Journey to the West

un petit résumé de mon séjour en France

2008-02-04T09:13:00.001+01:00

Comme je viens de quitter la France, je pense que je suis obligé d’écrire quelque chose en français... surtout parce que je sais que parlerai plus la langue assez souvent...

C’est incroyable! C’est un cliché mais le temps est passé vraiment trop vite.. Il y a plus de 5 moins, j’ai plongé dans une de mes plus grandes aventures à l’étranger... en Europe.. et en plus dans un pays connu pour sa romance de la Tour Eiffel et aussi pour l’arrogance (ou vous pouvez remplacer le mot avec « fierté ») de sa langue maternelle.

Bienvenue en France.

C’était vachement difficile au debut de m’adapter à la vie dans une langue que je n’ai pas du tout maîtrisé... la semaine intensive de français m’a beaucoup choqué puisque les autres dans la classe ont eu au moins 5 ans des cours français avant d’aller en France. Et moi ? J’ai eu 2 ans d’apprentisage et c’était tout ! Oui, bien sûr j’ai fait une stage linguistique à Lyon en Juin 2006... je suis resté avec une famille française avec qui je reste toujours en contact (et bien sûr je l’ai rendue une visite 2 fois ce semestre..). Au niveau d’apprentisage de la langue, j’ai fait des progrès mais c’était pas du tout suffisant...

Grenoble est une petite ville universitaire... plus de 50% d’habitants sont des étudiants qui viennent de partout... et evidemment, Grenoble est entouré par de jolies montagnes qui étaient déjà couvertes par la neige depuis debut novembre... et aussi je n’oublierai jamais mon premier contact direct avec la neige mi-Novembre avant de partir en Suisse.. qui me rappelle aussi d’une grande grève de SNCF qui avait affecté mon voyage ce jour-là.

En parlant de la grève...mon prof de cours extensif français a rigolé qu’elle est un sport nationale du pays. J’ai compté qu’il y avaient au moins 4 grèves pendant mon séjour.. une grève de CROUS (une association qui s’occupe des logements d’étudiants).. puis il y avaient 2 grèves de SNCF et bien sûr.. un bloquage de facs à IEP, UJF, Stendhal et UPMF pendant 2 semaines. C’étaient des vacances pour les autres stagiares mais la vie continuait pour moi... les ingénieurs s’en fichent en générale... Il y avaient des graffitis partout aux murs du campus... vous serez attrapé tout de suite si vous faites ça à Singapour..

Je suis resté dans la plus vieille residence universitaire à Grenoble qui s’appelle Condillac. Au debut, j’étais un peu étonné par l’état de la résidence... il n’y avaient que 2 plaques dans la cuisine (sans table et chaisse)... il n’y avait pas de frigo.. la chambre était sombre... le couloir était tranquil (un peu trop).. personne ne se connaissaient pas dans l’étage... mais tout a changé à la fin... après 2 mois on a fait connaisance et je me suis arrêté de dîner au restaurant universitaire... j’ai commencé à cuisiner.. une activité qui est ma dernière priorité à Singapour.. Bien sûr Sin et moi ne sont pas de bons cuisinier et cuisinière mais on a réussi de preparer des trucs simples comme rendang (avec la sauce prête qui j’ai apporté d’Indonésie), nasi goreng, mee soto, pasta... et puis on a avancé au niveau de difficulté de preparation.. On a preparé des haricots verts cuisinés avec des lardons au sauce soja. Parfois, on a préparé la dinde et des omelettes.. Comme ça, on a dépensé beaucoup plus de temps dans la cuisine qui nous a permis de connaître mieux nos voisins.. et sans doute j’ai commencé d’aimer le couloir un peu plus...

La vie à l’école, par contre, était une grande torture. HMG est une école de l’INPG qui est une grande école d’ingénieurs et apparament (ce que j’ai appris plus tard), les grandes écoles admettent des étudiants qui ont passé 2 ans de classe prépa et evidemment, qui ont bien réussi dans un concours nationale avant d’entrer dans une école d’ingénieur...

Evidemment, ils étaient des étudiants intélligents..des étudiants qui pensent...des étudiants qui discutent et qui trouvent des solutions.. Je dis ça parce que les profs ne donnent jamais la solution de TD.. c’est tout fait dans la classe.. si on ne comprend pas, il faut clarifier toute de suite pendant le TD.. J’ai envoyé un mail à un prof un jour pour demander si j’ai pû le voir pour discuter mon soucis pour le TD... il m’a repondu qu’il faut demander dans la classe parce que c’est pour ça qu’il est là... c’est une grande difference par rapport à Singapour.. chez nous presque toutes les solutions de TDs seront mises en ligne dans le portail pédagogique..resultant dans une très mauvaise compréhension de matière.. En brèf, on est pas assez indépendant à Singapour (malheuresement, c’est la vérite...)

Les profs n’étaient pas très gentils avec les stagiares en générale.. Les étudiants dans la classe non plus.. peut-être c’était la barrière de la langue.. oh non attendez, je suis sûr que c’était la langue qui nous a séparés au debut... imaginez, chaque fois quand ils nous ont demandés une question, on allait repondre « pardon » ou « excusez-moi, j’ai pas compris ».. Il faut vraiment beaucoup de patience et je pouvais pas m’attendre que tout le monde ait de la patience avec les stagiares.. c’était pas du tout leurs fautes mais malheuresement, on a commencé dans une mauvaise direction et l’antipathie continuait pendant plusieurs mois.. heuresement, s’approchant à la fin de mon séjour.. j’ai pu parler avec certains dans la classe.. c’était évident que mon français a amélioré et bien sûr ma comprehension aussi. Je suis content que je sois parti en connaissant qu’il y avaient certains dans la classe qui nous ont acceptés au moins.. c’est dommage que c’était le temps de dire au revoir mais je pense que c’est toujour le cas.. quand on commence à s’habituer et à connaître le système un peu mieux, c’est le temps de partir...

La chance jouait un role très important dans notre expérience en France, je crois. Je n’ai pas rencontré beaucoup de français assez ouverts. Par contre, Sin et Lynn ont fait connaissance par pur hasard avec un mec français qui est sympa et ouvert avec les différentes cultures du monde. On a dépensé de bon moments en échangeant des idées, en partageant des répas au restaurant universitaires, en rigolant pendant la soirée des sushis, etc... Merci Guillaume pour avoir être patient !!

Il y a beaucoup de détails dans ma tête que je voulais dire... mais comme je suis très occupé depuis mon arrivée à Singapour, je n’ai pas de temps pour bien reflechir tous les détails... De tout façon, merci La France pour une éxpérience très mervéilleuse !!

exam horror...

2008-01-24T11:34:00.000+01:00

i just finished a 3 hour echange thermique exam. guess how many questions there were? only 2!! for 3 hrs i was expecting at least 4 questions.. to my horror, the second question worth 14 marks out of a total of 20 was VACHEMENT difficile. i finished the 1st question in 45 mins and i had the remaining time for qn 2 but i was going nowhere... in the end it was up to my imagination to write sth out on the paper in the hope of sympathy marks.. really horrifying.. i would not be that surprised if i fail this paper.. one more to go tomorrow and i am on a jet plane.

the last one week in france...

2008-01-21T10:51:00.000+01:00

Almost everyone who did their SEP in Grenoble last semester has left for Singapore on Friday. Somehow it felt really weird to be among the remaining few here. Since then, I had lost motivation to study. Everyday, I spent at least 2 hours watching a French movie on my laptop. The rest of the time I would be doing ‘miscellaneous random’ stuff. My head has been clouded with many issues and my heart has been filled with mixed sentiments. My poor head had to deal with the upcoming exams and also some problems with the module mapping of Design2 in NUS. A certain prof did not seem to want to approve my module although he had already done so in the past. At the same time, I had been thinking about how sad I will possibly be when I quit this place (that’s why I have been taking a short walk around the campus since the weather has been really perfect this weekend) …and also reflecting on what I have achieved here in the past 5 months…what went right and what went wrong…etc etc etc. Just many random thoughts and emotions that really hampered my study.

Anyway, on Saturday, I decided to invite Carlos for dinner since I thought I would not have chance to meet up with him during exams anymore. Later on, after some discussion, we decided that I would be the one going to his place for dinner since there were 2 more friends living in the same residence as him.

That evening I learnt something new about my friend. If you read on very carefully, you will definitely know what I mean. In the end, there were 5 of us on the dinner table: Simon, Jeremy, me, Carlos and Arnold. Arnold prepared salad for entrée, Carlos prepared a Brazilian dessert, Jeremy brought some ice cream, Simon brought his Germany “lemonade beer” while I cooked pasta in Provençale sauce. The dinner started pretty late at about 9pm and it dragged on till about 11 plus. The conversation was light, albeit peppered with some awkward silences, especially on my part due to some obvious love-birds on the table.

right to left: Simon, me, Carlos and his other half.

Even after we exchanged “Au Revoir”, I was still in a little state of shock by the discovery. I have always seen “others” and heard about this issue, but I have never had a friend who is directly involved. And honestly speaking, I have never shown any tolerance for these people. Yesterday’s dinner was a real eye-opener for me and I guess I really have to learn to show more respect to them. I suppose it’s not exactly their fault to have a different preference. After all, friends are still friends and friendship has got very little to do with one’s lifestyle.

with Jeremy in the photo...

