmate to go to US himself so that he will see himself. Not every American is a bully and they certainly don't deserve to be hated due to the behaviors of other Americans in other countries.

I have heard many bad comments about the US from people coming from different countries, and I believe they have been influenced by the local medias who always try to manipulate the people. I used to be one of them but then I witnessed the situation myself when I lived there. Of course I won't say it's the best country in the world like many Americans claim, but it has been miss-perceived in a lot of way.

A boot taker?

I don't know how you call this thing, probably a boot taker? My FIL brought this along when we went to have a "go back to natural" walk close to the sea. You don't have to jump away or be inbalance when taking out off your boot with this thing. My FIL is a sweet man and I guess he just want to amuse me with this thingy.

The "go back to natural" walk turned out to be a 2 hours educational lesson from a guy about the animals/seashells who brought by the tide to the shore.

Despite the too educational lesson I do enjoy the scenery around.

Missunderstanding

So, we went to the Canal Nantes-Brest. Me to bike and my boyfriend to run. We had an appointment with bf's friends from Rennes at 10am. We arrived at 10am and waited while I tried out my new bike. At 10.15am we started to feel uneasy, as these friends are usually puncture. At 10.30am, I had made several rounds around but still couldn't see our friends. My bf insisted that both parties knew exactly where they should meet and there is no way the friends will go somewhere else. At 10.45am he decided to go back to Nantes.

When we drove towards Nantes autoway, we saw our friends' car. There were not inside the car. We drove around but couldn't spot them. Ended up we go back to Nantes, and my bf was running for 3 hours in the park nearby our apartment.

His friends have no cellphone so they called us when they got back to Rennes. They explained that they parked exactly where we agreed.

Funny, ended up both guys have missunderstood each other about the meeting point. What a waste! They were supposed to run 5 hours today and I was supposed to bike around with them.

My bicycle

My birthday is not until Dec, but my boyfriend decided to buy me a bicycle. He actually convinced me to buy it. We tried it out today and it's cool to actually have a bicycle. I went to do my grocery with it. Tomorrow, we are going to a town nearby, I will do the bicycling while he runs around the town. Now I'm worried that it will get stolen when I part it outside a shop. Moreover we have not enough space to part it in our apartment.

Weather

I have never thought that weather can influence so many things in life.

Coming from Malaysia, a country with tropical weather, where everyday is either too hot or it rains to cool down the heat a little. The sun raises at around 7.30am and sets at around 7.30pm. So you wake up every morning facing the almost identical weather condition. We have open air restaurants everywhere. In our closets we just need to have one jacket. You do not need to have summer and winter clothes, you do not need to spend 5 minutes to cover yourself because it's damn cool outside. It's predictable, kind of.

In Brittany, it can rain and suddenly the sun is out. People prefer to have their wedding during the summer hoping to have a nice day for the celebration. Sometimes you don't know whether you need to bring a jacket, or a raincloth, or a thicker jacket, or a scarf... It's so unpredictable. You are at home all warm up and wearing short pants. You thought that it's sunny day so you go out with only one layer of cloth. But, when you got out, the wind blows you away, you need to go back to get extra layer of cloth. Tiresome. My friend told me that it takes her 5 minutes to dress her kids before they go out.

On one hand, you don't have only summer in Malaysia. You can't enjoy the change of the season, you can see the change of the plants. In Malaysia they are green all year.

But you won't wake up in the morning saying shit because it's too cool and you know you need to cover yourself up; or wake up in the middle of the night because it's too hot.

I think the weather in Malaysia makes me a simple person: I don't like complication. I only have several pairs of clothes that I thought that I can wear all year long. I don't understand why French have to have different kind of glasses to put different kind of drinks: for me they are meant to be drunk and no matter what kind of glass you use they taste the same. It's annoying people keep giving us glasses because I have no room to store them. I don't like people asked me to buy different kind of shoes for different kind of activities: one pair for hiking, one pair for badminton, one pair to walk, one pair to go into the sea... annoying.

I'm extremely depressed these days when I wake up and it's damn cool, I hate hinter, I don't care about snow...

