23 Feb 2009 11.20pm Grenoble

I am now sitting in my room listening to “hakula matata”. Today was the first day of school after the winter break. I had my awful lessons with those awful French kids again. I was late for the class and when I went in to the LT, the prof was just talking to my group members. Crap. I walked towards them pretending to be cool and the prof saw me and then talked to me in French. Of course I didn’t understand what he said. And of course this stupid dwarf gal laughed again into my face (by the way she is a head shorter than me). I was still looking cool, but I cursed her in my head for at least a hundred times before I smiled at the prof and said “ erm, I didn’t quite understand what you have just said.” That was hilarious, I think. I was so proud of myself to be so thick-skinned now. The prof then said in English to me. It was about an email I sent to him two weeks ago and I had some questions to ask him after I was totally fucked up by my group members. He never replied to me of course. But smart as I am, I figured it out myself eventually. So after he explained to me again, the same guy from my group asked me the same question again as two weeks ago -- “tu comprends?” and I gave him the same answer as two weeks ago --- “non.” But this time I was able to say something more, thanks to the French intensive week:“vous parlez trop vite pour moi.”  He seemed to be impressed that I actually spoke to him in French, so he was NICE enough to explain the question to me again, IN FRENCH. “That helps a lot” I thought to myself, sarcastically of course. But it was a miracle that I actually understood. Of course I did not understand his explanation in French ---but rather, I did research on my own two weeks ago and it was exactly like what I thought --- can’t imagine French people need two weeks for something we usually do in NUS for two hours. So after we split into two subgroups, two Swedish gals in my subgroup came to talk to me in English. It was exchange students type of conversation, talking about weekends and parties, and skis, and parties. And this same NICE guy was now the only one in the group now not speaking English and he was like “hey, no English!” I laughed, saying “sure, sure” but was thinking “what the hell is this your business? This is a free country for crying out loud! ” I met Karen the Mexican gal after class and the first thing she said to me was “I hate French people”. Well, haven’t I said that enough in the past three weeks?

So I was glad when the school finally ended but the weather just turned to be so cold that I realized that I was actually shaking when walking on the streets. I was planning to watch “west side story” the musical in two weeks, but I was not sure if it will be in English or in French. I guess the French people can’t change everything into French, can they?

21 Feb 2009 7.15pm Grenoble

I woke up at 10.30 this morning feeling awfully comfortable. The weather was good with beautiful sunshine and after breakfast I decided to take a walk in the city. I did not wear my boots today because it was warm and instead I just took my sneakers and a thin coat. The city centre was not crowded as usual, but because of the good weather, a lot of people were sitting near the sidewalks of the streets sipping coffees. This is very French, I have to say.

I found this big book and music store in the city centre and bought two seasons of “Friends” DVDs and a French little book for kids called “Le petit Nicolas”. I was trying to persuade myself that all those things are for learning of French language, but in fact, I was just in the good mood of spending some money. And plus, if I don’t find entertainment in my room for myself I will be literarily watching the walls only like in jail.

On my way back, I went into a florist and bought a petal of rose. It was champagne colored and the shop assistant wrapped in such nice papers and it almost looked like a bouquet. I hanged around on the streets and had discovered this wet market near where I lived. I decided to visit this market and buy some fresh food next weekend.

In general I was in good mood today, probably because of the weather. I like it when it was warm and sunny. When I passed by this boulangerie, I saw this dessert looked like a giant whipped cream ball. I could not resist it and went in to buy one of those. I didn’t even know the name of the stuff, but who cares. So I ate it while I walked back to my room. It tasted sugar, only sugar. I called it the “ultimate sugar ball”. In the end it was just too much sugar for one person I guess, I had sugar high.

20 Feb 2009 8.40pm Grenoble

It is almost the end of the winter break week and today it is official, I have been in Grenoble for 20 days. It is significant for me, probably the longest 20 days in my life. My mom had concluded that I felt so bad here because I am alone. I could not agree more on this point. Remember that when I just arrived in Singapore, I did not complain so much. Of course RIB was a much better place to stay and I was practically moved from “countryside” to a modern world. And now I could not say it was completely the reverse but more or less so. Here the toast is to my courageous and heroic act of surviving in this small town in this Frenchy world.

