Beaune.

Marc's right when he says that I forget that I have a blog half the time. I was spending the morning blissfully browsing the net and looking at people's blogs when I realised that I, in turn, had things to blog about and that I did, in fact, have a blog. Given that I have the entire day off today having already finished my only class for the day (and it's only 11 AM), I don't work tomorrow and it's the weekend later, I decided that I do have enough time to blog.

The keyboard takes time to adjust to, so if any wise ass decides to scrutinise my blog for errors, get a life and bug someone else. What hurts is the fact that now that I'm finally OK with using the AZERTY format, I have to go back home and get used to the QWERTY format all over again. It's these little things that are going to annoy me when I get back, getting used to riding on the left again. Irritating.

I decided today to blog about (no guesses), life here. Everybody knows that I'm here as an English language assistant (Prashanth actually asked me if I'd come here to teach French, now wouldn't THAT be interesting?!) at a school. Now I know that that's about all they know about it. I'm here at a lycée (high school) called Lycée Etienne Jules Marey - Greta teaching students from the age of 16 to 20 (yes, 20). I’ve got classes where half the students are older than I am. Not good.

Having just turned 20 I figured it’d be easy to teach adolescents and that my classes wouldn’t be long boring sessions but would instead be more of conversation classes. I was right. The students are eager to please, make me laugh and are even fun to talk to. But, yes, here comes the ’but’, they suck at English. They tell me that they’ve been learning English for the past 3 years and when a student takes 2 whole minutes to churn out a statement that sounds like " ’E, ummmmm…’as gone to ze, ummmm..'ah merde, c’est pas ça’, ze..umm..librareee..", all I can say is that they must have had horrible teachers. It took a grand total of 2 hours to realise that they need help! They’re eager to learn, which I suppose is a good thing. I’m glad that they don’t see me as a teacher, but more of a friend. It makes it easier to communicate. When a student comes up to me after a class to say that she’s happy in my class and doesn’t feel scared to talk to me, I finally understand why people choose to be teachers. Trust me, this isn’t a profession I’d recommend to anyone, I never wanted to teach in the first place, but it does have it’s perks. What’s better is the fact that I have an open invitation at any time to go along with them to ’Operanite’ (which is the only attention-worthy discothèque here in Beaune. The 2 other language assistants (Stefanie for German and Karla for Spanish) are 22 and 24 respectively and the students secretly confessed that they find them way too old =).

Beaune. Very beautiful, picturesque and typically bourgoise. Ideal for a 2 week holiday, a big no-no if you’re going to live here, especially if you’re under 25. There’s nothing, no seriously, NOTHING that you could do here for more than a month that would classify as ’interesting’. There are a couple of decent discos, a really good cinema hall, wonderful places to walk around, nice cafés, but that’s about it. Dijon is the place to be, if you want to party. Which I suppose is a good thing if you’re new in the country and need a big break. Beaune, in very Goldilocks style, is not too big, not too small, but just the right size. The people are friendly, but there are only so many times that you can listen to the origin of wine and the different types of wine there are. The teachers are eager to help us ’have fun’, but I sincerely doubt if I’m having FUN at all the churches early on a Sunday morning. It’s the thought that counts, I guess.

Living alone. Not easy. Point. I spent the first 2 weeks living like a slob, refusing diligently to clean up my room, eat the right things and feasting on chocolate, for the sole reason, that I finally could. Once I got that out of my system, I’ve become oh-so-propah and though none of my friends will believe me I have turned into the type that cleans everyday and is tidy, despite all of amma’s dark predictions that I’d be living in a sty. HAHA, I CAN live alone. It’s tiring, exhausting, frustrating and scary (I spent the first 10 nights sleeping with the lights on), but I know that I can do it. I think this 7 month period is great because living away from home is something everybody must absolutely go through before they officially ’grow up’ and move out. I can cook, Ok, I’m not an ace chef (all I do for now is boil the rice and heat the veggies and the chicken, but hey, it’s a start. People who know me will concur), but I can survive. I’ve decided to move on from the daily bread and butter and cheese (LOT’s of cheese) to rice and spaghetti and lasagnes, pretty much things that take time to cook. The sad part is, even though I’m getting used to it and getting better too, I sincerely doubt if it’s something I’ll ever get to enjoy doing. Cooking is a chore I’d rather do without. Too bad.