Not proper English bad Malay

These days I have been working on my wedding website. It will be available in 4 languages: Chinese, English, French and Malay.

I asked an American to review the English writing, and her comment was:" Understandable but not proper English". Then I asked a member from a forum to review the Malay sections for me. She said that "there are too many mistake especially on the sentences part" so she won't be able to correct my mistake.

Well, I welcome sincere comments like this. At least I know that I do not write proper English and my Malay is bad. Luckily my Chinese friend said she understands my Mandarin. She hasn't seen my writing part but I'm not dare to try!

It's so true that one needs to practice a language frequently to be able to keep it. I used to write good Malay, at least according to the Malaysian Examination Board who awarded me "A" in the Malay paper during the STPM (A level equivalent) examination.

The party

The lantern festival party turned out to be very nice. We did steamboat. People seemed to prefer the grill though.

In the morning I went to the market to buy fresh fish while my boyfriend went to the supermarket for grocery. I was very mad at myself bcos I paid 72 euros for 4kgs of fishes. I was just dumped enough to not look at the price and just accept whatever the guy charged me. I will never buy anything without first looking at the price anymore. I thought the price will be the same, as we bought it last time and it wasn't expensive and everybody loved it.

Anyway, the parents arrived for lunch. We went to walk for a while before coming back to prepare for the steamboat. The guys were decorating the balcony with some paper lanterns I got from Malaysia (very touching bcos the father and son worked together for a festival they have never celebrated in their life), while the women worked in the kitchen.

By 8pm we started the appetizers. As the guests arrived, we started the dinner. We were so full that we decided to talk a "moon" walk. Everybody was holding a paper lantern while we were walking around the garden close to our apartment. It was very fun, the moon was full and bright. We were afraid that someone will call the police saying a new religion secs are doing some activities on the road! haha!



We continued the meal with some desserts. My friend made a birthday cake for my boyfriend (we were celebrating his birthday at the same time), I did a mango crumble, a friend brought some mooncake then we have ice cream. My boyfriend got to hear birthday song in different languages: English, French, Mandarin, Spanish and a birthday song from Mexico.

After the dinner, we played a game called "Wildwolf". It's interesting to see his family and my friends all played together. The parents went to sleep around 1am, and the rest left around 2.30am.

Tanglung Festival

So today is Tanglung or Lantern Festival. I read in the newspaper that the moon tonight is supposed to be the biggest. If you want to get to see a moon that big, it will have be in 2015 next time.

My Chinese friend wanted to celebrate this festival. According to her, if Chinese doesn't celebrate it, nobody in France will. Is true, but I don't know how long we will insist on celebrating something from our origin. You are in France and you are expected to integrate.

I have no mood to cook nor prepare to welcome 11 guests. But since I have promised now I need to look in my head what I can prepare to feed these people. It's going to be potluck, easier. I bet the French will not feel comfortable to have the buffet style, but what the heck, it's my house we are talking about.

I plan to do some currypuff, bake chicken wings, curry chicken plus meehoon, French hams, potato salad... my friends will bring in dessert and mooncake.

I hope the weather is going to be nicer. Gosh, this cool breeze is driving me lazier and lazier...

Should the old give way to the young?

Yesterday on TV, there was a debat about whether the old should give way to the young. Give way in terms of job, since they are so many young people couldn't find a job. That means the old should go to retire earlier so that they are more positions available for the young.

In France, there are 13.4 millions retirees as of 1 July 2004. The people who are 65 or more than 65 years old represent 16.4% of the French population as of 1 January 2004. It is estimated to reach about 25% in 2030. In 2001, the retirees who are more than 60 receive on enverage 1126 euros (before tax) per person per month. (Figures from http://www.ladocumentationfrancaise.fr/dossiers/retraites/questions.shtml).

As the old generations are growing, they will be more people withdraw their pension fund, whose sources of incomes come from people who are currently working - meaning the younger generations. But if the person who withdraw keep growing but the person who are supposed to enter the workforce don't have chance to enter, that means it will be a huge gap between people who withdraw the money and people who contribute to the fund.