I have finished my French intensive class for the semester and I myself was sure that I have improved a lot. Of course not to say I can perfectly understand what people on the streets or in school are talking about now, but at least I am able to make a better guess.  I am still reading English books and watching English movies -- that’s the only comforts that I am getting from my miserable life now. Yesterday I saw something like a meteor in the sky while I was walking on my way back from grocery shopping. I immediately made a wish upon the moving shining object and the wish was to speak fluent French. Pathetic.

A lot of people would spend their week-end on the mountains skiing because the school had organized such event. However it turned out to be very not funny when today the organizers had made an announcement on the white board for room distribution that 4 people regardless of gender will be staying in one room and “YOU CAN MAKE LOVE” but “WE WON’T PROVIDE CONDOMS”. It looked utterly childish to me but Chris had given the comment that “they are engineers.”

I went to IKEA again this afternoon and on my way back, I passed by this supermarket named “casino”. There were plenty of things inside and I found a lot of Asian products there such as NISSON cup noodles and soya sauce. Of course, these things cost insanely a lot in Europe. It is like cheese and wine in Singapore. As a result, I bought a bottle of wine instead. Should best utilize my money here.

19 Feb 2009 11.45pm Grenoble

Now my flu was almost gone and I was not sure if it was the flu or something else, anyway I was turned into to this anti-social nerd recently. I refused to go for all the parties and gatherings and the excuses that I gave to myself were that I was lazy. I was lazy, too lazy to shift around. I was very satisfied with my room and my bed and my laptop so after school everyday, I went back to stay in my room until midnight.

This week was not exciting, with French lessons everyday and nothing else. I went to Carrefour today and bought a bottle of 3-euro rose. I was again amazed by how cheap the wines are here in Grenoble. After a third of the bottle, I was dizzy. Crap. I therefore drank about 2 liters of water before I felt normal again.

15 Feb 2009 8.20pm Grenoble

My sickness got better on Friday after I slept for more than 20 hours in a row and woke up in the afternoon around 3pm. I received a call from Julie around 6pm while I was on my way back from grocery shopping. I finally decided to live my back Chinese way of life with rice and vegetables and soups, staying away from pastas and baguettes. Julie called to ask if I wanted to see a movie at night. Despite the fact that I really did not want to go out late and come back alone, I was really thought if I did not get any mental entertainment again in this small town, I will be rotten in my room. So I met for the guys and gals at this cinema called “le club” to see the latest American movie called “He’s just not so into you”.

The movie was in English with French subtitles.  The student price was slightly more expensive than a movie on a Friday night in Singapore. The cinema was a shock, however. It was small, like every other facilities here, without drink and popcorn booth. I bought the ticket and walked up to the third level. It was free sitting, in a room around 20-30 m2. It was packed and small, reminded me of the video screening in the tea houses on the streets in Chengdu when I was in primary school. The movie was a comedy. I noticed French people laughed at different point of time to some of us, maybe because of the subtitles. It was a good movie, relaxing and funny, suitable to adjust my mood. But next time I will remember to bring some food and drinks.

Saturday morning, I woke up at 630am and together with a group of ten people we took a train at 7.45am towards Lyon. Lyon was the second largest city in France, so as I heard, and it was about 2 hours away by train from Grenoble.

When we arrived in Lyon, it was 930am. It was freaking cold and snowing like hell. We walked on the street, trembling, at least I was. I cursed the weather in France. I thought Lyon will be warmer than Grenoble but it seemed that I was wrong. I did not eat anything for breakfast so when we passed by a bakery shop I went in to buy a quiche. It was a French stuff, made of egg and cheese and some other things, it tasted creamy and weird and I felt like puking after half of it. Julie got a bite and she told me that was goat cheese. The snow got harder by the time we reached the city centre but we still managed to stop on the way to take some photos. Before going to lunch, we went to Musee de Decoratif. There I saw typical French furniture and decorations from the old days. It was interesting and nice, but it was too much of decorations for me. I think I still preferred the Chinese type with simple designs.

Out of the museum, we walked up the hills. Half of Lyon was on the hill. The road on the hill was narrow, with buildings on both side of the road. The walls of the building are colorful, with mainly red and yellow colors. Around 1pm, we finally settled in a small French restaurant. The food was very French, I guess. Everything was with cheese and the servings were very large for me. I barely finish every dish because I was just too much. It tasted all very greasy and cheesy and I think I just got the quota of cheese for me for this whole month. The rest of the group seemed to enjoy the meal very much, though. After the meal it was already 3pm. We went to visit the other tourist cites such as the roman theater and the cathedral Notre-Dame de Lyon.  Before the dark fell, we were back to the city centre again.

