tumbling after You

Le 1er jour de la reste de mon été.

• Only one stop south on the RER B, followed by a five minute walk downhill. Total trip time: less than 20 minutes.
• Awesome automated coffee machine. Short, long, cappuccino, hot chocolate, and green tea!
• Free filtered water? Umm, yes please.
• My laptop has an AZERTY keyboard… Gonna have to get used to this…
• AMAZING cafeteria with DELICIOUS food at subsidized prices (think JCL but better). Relatively cheap, even for American standards (think JCL prices).
• After-lunch coffee break?
• First day for Felix Tang. Last day for Alfred Tang. People asked if I was his son, hahah…
• Farewell party in the afternoon. Champagne, mineral water, hors d’œuvre, macaroons, petit pains, little cakes, finger foods. I could get used to these office parties…
• Goodbye to my Cantonese-speaking HK friend. It was nice knowing you for a day. And it was cool talking to you in Cantonese, haha.
• Also had warm conversations with two Mandarin-speaking co-workers, one of whom is another intern that shares my office and also lives at the Cité Universitaire. Let’s be friends!
• Interesting projects! Reliability and design evaluation of oxygen concentrators used by patients on oxygen systems. Simulating algorithms on breathing patterns of sleep apnea patients using CPAP machines. Sounds rewarding. :)
• I’ve been telling people I understand a lot of French, but can’t speak it well. Somewhat true. But I guess I’ve set the bar a little high for myself. They speak mostly French to me now…
• It takes soo much concentration just to keep up with machine-gun French and catch about 60% of it.
• Spent a large portion of the day staring blankly, nodding, and saying, “ah… oui… d’accord.”
• But I’m getting better at it, I can feel it!