Du coup, merci Simon, Jeremy et Carlos pour de bons souvenirs! C’était un grand plaisir de vous connaître...

At the moment I just can’t wait to get back to hall... raring to play volleyball…

random update

2008-01-18T10:02:00.000+01:00

it's been quite a while since i last wrote anything here. i guess it's not that hard to guess the reasons. i have been studying pretty hard in anticipation of next week's exams. how much is enough to pass? can somebody tell me?

view from my window when it snowed last saturday

revision has been made harder by the fact that reading week does not exist over here. lessons continue all the way until the week before the exams, which was just yesterday. so revision is like playing stacko tetris game. while u clear some blocks, more are piled on top of them. and i am also slowly losing steam in studying, especially since i know i should be savouring my one last week in France.

anyway, i had Auto Sequentiel TP (lab) on the last 2 Wednesdays. finally, or i would say luckily, i had really nice group mates. they were very patient in explaining to me and tried to include me in the work although i could not contribute much. when i told them i would go back to singapore next week so i wouldn't be able to do the report, they told me not to worry as they would put down my name and ensure i have a good "note" (result in french). i guess it all boiled down to my old belief that luck does play a part in someone's experience overseas. or perhaps, it is just that i am more familiar to the system, i speak the language slightly better and most importantly, i do not give them a blur look when we were talking. haha. whatever the reasons are, my classmates are becoming nicer to the "stagiares étrangers" in general. but, oh well, time has run out.

went for farewell dinner with guillaume and francisco at a vietnamese restaurant yesterday. had good chat & good laugh for the evening, finally away from my books. they were nice enough to foot the bill for the 3 singaporeans who were there. well, in return, we would be treating them to "char keow teoy" when they come to singapore, starting with guillaume who will be coming this june.

"gay guillaume" =D

with guillaume & francisco

in the vietnamese restaurant @ St Bruno

ok...time to get back to books!!

exams are coming

2008-01-10T09:26:00.000+01:00

now that my exams are around the corner, i am starting to dread the possibility that i might just fail some of my modules. honestly, i have never worried for exams so much before. this is something nobody back in Singapore can symphatise with. the responses that i had when i tried to tell my friends how difficult it is here was disbelieving tone. "really meh" and "sure or not?" are two common responses. "but s/u only what" is even more common. i hate the feeling that i might not be able to pass to use my s/u.

nobody can understand until they experience this first hand.

01 Jan 08 - The Theatre of Dreams

2008-01-01T21:53:00.000+01:00

Today was the day when one of my greatest dreams came true. Ironically, I was not as excited as I should be, perhaps due to the fact that this was not my first European football experience.

We slept in till about 10 am today as we only came back at about 1am yesterday. Since we had quite a bit of time before the match, we decided to just take a walk to the stadium. One hour later, we were right in front of the Theatre of Dreams, home to Manchester United, the team I have been supporting since my childhood days. Unlike Italy and Spain, there were not many makeshift souvenir booths along the way. At the most there were only people hanging around selling matchday badges, trumpets or matchday programs.

inside & outside of the megastore

The first thing when we reached there was to enter the Megastore. Oh boy, the store was huge and it would really do a great damage to the wallet without proper self-control. I was tempted by almost everything in the shop. Originally, I wanted to buy a sweater, but at 40 pounds, I thought it was a bit too extravagant. I was more into decorating my room in hall for next semester; hence, I purchased a scarf which I could use now and hang later on my soft board. Beside that, I also spoilt myself with a giant poster as well as a matchday pin. Not forgetting a few souvenirs for my fellow Man Utd supporters back in hall.

the painted walls of the megastore

After grabbing a quick lunch, we made our grand entrance into Old Trafford. I was a little disappointed with our seats at first which were in the first row of lower tier, just behind the goal. At first I was hoping that the English are not so obedient and we could just sit randomly in the sector. However, once we were in, we were ushered to our seats and we knew that our hope to sit slightly further up was dashed.

This disappointment was soon dismissed though as I could see almost every player very clearly, including the likes of Christiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez. Too bad, I did not get to see Rooney and Giggs in action as both were still sick on the match day.

a printscreen from a video from an online source. i could spot my red hanging scarf!! i was on TV!!!!

Furthermore, the only goal of the match took place on the side of the stadium I was sitting at. This meant that I would have probably been on TV if the replays had shown reverse angle. =D The goal itself was a beauty; a combination of the speed of Tevez and the trickery of Ronaldo. Ronaldo received an overhead pass from Tevez, and Ronaldo cunningly backheeled it towards the on-running Tevez which slotted the ball home in the most comfortable fashion.

watch the highlights of the match here!!

aren't you jealous of me? =D

L-R: Evra crossing; Christiano Ronaldo

L-R: Vidic & Ferdinand

Ronaldo's footwork

United's setpiece

I thought the atmosphere in the stadium was superb, contrary to the reports and claims that the fans were too quiet. In fact, most of the fans were singing and cheering almost throughout the match. Anyway, my idea of a superb match is not exactly just about scolding vulgarities and jeering at the opponent’s fans.

how can anyone claim this is "muted"?

Man Utd did not play its best today, but it was enough to seize full 3 points despite the late scare from Birmingham. In fact, in the last 10 minutes of the game, my heart was pounding really hard, in the worst anticipation that Birmingham would equalize. Luckily, this never happened and I could walk out of Old Trafford smiling, knowing that my dream has been duly fulfilled.

3 European football experiences in total. La Liga in Nou Camp, Serie A in San Siro Milan, and now Premier League in Old Trafford. What more can I ask for? What a way to end my European vacation.

We had a Chinese buffet dinner in the evening. I returned to the hostel with a heavy heart, knowing that it was the end of my long European vacation. Now it is time that I return to Grenoble to concentrate on passing my exams.

Before long, it would be Hello Singapore!

31 Dec 07 - Manchester

2008-01-01T01:15:00.000+01:00

I woke up early today at 7:30 am as I had a breakfast rendez-vous with Michael at 8:30 in Victoria Coach Station before my bus took me to Manchester at 10:30. He just came back yesterday from his holiday in Austria so we could not meet up earlier.

When he still did not turn up at 9am, I knew that he had probably overslept so I dropped him a msg. 15 minutes later, I received a reply “Shit, will be there soon”. It took another 20 minutes before he finally arrived at the coach station. It was nice seeing an old buddy again after 4 long years. The last time I saw Michael was in JC1 when he came back to visit Singapore (he had left after O Levels). Obviously 40 minutes whizzed past really fast and without realizing, I had to leave for Manchester. It was nonetheless fun catching up and I was really appreciative of his efforts to wake up early to find me, especially since he only reached his house from the airport at 3am. Thanks buddy!

old buddy

I met up with Jeremy in Manchester who was previously touring Scotland. In fact, there was nothing much to do in Manchester in terms of sight-seeing. Quite a boring city in general. Jeremy who was hungry as usual wanted to have some food so we headed to Moon Under Water restaurant to have some light snacks and beer. Oh man, throughout the trip I haven’t drunk beer until I met him. He would turn me into an alcoholic really soon. Haha.

random photos in Manchester

After the quick meal, we went back to our hostel. Earlier on we received our Old Trafford tickets and we were furious to learn that our seats have been downgraded without prior notice. We had paid 119 pounds for a longside seat, but we got a seat behind the goal which was the cheapest ticket originally priced at only 25 pounds. This is a warning to anyone thinking of purchasing a match ticket from Top Ticket Shop online. Think twice. When we purchased the tickets, an email was sent to us mentioning that the tickets have been purchased. No matter what the reason was, it would only be a basic courtesy to inform the customers that they had been downgraded. It was still not acceptable even if it was written in the terms and conditions that they reserved the rights to downgrade the customers. It was as if they were ready for the “scam”. And another stupid point in the terms and conditions was that the refund for the difference in price between the original and downgraded ticket can only be used for the next purchase at the shop. Ridiculous clause.

After Jeremy sent a complaint email, we set out again at about 9:30 pm to have a proper dinner. We wanted to eat KFC quite badly but the nearest and only outlet we knew was closed. After further walking, we found a KFC replica called “Allen’s Fried Chicken”. Apparently, Allen was a friend of Colonel Sanders as reflected on the box containing our chickens. This Allen fried chicken, supposedly, could only be found in Manchester as well.

We walked around after dinner in search of a place for New Year’s countdown. The more I walked, the more I was convinced that I was under-dressed to go into any clubs. Most men were at least on long-sleeved shirts and the girls were dressed to the minimum. Many were donning skimpy dresses and they were sizzling hot. I wondered how they survived the temperature with such an outfit though.

In the end we settled for Yates, apparently one of the more well-known pubs/restaurants (during daytime) and also a competitor of Weatherspoon. I never knew of the existence of these two pubs until Jeremy told me about them. So, another glass of beer till the countdown while soaking in the loud music. Doing this once in a while could be an enjoyable affair, but I doubt that this would ever be one of my favourite pastimes though.

Happy New Year to everyone.

in Yates for New Year's countdown

atmosphere in Yates

30 Dec 07 - London Day 3

2007-12-30T22:30:00.000+01:00

My last day in London and I knew that I had a lot to cover for the day so I had to really prioritize the attractions that I could not do without. My first choice was the Natural History Museum. Museum again, you may think, but this museum particularly drew my attention as it had one of the largest collections of dinosaur fossils in the world. True enough, I was far from being disappointed from my visit. I discovered many interesting facts about dinosaurs that I never knew before. For instance, I never knew that t-rex is a particular kind of tyrannosaurus. I always thought that they were totally different species. Also, T-rex’s hands were too short to even put food into their mouth.