Being a tourist. It’s the best thing in the world. I’ve visited about a zillion new places already and I’ve learnt a lot here. I can’t wait for the new set of holidays (December 22 to January 8) to roam around again.

The one thing about being away from home is that I’ve become really tolerant. People aren’t kidding when they say that a month away from home makes you older by a year. This is the only way to learn. I’ve never been much of a patient type but I can say that I’m improving. I don’t even get angry that easily (Sharmi, that IS true).

That’s about it for life here in Beaune. I can’t wait to come back but I don’t want to leave either.

Tamilians everywhere!!

Ah man, Prahalathan sent me this forward through Yahoo. Just when my day was starting to get yucky (dont get me started) I get this. Read through this and if you're tamilian you'll be sure to be laughing or at the very least grin.
When the title says it's funny, it is.
The best part is that she wrote it on by birthday. Ok well that's not really the best part, I just couldn't help noticing that. =)


Superb! Tamil woman in U.S. - nice blog... read it when u need a break...really superb...!
The following is an excerpt from a blog (written by an Indian in America ) Wednesday, September 28, 2005
En per padum paadu!!! My full name is Kalaivani, but I call myself Kalai. This is not for scene, ....like how Madhavan does in Anbe Sivam (Anbarasu --> Ars).it has a looooong and pathetic history... I started hearing different versions of my name after coming to this country, and the painful fact is all the possible permutations and combinations of vowels in my name give meaningful words in tamil!!!
When I first joined the university, my professor wrote to me.. Dear KALAvani (meaning: thief; context: kalavani paya..) .... ... ... Sari adhuvachum typo nu free ya vittudalam..

Then after a year, I joined a company for internship.those people called me before I joined, to inform me about some test which I had to take.. "Hello is this Ms. Kizhavaani?" (meaning: old; context : kizha bolt..etc.) "No..this is KALAIvaani" "Ohh..am sorry KALAvaani" (Marupadiyum. ..)

Then I decided.periya pera irukkinala thane ivlo confusion?!! So, I started calling myself 'Kalai'... but the story continued.. I joined my full-time position in another company recently. On my first day, we had a meeting.. "Let's all welcome our new associate.Ms. Kulai" (meaning: bunch; context: kulai kulaiyai vazhaipazham kaaithadhu) CLAP! CLAP! CLAP! CLAP! Followed by smiles. (Dei.ennangada. .. ellarum serndhu comedy panreengala? ??) Anniku arambichadhu. ..

Once my boss and I were talking about a project... after finishing the meeting... "Ok, Kali. Nice to have you here!" (meaning: last yuga; context: kali muthi pochu.) "That's KALAI" (Enakku idhu thevaya?!) "Ohh kAALi?" (meaning: goddess; context: badrakaali.. ) "Hee hee .very close" (Podaannnggg. ..!!) So, I stopped correcting my name after that..!

One fine morning, I was working. "Hey kiLai (meaning: branch; context: marakiLai) .howz it going?" "Yea good" (Sollitu thirumbitten. Nammaluku edhuku indha per thiruthura business nu...) "Is that how you say your name?" (Aaahaa arambichutanya. ..!!!) "Uhhh. It's KALAI" "Kolaai?" (meaning:pump; context: kozhai adi sandai.) (Venaaammm.. .) "Kolai?" (meaning: murder; context: kolai panniduven.. ) (Venaam!) "kaLai?" (meaning: weed; context: kaLai pudunguradhu.) (Valikkudhu. .. azhudhuduven. ..) "May be I'll get your name with practice. Haha." (Idhellam remba over da dei... Tamil la paatha rende rendu ezhuthu thaan da!!!)


Ennada, Chandramukhi la thalaivar 'durga' perai nakkaladikkira maathiri... namma per ayiduche nu nenaikkum podhu... my friend came up with a brilliant idea! Adhavadhu... to compare my name with a word.so I started using this word 'kaleidoscope' ; which has the same pronunciation as 'kalai'! So, I started telling everyone. 'Kalai as in kaleidoscope' !. Ippo kooda romba ellam ozhunga solradhulla. They are saying 'kalaai' (kalaaikiradhu).. "Hey Kalaai!!" "Yea?" "Just trying to say your name. Ha ha ha" "Ohhh ..how sweet!" (thooo thEri..)

