I got a T-mobile phone line, and gratifyingly, the topup and help line is available in English (you just press "7" at the main menu). However, a clueless user would have no idea how to switch the language. So it's a kind of Catch-22, unless someone clues you in.

My prepaid mobile line costs €0.45 a minute to dial out from 8-3 and €0.20 a minute outside of those hours, and €0.09 per SMS. Boo hoo. I get 50 free SMSes with each €10 topup, though. I wonder how long my €19.50 credit will last - it'll probably run out before 30/06/2006, when it expires anyway. I actually had €9.50 credit on my account, but I'd accidentally bought a €10 topup slip before buying the SIM card itself.


In my house, we have a French, a German, a Spanish and a Portugese. To make a bad sitcom, we'd need a Malaysian in addition to me. Fortunately, or otherwise, the 6th housemate (a 7th is coming sometime later) is a Korean.

I saw a shop selling 'American Fried Chicken'. Then beside that sign was one saying 'Exotische kipspecialteiten' (Exotic Chicken Specialities [?]). I hope they didn't mean the American Fried Chicken.

I need to come up with a rule of thumb for whether something is expensive or cheap. Tentatively, I've decided to rate something as cheap if, when multiplying the Euro price by 2, it is cheaper than in Singapore. So a chilled can of Coke from Spar, the supermarket near my housing area (where, despite what my house mate says, most stuff is generally cheaper than in the city), is cheap at €0.45, and a 6-pack is very cheap at €1.89 €2.49 (the previous price is for First Cola). I also gotta get a BJ, preferably a flavour unavailable in Singapore, when I next walk by the scoop shop. [Someone: "expensive is when you look at the price and without converting to S$ your brain goes "WTH" and you walk away quickly."]

Spar, the supermarket near my housing, is situated right smack in the midst of the University. It also sells condoms, but it seems only 12-packs are available. Students here must be really active. I also saw a copy of Penthouse, but it looked really well thumbed.

I got zapped by the metal frame of a chair. Through my coat, which was placed over the frame. Gah.

The Asian food shop here sells hell money.

I think I've exhausted all the major variations on patat frites (french fries). So far I've had them with mayonnaise (thicker than normal mayonnaise), curry (sweet and thick, like the German curry in currywurst), pindasaus/satesaus (so-called satay sauce which is really a peanut sauce with a hint of satay sauce flavour), ketchup (more astringent than normal ketchup) and with chopped raw onions (and mayonnaise and curry). All that's left are things like Piccadilly Piccalilly (no idea what that is) and knoflook (garlic), which aren't found everywhere.


Quotes:

[On the lecturer] Or make an appointment. It is fine with him. He has all the time in the world.

[On the price of books rising and food falling for the second college-going daughter in a family] So she would gain weight and learn less, but she would have the same amount of utility as the first daughter.

The other good thing about the assignment, at least from my point of view, is that there is finally an awareness in this institution that students should have to look for their own data... 'Data frustration'. Or at least that's what I call it... Trying to find your own data.

He has succeeded in explaining something that would usually require a lot of mathematics... I am quite glad that I do not have to explain it to you, because I would be unable to.

***. You should be able to do it. [Student: I didn't do my homework.] No, but you did the Macroeconomics exam so you should be able to do it. Most people didn't do their homework.