Tonight, while I was having my dinner in the university cafeteria (Greek students have lunch and dinner for free), I saw a man reading a French newspaper. After I finished my potatoes (my first serving) and beans (second serving, we can have as many food as we can, I’ve seen a guy had 4 servings!), finally I managed to say “Excusez-moi, Monsieur, vous etes francais?”
It turned out that he is a Moroccan. When we exchanged few words, I kept using “Ne” (Ναι), which is “yes” in Greek, instead of “Oui”. (Sigh) I must practice my French again.
Basically, we agreed that living in Greece is very difficult mainly because of the language. I told him that I am an Indonesian student and just arrived one month ago. He told me that he came to the cafeteria because the food is free (they don’t even check who you are, I can see a lot of people who I think most definitely not student). We talked for just a brief moment.
What amazes me is that, minutes before I finished my dinner and spoke to the Moroccan in French (and mistakenly used a Greek word), I listened to a learning Spanish podcast (from CoffeeBreakSpanish) taught in English with a heavy Scottish accent. So how’s that for an international environment?
(And I can still remember my IELTS teacher told me that I am too old to learn a new language)
Someone told me that my previous post titled “Area of a Triangle” has its comments disabled. Sorry for that and the commenting feature is now enabled. I’m still trying to use MarsEdit to write my posts and I must have had some wrong settings.
One of my teacher mentioned that he would like us to somehow measure the area of a triangle. Not any triangle, but a special triangle, the one whose points are from the countries of each members of our assignment groups. So far, I had already three group assignments, the group arrangement for one was decided by the lecturers and the other two were decided by the students ourselves. Continue reading →
I just want to tell that I’m missing home very much. Back when I was still in Bandung, studying and after that, working, I had the chance to go home at least once in a year, and I often take that opportunities for granted. But now, I’ve only been abroad for just less than four months, I’m missing my home very much. Continue reading →
After a few sleepless nights (few? yes! see the title, please), here I am, again in the nearest cyber cafe from my studio at Thessaloniki, Greece. I have just submitted an assignment very close to the deadline. What’s more is that the assignment is the only assignment of the module, and the module is a coursework module. So, to cut this unintelligible story short, to pass the module I would have to succeed in doing the assignment, the only assignment. See the importance of this assignment? Continue reading →
Well, here I am, in Thessaloniki (Θεσσαλονικη), Greece. I am tempted to write some more Greek letters, but not now (not that I know how to do it).
I am writing this from a lavish Internet cafe (very comfortable chair!) down at Egnatia street since I can’t get access to the Internet from my studio. After spending two nights here, first few impressions of this city are: vandalism, big (wild?) dogs, and small studio. More details and other first impressions after the jump. Continue reading →
I am moving to Thessaloniki, Greece, where I will continue my study of Network and e-Business Centred Erasmus Mundus programme in Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. I am currently at Gatwick Airport still waiting for my flight. Earlier tonight I managed to pack my things eventhough I was not sure I could do it. At the airport I found out that I have 30kg of checked luggage and fortunately the British Airways limit is still on 32kg for checked luggage. Thank you for a certain someone that accompanied me through my packing process.
Moving is usually something that I am reluctant to do, but for this programme I should move often and quickly. I will certainly miss Q Unit people (the ones that are not in my class, and they include you too, Katiuscia), KampoengReading, and Reading itself. Hopefully I will return.
On a sidenote, I broke my glasses while sleeping in Gatwick Airport. I brought spare glasses but I think I should find the replacement in Greece, soon.
That’s it for now, I am signing off, see you in GMT+2 time zone.