L-R: Diplodocus; Triceratops

L-R: T-rex; Tasmanian Devil

This museum also housed the largest blue whale model in the world, spanning over 30 metres in a big exhibition hall. The use of taxidermy in this museum was widespread, judging from the large collection of various exotic animals. It also boasted the largest tree trunk in the world called Sequoia, which was over 3000 years old. Another section of the museum that left an impression on me was the exhibition on human evolution. With the help of different fossils, it was explained how the different fossils found were placed in the “evolution branch”. This was in line with what I had learnt earlier during the French intensive class. I was particularly happy to see the almost complete fossils of Lucy, a Neandertal which lived about 2 million years ago, not because I had direct ancestry with her, but because her name was constantly mentioned during my classes. After this exhibition, I was more convinced that men and apes share common ancestry.

L-R: blue whale; Chi-Chi

L-R: 6 antlers in 6 yrs life of a raindeer; starfishes

L-R: men use umbrella, monkeys use banana leaves; men and monkeys alike use a stick to reach for their stuff that dropped into the river. r u more convinced that we share the same ancestors now? =D

L-R: Sequioa; fossils of Lucy

I left the museum after 3 hours and I have never felt so enriched going out of a museum before. Perhaps it was because all the explanations were in English!

Afterwards I took the tube to London Tower. Anyway, I purchased the Oyster Card yesterday morning. Osyter card refers to the EZlink version of London. It gives as much reduction as 2.50 pounds per journey. Each underground journey in London cost 4 pounds with an individual ticket, but with Osyter card, I only had to pay 1.50 pounds. Anyone thinking of going to London should definitely get this card.

Back to London Tower. This was another UNESCO World Heritage site, supposedly a place where many famous prisoners and war criminals had been imprisoned in the past. I took a look at the entrance fee. 13 pounds, forget it. Probably I would not understand the history anyway. So I made my way to the nearby Tower Bridge, evidently the most famous landmark of London. Unlike its predecessor (London Bridge which looked really dull), this bridge stood tall and elegant. As I walked closer and closer to the bridge, I could not stop marveling at the beauty of the structure and was even more amazed later on when I learnt about the concept of the bridge.

at the Tower of London

I paid 4.50 euros for the entrance to the exhibition area of the bridge as well as the engine room. So what did I learn from my trip here? The idea behind the bridge was to provide another linkway between the two sides of Thames which were starting to get really busy back then, while allowing huge ships to pass under the bridge at the same time. Hence, the idea of a bridge with the middle platform which could be raised was proposed. The engineering principles behind the lifting of the bridge were pretty simple as well, but the machines employed were all humungous in size!! Other features of the bridge include a 42 m high walkway which linked the two towers of the bridge, serving as a pedestrian walkway when the bridge has to be lifted up for longer periods. The two ends of the bridge were simply made up of trusses and chains forming a suspension bridge. I liked my visit here because the mechanism used involved engineering concepts that I have learnt in my course!

the Tower Bridge

L-R: on the tower bridge; view from the tower bridge

L-R: 42 m high walkway; London Bridge

Satisfied, I walked along the Thames River in the direction of Saint Paul’s Cathedral. Too bad it was already 5 pm as I reached there and the cathedral was closed. It was not that impressive anyway, but it was the largest church in London. I took a quick break people-watching at the steps of the cathedral and moved on to Covent Garden.

St Paul's Cathedral

Covent Garden was again on my visit list as I wanted to see what the apple market was like. Two days ago when I reached Covent Garden, it was already quite late in the evening and the market was closed. However, later on I found out that the apple market consisted of just souvenirs, cloths and accessories. Nothing really noteworthy. I had quite a bit of time in my hand so I decided to stay and watch a few more street performances. There was a young man who could walk on a rope and juggle 3 pins at the same time. Coolness. This time round however, I could not escape from donating because while I was busy taking videos, another man walked around to collect “payment”. Haha.

rope walking

Located nearby was the SOHO neighbourhood, famous for its pubs and bars as well as prostitution. I walked around the area on the way to Oxford street, but there was as good as nothing happening there. I could only see signboards telling passers-by to go up to the upper floors to check some girls out. Oxford Street itself was just bustling with many fashion shops (many were on sale), but obviously I was not that interested. I walked for less than 1 km and decided to turn back to grab some dinner. I settled for a Thai buffet takeaway for 4.50 pounds. Actually in London, food can get really cheap if you know where to find them.

I went back to the London Bridge before 20h. While waiting for the bridge to be lifted, I just sat down on a bench by the Thames, enjoying every minute of London which remained. And when the bridge was finally, it was a spectacular sight. Now I can boast to people that I have witnessed one of the greatest Victorian engineering masterpieces.

L-R: at night; the bridge being lifted

After 3 days, I realized that London was worthy of more days than that. It has been a pleasant 3 days, but it passed way too quickly. The weather has been on my side too. The temperature averaged between 5-7deg, and I considered this warm compared to Grenoble. In fact, I did not have to use my gloves at all.

Now, it is really a tough question if somebody asks me about my favourite city. London’s vibrancy, Amsterdam’s unique character or Barcelona’s warmth?

29 Dec 07 - London Day 2

2007-12-29T22:14:00.000+01:00

Before I set off this morning, I bumped into Edgar, a hostel staff that checked me in and for the second time, he insisted that the best thing to do on a Saturday morning was to visit the market at Notting Hill. I was wondering why he rated it so highly, but when I reached there I understood immediately. This was the homeground of Portobello market, the largest antique market in the world. The antique shops are open everyday along the Portobello road, but the market only takes place once a week. The long road of Portobello was blocked; the atmosphere was relaxed on a sunny cheerful morning. Many of the antique products caught my eyes, notably the super old cameras and telescopes as well as the many ancient clocks and silverware. If you walk further down, you will find people selling vegetables and fruits as well as souvenir shops of course. I bought 5 t-shirts for my parents and 3 sisters because I felt they should share my traveling joy. =D Oh btw, the houses in the area were really nice (and of course, expensive). I notice that on one side of a stretch of houses, all the facades of the houses were painted in different colours. Not even one has the same colour; they will have different shades at the very least!

the antique stuff at Portobello market

this guy is sure flexible!

antique cameras and telescopes

I settled for a lunch at Portobello road in a Lebanese restaurant which offered buffet for 3 pounds. However, the idea of a buffet was pretty different from the ones in Singapore. For 3 pounds, I was given a tupperware-like plate in which I can dump as much food as I want in one single serving. Well, it was not too bad; I’d rather spend 3 pounds on this than on sandwiches.

L-R: Lebanese buffet; Notting Hill houses

After lunch, I made my way to Madame Tussaud’s wax museum. This museum houses the largest collection of wax statues of various celebrities as well as many important sports, art or political figures. To my horror, when I reached, the queue was quite long. In the queue, I asked one of the guys for the average waiting time and he told me he was guessing that today will be 2.5 hours!! I was like WTH… But since I was already there, I thought I might as well wait as it would probably be just an over-estimation. After 30 minutes, I was nearing the door so I thought the guy was giving me false estimate. To my further aghast, when I stepped in, I saw winding queue inside the building, winding up to the 2nd floor where the ticket booths can be found. OMG. It took me another 60 minutes before I could finally purchase my ticket.

The museum was so packed that it was almost impossible to walk around without bumping into other people. In fact, everyone was frantically taking photos with their favourite celebrities. I had to be thick-skinned and ask different people to help me take and in the process I wasted a lot of time because by the time I managed to get someone to help me take, the statues have already had new companies on their sides.

don't they just look real?

Most, if not all, of the wax statues were very delicately made, I daresay. The details of the wrinkles, the smile, the hair, the skin colour were all taken into account. On top of the statues, they also had many interesting entertainment, such as the the Spirit of London trail which took us through a trail of the different periods of English history. Also, there was a Chamber of Horror Live, where I had to go through this haunted house where real actors would scare us and come really close to us without touching. In another chamber, they had a short simulation of how guillotine was performed during the French revolution, not forgetting the wax head of Marie Antoinette and other royal heads.

more wax statues

and more...

Even Bollywood star is here...

left: the wax heads of the royal figures (rightmost belongs to Marie Antoinette)

and moree..

On hindsight, the only drawback for the whopping 26 pounds I paid for this attraction was the long queue and the poor crowd traffic control inside the museum. Anybody wishing to visit the museum should purchase a timed ticket online in advance, which allows one to get an instant access to the museum through a separate door.

I spent about 3 hrs inside Mme Tussaud’s and when I got out, it was already pitch dark. I walked towards Hyde Park where a Winter Wonderland was being held temporarily there until mid-January. The wonderland was a combination of a theme park and Christmas market. I took my dinner there (just simple german sausages) and walked around a little more around the park. Notably there were a lot of simulators in the theme park, such as the honey bee and snowman simulator. They also had a really cool haunted house and of course, an ice rink (which, in fact, can be found almost anywhere in London).

attractions in Winter Wonderland

Back in my room, I was invited by my 3 roommates who came from Bordeaux, France for tea/coffee. The chat was interesting and light as I had no stress of having to speak good French with them. The reason was because they were majoring in English so they understood my plight and when we could not understand each other, we could switch to our own preferred language to explain something.

