Bad hair day

Nothing much happened today. Toh called me when i was doing my maths. Nope. No salesman today. He 'ajak'ed me to go and cut our hair. Luckily today i didn't get the same old lady that cut my hair before. Today, another lady, nicer, served me. She was kind enough to me, and she asked me how should she cut my hair. I said short, but not too short. She cut and cut and cut my hair. Having an eyesight like mine, it's not easy for you to know what was she doing with my hair. When she said is it ok so far, i took my glasses and to my horror, i look like having a mountain on my head. Nothing could be done. So i just said ok and asked her to cut shorter. She said that if she cut shorter my hair would look like a brush. I was so freaked-out that i didn't understand what she said. so i said ...mmm it's ok, no need to cut shorter. After the haircut, i looked myself into the mirror, and now i think i look like the crook in Les Choristes.

Our turkish neighbour cooked us food for buka puasa today. She cooked for all of us, the Pekom group and the JPAs. Since the JPAs were not there when we tried to find them, we had the rights to the best quality chickens and breads. Ahahaha.

Tafiq cuba untuk meniru mimik muka 'photostat' brian 

Freaky Friday

Today is just not my day. After a week of lepaking, i've decided that it is time for me to start my maths homework. Mountains of them. Just when i was about to finish the 3rd question, there was a knock on my door. It was a salesman, from a telco (Alice or sumthing). He straight away asked for my phone bills and my passport. I said what the hell for? He then explained that I've been paying more for my phone and yada yada yada. I tried as hard as i could to chase him away. I said that my passport is with my Uni, my phone bills are paid by my Uni and all. I even tried to close the door bit by bit, but he pushed it back. Then i don't know what happened and he asked me to sign. I couldn't do anything, so i signed. He gave me a copy and he went away. After i closed the door i realised hoe stupid i was to sign that thing. I straight away called Martine, the one who is in charge of us at the IUT. She said something like "You signed what??!!". Then she asked me to bring the copy to her the next tuesday to see what's going on and what we can do about it. It turned out that after he went to my room, he went to Irfan's room and he said that i signed, so he should sign too. Urgh... i hate salesman. Then he went to Fadhil's room and Taufiq's room. Because of him, we arrived late at the mosque. The prayer had already started. Jumaat without the khutbah is just like another zohr to me. And i lost my mood of doing maths because of him. Salesmen, why must they exist?

Later in the afternoon, the elctrician who installed my radiator a few days earlier, came to uninstall it because my proprietaire insisted that he install it. Aihh the frenchies are the weirdest european ever. But then again, we also have the english and the germans... but i'd say the french are the weirdest.

That night, i made roti sardin. It wasn't actually mamak-like, but it did mengubat rindu. At first i wanted to make murtabak, but it was too complicated. My brother gave the recipe for 5 kg of meat. 5 kg? that's like 5 months of meat to me. Besides i don't have the right kuali or periuk to accomodate 5kg of beef. So i made 9 roti sardins,1 roti telur bawang,1 roti keju, and 1 roti keju garlic. Brian baked us a chocolate cake too. It was so good that i even took a second slice, which usually i don't.

Berpijak di Bumi Nyata

Today we went to the ice skating ring. It was very expensive: 5.70 euros! This is the first time for most of us. Toh did it once, Dinie and fifi was good with roller-blade. So we tried! I don't know who came up with this ultra-dangerous-life-threatening-very-embarrassing sport. It seems that only me who didn't manage to get it. Toh and Taufiq even raced around the ring. Taufiq won 4 times and Toh won once. But, since it was taufiq, cheat was involved. He didn't even finish the laps. Everyone was having fun while i was busy saying ' Jom la balik, jom la balik'. I had two teachers who taught me how to skate but je n'arrive pas. I think they have a lot of things to laugh about when they got home. Fifi somehow banged in to a girl. The girl quickly got up and exited the ring and never to be seen again. We went back at five. Ohhh... betapa leganya dapat berpijak di bumi yang nyata dan bukannya di atas kasut yang hanya ada sekeping besi!

Today we sent the pic and the text to Berita Harian and Utusan. In the message, we (read: I) wrote it was from dinie, hakimi, hakimin, taufiq, irfan, hafifi, fadhil, MOHD chen chou and AHMAD brian. we sent the draft to chen chou just to see his reactions. He said 'anything lah'. And so we sent the pics to the two nespapers. Just before going to the skating ring, i asked Toh again. It turned out that he didn't read the line where we listed down the names. Ahahaha. Too bad toh. Too late.

my two coaches... yeah i know... it was embarrassing you know

i skated... well... really.... almost...

we skated... yes we did...

At last, ustat has joined the club. What club? A secret underground club. The one like Freemason or sumthing. It's an underground movement. But enough of that. Today, me, brian and toh bought the ticket to London for this coming Christmas. So the trip was confirmed and it can't be called off anymore. The ticket cost about 136euros per person to and from London. Yay! I'll be taking the Eurostar, the one that crosses the English Channel or La Manche by tunnel. I know, we wont be able to enjoy any scenery in the dark but, who cares. I'm going to London, I'm going to London.

After taking pictures ( notice the pluriel s there) for the ucapan hari raya, we agreed to have our breakfast, as in breaking fast, at Helmi's, our favourite kebab shop. I don't know why, but there seems to be some alliances among us against some of us. Taufiq and Irfan would attack Ustat, Ustat and me would attack Taufiq, Dinie would try to squeeze in, and everyone attacked dinie.

