Recap of the week

Hi,

Sorry that I have'nt updated in some time. School was starting to get a little busy and so there wasn't much time for me to do anything else except to study, eat then sleep. Due to my lack of interesting stuff to write about, I will instead recap the past week instead.

Tuesday was the fondue party... Met lots of people there, talked to a bunch of them. Lets see if I will get a chance to speak to any of them again...

Wednesday was really boring... I went to see my coordinator about a module that I couldn't take then went for the boring class that I took to cover the module that I couldn't take. (that was a long story, that one...) After classes, I went to the computer lab to try to figure out how to do one of my labs. Lets just say that it went as smoothly as usual (for you people who know how my labs usually go...) I got tired of banging my head against the computer and went home at about 8 pm that day.

Thursday was spent in my room doing homework. Initially, I wanted to go to the city centre to repair my watch (it died on me again. Luckily, my mom had the foresight to get me to bring the guarantee along...) but then I decided against it and be a good nerd for a day and study before heading off to classes.

Friday was pretty different. I got stuck at the lab, got a little too engrossed in trying to solve the stupid lab that I only got out at about 10pm... Ah well, at least I finished one lab, one more to go.

That leaves with today. It was a pathetic excuse for a Saturday. I spent most of the day at school, in the computer lab with my teammate, trying to bash our heads over a stupid prgramme. Yes, I just LURVE programming... We decided to call it quits early after about 6 hours at the computer. Still have a huge chunk left to do...

Hopefully, tomorrow would be better. I have a language study session that should be pretty interesting followed by dinner with several singaporean friends. Its pot luck again, so that means that I would have to bring something. Perhaps I should get a cake or something...

Anyway,
Ciao!

Fondue, Fondue!!

School has been pretty relaxing. Its still not so hectic yet, but it promises to be much so later. Not too bad, the change of lifestyle from that of mine in NUS is quite significant.

For one, my travelling time is significantly shorter. 30 mins as compared to a freaking 1h30mins of commuting, sometimes squeezing with the rush hour crowd. It is all very calm and relaxing to go to school. School is not boring, not really. It was just a little difficult to understand, much like in NUS too. Computing ain't exactly easy, ya know... Well, my courses are difficult, but with the same difficulty as that in NUS, so no real difference.

It had been fun so far, mostly everything, including the lessons (though some of them were just SO boring!!). I've met many people, most of them seem pretty interesting, although it might be a little difficult in communicating since some of them are not really fluent in english. I think I speak english too fast sometimes too, so I had to remind myself to speak slower when talking to them.

Anyway, there was a fondue party held for the exchange students today. It was cheese, not chocolate, fondue, but even so, it was pretty interesting since I've never really had cheese fondue before. Everyone just sat at the table and conversation went pretty smoothly. It was pretty
fun. (how many times did I say that... hmm...)

There might have been more to say, but I'll be repeating myself since I can't really think right now. Quite tired from 7 hours of lessons and 2 hours of socialising... Got to sleep...
Here's a little eye candy for you vultures out there.

Cheese Fondue, Traditionally served with bread.
And mummy, I don't wear the same shirt everyday. It just so happened that I was wearing it today. I do wash it, you know. I don't have that many long-sleeved shirts to rotate so by the pigeonhole theory (or something similar), one shirt would have to be worn more than once (or thrice by the number of times you've seen it on me...).

Tourist in Lausanne

Lausanne (again, pronounced Loh-sahn, not lau-san) is a quiant town on the coast of Lake Geneva. Besides being known for the city with 2 prominent Swiss universities and the Olympic capital, it was also, evidently, an ancient roman city, much like Rome. Called Lousonna during the roman empire, it was mainly a port for ships plying the Lake. It was also a pretty small town, with about 1500 to 2000 people in the 1st BC.

How did I suddenly become so knowledgable about this? Easy, I visited the Roman museum and the Roman ruins that is just 15 to 20 mins walk away from my hostel. Essentially, I spent the whole of today exploring worthy sites that are around Maladiere, the area where the hostel is.

Really, what's up with these european cities? Like Rome, Milan or Paris, historical sites are like just round the corner. In this case, the ancient Roman ruins is now a "park" where people take walks there during the weekends, like today. Walk a little furthur up and you can see the Comite International Olympique. After taking a photo of the picturesque building and the statues beside it, just turn round the corner and you can see the Roman Museum, which actually houses the remains of an ancient roman mansion.