3 roomies from Bordeaux

28 Dec 07 - London Day 1

2007-12-28T22:11:00.000+01:00

The hostel where I am staying in London is called Astor Victoria. The location was ideal as it is located very close to the Victoria Coach Station. The hostel staff was really nice by helping me with all my queries and most importantly, the hostel had comfy beds which did not make noise when we moved about on the bed. I would recommend this hostel to anyone who intends to visit London (I am not paid to say this!)

As I took a look at the London map, I knew I was in for a big serving for the 3 full days in London. The aim for today was just to cover the main attractions, located not too far away, on foot. The weather was cloudy and gloomy, but it turned out later that it did not rain until the evening. So I started the day with a visit to Westminster Cathedral. Nice exterior, nice interior. Did not spend too much time there and I immediately proceeded to the Buckingham Palace.

Westminster Cathedral and the interior

The Changing of the Guards ceremony would take place today at 11h30 so I made my way there earlier cos I have heard that it would be best to reach there at least half an hour before the ceremony. When I reached there at 10h45, I was shocked that there was already quite a big crowd (damn, these people were even more kiasu than me =P). In fact, the areas nearer to the fences of the palace were already fully occupied. I did not know where the ceremony would take place, but I was guessing that it would happen on the road between the palace and the Queen Elizabeth monument. So I crossed the road in the hope that I could get a better view. More and more people flooded in and the police did their jobs to control the human traffic. All of a sudden, it seemed to me that all the tourists were gathered in the vicinity of Buckingham palace. When the ceremony started, everyone was frantically taking photos and videos, including me. Honestly, they have really unique uniforms and “funky” hairstyle. However, when the guards have already passed the road, they went inside the palace compound and the rest of the ceremony took place there. Alas, why was I so stupid, of course the ceremony had to take place inside the palace. Anybody wishing to watch this ceremony should reserve themselves a place nearer to the fence in the middle of the palace. Halfway through the ceremony, I crossed back to the palace side to try to catch a glimpse of the ceremony, but it was a futile attempt. At least, I had some consolations because I managed to catch a glimpse of the Royal Family who were themselves watching the ceremony from one of the palace doors.

L-R: London's unique cab; Buckingham Palace

L-R: Queen Elizabeth monument; police patrolling on top of horses

the guards marching past

L-R: the crazy crowd; a glimpse of the royal family

After the slight disappointment with the ceremony, I walked towards St. James Park which were located just next to the Buckingham Palace. I loved this park. It was pretty and lively with tourists and local families alike. I did not spend too much time over here though as I knew I had very little sunlight left for the day. So I moved on to the Westminster Abbey.

St James' Park

Unlike the cathedral which was free, I had to pay 7 pounds fee for entrance to the abbey. This famous abbey was a place where most of the kings and the queens of England have been crowned. The exterior and interior of the abbey were obviously nice, notably the Henry VII Chapel which was especially grand with its fan-vaulted ceiling, claimed to be one of the finest in Europe. The other highlight of the abbey was the Poets’ Corner where over 120 writers, actors, poets, musicians were buried or memorialized.

Westminster Abbey & the interior

It was already close to 14h as I exited from the abbey. The good thing about traveling alone again is that you only have to take care of one stomach. =D So as long as I could still take it, I moved on. Prochain arret: The Parliament House and the Big Ben. As I was passing in front of the parliament house, there was a group of Somalians who were demonstrating against Ethiopia. Not sure what the whole affair was about though. Anyway, tourists were denied entrance into the parliament house. So after I took a couple of photos with the Big Ben (which was one of the more famous icons associated with London), I decided to take a break for a quick hotdog lunch while enjoying the view at the Thames.

L-R: the Big Ben & demonstration in front of Parliament House

From where I was taking my break, I could see the London Eye, a permanent ferries wheel run by British Airways. It claimed to provide breathtaking view of London, but I was a little pessimistic with the aerial view, given the fact that London is almost always cloudy and gloomy. So I decided to give it a miss, partly because of the extravagant fee, but also because I would be splurging even more for Madame Tussauds tomorrow.

L-R: London Eye; typical London phone booth

After walking along the Thames for a while, I made a turn to 10 Downing Street. This is the official residence of the English prime minister. This building had been home to the likes of Winston Churchill to Margaret Thatcher. Today Tony Blair and family reside here. I could only manage a glimpse at the house though as the street was blocked by police.

On my way to the Trafalgar Square, I passed by the Horse Guards Museum. Managed to get a couple of shots with the guards. By now, I am really very thick-skinned to ask people to help me take photos. Haha.

with the guards

Trafalgar Square was nothing special, just another open space with a monument where the youngsters chill out. Located on one side of the square is the National Gallery, an art museum with a collection of more than 1000 paintings. As is the case for most museums in London, this one was free as well. Hence I decided to give it a quick tour as I was not really that interested in art museum anyway. I followed the “highlight tour”, basically referring to a collection of about 30 paintings that were more popular among the visitors. I almost fell asleep handling just 30!! I was out in less than 90 minutes and my mood was further dampened by the slight rain. But too bad, the travel must go on and I can’t just wait for the rain to stop.

L-R: Trafalgar Square & the National Gallery

I made my way towards the Picadilly Circus. Upon my arrival in the neighbourhood, my spirit was immediately lifted again. This area was famous as a centre for many concert theatres for plays. The busy pavements were bustling with “live signboards”, referring to men/women standing among the sea of people, holding an advertisement board. The products advertised range from concert tickets, internet cafés, restaurants, football tickets and even McDonalds joined in the fun! Such was the fierce competition in London that they had to station people by the streets to attract the crowd.

the "live" advertisement

As I walked along Coventry Street towards Leicester Square, I found even more agents for some play tickets. Most were offering half prices, but I was skeptical about the authenticity of the tickets (later on I found out from the hostel staff that it was really half price and not a scam). Anyway, they really spoiled the audience with a wide variety of choices. Les Miserables, Billy Elliot, Lion King, etc, etc… Most tickets were offered from 20-25 pounds. If it was cheaper, I definitely would not mind an evening inside a theater.

the various plays

Further down the street at Leicester Square, there was a mini theme park with many different games that reminded me of a theme park near my house in Indo. Apart from the usual bumper cars and carosels, there were many small booths such as basketball booth, lucky roulette, dartboards and throwing balls at can pyramids. I think I am still young at heart. Haha.

mini theme park @ Leicester Square

L-R: still at Leicester Sq; Chinatown

Afterwards I had a quick dinner at the Chinatown area at a buffet restaurant. In the restaurant, I found out that during peak period, customers only have 45 minutes to eat as much as they want. Luckily, I came in at the right time and I had unlimited time to gobble up till I was full. In total, I paid 10.20 pounds inclusive of drink which was not part of the buffet. Not a bad deal considering that I only had hotdogs in the afternoon.

The day still did not end after that. I headed to Covent Garden which was only a few minutes walk from Chinatown. Contrary to the name, it has no green patches, no flowers, no park, nothing of that sort. In fact, it was a market that sold souvenirs, with boutiques and restaurants in the building. What left a lasting impression on me were the street performers. Many of them were performing dangerous stunts and they were very good entertainers. I watched one performance where the actors were doing single wheel bike stunt at a height of 3 metres while juggling 3 bowling pins. These performers also blatantly asked the audience for donations by mentioning the amount they expect to get because of the danger/risk involved in their stunts. Most asked for at least 2 pounds. Being a poor student tourist, I left once I took the video of the stunt. =P

Covent Garden with a street performer

It has been a long day and it was time to go back to the hostel. I decided to walk back even though I knew I was quite far away from the hostel. In the end, it took me almost one hour from Covent Garden all the way to Pimlico on foot. This was one of the reasons why I have decided that I should save some time by taking the tube tomorrow.

When I went back to my room, I had the opportunity to talk to this Italian guy who had come to London on his own accord to improve his English. He is 22, a technician and comes from Vicenza. He wished to stay for about 1 month in London and try to land a job as a pizza maker at the same time. He told me that he was determined to improve his English and he felt he should do it while he was still young. For these, I respect him.

27 Dec 07 - Amsterdam Day 4 & London

2007-12-27T23:59:00.000+01:00

I did not set out early today as I had plenty of time in my hand before my flight to London and my only goal for the day was to visit a windmill. I took tram no.2 from the central station and stopped at the terminus. The windmill is called Molen van Sloten. Molen in Dutch means mill and the word probably has the same root as Moulin in French. As the name suggests, the mill is situated in a small village called Sloten. This windmill is one of the remaining 1000 still functioning and surviving in modern Amsterdam.

L-R: Molen van Sloten from a distance; the windmill model

close-up view from 2 angles

It was an interesting visit as the tour guide explained why there was a need for windmills in Amsterdam. Most of the lands of Amsterdam are situated below the sea level. As a result, these lands will “sink” if there were no windmills that pump the water to regulate the water level. In the case of an extreme difference in altitude of the lands, a few windmills are placed in cascading manner, allowing the water to be pumped up in stages. Schipnol Airport of Amsterdam, for example, is situated in low-lying land and it would drown if water regulation system does not exist. In the past, the windmills are solely powered by the wind, but now it was partly powered by electricity.

