radiator blues

Today I almost froze in my sleep. The radiator stopped heating in the middle of the night and it was so cold. Actually I think it may have stopped working even when I went to sleep at about 11pm but the room was not cold then.

In fact, earlier on last evening, I suspected something was wrong with the heating while showering. The water was just lukewarm instead of hot as it usually is. I didn’t even have to balance the water temperature by turning on the cold water tap… luckily, the water was not cold and I managed to shower quickly.

I believe it’s a central system of heating in the building because when the radiator doesn’t work – which does happens sometimes during the day and that’s ok coz there’s some solar heat in the day – I noticed there is no hot water from the sink in my room.

Last night was terrible, I woke up at 3+am in the cold. As much as I huddled in the bedsheet, it was still cold. And I put on socks but my feet were still cold. I covered my head with the hood of the jacket that I wear to sleep. I even had to cover my head with the bedsheet coz my face was freezing. I don’t like to do that because the bed sheet is white and I don’t relate well to covering myself that way when I sleep.

In the end, after trying to get back into fitful sleep, I woke up at 630am. I even used a heat pack to warm myself but didn’t really help much. Basically, the temperature outside my room and within is the same. Usually, when I go out to the toilets and enter the room, there is warmth in the room. But today, it was exactly the same! Argh!

This morning, I checked with some students in the same building and at least, I know I’m not the only one. In fact, 1 guy said he bathed in the morning and the water was straight cold. I can’t imagine…it must be super cold and I wonder how he bathed. Even when I wash my hands with cold water for too long, they start to feel numb!

Right now, my room doesn’t feel warm enough. Just checked that the radiator is radiating a faint amount of heat…I hope it is not a sign that it will stop working again in the middle of the night. I have a bad feeling though…

(My internet is not working now so will post this in the morning. Update: luckily last night, the radiator worked quite well.)

Food at Rambouillet

At the institute, we have fixed meal times and for weekdays it is: 8am breakfast, 1pm lunch and 7pm dinner. For weekends, it is an 11am brunch and 7pm dinner.

It’s great that the course is full board because it would be very expensive if I need to eat outside and I envisage myself eating a lot bread instead of some proper food. It is kinda “buffet” style so basically you just take a plate and then get whatever food you want.

Before I arrived, I thought that the food here would be quite plain but in fact, I find that they serve rather nice dishes and there’s enough variety within the week.

Breakfast is always the same but so far, for 1 day in the week there are croissonts available. The usual items available are bread, cornflakes, yoghurt, juices, coffee, ham, cheese, jams, nutella.

For lunch and dinner, there are always some vegetables and salad stuff. Sometimes, there are avocados available. The main dish is usually either chicken, pork, turkey or fish cooked in various ways. It is usually accompanied by a dish such as chips, mashed potato, rice or pasta. And at times there are grilled vegetables or oven baked vegetable dishes.

Desserts are available during lunch and dinner too. There are usually 2 types of desserts such as puddings, tarts, cakes, mousse and chocolate eclairs.

Not bad right?!

There are many students at the institute now so at lunch, some of the dishes are depleted before everyone has even taken 1 serving. I believe that the cook did prepare more food recently so hope that will not happen next week. But in any case, I try to get there early for lunch!

Versailles & Musée D’Orsay

First Sunday of the month = no admission fees for many places!!

I had taken some food from the canteen the day before so that I have something to eat for breakfast – i.e. bread, jam, yoghurt and apple. Woke up at about 6am and left at 7:15am.

The day didn’t start great because I planned to take the 7:35am train but when I got to the station, I realised that I missed a fineprint on the timetable indicating that particular train doesn’t run on Sundays. So I waited for about 40 mins (in the cold) before I boarded the 8:05am train. I could have slept more! It was a very short journey and the ticket fare was 5 euros.

As usual, I had checked the weather forecast before I left and it is sunny (yay!) with windchill of -6 degrees (argh!)  in Versailles. I had put on the warmest thermal wear I have + jacket + scarf + gloves and brought heat packs along too.

I have no idea the exact amount of windchill I felt but I wanted to crawl into a hole and hide from the wind. While walking from the train station to the chateau, I could hardly feel my toes and was quite worried if they were frost-bitten! COLD!!!!

I am so glad (again) that my jacket has a hood… although it falls over my eyes at times, it blocked the wind from my head. I have also learnt from experience to always have a scrunchie with me – having hair flying in all directions is not fun.

I wanted to get to Versailles early since it is free entry and I assumed there would be a queue. Anyway, I’m glad I didn’t get there that early because it was so cold outside with the relentless wind. At close to 9am, there was a short queue and I got in quickly after going through the bag scanning.

First day of lessons

(2 posts for the day!)

Today was the start of my 4-week classes. I woke up quite early and then went for breakfast at 8am. Breakfast was not bad – had yoghurt (then again, there’s always yoghurt!), cornflakes, salad stuff, bread. They also always have cheese available but I didn’t try that. And there’s fruits and dessert too for each meal.

At 9am, I had to take an oral test for placement into classes. I felt that t was not really a test per se – the professor was asking me basic questions like why did I learn French, why did I choose Rambouillet, how long have I learnt French, did I take DELF or DALF…etc.

Anyway, after that was done I learnt that for Monday mornings from 9 – 1030am, students will need to choose a class to attend from the available classes on the noticeboard. Basically, we need to select one that we are interested in and that is at at a suitable level.

I was the only student for that class and the passage that we worked on was quite difficult (and not that interesting)! It was about the phenomena of the movement of the less wealthy to the suburbs, especially in Paris.

Rambouillet arrival

It was a cold and windy day (after storm Xynthia swept through France) when I arrived at Rambouillet on Sunday. After asking directions to get on the correct road, I trudged to the institute with my heavy backpack. It seemed heavier than when I arrived in Paris! Strange huh, maybe it is because I’m tired. Somehow it was really weighing on me… all the way to the institute.

I was lucky that there was an English teacher present when I got there. Apparently, I was supposed to call from the station so that someone will be here – they gave me a number but didn’t say that I needed to call so I thought it was optional and I could just show up. Anyway, he showed me my room and orientated me on the different buildings.