Yedho vaandhi edukkira effect la per irundhalum.. . my life was in peace... until few days back... My net connection was down, so I called up the customer service (En kiragam. Madras call center ku pochu!) Enakku andha vishayame theriyala. So I started in complete American accent... "Your name ma'am?" "Kalaai" "What? Can you repeat ma'am?" " Kalaai as in kaleidoscope" "I didn't get that ma'am. Can I have your number? I can check the records" (Sigh!... and gave the number) "Ohh, Kalaivani, right?" (in a sarcastic tone.) ( Ada paavi makka... nee nammooora??! !! All American accents stopped. Back to Indian accent.) I could clearly see what he was thinking... per paatha 'urs pammingly' nu podra category maathiri irukku... scene podradhu mattum princess Diana range kaa... "Anna... naan sathyama andha maathiri illeeengana. ..

Phew, finally made it!!

My first blog after coming here. It has to be long and it's taking a long time and lot of patience. I for one am not a frequent blogger but i'm doing things that need to be blogged about. you can forget the punctuation for a few sentences here since i'm using the azerty keyboard and i dont have the patience to get the punctuation right; getting he right spelling is already a big deal for me, i cant be bothered with the punctuation too.

For that limited number of people who do read my blog, you must already know that i'm supposed to have left for france on the 26th september. now this is what happened after the 26th. i left chennai on the morning of the 26th with a lot of baggage and no idea of what to expect. ananth, viren and mika came over to my place on the 26th morning to see me off and i met cyco at the airport. for the first flight i thought it was the worst experience ever. fortunately it didnt last very long and i reached delhi slightly sick and pretty cold too. delhi was fun; it was new delhi so i suppose that made a difference. the conference was fun, its nice to have met all the other assistants and finally meet kripalinee seeparsad in the flesh (for all the 'help' she gave us before leaving). they gave us some last minute advice on what to expect and that was pretty useful (one of them actually said that meals could sometimes last even 5 hours here, for which we all laughed. oddly enough, it is true. a simple dinner at one of the prof's houses lasted from 8 pm to 1 am). i met himanshu at delhi and even did a bit of the sight seeing and had, which was undoubtedly, the best panneer tikka and beer ever!

the stupid people at the embassy took us to the airport at 8 pm for a 2 am flight (what were they thinking?) and left us there on our own. not that we needed much help anyway. i was asleep at the airport on anbu's backpack at midnight when the whole jing bang decided to wake me up and celebrate my birthday. that was fun, but its odd having coca cola and lays at midnight at the airport with a bunch of strangers on your birthday. finally we got into the flight at the indira gandhi airport at delhi and headed off to milan. we stopped at milan at 8 am and took the next flight to paris at 8 40 am, with just about enough time to freshen up a bit, look around the airport and take a few photos. i remember watching ocean's 13 on the plane and we reached paris CDG at 10 45 am, slightly ruffled and quite excited. people at paris are very friendly to foreigners, especially if you can speak in french. i had to take the TGV from the airport at 2 pm and i hadnt the slightest idea where it was. anyway we managed to make it in time and when they say that the TGV is fast, trust me, it IS fast; there were raindrops on the window outside whose streaks were parallel to the base because of the speed. i slept on the way to lyon and managed to get into the train to beaune in time. the train to beaune was a lot slower and more relaxed and i could see the landscape well. bourgogne (the region) is known for wine and right enough, youcan see vinyards everywhere. i reached beaune on time and met mme jocelyne guillot and the conceirge for the school, joe, at the station. the rest is a blur, reaching the appartment, meeting the room mates, partying at jocelyne's house till midnight and collapsing on the bed. thankfully the room mates let me sleep till about 11 the next day. mr michellon and his son took us out shopping for food the next day and i managed to get myself a coat and see a bit of the place.

on wednesday after that weekend the three of us (karla, stefanie and me) went to dijon to meet all the other assistants for our conference at the CRDP. i met the other english assistants in bourgogne there and turns out there are only 5 in beaune (my city). 3 english assistants (jeffrey, georgia and me) and karla (for spanish) and stefanie (for german). that evening after the conference we went to our first discotheque and oddly enough they kept playing many songs of the beatles.