Anyway, this is not a new issue in western Europe. What is interesting is that in that program, they did a joke to some old people. Two guys wore in police uniform, inform the old people passing by that they have no right to wonder around that round, because it's reserved for the young. These two guys told the old people that they scared the young, that they should be using the area. It's interesting and sad at the same time to see how the old people respond. One said that"I'm old, but are you going to kill me?"

I think it's unfair to ask the old to give way to the young, because they have worked their butt up in the pass year, contributing to the social security and being a good citizen. To have more job to the young, the government simply has to simplifier the process of creating an enterprise, encouring more people to be their own boss, give tax break to enterprise that hire people who work for the first time in their life. In the current law, creating an enterprise is so painful, with a lot of tax to take care of. It's not like in UK, with 1 pound you can register your company.

To bus drivers: Do you know where is...

I needed to go to Assedic today. Usually it's pretty easy to go around Nantes because every bus station has a map with indication of which bus or tram to take to go to certain place.

So, I have the address, looked at the map and I have some idea how to go. But when I got out from the tram, going to take a connecting bus to the destination, two bus company men (they are the one that check whether you have a ticket or not in the bus) asked whether I need help. I showed them the address, and they told me that just wait in this station and the bus will come in 3 minutes.

When the bus came, I climbed up and asked the driver whether he has idea how to go to Avenue de Lions. He told me to take instead another bus that go to the different direction! He looked so sure so I went back to check the map. He told me to take bus 73 but this bus go to an opposite direction! Then I realised that the advise the two men gave me earlier was wrong as well.

I hesitated for a while, and decided to believe myself. This Assedic was located deep inside an industrial place in which no buses passby. Anyone, I found it eventually.

Gosh, these men have no idea that they gave me false information. I'm glad that I trusted myself.

The récipissé

OK, finally I got the récipissé, a receipt to get the real carte de séjour. That means that I can legally work in France starting from today.

It's a happy and sad moment. Happy because finally nobody will tell me that they can't hire me because I don't have the right to work here. Sad because I just lost an opportunity to work. Adecco, a job agency called me last Friday about a job briefing session, and it has to be exactly the time my appointment with the Prefecture. I went to the prefecture to see whether I can delay the appointment, the people worked there tried to look at their schedule, but it was full the whole day. Don't want to jeopardise my chance of getting this récipissé, I have to give up the chance for a job.

A friend works in Adecco in another city, she posted my CV to an company who request someone speak English. This friend called me today, and said that I wasn't picked because this company wants someone who speaks French perfectly. In this case, I won't have chance, at any sense. How am I going to compete with the French who has speaking French all their live, and have writing training since the day they are at school? It gives me signal that I need to switch domain.

Last week my good friend here found a job as a receptionist in an hotel. Again, its happy and sad. Happy because finally someone have the similar background like me can find a job. Sad because with her qualitification, she doesn't need to be a receptionist. She told me that her coworker has master degree. So the requirement to be a receptionist in France is quite high I presume. This kind of position in Malaysia is for someone who finished highschool and don't want to continue study. Anyway, what gave me hope was that her boss is very nice. She defended my friend when the other boss said that my friend's French is weak. She said that when they (the French employees and the bosses in the hotel) speak good English (they are taking English class), my friend will speak good French. At least she is willing to let my friend try.

Can you be fluent in several languages?

WASHINGTON -- George L. Campbell, a linguist who could converse with cabbies and shopkeepers, write scholarly tomes, and conduct learned discourse in more than 40 languages, died of pneumonia Dec. 15 in Brighton, England. He was 92. (http://www.boston.com/news/globe/obituaries/articles/2004/12/21/george_campbell_fluent_in_44_languages/)

I don't know how fluent this guy is in speaking all the 40 something languages.

For me, it was never a choice to speak more than one language, but growing up in Malaysia, you just need to speak at least 3 languages to survive. At home, we speak our family dialect, Hokkien. In school, we speak mandarin to keep our identity as the offspring of the immigrants from China. Since we are living in Malaysia, of course we learn Malay in school and use it to communicate with the government agencies and the other races (mainly Malay and Indian). And then, English is the business language in private sector, so we need to master it in order to climb the ladder in the corporate world.