I have always wondered how the windmill can be turned to face the direction of the wind. I found the answer to this when I went up to the top floor of the windmill. It was not the “fans” which were turned, but it was actually the dome-shaped roof which turned. This dome is connected to the body of the mill by numerous roller bearings in a circle formation. Interesting, I am always happy to see how the things I have learnt in my course are put into practical use.

the use of roller bearings

Afterwards I made my way back to the city centre to grab a quick lunch at “Wok to Walk”. I have seen a couple of these stalls so I decided to try. The concept is simple. It is Chinese instant restaurant, similar to KFC or Macs. First, you choose noodle or rice which always come with veggies. Then, you choose your meat toppings followed by choosing the free sauce (eg. teriyaki, sweet and sour, etc). The order will be cooked instantly in a big wok and after a few minutes, the food is placed in a small carton bag allowing you to eat as you walk.

random street performer at Dam Square

I made my way to Schipnol Airport earlier, checked in and soon found out that my flight had been delayed by 1 hour. Instead of flying at 18h, my flight was re-scheduled to 19h. But as 19h approached, no gate number appeared on the screen. It only appeared at 19h30 and when the plane took off, I was already 2 hours behind time. Upon arrival at London Luton Airport, I hopped on the Easybus that would bring me to central London. My luck today did not get any better as the bus broke down in the middle of the highway. I had to wait for almost another 1 hour before the replacement bus arrived. In the end, when I reached my hostel, it was already close to midnight and I was dead tired. Luckily the hostel was pretty close to the bus stop. I guess I could not always expect the trip to be perfectly smooth. Shitty things like these happen and they were beyond my control. So I just slept them off.

26 Dec 07 - Amsterdam Day 3

2007-12-26T21:14:00.000+01:00

Today was pretty much a very slow-paced day, mainly because I had nothing much left to do in Amsterdam and the windmill would only be opened tomorrow. I first headed by tram to another concert theater called Carré. Honestly nothing special about it, not even the architecture. Located very near Carré was this bridge called Magere Brug or skinny bridge. From what I observed on the bridge, there is a mechanism that allows the bridge to be levered up. Not really sure though. Anyway, supposedly this bridge was an ideal spot to take a stop and kiss your partner. Too bad I did not have one by my side today. =D

top (L-R): Carré & Skinny Bridge; bottom: view from the bridge

I then walked towards the Muzeikteater or the Music Theater which is the biggest concert hall in Amsterdam. Nice interior but too bad I could only steal a glance from the glass wall. I proceeded next to the Rembrandtplein where there were some interesting statues of Amsterdam’s famous artist, Rembrandt. Everywhere I went today was pretty deserted and there seemed to be no signs of life even at 11 am.

L-R: the interior of Muzeikteater; Rembrandtplein

This scenario reversed once I reached the Bloemenmarkt or the floating flower market. A long row of flower and souvenir shops were erected along parts of the Singel river. Apart from selling potted flowers/plants, the shops mostly boasted tulip bulbs as well as bulbs of many different kinds of flowers. What caught my eyes were the cannabis starter kits. Yes, you did not read wrongly. The starter kits came in different forms: cans, plastic bags, sachets, etc. I also tried one cannabis lollipop. Contrary to what my friends told me, I thought it tasted not bad, although I never really knew what real cannabis taste like.

Bloemenmarkt or the floating flower market

L-R: cannabis starting kits and cannabis lollipops (they are legal!!)

The shops also sold many different kinds of interesting souvenirs, ranging from wooden tulips of different sizes, magnets, key chains, clogs (these are Holland specialties; you see them almost everywhere in Amsterdam) and miniature Holland houses. In the end I bought 35 euros worth of different magnets as souvenirs for my friends back in Singapore. Another thing that made Amsterdam notorious is the magic mushroom. There was one shop in the opposite side of the market. It sold many different kinds of mushroom; some have the power to give “extra concentration” or “extra energy” and some give extra “simulation” if you know what I mean.

the famous magic mushroom

By now, I have more or less finished the main attractions in Amsterdam, except the windmill which remained close till tmr morning. So I decided to just walk back to the city centre (Damrak) and hanged around in the Dam Square area. Similar to the St Mark’s Square in Venice, it had countless number of pigeons. Notably surrounding the square are Mme Tussaud’s wax museum and the Royal Palace. I wanted to go to Mme Tussaud’s but I thought it would perhaps be better to go to the original one in London. Anyway, the Dam Square are usually filled with many street performers who got very cranky when I wanted to take their photos without first giving them some moolah.

random interesting stuff I saw at 9 little streets

Afterwards I made my way quickly back to the hostel to drop off the souvenirs I bought earlier and headed out for lunch at McDonalds. Then I went behind the Amsterdam central station to take a free cruise to cross to Amsterdam North. There was nothing much to do there so after 15 minutes I made my way back to the “mainland Amsterdam”.

L-R: free boat cruise to Amsterdam North; multi-level bicycle park

Amsterdam being a cycling town, I wanted to experience what it was like to be one of the locals. So I rented a bike for the next 4 hours and I paid 7.50 euros which included 2.50 euros theft insurance. I thought I would just play it safe and pay a little more in case the bike got stolen. Cycling in a foreign city where you drive on the right was at times dangerous. I was still not used to the fact that I had to keep right on the road. Aside from this, it was really fun cycling at a leisure pace around the city. By now I was really familiar with Amsterdam and I could get around easily without map except a few times just to double check my whereabouts. The sunny and lovely weather was perfect for cycling as well. The sights were simply pretty, especially with the canals and typical Amsterdam houses which I thought were really unique. I also made a stop at Rembrandtplein to try a local snack called Olie Bollen. It was basically just dough in ball shape eaten with sugar powder.

L-R: on my bike & the pretty houses of Amsterdam

After 4 hours, I was a satisfied man and I felt I have truly experienced Amsterdam in almost every way possible (except the nightlife). However, I still had the evening to kill so I went to the Amsterdam Arena, the home ground of Ajax Amsterdam. This stadium is famous for its convertible roof, which would cover or uncover the pitch depending on the weather. By far this was the most modern football stadium I have visited. It even had escalators to go up to the stands. The megastore was big although it was closed.

L-R: random view of a canal; Amsterdam Arena

25 Dec 07 - Amsterdam

2007-12-25T21:45:00.000+01:00

Merry Christmas to all. Sinhui and I went in different directions after Milan. She wanted to tour Italy while I badly wanted to visit Amsterdam and London (she has been to both places as well). Many people questioned why I want to spend Xmas all alone, but personally I had no qualms with this. My day started off with a special pancake breakfast at the hostel. Later on, I found out that pancakes are actually Holland’s specialties. They have a wide range of pancakes topped with cheese, ham, chocolates, bananas, apples and the list goes on. Too bad the price was a little steep for me, especially since the supposedly better ones came with cheese.

My first destination of the day was the Van Gogh Museum. I was lucky enough that most of the museums in Amsterdam were opened even during Christmas. The city centre was still bustling with life even though elsewhere it was mostly calm and quiet. I took a tram from the Central Station and got down at Museumplein right in front of Concertgebouw. Anyway, tram is arguably the second most common mode of transport (cycling comes first; in fact, most roads in Amsterdam cater to cyclists). In most of the trams, you will find the driver in the front who will help people to stamp their ticket and in the middle (applicable for long trams), there is another controller stationed at a small “booth” to help passengers stamp as well. I purchased the Amsterdam version of “carnet” or multiple trips. This card has 15 rows for stamping purposes and each travel can take 2-3 rows depending on how far you travel. I thought this is a really unique system.

As I alighted from the Museumplein stop, I was greeted with the sight of Concertgebouw which is simply a concert hall. I took a couple of photos and proceeded to the museum. The paintings displayed in this museum were fresh in my most honest opinion. I am kind of tired of religious arts with paintings of Jesus, Mary or the Saints. Instead, Van Gogh revolutionized contemporary art by pioneering pointillism (the art of using heavy pointed brush strokes or light strokes to create life effects of the paintings). What was also interesting was that he did not start painting from young; instead, he took lessons at the age of 26 when he was jobless and had no directions in life. He then developed his own style of the strokes I mentioned earlier, but unfortunately he died early of epilepsy. He was never really a recognized artist when he died, but in the next century, his works have inspired many young artists who adopted his style.

L-R: Concertgebouw, Van Gogh museum

the two most famous paintings of van Gogh

After van Gogh, I just walked around in the big green lawn of Museumplein, walking in the direction of Rijksmuseum. In the open space, there was a makeshift outdoor ice-skating rink and there were many young kids having fun with their families. I did not enter the Rijksmuseum as most sections of the museum are undergoing renovations.

L-R: Rijkmuseum, ice rink

My stomach was getting rather noisy as it was already past 1 pm then. Unfortunately, there were not many shops/restaurants which were open in the neighbourhood. I knew for sure that I could find food in the city centre, but it made no sense to go there just to grab food and then return to Vondelpark which was located within walking distance from Museumplein. So I had to bear with my hunger and went to Vondelpark with the hope that there were small stalls selling finger food at the very least.