It stopped snowing but it was still cold. Lyon at night was lovely, vibrant and splendid, with all the lights and people on the streets and shops of all different kinds. The buildings were classically French --- elegant and beautiful.  I was attracted this city at night immediately, much more than at day time. I suddenly missed Singapore, the night life and the warmth, the characteristics of a modern city, the convenience, the Starbucks, the 7-11s… I initially thought I would like Grenoble because it was a quiet small town --- peaceful and calm, but I was wrong, I do not like Grenoble, not at all, not without Kynokuniya or Boarders, not without big shopping malls, not without HMV, not without 24-hours McDonals and 7-11s, not without Carrefour and IKEA open on Sundays, even though the wine is only 2 euros a bottle.

11 Feb 2009 6.20pm Grenoble

So I was sick yesterday, and today. It started with a bit of sore throat and cough and I took some pills that I have brought here. The pills made me sleepy and yesterday I fell asleep around 9pm and woke up by the noise in the corridor around 8am. I felt awful when I got out of the bed, with this huge pain in my throat and I could barely make any noises out of my throat. I told myself “cool, this is going to be worse later.” And it was. By the time I reached school, I was coughing so hard as if I was trying to cough my lungs out of my chest.  There was no hot water in school as French people seemed not to drink water outside home, or at all. I am not sure about that. I have seen a technician in school getting water from the taps inside toilets, which is a bit gross and the water is cold, which does not really help with my sore throat. So I decided not to drink. In the afternoon, I felt my head spinning while I was using my laptop and the pain in throat was getting worse and worse. I doubt that I got a fever so I decided to see a doctor.

Apparently there is no public clinic in Grenoble, except for pharmacies and private doctors. The only hospital is located and I do not even know where that is. I decided to get some drugs out of the pharmacies and hoping to get a thermometer to see if I had fever as well. I have looked up in dictionary to see how to say some words in French such as “ fievre” and “ thermometre” and was practicing how to say it on the way. When I entered a pharmacy, I realized that it is something like the pharmacies in Watsons. I quickly found thermometers on the shelf and brought that to the casher. The guy said something in French I was supposed to understand but I did not. Then he repeated in English. He was asking me if I need something else. So I told him I’m going to take temperature first and if I am having fever, I am going to buy some drugs for that. Eventually I did not get fever. It was just a bad flu. He gave me something like a French version of aspirin and I asked for a box of Strepsils as well. It was expensive. But I guess when it comes to sickness, the price does not really matter.

Tomorrow I am going to have lessons in French again with those not so nice people. I felt depressed. But the good thing is the winter break is coming and I will finally have some French language lessons. I hope that will help.

Ps: I did not remember if I have mentioned this interesting part in the previous writings, but I think it is worth mentioning.  The toilets in school are mixed gender toilets. When it comes to the term “mixed gender toilets”, we normally think that it is like one cubical which is used my both females and males. Right, that is our definition of mixed gender. But here in Grenoble, the mixed gender toilet applies its literary meaning: there is only one door for the toilets and on the door it says “WC”. And then when you open the door, you see the devices that guys used to pee. And then if you go in further, you see a cubical where gals do their business. So normally what happened is that when u open the door, you see like a few guys peeing in front of you  and then if you are a gal, you just ignore the guys and walks past them into the cubical to do you business.

Sweet Lord.

8 Feb2009 5.45pm Grenoble

It is Sunday today. When I woke up this morning at around 8am, I opened the curtain and saw a white world. It must have been snowing hard last night and in the morning everywhere was covered by an inch thick of snow. I hardly see so much snow before, except once in the mountains in China. It was still snowing outside and I supposed it was cold. I planned to go to Le Musee de Grenoble in the afternoon. I wore an extra pullover and a pair of wool pants under my jeans. I also wore a hat and a big scarf for the first time since I came here. The wind was so strong outside, with snow fakes blowing to my face. I was wearing a black colored coat and immediately when I went out, the coat was covered with snow fakes. I walked down the hill, playing with the snow on my way down, feeling excited. By the time I reached the city, most of the snow had melted and the only snow one can see was in the air.