Among the 4 languages, I think I master mandarin more than others before I left Malaysia. English was always my weak subject in school. That's why I chosed to go to USA for an internship, so that I can improve my English. Right now, I'm more comfortable writing and speaking in English because typing in English is always faster than typing in Chinese.

Anyway, I can't say that I speak all these languages perfectly. I mixed between Chinese and English from time to time because basically some of the expression just couldn't be translated in other language. Also, imagine that for a single word like "table", you need to remember how to speak it in 4-5 different languages. Tiresome.

So now, I'm stucked with French and I really hate it. I hate the fact that I need to take on one more language, which will be the main communication language, despite the fact that I speak other languages. Worst, these languages that I speak are useless in this country.

These days when I make progress in French, I lose my English and Mandarin. If I was speaking French in the school, come home, I forgot some English words when talking to my boyfriend, and instead have to say it in Fernch. The worst is my Malay, I can't even remember how to speak simply words like "decide", reference, enjoy...all my hard work towards this subject is draining into the river.

When some people just need to master in one language, I need to keep 4 or 5 now, won't my brain explode running out of space in storing all these? I probably need to upgrade the brain space! Or, I should just simply give up on maintaining one or two languages.

French comedy: Samantha Oups

I seldom watch French TV program but this one I usually don't want to miss because it's so funny and hilarious! It's shown on 7.50pm from Mon to Fri, only 10 minutes before the 8pm news start.

Basically is about two guys who play as a blond and a brune. They are best friend to each other. The blond is called Samantha, and the brune is called Chantal.




On one of the episod, Samantha was in the kitchen, and she saw the microwave's time moving and bipping. She thought it was a bomb, and hesitated so much for the next move. At around 8 seconds left, she decided to pull the microwave from the plug and throw it towards the window. She passedby Chantal and bumped into her. Chantal asked why she threw away her microwave. Samantha replied that one day Chantal will thanks her for shaving Chantal's life. As usual, Chantal showed her "don't know what to do with her"expression.

You can find the extract of some of the episods here:
http://kd2a.france2.fr/videossamantha/

Badminton Training

Photo from: http://mbot.multiply.com/photos/photo/59/3.JPG

So, we start to go to badminton session regularly. One day to learn, with 2 professors present to teach, the other day free training. It has around 25 people, and I'm the only Asian, how nice! Also, just find out that my boyfriend's company will pay half of our badminton fees, no bad ah?

What I'm really missing is, the ice lemon tea gathering at mamak store after some sport. We usually played basketball or badminton, then go straight for supper. In France, by the time we finish around 11pm, you can only drink beer I guess.

la crémaillère - House Warming Party

This weekend we went to Saint-Nazaire to attend a friend's house warming party.

Saint-Nazaire is about 40 minutes from Nantes, first port of France on the Atlantic side. It's major industries including ship building (RMS Queen Mary 2, was built here) and aircraft (Air Bus).

This couple rented a house, which has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. I found the bathrooms upstair to be very cute, because it's carpeted and quite large, so you can actually make it a room (some of the guests slept there). Renting a house is usually expensive especially it locates not far from the town center, so I guess they must be paying quite a high rent.

Anyway, our host brought us to sightsee at La Baule, said to be one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, after the beaches in Rio de Janiero, Brazil. This friend works around this area, so he's pretty familiar with this area. He told us that during summer, it's so crowded that you don't see space between people on the beach. Scary hah!



http://www.irisa.fr/manifestations/2006/IWFHR/images/photo%20la%20baule%20modifiee.jpg

As usual, during the night the guys drank like hell, and only go to sleep around 4am. I couldn't sleep before that because they were singing and yelling. Managed to finish Harlan Coben's "Deal Breaker" though. One incident happened, and I decided that I have have enough of this kind of "drink to get drunk" party. I told my boyfriend that I should not participate anymore because I'm always the weird one who doesn't like to drink and go sleep early and can no longer stand all their stupid childish drunk behavior. He agreed. Good, I have suffered from this kind of party for over a year now, should be considered tolerate enough, eh?