Vondelpark is a 120 hectare park, a popular destination for people of all ages. There were not many people in the park today as I am guessing most people chose to stay at home and have a good meal with their families. However, one single thing made my trip to the park unforgettable: the discovery of, not one, but at least 3-4 frozen lakes in the park. At first I was not very convinced with what I saw, but after I saw a few kids hitting the lake with tree branches, I knew I was right. I then went to prove it myself by throwing a stone into the lake. True enough, the sound of the stone hitting the icy surface of the lake was similar to that of a marble dropping on a floor. I am always easily excited by new discoveries, by things that I never experienced. First it was snow, but the excitement has since passed.

Vondelpark with its frozen lake

Unfortunately, there was no affordable food in the park. The price of the cheapest and the only restaurant which was opened started at 15+ euros. So I decided to just make my way back to city centre and settled for KFC 3-piece chicken meal lunch. I thought most European KFCs would serve really small chickens (like the one in Spain!!), but to my amazement, the chickens were huge and I had difficulty finishing them!

L-R: Royal Palace and Magna Plaza

After lunch, I headed straight to the Anne Frank’s house. She was a German girl who fled into Holland during the Nazi regime and then went into hiding with his family and a few other Jews in this house. Throughout her hiding in this house, she kept a diary describing the details of their predicaments and the need for constant vigilance in the house. Imagine staying put in the house for a few years (I would die of boredom)!! In the end, the hiding was betrayed by an unknown and they were sent to concentration camps in Austria (if I am not wrong). Anne and her sister then both died of typhus in the camp while her dad survived the camp. It was Anne’s wish that her diary was published one day so that people would be aware of what the Jews went through during the Nazi occupation. This house also provided this interactive system for us to explore further about Anne, her family as well as the house. They also have a special multimedia presentation section which analysed important and debatable issues (such as homosexuality, press freedom, the ban of head covers in France, etc). At the end of each short presentation, a question will be posed to the audience, after which we could vote a YES or NO by pressing the buttons next to our seat. The results were displayed immediately on the big screen. Cool stuff. I felt as if I was among the audience of “Who wants to be a millionaire” who was being polled. =D

It was already dark when I exited the Anne Frank’s house so I thought of just exploring the nine little streets even though I knew the shops would be closed. These 9 streets have a wide array of interesting stuff such as unique candles, buttons, pins, etc. After grabbing a quick dinner, I went back to the hostel to have a good night rest. Two museums in a day were totally mentally taxing.

top (L-R): in front of Anne Frank House; bottom (R): 9 little streets

24 Dec 07 - Amsterdam

2007-12-24T20:48:00.000+01:00

I spent the bright part of the day traveling from Milan to Amsterdam. Firstly, I had to take a shuttle bus to Milan Orio al Serio which is actually an airport located at Bergamo. Then, I took a flight to Eindhoven, before I switched to a direct shuttle from Eindhoven to Amsterdam. In the end I took about 7 hours to reach Amsterdam but it was the cheapest option according to my research a few months ago.

The hostel I stayed in is called The Shelter City Christian Hostel. I reserved a 16-bed room so the setback was that the chances of people snoring were higher. The lockers were not situated in the room, but instead they were placed outside the rooms in the general corridor. No plug in the rooms as well. Imagine the hassle caused by all these.

The hostel itself was located in the famous Amsterdam’s Red Light District. So the first thing I did when I headed out of the hostel today was actually to walk around the neighbourhood. The Red Light District refers to the area full of prostitutes who occupy a little aquarium like cabin, decked with red lights. The prostitutes themselves were scantily-clad. Most wore as little as just lingeries. The sex workers range from young to old, black or white, slim to fat and sexy to turn-off. I guess when it came to paid sex, most desperate men will not really care about this. I ventured the whole district. In the main streets, it was still pretty alright walking around without any awkwardness. When it came to the really narrow alleys, I actually came to about less than 2 m from the sex workers. The narrow alleys were mostly occupied by young hot girls, probably about my age or slightly older.

L-R: Red Light District; Niewmarkt

In the district, I could also find many sex shops selling a wide array of blue films openly and people did not seem to care about this as they non-chalantly walked in and out of the shops. They also had many video cabines to rent out for people to watch pornographic films. Also, there were many blacks hanging around in the neighbourhood. At first, I was suspecting that maybe there were just targeting people to pickpocket, but later on I learnt that they were trying to sell cocaine to passers-by. I myself was approached several times by different men.

This experience was a real eye-opener for me. I really pity these women and it was saddening to know the extent to which people go to earn easy money.

L-R: random Xmas decoration; FEBO (a kind of vending machine for snacks but behind the glass shelves is a kitchen with the chefs preparing the food)

Dinner was spent in a Chinese restaurant at Zeeduk. This stretch of road was flourishing with many types of Asian cuisine. In fact, this was the widest array of Asian food I have seen in Europe thus far. The best thing was that the chefs were locals so the food was more authentic! I ordered a hot & sour seafood soup and a Peking roasted duck rice for 12 euros. My first proper Asian meal in nearly 5 months and it could not get better than this. As a side note, Amsterdam has all kinds of cuisines from all over the world. As I walked around more after dinner, I discovered many Argentinian, Spanish, Indonesian, Malaysian, Japanese, Brazilian restaurants.

yummy

top (L-R): clogs of Holland, pretty house models; bottom (L-R): porno poker cards, cigar papers (at first i thought they were chewing gums!)

After visiting some souvenir shops, I settled in early as I would be off early tomorrow morning.

23 Dec 07 - San Siro Milan

2007-12-23T21:34:00.000+01:00

We set off at 8:30 am for Terminal Bus Garibaldi. My intention was to convert my e-reservation voucher for the bus to Milan Bergamo airport to a “real ticket” there. The Autostradale (the bus company) website clearly stated that we have to convert the ticket at Garibaldi. To my horror, when I reached there, I was told that they no longer have a ticket booth there and I was re-directed to Milan central station. When I reached the central station, I went to one of the agents to try to convert, but I was told to go to the main ticket office. After being shuffled here and there to different people, I finally decided to just go to the bus directly to ask the driver about it. And it was there that I found that I could just board the bus with the e-mail printout. WTH. I was very sure that the website said otherwise as I verified it twice before I went to Milan. My impression of Italy has never been very good and this small incident just proved the messiness and disorganization of the Italians.

By the time we left the central station, we were already almost 2 hours behind schedule. Original plan was to cover the Milan castle and Santa Maria delle Grazie where the Last Supper painting of Leonardo da Vinci resides. In the end we only had time for Milan castle as we had to leave early for the Milan derby match which was the primary reason that brought me to Milan. The Milan castle itself was a beautiful site although I was not particularly wowed, having seen so many castles in the past few months.

the Milan castle

L-R: couples lock a padlock on this bridge to "secure" their relationship; makeshift skiing ramp

Anyway, a few weeks ago Sinhui and I bought the Milan derby ticket online for 175 euros per ticket. That is slightly more than S$ 350 and we were expecting at least a second tier seating. To our disbelief, when we received our tickets yesterday, we found out that we would actually be sitting at the topmost and furthest tier and each ticket only cost 21 euros. *GASP* When we got to the San Siro, we also found out that we would actually be sitting with the Inter Milan fans as Inter was playing home that day. I was fine with sitting with Inter fans but obviously Sinhui, being a die-hard AC Milan fan, did not relent. She said that we should try our luck to go through the gate which was not ours. She decided to go to a blur-looking controller and before long, we were lucky enough to be through the gate.

souvenir shop; Sinhui with 2 Milan supporters

The next obstacle was that there was another control check to go up to the Milan sectors. At first the old man directed us to the Inter sector but after Sinhui begged with him in Italian and mentioned that we are Milan fans, he was kind enough to let us in. And we were in San Siro!! A dream came true for Sinhui and all of a sudden, the 175 euros became worth it as we were sitting in 2nd tier with the Milan fans. An important lesson we learnt today was that nobody should ever buy tickets online for two reasons: firstly, there were many people selling tickets on that day itself (black market of course, but it would definitely be cheaper than online) and secondly, it is free seating once you get into the stadium. In fact, everyone was standing throughout the match.

San Siro Milan

The atmosphere in stadium was inexplicably awesome. The tension between the two sides went all the way to the tribune as the fans could not stop jeering each other. Notably the Milan fans who only occupied the 2nd tier upwards, threw down balls of newspapers down to the 1st tier, some even spat at the Inter fans sitting in lower stands. Middle fingers flew all over the places coupled with the chants “Ole…ole…ole…ole…Inter merda” (Inter shit).

L-R: Milan fans; fans burning newspaper after the match

pre-match atmosphere (mind the flying middle fingers)

The match itself went up to my expectations. It was played at high tempo as both teams wanted to prove who is best. Inter went into the match as the table leader of Serie A while Milan went into the match as a “world champion” in Yokohama which ended just last week. Milan started off more brightly; Kaka notably proving his worth as the winner of Balloon d’Or. His ball control was really superb and he has speed; these made it really difficult for the Inter defenders to dispossess him of the ball.

Milan fans throwing newspaper balls at Inter supporters

Milan took the lead in the 16th minute when Inzaghi in my opinion dived just outside the penalty box to earn Milan a free kick. From the most ideal position, Pirlo made no mistake, curling in a stunning freekick that left the Inter keeper rooted to the ground. The Milan sectors immediately burst into thunderous celebration. However, the joy sharing went a little overboard as the guys in front of us were hugging each other violently and fell onto Sinhui (in a near daopok manner) except that a few of them landed on her knees. Sinhui thought her knees had just broken/twisted and the pain was apparent as she was crying in pain. Luckily, after a while she managed to bend her knees so we knew that it was probably the initial shock that caused the pain. Nonetheless I was really angry and disgusted by the behaviour of some of the fans.