Suffice to say, I had a field day today. Very nice weather to take trip round the city as it wasn't very cold. If it was Singapore, I would probably have died from the heat...

The roman museum was very interesting. I'm actually impressed with the museum. It certainly is a very small museum in size, but it was very interesting. (Although I had a little difficulty as all the explanations were in French) The first floor was like a games station. You would have to search for the answers and write down the answers on a piece of paper. Of course they were questions on the Roman history.

It was very family friendly. The people that I saw there were mainly families, or an adult with kids, those kind of groups, you know. The kids were really engrossed in searching for the answers and it was really something I wouldn't expect to see in a museum, kids being interested, that is. Anyway, at the end of the games, you would input your answer (the numbers collected throughout the game) into a computer. If it is the correct sequence, the door would open. Well, obviously I failed at that, being the professor in ancient history that I am. The computer had a big "RATE!" (fail) and "REJOUEZ!!" (play again), but put together in a polite way, of course. The family who was standing beside me were laughing, haha. It was pretty funny at that point. You see, at the last station, it was something like a puzzle, and the family seemed to be at it for some time. Just nice, I helped them with some of the pieces (imagine me with my broken french going "ça, c'est la" and pointing at an empty space...) . So we got to the last station together, and the rest was history (no pun intended).

I really should have visited the exhibitions on the 2nd floor first, since some of the answers could be found there. But I doubt I've the stamina to go through all the french explanations anyway. In all, it was prety fun.

Besides the Roman ruins and museum, I went to the cemetary nearby too. In my defense, (before some of you question my sanity) the cemetary was featured in the tourist guide book for Lausanne. Also, I always passed by it on my way to school. So, I just popped over to take a look. The cemetary is supposed to be the resting place of Coco Chanel, the founder of Chanel, and a Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the moderniser of the Olympic games. I didn't see their graves but I did see a grave of a countess.

The grave stones are really elaborate. It is the western equivalent of the chinese style gravestone, but simpler. While the chinese tombstones' design look mainly the same, there were some very interesting designs here, especially for those tombstone of a recent year. I didn't take any pictures, so you would just have to take my word for it. What impresses me here was that the area looked so well maintained. The hedges were neatly trimmed, I can't see any visible weeds and no rubbish were in sight! The whole cemetary was very quiet although it was just beside a main road. In the day, it looked very peaceful and calming, but I can imagine how the place would feel in the night, with the ravens crawing overhead.

Oh ya, mentioning the ravens, did I mention how BIG those birds look like? Its about the same size as a chicken, I think, only slightly smaller. Its really all black and I heard that it attacks for food too. While those crows in Singapore claw your head to make you drop your food, I heard that these ravens only snatch your food away. Sounds better, but when you see a bird like that charging towards you, you really wanna get out of the way.

I also went to the lake today, Lake Geneva. I went earlier in the morning, trying to get a picture of the mountains (the Alps, I think) but they were blocked by some clouds and so were not too clear. I went again in the evening, the sun being nice and all, and the clouds had cleared, so I could take a good picture of the mountains and engage in a little cam-whoring (as fats put it ) so that mummy wouldn't feel that her money was wasted ;-D.

I picked an acorn up. Reminds me of the acorn at home...Me, cam-whoring with the acorn

can see the Alps behind?
Maybe this is clearer...
Flower arrangements with winter flowers for sale to place at the grave.
Entrance to the cemetary. The words on the pillars are excerpts from the psalm. In french, of course.
This too...
The International Olympic Commitee's headquarters, Chateau de Vidy...
Statue outside the IOC
Another statue outside the IOC...
The Roman Ruins... Funny that its all flat instead of the uneven ones we saw in Rome...


Me cam-whoring again...

You can see that these people really spend time with their families during the weekends, taking strolls, going to the lake, or visiting the museum. And that got me thinking about the way Singaporeans spend time with their families during the weekends. Our shopping centers are always so crowded with people during the weekends (and I don't mean with foreign workers) whereas the streets are so empty here. Maybe it would be a different case if I went to the town center, but the point is, I see more families taking strolls in the parks, strolling along the lake, or just playing at the playground. I can't help juxtaposing it with the families in the noisy, crowded shopping malls. Its just the difference in lifestyles, I guess. Singaporens seek to be entertained while the Swiss may prefer entertaining themselves...

First week of school

The first week of school has started and ended. It has been eventful, in total, and I got a feeling that I would be very busy in the semester. Already, there looks to be 2 programming labs to submit in 2 week's time and a very difficult assignment (math...) to work on.