we came back to beaune the next day and i started work at the lycée the next day. a lycée, isnt a grammar school (damn all the french teachers back in india who told you that); its actually a high school with three levels, starting from the sécondaire, primaire and then the terminale (that is the order). the terminale students after their studies take up their baccalauréat (thats their equivalent of our 12th board exam) and then get into either the university, or specialisation school or get a job. the lycée i am at, called the lycée E. J. Marey has about 800 students. thats not much by indian standards but still a lot here. the professors are friendly and i work with a great set of english teachers: the reason i say great is because they've given me fridays off ("you have to travel here!!") and most of the time let me prepare my own class ("i've given you the 'carte blanche' ") and are very helpful whenever i need them. (eeeee)

they've seem to take it upon themselves to keep us in good shape here. jocelyne inspected the house once and decided that we didnt have enough food, so all the professors keep inviting us to their houses for food! its exhausting, but a lot of fun too. the first time we went shopping here, it was after getting all our clothes from the laundromat, we went to a place called the casino and the three of us lost complete control and shopped to the extent that we could barely walk back. fortunately for us one of the professors saw us struggle back and even sent word the next day that all we had to do is give her a list of things we need and she'd buy them for us (what's wrong with the people here??).

the classes are a lot of fun. not all the time, because some of the students are really shy. they take forever to bring out two small sentences (which sound like french in the first place) and keep giggling a lot, and that annoys me terribly. on the upside however there are a few classes where the students are very eager to talk, however bad it is, but still, they try. i came here with no experience whatsoever in teaching (i did take tuitions for a couple of months before, but thats different) and i just assumed that they'd listen to everything i say and understand it as and when i said it. too bad that never happens. the first thing i learnt is that you have to think on your feet and visual aids always help. they love to discuss things about india, (there's a student here who's absolutely convinced that Buddha was from Pondicherry and that all the people in India worship cows). Nothing i said could diffuse that belief. one day i even played that song 'folk you' (junkyard groove) for them with the lyrics (although part of it has tamil and malayalam) and they loved it! they've got the oddest ideas in their heads about indians and when they were told that i was an indian they automatically assumed i dont eat meat, that am already married, that i worship cows, that i listen to classical music and that i hate rock. that was funny.

sight seeing in beaune doesnt take more than 2 days, 3 if you're slow. i've seen the hôtel dieu (an old hospice), the remparts, the palais de ducs, the église de notre dame, the centre ville, the shops, the bank; the old fort, everything! now i want to get out of beaune, try dijon, lilles (anbu's at Dunkerque) aix marseilles and even paris later. i have the holidays from the 27th to the 8th so i suppose i'll try to do something then.

whoever said that living away from home is easy and is a great experience obviously chose not to talk about the first few months. its not easy to wash your clothes, to clean up your room, to make your own food, to shop alone, to prevent spending excessively, to find your way around the city on your own, to remember to NOT sleep on the couch and then to head off to work in time every single day. but fret not, once you get into the groove, you're good to go. its the first week thats painful (i mean painful exactly as it is).

all that aside, i cant believe that its only been 3 weeks so far. well i've finally updated my blog, something i should have done a LONG LONG LONG time back, and i'm not really looking forward to doing it again in the next few weeks.

Orkut spam.

Check the picture out. Now exactly what am I supposed to do with a message like that?! You’d think what with Orkut being commended a wonderful virtual plane for meeting people and reconnecting lost ties and all, they’d have done something to prevent your inbox from being filled with absolute crap. In what state of mind would someone actually think that absolute strangers would post birthday wishes to his “sweetest sweetest frnd”??
But, in all fairness, my primary question is, what exactly was he thinking when he decided to create such a community in the first place?! Sweetest friend indeed!

I used to like orkut at first. It was great for getting in touch with old friends and for meeting fun people. Slowly the irritation at having to delete anonymous friend’s requests built up, inbox being cluttered with spam didn’t do any good either. One look at some messages on my scrapbook will ordinarily convince me to delete my account forever but it has helped me keep in touch with some really old friends so I decided to let it be and silently fume at the ignoramus who figured he’d want to ‘friendship me’ (yuck!).