Inter then seized control of the game and admittedly for most parts of the match, Inter was the better side as they were able to string passes well and create goalmouth chances. Inter equalized before half time and it was a goal they deserved as the build-up was really neat and quick. Dida’s position was questionable though as he conceded at near post, similar to the goal he conceded against Rooney in last season’s Champions League semifinal.

neat Inter attack

In the second half, Inter was still the dominating side and they went ahead 2-1 through a Dida’s howler. Cambiasso somehow managed to get a shot between two defenders and Dida inexplicably dived too far to the left and let the ball past his legs. After this goal, Milan never looked like equalizing as they kept losing the ball in the midfield area. Apart from a stunning Kaka’s first time volley that was parried away by Inter’s keeper, Milan had to bow to the table leader at final whistle.

After the match, we wanted to shop for more souvenirs in the official store. To our aghast, the official store was really small and everyone had to queue to get in. Everyone was pushing each other, increasing the chances of human stampede to happen. There was nothing much in the store that caught our eyes except a scarf that Sinhui had purchased before the match. In fact, the fake goods outside the stadium offered much more variety. Sinhui got herself a Milan flag and 2 key chains after which we headed back to Duomo for a sumptuous dinner at Ciao Restaurant.

Today has been an unforgettable day despite the fact that Milan lost. I am really looking forward to Old Trafford. Hopefully Man United will play well (and win) and the atmosphere will be as great as that in San Siro.

22 Dec 07 - Milan

2007-12-22T21:02:00.000+01:00

As soon as I arrived in Milan at about 3 pm, Sinhui and I made our way to Eva Hotel located just about 1 km away from Milano central station. This was one of the worst lodging I have ever stayed in, not because of the poor comfort level of the room or bed, but the poor and old facilities of the hotel. The bathroom was aweful as the hot water would suddenly become cold in the middle of our bath. The door knobs of the toilets were so “fragile” that I felt I would just pull it off any moment when I opened the door.

random photos along the street. they have really old trams for a fashion city.

Apart from the little disappointment with the state of the hostel, the first day in Milan went pretty fine. Contrary to popular belief that Milan is a boring city, it was bustling with life, perhaps due to the fact that Christmas was coming to town. The light decorations sure made the city even more beautiful. A few noteworthy places that we visited today were the Scala Teatro, Galleria Emmanuelle Vittoria and Duomo. Emannuelle Vittoria was a really grand shopping hall and it summed up the reputation of Milan as a fashion city. In fact, everywhere I walked, I seemed to see hot babes in fashionable winter outfit. =D

photos from Galleria Emmanuelle Vittoria II

L-R: Duomo (largest cathedral in Milan); random

I wanted to see an Italian version of a Christmas market and I checked from an online source that there was supposedly one at Piazza San Ambrogioni?? However, there was nothing when we reached there. Big boo.

That was pretty much for the day. We went back early to our hostel as we would be having a pretty long day tomorrow.

20 Dec 07 - Soirée de l'étage & l'anniversaire de Lucil

2007-12-21T15:30:00.000+01:00

As the holidays approach, none of the exchange students were in the mood to study anymore. Sinhui decided that it was about time that we throw a small fête (party) for our neighbours. The two main reasons for the party: she will be leaving soon and it will probably be hard to find free time in January and also to celebrate the birthday of Lucil.

Inspired by the success stories of Eugene's sushis with his neighbours, we decided to give it a try without the master's help. On top of that, I also cooked an Indonesian specialty "sambal oelek" which consists of deep fried eggs mixed in hot spicy sambal, garlic, onions and shrimps.

the modest dinner

The preparation for sushis started as early as 4:30 pm. Kevin and I started first by boiling the short-grain rice. I forgot to measure accurately the amount of rice with the amount of water and as a result the rice was a little soft and sticky. This is the hard part about preparing sushis: the precision of the quantity of ingredients actually does make a huge difference. But the hardest part is when we have to roll the "maki". The first roll has to be really compact. I didn't manage to do that and the makis turned out to be a disaster. Haha.

all the iron chefs (Peiling from Barcelona, Qinghan, Kevin, Sinhui)

The party started at about 7:30 pm. It was not a big party but it was satisfying to know that our neighbours appreciated our efforts. It is always quite a sight to watch the non-Asians try wasabi. Some of them survived, but some like Lucil and Isham almost died of it. Haha. Zouhour and Adam liked my sambal oelek and it was nice to hear their compliments. =D

As Lucil's birthday falls on Xmas day, we decided to have any early celebration before all of us leave for holidays. Evidently she was very touched when Sinhui brought in the birthday cake with a "makeshift candle" (it was actually an aromatherapy candle). She was clearly holding back her tears as she wiped her eyes a few times. Well, tears of happiness are most welcomed. =D Of course, in Singapore traditional way of birthday celebration, we always have a sabo session. Too bad she was a girl (I miss doing daopok) so I came up with the idea of her doing catwalk. The reason was simple: Lucil is a very camera-shy girl!!

Birthday Girl

So she had to do a défilé down the corridor and back. Her first attempt was unsuccessful as she showed black face. The unsatisfied audience demanded for an "encore" so she had to do twice more before we let her go. In the end, due to popular demand, everyone had to do a catwalk, including myself!! To save myself some self-esteem and grace, I shall not post most of the videos here except for mine. =D

Lucil's first attempt (prove for yourself how shy she is)

Adam "j'suis trop cool"

Julia's seductive walk

Peiling with catalan flavour

Qinghan's groove down the aisle

My neighbours with the Singaporeans (and Indonesian)

19 Dec 07 - La Fin Des Cours Français Extensif

2007-12-20T10:13:00.000+01:00

Yesterday evening marked the end of my French extensive course. Yet another reminder that my time in Europe is nearing the end. As of the time I am writing this post, I have 38 days left in Europe. Take away 12 days of travelling, that will leave me with only 26 days in France.

Anyway, the French extensive course extended for 10 weeks, taking place every Wednesday evening from 18h30-20h30. Despite the ungodly hungry hours, I usually still manage to have some fun in class (well, I do have my fair share of grumbles when I was dead hungry or dead tired). In fact, this lesson was probably the one I enjoyed most in spite of the fact that I often get "mind-raped" by the discrepancy in standard between me and my brilliant classmates.

Prof Luc Ramis

L-R: Johannes (Germany), Wiebke (Germany), Carlos (Brazil), Me with triple chin (OMG!)

I made my first few international friends in Grenoble from the French Intensive Week in late August and some of them went on to remain in the same class with me for the extensive course. Arguably, some of them are the better international friends I have made here although admittedly we are never "close" or "hang out" often enough.

Yesterday's evening lesson, being the last lesson, was fun-filled. After going through the exam paper in the first hour, we played Taboo in French while gobbling down the chips, chocolates and drinks that everyone has brought (except me =P). The atmosphere was great; everyone was happy and high. Never have I seen the class so lively and rowdy.

the class in the classic France rugby team pose

I am tempted to say I regret never putting more efforts to try to know this group of friends better. I did ask them to go for lunch every now and then, but due to the different schedules that we have, it rarely materialized. In the end, je m'en fou (I don't care) and I carried out my own agenda, ie. travelling which is also important to me. Haha. I guess I was gifted with the power of choice, so I have to bear the consequences of my decision and there is really very little room for regrets now. All I can do now is to maximise the remaining month in France and try to spend a little time here and there with them whenever possible (exams coming!!).

Behind-Front: Carlos, Me, Gailene (M'sia), Wiebke, Helena (Spain)

2 months ago, in the middle of my SEP, I was half looking forward to going back to Singapore. Ironically, it is the total opposite now. I dread the fast pace of life in Singapore. I dread having not enough sleep. =P I will miss the tranquil walk to school in the morning, savouring the mountaineous view around me.

Please let me have a blast for my last month in France!!

15 Dec 07 - Les Deux Alpes

2007-12-15T21:30:00.000+01:00

My days in France are really numbered. Yet another eventful weekend was gone in a blink of the eye. All my life I have always wanted to try an extreme sport, but it never occurred to me that the first extreme sport I would try was actually skiing. It was a real challenge for me to pick up the sport, especially since I don’t even know how to roller-blade or to ice-skate.

A total of 7 Singaporean students signed up with “Ecole de Glisse de Grenoble” who was organizing a “Starting Glisse” course for debutants in ski. For 21 euros, we were supposed to have a to-and-fro shuttle service to Les Deux Alpes, a ski pass as well as basic lessons for beginners. Alas, the French proved to be very efficient again. There were at least 8-10 buses this morning and it was a real mess for everyone to load up their skis, sticks as well as ski shoes. There was no indication of bus number in our ticket as well; so some buses ended up real full like the one I took and some were emptier.

On the bus, I found out that today was designated to be a “sortie” or outing of Ecole de Glisse. Hence, there was a mix of beginners as well as pro-skiers. We were told that the the lessons for beginners would take place at Caisse Centrale (or central cashier). When we reached Les 2 Alpes, everyone was frantically putting on their ski shoes and left one by one. Guess who were the last? Jackpot if you guess correctly that the 7 of us were the last to put on our shoes. The shoes were very tight to begin with, but I guess it was meant to be that way.