I've been roaming about the school, exploring the routes to classes and whatnot. I realised this place, though much smaller than NUS, is actually pretty nice looking compared to the old buildings of NUS. Well... NUS is of a different charm, much like the, I don't know, 70's or 80's of Singapore, with most buildings looking like they do, and not to mention the presence of so many tall, big trees. I've always liked the area beside the central library where there are several huge raintrees. It feels calming.

But I digress. Yes, EPFL, EPFL... The buildings may look normal on the outside, but I think the insides are really nice-looking. They have a lot of windows, for one, and the interior seem to give me the feel of being very cosy. You see, the buildings themselves are not huge, like some of NUS are, but instead, they have buildings linked together like with bridges and walkways, and in the lobby, they have couches placed (colourful ones, not those brown or beige ones that SoC has) and vending machines. This is the impression of the Informatique school that I have been in. I don't know if other schools are the same, so I can't tell.

Did I mention that the stuff here is expensive? Haha... I had dinner in school yesterday and I bought a lasagne. At first I didn't know what it was, it looked like just a dish with cheese on top, but I took it anyway. Then I realised it was lasagne. I think that was my first time eating a lasagne. It was 9 CHF, simply said. I think I hid my surprise well when I paid (there wasn't any price tag anywhere!!)

Anyway, it was pretty good. It had LOADs of cheese... Look at the pic below, only the middle part's pasta and a little tomato sauce can be seen 'cos the rest of the pasta was hidden in the cheese. The cheese was good, don't get me wrong. It was delicious. But after a while, the idea of eating more of it just turns you off, you get what I mean? Too much for me, I think. In terms of price and quantity. When I left, I felt a little need to barf...
Should I bore you with the modules that I am taking? They are all computing modules. Sadly, those interesting modules that I wanted to take are, how do I put it? Not available.
I wanted to take Business Plan for IT, which was a project-based module that teaches how to present you IT product and sell them. Unfortunately, I can't map it to the NUS module 'cos it was of a different "track". Oh, and also, there isn't any professor for the class so the poor people waited for 1 and a half hours for the professor before someone comes in to tell them that the professor who was supposed to be in charge had left the country so there was no one to teach and that meant no classes.

The other module that I wanted to take was Human computer Interaction, also another master course. Well, this case was interesting. Halfway through the lecture, during the mid lesson break, the professor told us that only master students specialising in software engineering could take the course. So I told her that I was an exchange student and my coordinator told me that I could take master courses and that I had done a module on software engineering before I came. Anyway, to cut the long story short, I nearly got kicked out of class. Haha... But then I asked nicely if I could stay and listen to the rest of the lecture (it was really interesting), so I only left when the lecture finished. In all cases, I think the ending would be me not being able to take the module since I may not have enough knowledge in the field for the professor.

Ah man, I was hoping that I could take that course instead of that really BORING course on Operating System. Seems like I need to take it now. Damn....

My other modules would be Probability and statistics (if the module mapping is successful), Graph Theory Applications (a really boring and truly difficult module) and Digital Photography. Oh, don't let the name fool you, Digital Photography is a computing course, not the arts one, so that means I have to do programming for it. Don't ask me how, just take my word on it...

Anyway, to end off, here are some pictures of the school.

Unplug the iPods!

When people asked me how I find Switzerland, my first answer would be cold, followed by how quiet the whole place was compared to Singapore.

For once in 1 and a half, almost 2 years, I did not wake up on a weekday with the noisy construction going on outside. (Taking into account that my usual waking time is about 9-ish, 10 when the constructions would be going in full swing)

There was this pleasant silence that surrounds the whole place that feels serene. Even the snow falls silently, much silently than the noisy rain. You can almost feel the peace and quiet of the town when you go for walks to the grocery store or when waiting for the bus. Simply said, there is a lack of the background noise that one gets used to in Singapore. Its not too bad. Its not even a habit for me to bring my iPod out since I don't listen to it when I'm out anymore. I tried listening to it while waiting for the bus once, but I felt that I was destroying the serenity. Without even finishing off a song, I switched it off and never took it out again. Yet.

Lets just see how long it takes for me to get bored with the peace and quiet before I bring my iPod out on the streets again...