I’ve determinedly kept orkut only for my friends from school and let only 2 of my friends in college in on my friend’s list. I’d rather have a stranger in my list than people from college all over again. Although on second thought I’d be much better off clearing out the people I don’t know on this list. Add to the frustration the request for ‘testis’ (its not going to kill you to say testimonial) and the war for the highest scrap count and you’ve just been branded an orkut hater.

Darling. A KILLER love story.

Sam’s home for the weekend!! That gives me all the more reason to shun all the work I have now and start enjoying all over again. Not that I was up to here with work anyway. She came in at about 9 AM today and woke me up with her usual ‘HI!!!!’. I had a mild headache till about 11 AM given that I didn’t get to sleep much. The real reason behind this entry is the much awaited movie ‘Darling’ that we went to see today at ANU-EGA. The theatre was horrible enough, filled to bursting with an angry almost-complete Gujju mob. Most people “forgot” to switch off their cell phones during the movie, hence leading to snippets of “rang de basanti” right in the middle of a horror scene.

The plot.
A playboy in the making accidentally kills one of his girlfriends in a brawl and is overcome by guilt. His girlfriend’s ghost, determined to get even, decides to haunt him till the end of time, or his sanity, whichever comes first. Badly picturised scenes and an unnaturally loud sound system later, the man decides to confess and give up. There’s a wife and son somewhere in between and demonic possession towards the end.

You never really know where to start. Do I give prime importance to the ‘acting’ skills, the unnecessary and terribly predictable loud sounds (to the point at which you’d know 10 seconds in advance as to when to shut out your ears), the story in the first place, or the fact that everybody else seems to like the story when you’re the only one sitting there wondering if you’re retarded or are they? There was actually a scene in which I laughed out loud at the exact same time at which a woman in front of me screamed for a scary scene. (?). The actors were probably deaf during the shooting for nothing else can explain the redundant dialogues. Everything the guy said was repeated as a question by his wife!!! Towards the end I was glad she died.

When the movie (finally) ended, I remember walking out of the theatre hall thinking ‘what’s happened to Ram Gopal Verma?. After having seen Sarkar and Company, Aag and Darling seem inexplicable. Hopefully it’s a bad phase that he’s going through, I mean, everyone would like to see better movies come from him now, wouldn’t they?

Darling, a killer love story? Oh yes it is.

A fine balance.

*does victory dance*. I finally finished it. Turns out it was the most disgusting book I’ve ever read in my life (until now) and I managed to complete it in 1 week straight. Gifted to me last month, the book is titled “A fine balance” by Rohinton Mistry. Not for the faint hearted this one is. It’s a simple enough book that revolves around 4 people whose lives dramatically change during the Emergency called by the (then) Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Dina Dalal, the paradoxically old Parsee woman whose dramatic life forces her to age in mind and soul faster than she ought to, Ishvar and Omprakash, fighting to keep misery out of their daily schedule and learning to accept the shocks of the city life as opposed to the torments of their native village. Maneck, the young paying guest, brilliantly portraying all that an adolescent boy can. The pangs of leaving a safe home, facing torture in the name of ragging. What I felt was the icing on the cake was the subtlety with which he (the author) has sneaked in points like ‘improper’ romance, racism, untouchability, the hiatus given to money.
The reason I deemed it disgusting is for the sole fact that its disturbing. Well most of it is. Shocking for people who haven’t lived through any bit of it. I have to admit, I haven’t seen a jhopadpatti or been to the nearest village (the closest one was the semi-town where I spent 6 out of 10 days sick) either, so reading about life in them was horrendous. The atrocities each of them face is in its own way justified although being human, you find that at some points, more often than not, just putting the book down seems the best thing to do. The style is simple and powerful at the same time. Painfully descriptive is what I can leave it at.
I do remember having highlighted ‘improper’ romance earlier. How can you explain the logic behind attraction towards older women? To start it all, is there any logic behind any form of attraction in the first place? I doubt it. Then why do we question this one? Who are we to call it abnormal? Why do we unwillingly spur this one (not to mention the million others we find inappropriate too)?
But all said and done, it is still a book, which I loved and hated at the same time. Frankly, I’m glad I got it over with.
Would I recommend it to you? Nnn…nyes.