Skype offered free unlimited call to fixeline within France

It's about time they do this. I'm using Free so calling fixeline within France is already free.
Check out their blog for more information.
http://share.skype.com/sites/en/2006/09/free_unlimited_calls_to_all_la.html

200k train tickets sold at 5 euros

http://www.7sur7.be/hlns/cache/fr/det/art_263260.html?wt.bron=homeArt20

Yesterday, the train company SNCF sold 200,000 one way tickets at 5 euros, to celebrate it's 25th anniversary. The crowd formed a huge line before the counter was opened. Destinations included Paris to London, Marsailles and other big city, or from city to city. Passengers can also buy it online, but the tickets were sold out after 45 minutes.

5 euros is really really cheap. From Nantes to Paris, it will cost 50 euros for refundable price. Imagine two people going to Paris passing a weekend, transport cost itself is already 200 euros. I was required to go to the Embassy to register our marriage, but it just seems to be too expensive to do that.

Semaine de la mobilité 2006

This week is the week of mobilisation, where you are encouraged to use public transports or other mean of transport to move around, instead of your own car. This is the week where global warning is reminded, and people should contribute to less air pollution.

Nantes has efficient public transportation, so it's really easy for people to move around in the city. You can also rent a bicycle for half day, for only a euro. The city of Nantes is promoting the benefit of using bicycle to work, most of the roads now has bicycle line. No matter what, I still feel it's very dangerous to move around city with a bicycle. I would prefer to use it when I'm in a village, to enjoy the fresh air and the natural surrounding.

I still remember the time when everybody in Malaysia was using bicycle. Now having a car is a sign of "improvement" in terms of financial. Besides, you can travel longer distance.

When a country is developed, they always need to sacrifice the environment.

French Illegal Immigrants

I was watching France 2 for an immigration report. Recently, a group of illegal immigrants were kicked out from an ancient university residency, and the prefecture offered them hotel rooms. Some of the immigrants didn't want to take this offer, instead they stay in a gym. So, the host of this program when to interview the leader of those immigrants who decided to stay in the gym then go to hotel.




http://www2.canoe.com/infos/international/archives/2006/08/20060817-144823.html


http://www.saphirnews.com/10-ans-apres-Saint-Bernard-Cachan_a4340.html

Her comments shocked me. She said something like this:"The human fundamental right entitled us to immigrant to everyway around the world. Besides, Europe used to come to explore our resources in Africa and make themselves rich, and now is the time for them to pay back, and share their wealth with us. Because of these, the French government should give all of us right to stay in France."

I don't know how people can think this way, as if everybody can choose to stay in whatever country they want, the rich countries will be packed and face with social problems, until they become poor countries. Malaysia is the ex-colonial of Britain, and we don't think they owe us, it's just that we were weak at that time, so people bully us. It made us stronger so that this kind of bullying won't happy again.

The TV crew went to Mali, a country that have high immigrants to France. It showed that most of the people have hard time to find a job, and going to France is in the tradition, a ritual to "grow up". A woman standing with several young kids, pointed to two of the boys and said they will go to France, and pointed to the young girls and said they will be married to France. Since everybody is doing it, this kids grow up having one goal: Go to France and work, come back and build a house.

The program also talked about how Spain gives legal status to every immigrants in the country. The current spain government is from the left wing. It showed each week around 2500 immigrants coming by boat, and they then seek help from the government body. The government assigns social worker, who try to find contact for these people, and eventually buy them ticket to the city these people want. On the TV, a young social worker went to Madrid with this newcomer, and gave him 30 euros and left him. However, beginning this week, the government has stopped this policy, they are not giving away the permanent residency automatically anymore.

This week the Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy granted residency status to 7000 out of 30,000 families who came to France illegally. He said France will only allow those who are willing to integrate into the French sociaty to stay in France.

I personally think that the French government should help develop the poor African countries who have historical tie with France. The immigrants come to France because there are no hope in their own countries. If their countries can give them hope and a life, they would stay in their home countries. Also, the government can help build schools and Universities which allow these poor people to accept formal education, and eventually have a chance to come to France to contribute their know-how.