The museum was close by. I went in and took an audio guide. The place was full of art works, mainly paintings from different eras and different painters. Art works are not my specialty but I still appreciated the fineness of the exhibition. I was more attracted by the room with exhibition of ancient Egyptian stuffs such as the mummy coffins and sculpture pieces. That always fascinated me and I have taken a lot of photos. Out of the museum, I planned to go to the supermarket to do some grocery shopping. It shocked me when I realized that all the shops including clothing boutiques and supermarkets were closed on Sunday. Apparently there were only bakery shops and café still open. I was very hungry at the moment so I bought a crepe nutella. It was warm and good, just like the ones that I had in Singapore. I also bought a chocolate croissant for breakfast tomorrow.

When I was on my way back to my room, I passed by a bakery shop. The apple tart looked so attempting and I bought the last piece. I also bought some chocolates even though it was a bit expensive. I ate two pieces of chocolate while I climbed the hill. It was so nice that I was sure I would finish all I bought soon enough so that I can go back and buy some more again.

It turned dark by the time I reached my room and I planned to learn some French tonight.

7 Feb 2009 10pm Grenoble

Finally I settled my courses which will eventually be in French.  I kept telling people around me that I could handle it because I have experienced a similar case before --- when I just arrived in Singapore and not spoke much English, but I still survived, but I have no idea about this time, seriously. It is in university now after all. We will see.

Last night, I went out to meet Julie at her place. She rented an apartment in the city centre and it was really nice and cozy, especially as compared to my castle/jail. I bought some beers to her place and found that beers and wines are really cheap. I arrived at her place at around 8pm and people came gradually later. There are 5 Mexicans who suggested going out to dance later at night. At around 11pm when we finally agreed to move outside, I was feeling dizzy, after only 2 beers. It was super cold when we walked on the street, with rain and wind. Someone said the weather forecast told that there will be snow. The coldness chilled me awake, but soon enough, we were already outside a bar.

The bar/pub/club was very small, 20 m2 max. It was already filled with people, old and young, black and white. I was the only Asian again. The bar was very close to the entrance, where there was a table of black guys. We went inside and put our coats and bags on a small table against the wall. There was an area of about 10 m2 of empty place inside and this is the dance floor. I was told that the music was African. I was really bad at dancing this kind of music while the others seemed to cope with it well. So I told myself that I need a drink. I went to the bar and ordered a gin tonic in French. I was very proud of myself for this, even though I regret a bit to order it because it was expensive. It was very strong, twice as strong as it was in the bars of Singapore. The other Mexican guy ordered a mojito and I went to take a sip. The mint leaves were very fresh and strong.

After half a glass of gin tonic, I was in the mood for dancing. I still did not know how to dance to the music, but I was more relaxed. The bunch of Mexicans requested salsa music and it was like their national dance or something because they were suddenly all very excited and danced really well to the music. After midnight, I just felt sleepy and so I sat at a corner and just watched them dance. It was weird to me to see people actually dancing salsa in a club. It made me sleepy actually. I remembered when I went to double O in Singapore, I was always high.

The bar was closed at 2am. I was the only one who actually went back to sleep and the rest of people decided to go somewhere else to continue the night. Now I know that people from Europe, especially North Europe can drink really a lot. Julie said she could drink 20 beers without feeling anything.

This morning I woke up around 1130am and saw some white things on the grass outside my window. It was snow. I guessed it snowed in the early morning but by the time I woke up, the snow started to melt. I was very excited and went out immediately to call home. My parents were having dinner at the time I called.

I think I was the coldest day today since I came to Grenoble. Someone told me it was -3 degrees. I was kind of impacted by the nice apartment of Julie from last night and so I decided to do something about my own. I have been sleeping in my sleeping bag since I came here and now I think it is time to buy some real blankets and bed sheets and pillows. I went to IKEA in the afternoon. It was not easy to find the place because it was so far away in the suburbs. It was really nice view with all the small houses and gardens. I have to ask a few times before I finally reached my destination. I bought a lot of things and found my way back. It was really tiring to carry everything up the hill but I felt very happy.

Now while I am writing this, it is snowing outside. I opened the window and the chill immediately came in. I can see the snow fakes in the darkness with the little light from my window and I held my hand out of the window the snow fakes dropped in my hand and melted immediately. I decided to wake up early tomorrow morning to see the snow again.