status quo - ii

Fret not. I have a lot of free time (so to speak) hence the more frequent visits to blogger. For those of you who don’t know as yet, I quit Ajuba. I’m finally free to do all the things I wanted to before, only now I don’t have the need to. News update. I’m leaving on the 26th to Delhi and on the 27th to France. There’s a conference at Delhi on the 27th after which we leave to Paris at night. Onward to Dijon for me once I reach. I shall (hopefully) be received there by someone from the school (Lycée E. J. Marey, for those of you who can understand French you can check it out at: lycee-marey-beaune.fr)
I’ve been in touch with my contact at the school, a funny sort of bloke by the name Yves Michellon. Dead helpful when it comes to even the tiniest of doubts and terribly inquisitive when it comes to India (the guy actually corrected me and said ‘Chennai’ when I said ‘Madras’!!!!!). Nice.
The only things left now are the visa formalities and the health insurance that I need. I cannot apply for the visa without getting the insurance which I hope to be done with by the end of this week. So once that’s done all I need to do is book a day at the consulate at Pondicherry and get that over with. Fortunately for me the embassy’s taking care of the whole thing, the only things I needed to take care of were to get the proof of accommodation and get a policy. Almost done.
Now the real deal. I’ve been trying to get various articles and pretty much what I can lay my hands on when it comes to the great Indian culture. It has to be interesting, in English and should be informative as well. Cook books, comic strips, photos, languages, people, radio clippings, movies, you name it. I’ve also been worried sick about the fact that I have to COOK there!!!!!!!! (Enough said).

Status quo...

Turns out blogspot doesn't automatically delete blogs if you don't post often enough. Damn. Utter shame, to have to look at your blog and suddenly realise that you're supposed to be updating it often.
5:40 AM. Staying up because I know that I won't get up in time if I go to sleep. I shall be leaving to Pondicherry in another 5 hours or so to watch the college bands performing at JIPMER. I missed the rock show, might as well watch the up and coming bands and make a day of it.
I quit Ajuba today (phew!). It sure was a nice place, but working there only made me realise that I'm not ready for work yet. I still want to be a student, crib about my books, cram the night before the exams and say that I needn't have bothered studying at all in the first place. Work is not boring, it's EXHAUSTING!! Well, that's that for now anyway and I now have a WHOLE 3 weeks to enjoy as much as possible, eat home food and be with my friends before I have to leave.
Update, I got my letter (finally!) from Dijon. Not much of a letter though, the only cinch is that I couldn't have applied for my visa without it. One down, million more things to do. The wait for the letter was irritating though, given the fact that they were sending it by snail mail, there was every chance that it'd be lost somewhere halfway through. Trust me, stuff like that happens to me. I just about managed to get to know that I'd been selected for this in the first place. We'd been sent e-mails about it back in February and had to confirm our participation by the 23rd; and I got to know that I'd been selected ON THE 23rd!!! The stupid lady at the French Embassy sent mine to the wrong e-mail address!!!
Given all that, getting the letter came as a big relief. Now I have to go through the whole process of replying to them and finding accomodation for the next 7 months. Oddly enough, I haven't begun to worry about actually being there and TEACHING 18-20 year olds. (Gulp!!)
The language and communication is not a problem. I know English well and French too (I have proof, I tell you!!), but getting through to a bunch of people who just might be terribly rebellious and end up chasing me out of class. I mean, what if they turn out to be like those students in "To Sir with Love"???? I'm sensitive...!!
What if I become home sick?? What if I feel lonely? What if I fall sick? What if I meet with an accident?? I have this recurring dream of me breaking a bone or two when I get there!!!
But the upside of it all is that learning French and mugging ALL those verbs and nouns and different grammar rules and going through ALL those exams and making all those presentations finally paid off. I'm not even remotely worried about how I'd teach the students, the only thing is WHAT will I teach them?! How are teachers patient enough? How do they deal with annoying questions and loud brash kids and irritating ones? I remember being a student at school and the friends I had. Being on this side of the table was fun and all, but what's it like over there?!!
Anyway....7 months will be up soon. I'll enjoy it as much as possible. It's France after all. I've been wanting to go there for a really really long time. So at the end of the day, I'm happy to be going, as long as I don't think about it often enough, I can't wait to have coq au vin and croissants and vin rouge, look at the Eiffel tower, walk around the Champs-Elysees and even see what the fuss over Mona Lisa is all about =).