First lesson in EPFL

Yesterday was supposed to be my first day of school, a.k.a first day of lessons. But because I didn't really know what lessons I had to go to, I only went for the information session that was held in the afternoon. Anyway, it seems like I didn't really miss much. Its like the first week of lessons in Uni, the lecturers will just go through some stuff that will eventually be repeated again later.

The main point was, I went for my first lesson today. Probability and Statistics. Sounds SO interesting right? Oh well, I had to make do with this since some of my mapped modules clashed with others. Luckily, the lecturer wasn't too boring and the class wasn't too hard (she was just repeating some of the stuff that I had already learnt in JC). Did I mention that she was teaching in english?

Well, all the lesson that I took were in english, I made sure of that. I know, what about learning french? Well, the idea was to put myself in a french speaking environment so that I will learn and adapt to the language asap.

NOTE: I said PUT, not THROW. I still wanna enjoy life a little and not worry what the teacher is saying constantly.

I did sign myself up for a french course and also this exchange thingy students who want to learn english who in turn can teach french. Now just have to wait for the reply.
Anyway, because it was snowing the whole day today (my boots even got a little soaked through at the end, how do I dry them??) I saw a snowman on the campus..

Yea... it was pretty cute...

Be a Chef Day!

Today, as a follow up on yesterday's NUS exchange student's outing, the guys decided to have a dinner pot-luck at one of their hostel. Yes, pot-luck as in everybody has to bring EDIBLE food to the table to share...

Imagine my chagrin as I thought of my ham, lettuce, bread and cheese existence in my fridge. No wonder my first question when they proposed the idea was: Can I bring sandwiches?

Being the nice people they were, of course they said ok, but my sis would kill me for being so ... (fill in you own adjective).

So, on my way home yesterday, we stopped by the nearest Migros and bought some stuff. Finally, I bought meat that wasn't ham, fresh produce that doesn't come pre-packed and stuff that I might not buy if I were eating/cooking for myself.

The final tally came up to CHF 13.70, which I thought was quite reasonable since I bought MEAT (or rather 6 chicken wings..) and other stuff. Oh, and for your info, a clove of garlic is CHF 1.20 per piece. Even potatoes were cheaper... But its only the garlic, the meat, the eggs, and some other stuff that were crazily priced. Thinking about it, ham was pretty expensive too, the cheapest being CHF 3.50 for about 6 slices. Hmm... perhaps I should just eat rice with milk...

Anyway, after some thoughts about how to cook my dish, (honey baked wings were out, no honey, and baked chicken without honey just ain't right), I settled on stew.
Ah, the wonders of stew are just right beside those of roasts... Just cut everything up, place them in a pot with some water and just let it simmer away. Easy and delish.

I cooked enough to probably last me 4 meals comfortably, but with 6 people eating, I might have to fight to save some for later. Ah well, at least if they finish it, I'll know that its nice and I'll be happy. If not, then all the better! 4 meals without worries.

Here are the pics of it. Doesn't look much like a disaster, eh?

I must applaud my foresight when I bought these tupperwares :-)
I thought it was an overkill to buy 4 of them in one shot (it was packed in fours) when I only need one as a bowl and/or the occasional storage box. But since they were on sale, I thought I mind as well buy them. Look, they paid off!!

Now lets just hope that it tastes better than it looks in the pictures.

What I did today...

Its a bumper day for blogger... 3 posts consecutively...

As the title suggests, its about what I did today.
Contrary to yesterday, today was pretty eventful. (Yes, I know, compared to yesterday, ANY day could be more eventful)

I met up with fellow exchange students from NUS and together, with one fellow student's boyfriend as a guide, we went on a little tour around the city center's library,the cathedral of Lausanne and Ouchy, the quay on Lake Geneve.

Some pictures of the city center...




























These 3 pictures are taken at the outside the library. It basically overlooks the majority of the city center.
See mummy, Ive got a picture of myself and the scenery. Your money isn't wasted now!!

As you can see, the sky was still pretty dark cos it just finished snowing like 2 hours ago, but its pretty sunny now (at 5 in the evening...)


The huge organs in the cathedral, me with the altar at the back.
The altar, without me.
My personal favourite, an exterior shot of the cathedral.
This is one of my favourites too

After the cathedral, we went for lunch at a Kebab place, the cheapest kind of fast food available on a saturday. (not counting Macs, of course)

Then, we went th Ouchy, the quay.
Look ma, no wasting of money again!!
Some weird swinging thingy... Looks nice though

Some people playing chess on the sidewalk...
A carousel for the kids...

random pics 1...
random pics 2...
Look ma, no wasting of money!!