5 Feb 2009 730pm Grenoble

So it was confirmed that there will not be internet connections in my room. Voila! As a result, I have to carry my laptop to school every time I want to access the internet. I had some beer with some exchange students in a Latin bar last night and it was a lot of fun. The beer was so cheap here and it cost only about 4 euros to get a pint of any kind. A guy from Finland named Joel told me that in Finland it is normal for someone to drink a whole bottle of Vodka during one night and the other guy from Belgium named Derek declared that he can drink 10 pints of beer for one night. I was impressed by how much they all can drink but as for the reliability, I guess I will never going to find out.  We finished the drinks early around 11pm. There was almost nobody on the street when I walked back to my room and it was cold. I was a bit scared, thinking it was not as if I was in Singapore and I should have not stayed until so late. It was weird, because in Singapore 11pm is like the beginning of the night. Maybe it was the weather which made the night darker.

I now started to understand the lives of those exchange students in NUS. Their insanity and madness are mostly due to the fact that they were abroad. There is no purples and plans or wicked thoughts (most of the time) and they just want to have fun.

I have had two drinks at the café on the streets since I came here. I always wanted to sit on the sidewalk of the road and have a small cup of French coffee. However, now it was too cold to sit outside and I always could not resist the chocolate. As a result, I had one chocolat chaud and the other is called “chocolat viennois”. I was just curious what that was when I ordered it, but it turned out just to be hot chocolate with whipped cream.

I have been eating baguette with French sausage for 3 days for all meals before I entered into a French fast food restaurant called “Quick”. It is nothing different from McDonal’s but I think the locals prefer the former. There are a few Chinese restaurants on the streets but I did not dare to walk into any because it looked so old fashioned like all the restaurants in China town in the western countries.

3 Feb 2009      10am    Grenoble

So I have arrived in France. Now almost everything has been settled and since I am only going out in the afternoon to meet my professor in school today, I have some spared time at the moment to recall what had happened in the past two days. It has been harder for me this time, being alone in the foreign land again and far away from where I was born.  I guess I have been too comfortable and dependent these recent couple of years and now with all these difficulties here, I am kind of finding the tough myself back again. I want to write every little thing down before I leave this piece of land so when the days pass I will not forget my heroic act when I was still young.

On 31^st Jan 2009 I left Singapore for France. This is the first time in my 23 years I have the chance to go somewhere further --- to go to the other continent other than Asia. I was not optimistic about my arrival in France, but I was not worried either --- at least I told myself so. My hand luggage was very heavy, with a huge backpacker’s bag and a hand bag full of things.  Arrival at Bangkok international airport was quite smooth. Since I have been there before, I was not lost during the two-hour transition time. There has been a long walk before I reach the final waiting room in front of my departure gate. By the time I arrived, there have been already a lot of people in the room. This is the first time I saw so many westerners taking the same plane with me. The fact that I became the minority made me feel a bit insecure. I felt that people looking at me with curiosity and disapproval so I tried to act cool and all that. I discretely looked for other Asian people in the room and guessed their nationalities, hoping to find some Chinese or Singaporeans, instinctively, but there were not many. As a result, I took a deep breath and started to observe the French people around me. Most of them were mid-aged or even older, fat and badly dressed. I remembered Chris had told me that only the old ones can afford to travel to Asia most of the time. When I finally heard the flight attendants called our departure, I was surprised by the fact that everyone just stood up and rushed to the gate with no sense of order. I smiled, thinking that French people are not better than Chinese.

On the plane, I sit near the aisle. It was a shock for me again when most of the French people took off their shoes after being seated. The first meal was served at around 2am and everyone seemed to be very hungry. I was impressed by how long French people can hold their stomach again. As I have been eating twice before I board the plane, I just drank some water. I tried to sleep but failed. Finally I decided to drink some wine to help me fall asleep but expected a hangover the next morning.

After 12 hours of flight, I finally arrived at Paris CDG airport. I was not very excited, knowing the fact that I was not going to stay in Paris for more than 6 hours and I still had a train to catch. At the custom, it was really a mess. At that moment, I started to appreciate how organized Singapore is.  I was lost in the airport after I got my luggage. CDG was like a maze made of numerous tubes. I finally asked a security guard for direction. This is the first time I spoke French to someone in France.  I practiced a lot of times before I said, “excuse moi, je cherche le sortie 34.” ---  A typical conversation from the textbook. So he answered me a long sentence with only one word that I could understand: a droite !  On the right, I told myself. I thanked him but it seemed that he still did not believe that I understand what he said – which was quite true, so he asked “ c’est bon ?” “c’est bon. C’est bon.” What else could I say?  I moved on, with my eyes kept looking on the right. Nothing. Finally I found the exit on the left side of the way. I felt very defeated, thinking “droite” is on the right and so on. In the end I realized that since the guy was facing me, his right should be my left.