I'm tired of making up titles. Call this rambling if you will.

What am I updating for? I really have no idea. At home on a Monday night after work, unable to sleep and lonely and alone, yeah, I just answered my own question.
It’s been a long week, with many changes. Some expected some quite out of the blue. I’ve been changed into a new team at work, which is working really well. The people are nicer than I thought they’d be =). That’s one change I quite like.
I got myself a new hairstyle, so instead of the curly, my hair is all wavy now and even behaves well when let down (which is something I hate doing normally).
I found some good songs over the net (for those who don’t know me, I am well known for my inability and stubborn unwillingness to download music and listen on my own. If you want to recommend something to me, you’d better have it with you; I sure as hell won’t bother looking for a site on the net).
I saw SIVAJI!!!...brilliant movie. Although classic Rajini fans won’t agree. It’s too modern, with some really ridiculous scenes, but the experience of all the hooting and the cheering (especially when he spoke in English “I was cornered. I was helpless” HAHA!!) was worth it all. And the best part is that I’m going again on Saturday night. =).
Ozzy left = (. For those who are still clueless on who that is, Ozzy was our guest cat for the month. He’s naughty, funny and so adorable with his weird little quirks like his funny mew or the way he sleeps.
There’s a lot more to life right now. There are changes coming in by the minute. With people, friends, loved ones, acquaintances, you name it. What do we do with it all? Especially when it gets to the point of desperation for want of some familiar territory, for some old comfort. We do nothing but bear it all.

Anyway, that's a pic of Oz and in his classic posture of lazing around..=)

What have I been upto?

A lot actually. Given that I haven’t updated in such a long time, I can safely say that I have been upto a lot.

First up. I got a job. *waiting for the applause*
It’s in a place called Ajuba, which is basically a billing office, about which I’m not going to bother explaining. I’ve done it many times already and that includes talking for about 5 to 10 minutes about the Insurance policies and options in the states and I’ve done my share of explaining.

Now onto the place. The people are fun, seriously. Given that 80% of the crowd are in their early 20’s its easy to mix with the crowd barring the occasional nerd or exceptionally orthodox girl (who happens to sit right next to my cabin). But that’s all right. Its fun giving her the occasional heart attack every twenty minutes with some jibe. Its only the start of the job anyway. So I end up finishing most of what I need to do for the day in about an hour at the max and end up roaming around, listening to music (good ones!) and the best part about it is that given that am only a fresher and new to the job and all, they’re really nice to me. =)

Anyway, that’s the job. Now the reason why I got the job. Simple. To while away the time till September. I’m going to France for a year. To be an English teacher. Cool huh? I’ve been selected into Dijon, only I don’t know which school as yet. Its all good. My tickets are being paid for, from Chennai to Delhi (stay in Delhi for a 3 day conference), Delhi to Paris and Paris to Dijon. To apply for this programme I had to write the IELTS which was the most boring 3 hours of my life. I also had to go through some interview rounds with my Directeur at the Alliance Francaise (Karl Cogard) and the Student Counsellor. He tested my French and she tested my English. That wasn’t easy. Given that they wanted only the capable people to go there to avoid incidents later on, they were tougher than usual. I also had to do a little presentation to Karl during which I had to show him how I’d teach kids and teenagers English. I chose a text on the different languages in India and spoke endlessly about the richness of a country’s culture portrayed in linguistics. I spoke about the grammar and vocabulary differences that I’d focus on with each crowd. I spoke about how I’d asses their skills first and then base my course for the day on it. One question came my way. “If you get selected for teaching the teenagers how would you manage supervising a class where the majority is older than you?” “err…umm….”. Does anyone really know the answer to that? Well I managed something that sounded remotely convincing anyway. So now months later I’ve been chosen to go to France to teach teenagers without an inkling as to how to do it.