I hope that the illegal immigrants understand that they shouldn't abuse the social system. If everybody comes here hoping for right for free home, free welfare and not working, then they come to the wrong place. The government is not Santa Clause, the money come from the people who work hard and trying to earn a life. France simply has no ability to help every poor people in the world.

Good News Bad News Good News Bad News

I went to several job agencies to look for job opportunity. There's good response but there's bad response. At one point I was desperated. I have done everything I know to look for a job, but it seems that it's hopeless to even land a factory job.

I first went to Man Powers, and the woman told me that it's difficult, bcos of my level of French, and bcos I haven't been working in my field for a long time. It was very discouraging, as my working experience in US and Malaysia looked completely useless for her, and speaking English and Mandarin don't help either.

At home, I got called from a finance agency, and she is trying to match me to a company. On the same day, an agent called for some interpret job. So my hope raised again.

Then I went to Kelly Services, she sent me away bcos that office is specializing in manuel jobs that need diplomas and experiences.

On the way to Adecco, I met a man who is also looking for a job. He is French, but been living in French Polynesia. He is 50 years old, and just come back to Nantes to visit family. He wanted some temporarily job, and have been registered with 28 job agencies. After half year, he still couldn't find any job.

His experience is such a huge shock to me. If a French couldn't find a job, what is the chance for me? I arrived in Adecco, and the agent is very nice, and reviewed my CV. She commented again that the fact I don't speak good French and I haven't been working since some times ago, it's going to be difficult. The only potential job she foresee is to sort stocks in grocery store, which need to start at 5am, or some seasoning job.

The finance agency hasn't been calling, and the interpret job is pretty much gone as the conference is supposed to be in this week.

At that point, I felt so helpless. This Adecco agency is supposed to match job to the production industry and the least diploma and experience need kind of job. If this agency says difficult, then it's really difficult.

So, my MBA from US worth nothing, my skill of speaking multiple languages also worth little. There were a lot of young people standing outside this Adecco, and I presume they are unemployed. I truly symphatise with them, as even the lowest jobs have so much competition, their future is surely in question. At least I have my home country to turn to at the worst case, but what could these French young kids going to do? Moving to other country?

Free French Class

I went to take an evaluation test today in Capformation. From this week on I will take 8 hours French, paid by the government. Capformation is aimed at people who need to re-learn skills to enter the job market. It offers English and mathematic classes as well.

Thinking about it, I miss the time going to University, learning French with classmates, then go lunch together. In Capformation, it's more self disipline: you decide what you want to learn, and a professor is there to help.

Yesterday night, as usual lazy cooking day, so went to a restaurant. Bad. Sunday is not our day, we always got disappointed by the restaurant we chosed.

We talked about that we have the right wings will win the next election, so that they will reform the economy, and allow people to do business on Sunday. Coming from Malaysia and US, I miss those 24 hours operating shops and restaurants. It's just supply and demand, simple economic theory.

Bomb and evacuation

The city of Nantes found a second war world bomb in "quai de Tourville" on 11 Septembre. They have evacuated the residents within 250km since 7am this morning. By 12.10pm, they managed to neutralised the bomb. Since then the residents are allowed to go back to their houses.

Journées du patrimoine

In France, there are a weekend that's called "days of heritage"where you can visit historical places like museums and castles for free. I personally think this is a very good idea as this encourage people to get out of the house and get knowns to the heritages around them.

We went to Angers and visited the Castle of Angers and a museum.

French Business Schools lead the list in Europe

Financial Times 11 Sept 06:" French business schools have dominated the latest Financial Times business school ranking, claiming seven out of the top 10 slots in the league of European purveyors of masters programmes.

The ranking assesses Masters in Management degrees, which differ from MBA programmes in that most students join the courses directly after their undergraduate degree; an MBA usually requires several years of work experience."

Here is the ranking in France. The number 8 Audencia is located in Nantes, very close to Unversity of Nantes.