Ya, so ppl, as you can see, my mom believes that you are wasting money on a tour if you don't take pictures of yourselves with the scenery... For me, just the scenery is enough, but well, to each its own. Have to make the sponsors happy :-D

Just for the record, all the pictures were taken by my phone camera, sony ericsson with a 3.2 megapixel camera. Who said camera phone's pictures have to suck??

Duty calls

I forgot that today was the 14th of feb, my brother's birthday until my friend kindly pointed out my lack of plans for THE VALENTINES...

As is within the duty of a sister, it is in my responsibility to wish a him happy 16th birthday and hope that he would be a more sensible person. (One could only hope...)

And so, let us lift our glasses (or cups of warm water in the frigid weather) to toast my dear little brother (can he still be considered little if he is physically bigger than you?).

HAPPY 16TH BIRTHDAY!

love,
ur much too sensible and talented sister...

Jie Hui

p.s. as u can see, valentines day reminds me of my bro's b-day, not any romantic stuff. Shows u just how romantically inclined I am... Not that I mind, :-D !!

A day of snow

Dear all,

Let me explain to you the reasons why I holed myself up in the room yesterday.
Yesterday was simply not a good day for a sight-see around the city.
The weather forecast read a -4 to -8 degrees celcius. Who would go romping around in such a cold weather? I prefer to stay in the room to watch Gintama and laugh till my sides split.

It was practically snowing the whole of yesterday. Look look, I even got pictures to prove!!





















To prove my point, you can't even see many people walking about right? Right.
Too bad the snow didn't last till today, if not I'ld have tried to make a snowman.

Best regards,
Jie Hui

p.s. I'm really not being lazy and sleeping in the room all day, really I'm not. I'm just choosing the days where I can maximise my enjoyment of being outdoors and minimize the chances of freezing my butt out in the cold. :-D

Snowing in Lausanne - Big snow!!

Guess what? It really snowed today! And its a definite snowing phenomenon, not the tiny one yesterday.
That might put a damper on my plans to go to the city center.... It looks really cold out there and the people outside are looking like eskimos.
Anyway, I managed to get those pictures that I took with my phone. The camera that I took with me is really one big battery mosquito...
Here they are:

You can see Lake Geneva at the horizon...

Just to show that it was really snowing...















Random pictures taken from my room...












Yep, there's a playground right behind my hostel. It looks rather quaint.

Snowing in Lausanne

As I was making breakfast in the kitchen, I glanced out of the window...
Lo and Behold, it was snowing!!
But only for a little while... Maybe it will snow more later today.

2nd Day in Lausanne

Hi there,

Its the second day that I'm in Lausanne. Yes, the weather is still friggin' cold but, despite the rain, it was actually warmer than yesterday. I actually liked today's weather.

Yesterday, it was pretty interesting. After alighting from the plane, I followed the crowd (who said it was bad to follow the crowd?) settle the customs and grab my bags. After a little wandering and searching, nothing too hopeless that the signs couldn't help, I found the place to buy the train tickets, bought them and was soon on the next train to Lausanne.

After reaching Lausanne, I took a cab to the hostel. There, I lugged my 20 plus kg worth of baggage up 2 levels and finall.y reached my room. The room is not too bad, a little small for my taste, but still very livable and is small in a cosy way. One thing that struck me first was how clean the room was... The building is either new or the housekeeper did a fine job in maintaining the place!!

Anyway, here's some pictures of the room:

the bed's headboard
the door(center yellow), cupboard (left white) and the toilet door on the right



















the table and the filing cabinet ( the heater is the white long thing behind the table)















On the same level, there's a common kitchen where people can cook, and yes, I found a rice cooker there...




















Anyway, I went out for the mart near the residence (about 10 mins walk). Along the way, I found the post office where I sent back home the library dvd which my klutzy brother left in there after watching.
During the walk, I found this:















A singaporean and malaysian themed restaurant!! haha
and also:














some asian (i.e. chinese, vietnamese and thai cuisine)

One thing I realised was that the things here are expensive!! My taxi fare from the train station to the dorm was 17 CHF!! And the trip was so short that I felt a little cheated... haha
a loaf of bread cost 2.20 CHF (about 3 sing dollars) and 2 bars of soap cost 2.50CHF.
It was lucky that I decided to bring some household stuff along.

Let me end this hanging... I've run out of stuff to say.
I should really brush up on my spoken french.....

Till later.