I got out of the glass door and found the bus station. It was freezing cold outside but now I felt excited by the chill. The bus came after 2 minutes and it was my bus  --- going to Gare de Lyon.  I pushed the trolley with all my bags on it and moved towards the bus. At the same moment there was a guy come over to open the luggage cabin at the bottom of the bus.  I want to asked him where to buy ticket but I do not know how to say that in French so I went forward to say “ vous parlez anglais?”  He looked at me and looked pissed off. He did not answer and just nodded a bit. I was scared by his reaction and thinking perhaps it was because I was rude and did not say “bonjour” first. Quickly I asked my question in English. He said “on the bus.” So I just escape onto the bus the next second. The bus driver was an uncle at age of around 55. He hesitated a bit before saying “bonjour” to me. “bonjour, Gare de Lyon, Si vous plait.” “une personne?”  “une personne.” I was glad he understood me and was so nervous that I forgot the word “qui” but to repeat after him instead. He told me the price. Mean while, he pointed to the screen indicating the price in case I did not understand. The fact is, I did not.

The bus was empty in the beginning, but after it travelled around the airport and stopped at different terminals, it was full. A huge sized French uncle sit next to me. On the way, I thought he tried to talk to me a few times, but I was chickened out by the fact that I cannot speak French so I looked away out of the window most of the time.

At around 830am, I arrived at Gare de Lyon. Most of people got off the bus. I took all my bags with me, realizing that there would not be any trolley for me and I have to carry everything by myself. I kept reminding myself that Paris is nothing like Singapore and I cannot leave any bags behind and thinking of coming back for a second round --- I have to carry everything in one shot. This is hard because I have four pieces of luggage which in total weigh at least 40kg. When I just about to put everything on my body, this person came to me and asked “may I help you?” it was the uncle sitting next to me on the bus and he spoke very good English. Of course I let him helped me. And I learned that he is not French but Dutch. He came to France to ski. We chatted for two hours in a café while we waited for our train. Finally, he sent me onto the train and I was very grateful for his help.

It took 3 hours on the train to reach Grenoble. There were lots of farms on the way and they were just like the ones we saw on TV. Inside the cabin it was very warm and I fell asleep. By the time I reached Grenoble train station, it was already in the afternoon. I met two French guys who came to fetch me at the station and one of them had this super curly hair which I thought it was only possible to see in movies. But it turned out that he is not a very nice person.

I took a cab to my hostel and it was inside a castle on the hill. This fact really excited me until I opened the door to see my room. It was literately like a jail, with badly painted walls and a bed for prisoners. Everything was so bad that the room was not even comparable to the room at PGP.  And I still do not have access to the internet until now when I am writing this sentence.  After unpacking my stuff, I decided to walk around the area. It took me about 10 minutes to get down the hill and reach the town. Everything was closed --- all shops and restaurants, on this sunny Sunday afternoon. I found my way back to the train station and bought an international calling card. I thought to call home to tell my parents that I had safely arrived. However, the card did not work. The instruction repeated to tell me that I have dialed a wrong number and I needed to dial a new number again.

I gave up on calling and walked back to my hostel.  I remembered the way where I came from and went back with the same route. Climbing up the hill was more difficult than I thought. I took about 30mimutes to finish the trip and even though it was only about 5pm, it was completely dark. I was exhausted when I came back to my room and I had nothing to eat. I took a shower and the water was colder than back home. When I just about to sleep, someone knocked on my door. I opened the door and saw a guy standing in front of me. He said his name is Jeremy and he is my new neighbor. He is French but speaks good English. I was shocked by the fact that the level was shared by guys and gals and we also share toilets and showers. Jeremy has long blond hair and he tied it at back of head. I found that he has two sharp teeth each at the corners of his month when he smiles and it makes me immediately thought of vampires, thanks to “twilight”. So we talked a bit about our experiences and he went to say hi to other neighbors. I went to bed immediately. I did not have a pillow and a blanket, so I slept in my sleeping bag. It was comfortable and warm and I fell asleep quickly.  The next morning, I woke up at 530am and felt refreshed.