From left: Dinie, Irfan, Hakimin, Hakimi, Taufiq, Chen Chou, Hafifi, Brian and Fadhil. this is the picture that we hope to send to Berita Harian and Utusan. Kepada Mak, Ayah, keluarga serta rakan-rakan di Malaysia, seta tidak lupa juga kepada Dr Ali dan Encik Rahim Ismail dari Telekom dan Petronas, kami pelajar-pelajar di Colmar, Perancis, mengucapkan selamat hari raya aidil fitri. P/S takde biasiswa extra ke untuk raya?

me and my pumpkin coach... Orange Power!!!

we went to Logelheim, sylviane's town, to see the festival of the pumpkins or halloween. Me, toh, brian, irfan, dinie and fifi walked from our house to that town, while taufiq, ustat and fadhil cycled there for certain reasons which will never be disclosed. We left our house at 6 and we walked through the forest and arrived at Sundhoufen at 7.15. We were tired when we reached Sundhoufen, but Logelheim was still a long way to go. We finally arrived there at 8 after risking our lives walking next to a busy road where we were inches away from the reckless drivers.

The festival was great. Almost everyone in that town participated. Almost every house was decorated with pumpkins. There were pumpkins merry-go-round, pumpkin statue of liberty, pumpkin eiffel tower, pumpkin smurfs and also a pumpkin carriage. Kids were all dressed up in halloween's costumes while we do not need anything to make ourselves stand out from the crowd as we were ( i think) the only asians there. I wore my orange t shirt just to blend in. I was hoping to camouflage between the pumpkins so that no one could see me. But it didn't work.

We left the town exactly at 10 and arrived at the edge of the forest at 10.45. The forest was so dark. Luckily we bought a torch light before going. Finally, at around 11.30 we arrived in the 'outskirts' of Colmar. After the forest everyone was talking about what they saw and heard in the forest. It was quite scary. We arrived home at nearly midnight. We've been walking for 6 hours today. It was really a walk to remember (note to toh: i just can't help it, using that movie's name here)

me in front of statue of liberty... pumpkin style

us...with another guy... either from Scream or Scary Movie

Waaaaaaaa

Today, we had maths class for 7 hours. 7 damn bloody hours. from 8 to 12.30 and from 2.30 to 5. I need to go to the mosque for friday prayers. So i left IUT at 12.30 and arrived at Unterlinden just nice that the bus to the mosque arrived and arrived at the mosque just nice befor the sermon started. When the prayer finished, i arrived just nice at the bus stop and the bus arrived just nice at 2.25 near IUT and i had to walk to IUT and arrived in the classroom just nice at 2.31. And I didn't had lunch since it's Ramadan. Imagine if it's not Ramadan, i'll have no time at all to eat lunch. Friday is not a nice day after all

nothing much happened today. we had maths class this morning till noon ,and french class from 2 to 5. Everything was going fine until Sylviane gave back the quiz results. I got 16/20 and there was this note that said decuant (dissappointing). I was so shocked. I felt very low after that. Later that evening toh and brian comforted me and said that she didn't mean that i was dissappointing, it's just that i was dissappointed when i did that quiz, since i was stressed out by maths. I don't know what she exactly meant by decuant, but at least their words cooled me down.

After the french class, we decided to take pictures of autumn, since the leaves began to fall.

Institut Universite Technologie

Today we started our Pre U. We'll be starting off with maths only for a few months. One class on Tuesdays for 4 hours from 8 to 12 and the other one on Fridays for 7 bloody hours from 8 to 12.30 and from 2.30 to 5.

Today we had class only from 8 to 11 since the notorious Dr Ali from Telekom is coming. Finally I've got the chance to see him after 4 months listening to the Telekom students of how strict and funny he is. The way he entered the class room was exactly like how Taufiq would enter. The door is open, you stand behind the wall and you put your head to see what's inside the classroom while your body is still behind the wall.

Now i know what the seniors meant when they said maths is tough here in France. They said that language is not a problem, it's the maths itself. And today we only did revisions and I was lost. Maybe i was panicking or something but I just couldn't stand it anymore. When i got home for lunch I screamed to the pillow and felt so miserable. That afternoon, we had a french class and i was soooo depressed that i kept quite. Giovanna made us recite a poem about how to paint a portrait of bird. It tells us that, in life. you have to keep on waiting for somethings to come while somethings might come just like that. I was so touched by that poem and without realising it I cried. I cried in my class. Can you imagine how miserable I felt at that time?

Pour Faire le Portrait d'un Oiseau
Peindre d'abord une cage
avec une porte ouverte
peindre ensuite quelque chose de jolie
quelque chose de simple
quelque chose de beau
quelque chose d'utile
pour l'oiseau
placer ensuite la toile contre un arbre
dans un jardin
dans un bois
ou dans une foret
se cacher derriere l'arbre
sans rien dire
sans bouger
parfois l'oiseau arrive vite
mais il peut bien mettre de longues anneesavant de se decider
ne pas se decourager
attendre.

To make a portrait of a bird
First, paint a cage
with a door opened
paint, then, something nice
something simple
something beautiful
something useful
for the bird
place it, then, on a tree
in a garden
in the woods
or in a forest
hide behind the tree
without saying a word
without moving
sometimes the bird will come quickly
but you have to allow some years before you decide to do it
don't be discourage
wait.