Whitefield Consulting Worldwide - French Rankings 2006
Rankings	Schools	Country
1	INSEAD	France
2	HEC Paris	France
3	ESCP-EAP	France
4	Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées	France
5	EM Lyon	France
6	Reims Management School	France
7	Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris	France
8	Audencia Nantes	France
9	EDHEC - Theseus International Mangement Institute	France
10	Grenoble Ecole de Management	France
11	IAE Aix-en-Provence (MBA in Change and Technology)	France
12	ESC Rouen	France
13	ESC Toulouse (MBA in Aerospace)	France
14	Bordeaux Business School (MBA in Wine)	France
15	Sup de Co Montpellier University of Birmingham	France
16	Euromed Marseilles, World Mediteranean MBA	France
17	IAE de Paris/Dauphine	France
18	Euro Insititut Commercial de Nancy – Euro MBA	France
19	ESC Lille Lille Graduate School of Management	France
20	ESC Pau - Stockholm University School of Business	France

I check to see the posibility to enter Audencia, and found out it's only for students under 28 years old. What scares me most is the school fee: 17000 euros for the 2 years courses.

Who has that kind of money? Not me at least.

Rennes

Rennes is the capital city of Brittany. I have been to this city several times, so this time I take it slow and easy.

Start off with Parc du Tabor. Have a nap, then read on the beautiful grass with some sun. I never understood why people can lay down on grass under the sun, now only I know it's too comfortable to do that. In Malaysia, the sun is too hot, you are basically having a sona. Exit from the park, I saw this, think it's cute.



It means I need to be taken on leash. I didn't see much dogs around, but France is really a nation having lots of dogs.



This is the house office the park. It's quite bit, while I was taking picture a guy driving in sport Mercedes drive in. I presume rich people live here.



There are lots of churches and cathedrals in Rennes, I like the achitechture.



Some houses in Brittany are built with this kind of stone. It's actually very cute. However it's very expensive nowaday.



This water wall is cute. I have to take this picture from the gate. You can't get closer.



Found these bridal gowns to be too much, I won't be able to wear them.



This is the Parliment in Rennes. It was burnt down once by the fishermen who did a demonstration.

Durian wafer

I love durian and everything goes with it. My boyfriend hates it so much.

I got this durian wafer from a chinese grocery, when we got home, he secretly hide it somewhere else. When I crave for it, he reluctantly gave it to me, and quickly open the door and cover his noise. I pity him, so have to hide the remaining wafer somewhere so it won't bother him.

Isn't it amazing how much different we are in accepting certain smell? His cheeses are as smelly as durian but I don't have to cover my noise and gradually accepting them. For him, his dislikeness for durian will never fade away I guess.

Cheek kiss after sport? Weird

We finally managed to play badminton in Nantes. We went to do the registration yesterday, and immediately we were allowed to play.

What I noticed is that after a game, people actually do the French hello kiss (cheek kiss) instead of shake hands. How weird, you are all sweeting and you are expected to faire la bise (hello kiss)?

We went in into a game with a couple, and ended I shake their hands. They must feel weird, but I really can't stand the cheek tough at this point.

Change!

Last week the gîte where we are having our wedding reception in France told us that they can't make it on 1 September. What! Appearantly that there is a bicycle race going on every year end of August. In 2007 it will be from 31 Aug to 2 Sept and all the roads around will be closed for this event.

This sucks big time! Well, just for my family. My sister and my sister in law may not be able to make the trip to France. Gosh!

Initial plan was for my family to come over from 18 Aug to 2 Sept. 18 Aug starts the school holiday for my nephews who will come with their mothers. The holiday ends 26 Aug, so they will have to skip class for a week, minus 31 Aug public holiday. So 4 days absent from class for primary school kids are acceptable.

Now, after negotiating, the gîte agreed to postponed to 8 Sept, which means if my sisters come with the kids, they will force their kids to skip school for 2 weeks, not acceptable even for me! Since my mother and aunt are coming, there are nobody handle to take care of their children, so that means they can't make it.

Sad! The French won't change the gîte because they got good deal. Besides, who will care if two Malaysians do show up for a wedding?