I went to Bangalore last weekend and a rock show yesterday. The trip was fun, got to meet Sammy after a long time. There was a place there called Garuda Mall where they take a photo of yours and put it up on a coffee mug. Pretty cool eh? The concert yesterday was pretty cool too. Only the sound system was a little messed up for many people to handle. But the bands that I got to see were really good. Yay for me!

Other than that life's been good. Concerts here and there, done with college (not missing a single soul from there either =P), work's good, meeting friends and fun, fun, fun all around. So all in all, Life's Good. =)

MESSAGE SENDING FAILED

Now thats something i'm very frequently faced with on my cell phone...am a student...a college student...so i take it thats quite alright...to not have mentionable balance on a cell phone....its really not my fault actually...i like calling...at least i prefer calling rather than texting..(i hate the time lapses actually)..
I had an airtel number at first...and then i was inspired by the movie enough to actually have one of its songs as my hello tune..(the 'apni tho paatshaala' song)...had a lotta fun with it at first..and then realised that having 30 rs deducted every month wasnt really fun...(worst part is by the time the song was updated every month i'd only have around 2 rs as my balance...so it'd end up in negatives...which many found really suprising....*sheesh*)...
Anyway...switched to hutch ( i dont know why) and then made the fair judgement of not uploading another hello tune...but then again not so suprisingly...here i am again with balance less than a ruppee....

There are two sides to this coin...first the good part...u arent bothered with replying to messages all day(sorry guys!)..u can only be reached when called..(which most people dont)...and basically u go back to life-before-the-cell-addiction.....peace!

The downside...?...u cant reply to anyone....people think u're mad at them since u dont reply(!)...or worse they think u're beyond such crap...and many wisely choose these moments to give u missed calls and expect u to call back...(ha!)...

Anyway...best part bout hutch is the chota recharge thingy....which i have to do sometime soon....so anyway...what do u think?..life without the cell phone now??

"u have 277 frnds...did u knew everyone b4 frndship? everythin has a first time...thot abt sendin u a frndship request...on a second thought..desisted myself"......

Okay...I didnt get that...but a friend of mine did....and I just happened to see that one...first reaction...roll in laughter...and slowly progress to disgust....

Well...i know that in a way i'm being prejudiced...but i cant help it...people with really bad grammar turn me off!..call me mean...i dont care..
hell, they could be really nice people, but my first impression of this seems to last beyond the nice-bit...in my head, bad english = bad person whose head i need to rip off....

Funny though..this community i found on orkut titled, i hate people with bad grammar....well so there ARE people like me then...its definately worth joining..check it out...

http://www.orkut.com/Community.aspx?cmm=1854314

School was bearable....hell, people in my school KNEW english well....but college?...argh!..the first week there and i could count the number of people who are worthy of acknowledging...(actually thats bit of a stretch,..make it more like people who i know could understand what i said)..

How frustrating would it be to be stared at with blank expressions when u walk up to a bunch of people and say 'you are expected to be at the lab, pronto'....???
Some things that really tick me off are when people say redundant stuff....'return the book back yaaaaaaa......'....'repeat it again, noo...'.......argh!!

And is it the tamil lingo to extend the last syllable of the word at the end of the sentence??...hey, am a tamilian..and no one ever taught ME to do that!...and the 'no', 'ya'...at the end of every sentence!!....

Or worse....grammar is thrown out the window...there's a topic in that comm that goes something like that....with the addition of 'ed' to the verbs when u want to use the past tense...
'he buyed it...but didnt liked it...so he gived it back...'....(kill me...kill me now...)

Barbarians...there was an incident in my first year that still makes me want to kill that girl...
A conversation where i had to give her the very simple message...'come to the seminar hall for practise at 3 pm'..

ME: U have to be at the seminar hall for the practise at 3 pm today
HER: ok...but do i want to be there?
ME: huh?...how would i know??
HER: ..no tell me...do i want to be there??
ME: look, its none of my business if u want to be there or not..
HER: Aiyo...u not getting me...!!...DO I WANT TO BE THERE???
ME: Sod off...
HER: ...okay..thank you...(and smiles)
ME: !!$*#@&**!!

Many people say this..'he proposed her'...proposed her what?!!..sounds more like he hit her...

Anyway....anything you've heard is annoying enough?..