That was where the real problem began. We did not know where the Caisse Centrale was. So we walked to the nearest station we saw (called Viking). I asked a man in charge of the chair lift if he knew where the lessons took place and all I got was a shrug. I walked down deeper into the station hoping to find more info. Then I bumped into a group of students so I randomly asked if they knew where I should go. They pointed to another direction and referred to the station as “Diable”. So I walked all the way there (walking in ski shoes was a realy awful experience) before finding out from a man there that the Caisse Centrale was in fact all the way on the other end from where I was standing. Even then I was still not sure where it was, so I went to search for it first before telling the rest to come over. When I confirmed the location, I called the rest to come over. By the time all of us reached this place, 1.5 hours have already lapsed from the time we got off the bus. The best thing was that even when we were there, we did not know where the Ecole de Glisse group was! The lady at a ski lift counter told me that it was impossible for her to find out as there were at least 1000-2000 people that morning. Well done. Two things I did not understand: 1) Why didn’t they drop us at Caisse Centrale directly, and 2) How could they assume everyone knew where the Caisse Centrale was?

SIGH. In the end we decided to just whack and try on our own. So we went to the “piste bleue” (blue indicates easy slope for beginners). The access to this area was free of charge so technically I did not need the ski pass. I want a refund!! GRrr.

So how did it feel like to ski in the French Alps? Painful. =D I could not recall how many times I fell down along the way. Each time I fell, I just told myself: it is okay, it is normal, pick myself up and try again. It was quite demoralizing at first because I could not even go 100 metres without falling down.

L-R: Raring to go in full ski gear thanks to Johan (a Swedish friend of mine)

I tried again…fell again…sometimes in an awkward position that I felt my knees would be twisted at any moment…picked myself up…tried again and again. I did not give up till I finally got it right. I felt a sense of achievement when I could finally ski down from the first “piste verte” (green is one level up from blue) marking for about 300 metres without falling down. =D

successful attempt at a gentle slope

L-R: Me, Michelle, June, Qinghan and Yunzhi who came down from Lyon

It got dangerous when I was starting to enjoy it and wanted more challenge. I took the “tire-fesse” (something like a ski lift except that it pulled me up with my skis flat on the ground) which brought me to the 2nd piste verte marking. When I was up there, I knew that I was facing my doomsday. I was clearly not ready for it. I slided down and the first ramp was so steep that I lost control and fell quite badly into the path of the “tire-fesse”. I crawled quickly to the side to prevent other skiers from knocking into me. Phew, close shave and I knew that my balls shrank and I told myself not to go up there again today. I was simply not good enough to handle that slope yet.

So I settled back to my comfort zone. This time round, I tried to learn how to make a sharp turn, but unfortunately, till the end of the day I was still not able to do it. The fatigue was also setting in, as each time I skied down I had to carry my skis and batons up because it was a little dangerous to hop off halfway from the tire-fesse.

L-R: my playground

Skiing is a real big challenge and I believe that apart from mastering the techniques, you need to overcome your own fear and that is ultimately where the biggest problem lies.

At the end of the day, I felt quite accomplished even though I knew I was far from skiing well. I felt a sense of satisfaction because I believed my attitude was right. From now on, each time I encounter a difficult task, I should face it, try my best and if I could not do it the first time, I should never give up and I should simply try again till I got it right. Afterall my favourite T-shirt is my black Adidas “Impossible is Nothing”. =D

The thing I hate most about skiing? Lugging the skis, batons and shoes to and from the rental shops. Those were probably the heaviest things I have carried around in months. But, given the luxury of time, I would definitely love to give it a second try, at least to learn how to turn!!

SEP Academic Experience

2007-12-13T12:24:00.001+01:00

SEP academic experience in a foreign language is not as easy as I thought it would be. Enough said.

8-9 Dec 07 - La Fête des Lumières @ Lyon

2007-12-09T22:00:00.000+01:00

3rd time in Lyon and I simply could not get bored of this city. The irresistibility factors of this place were the vibrancy and of course, the hospitality of my host and my French prof. This time round, I decided to stay with my prof, partly because I didn’t want to put extra burden on my 84-year old host. I am grateful for the fact that my prof warmly welcomed me into her apartment despite all the works that she had at her hands to settle. I was even more thankful because she practically did not do her work in the end because she had to cook, prepare my bed as well as entertain me over the meals.

Lunch with Marie-France was never an awkward experience for me. As usual, she had a lot of things to say and so did I. We chatted about almost everything under the sky…and continued as Sinhui arrived at around 4 pm to visit her… till we lost track of time. And before we knew it, it was near 6 pm and it was time to descend to the city centre for the highlight of the day: La Fête des Lumières, or The Festival of Lights.

Saturday afternoon with Marie-France. 1st row (R): Lyonnais specialty called Papilotes. 2nd row: MF posing with the photo collages that we made for her.

This festival is a “typiquement Lyonnais” tradition which we could not find anywhere else in France. It had a long history, of course. Once upon a time, there was a plague that was spreading in Europe and the people of Lyon prayed to Virgin Mary to spare the town from the plague. And if this came true, the Lyonnais would honour Mary every year. Indeed, Lyon was not affected by the plague and they decided to erect a statue of Mary at the foot of Fourvière hill. Unfortunately, on the inauguration day, the river Sâone was flooded and the erection of the statue had to be postponed to another date. Amazingly (and apparently), the new date was also an inauspicious one as there was a bad storm on that day. The Lyonnais prayed to Mother Mary for the storm to stop soon…and when it finally stopped on the 8th Dec 1852, the people of Lyon spontaneously lit up candles in the windows of their houses; some went out with candles to celebrate on the roads. Since then, this practice has continued every year and nowadays, the religious practice has been commercialized. Light designers were asked to come up with special designs of different themes every year. I am not sure if they actually get any rewards, but it is a good publicity for them anyway.

The festival itself was a real madness. There was basically a human traffic jam everywhere. It seemed to me that everyone was out that evening. It was hard to stay together in a group especially when there were 8 of us. Honestly, I have never seen a festival of this scale in my life. The rain, the drizzle, the coldness, the crowd did not seem to dampen anybody’s mood. Believe it or not, we wanted to eat at Subway, but they ran out of bread at 8:30 pm!! We managed to get some kebab in the end, but even as we ordered, we could hear the vendor making a call and shouting for the suppliers to send more bread immediately. This was the extent of the evening madness.

Anyway, they sold “vin chaud” everywhere on the streets so I tried one cup. It tasted a little weird because there was cinnamon inside, but it was a good sampling session.

The spectacle of the evening was colourful, splendid, magnificent. Even though I was expecting much more at first, I realized in the end that it was very difficult to get better than this. I did not manage to cover all the illumination sites because there were close to 70 of them.

1st row: view of Fourvière from afar; Place St Nizier; 2nd row: Place des Terreaux

L-R: little squares by Rhône; Place de l'Opéra (can you see the stars on the wall?)

1st row: Place Bellecour; 2nd row: random

I had a fantastic evening with fantastic company. I took the chance to get to know Guillaume and Leticia a little better. Guillaume is a French student from Valence who is in the same chemistry class with Sinhui in Grenoble. He is a super-sympa (very friendly) guy; perhaps, the friendliest young French I have known so far. In fact, I totally had no problem striking conversations with him. Unlike many others, he is open to learning other cultures and he is patient enough to tolerate our often-badly-constructed French. That evening, a thought ran through mind. To what extent does luck play a role in your SEP experience in terms of the people you meet? To a large extent I guess. And I guess I did not really have much of such luck. But I am glad to get to know this dude finally and I think it is never too late to be better friends, especially since he will be coming to Singapore to visit us next June (he even bought the air tickets already!).

the contingent from Grenoble

When I reached Marie-France’s apartment at 00:30, she was still awake. And I could not believe what she was doing. She was preparing a makeshift bed in the living room!! Earlier in the afternoon, she told me that if one or two of the “rest” (referring to the other Singaporeans who were making a day trip) wanted to stay the night in her place, I could bring them back. I thought it was just a casual statement on her part, but my eyes would not lie. She meant what she said. Needless to say, I was very touched by her kind gesture.

After breakfast the next morning, I rushed off to my host’s house which is not very far away. Marie-France wanted to drive me down but I insisted that she stay as I knew she had some papers to mark. After 25 mins walk, I reached my host’s house and we exchanged over orange juice and chocolate for about an hour before she had to leave for lunch in the community centre. I gave her a small framed photo collage and it was evident from her wide smile that she was very happy to receive it. I told her, “Lyon m’a donné beaucoup de bons souvenirs”. (Lyon has given me many good memories) And she replied, « Tu nous as donné aussi de bons souvenirs. On risque de t’oublier, mais avec cette photo et d’autres que tu nous as donnés, ce sera très difficile de t’oublier. » (You have also given us great memories. There is a risque that we forget you, but with this photo and others that you have given us, it will be very difficult to forget you). After exchanging our last bisous (kiss) on the cheeks, I waved her “Au Revoir” and I immediately dreaded the possibility that I might never see her again.

the people who made a difference. L-R: my host, her son and MF.

I spent the next 3 hours with Marie-France…lunch was no doubt excellent!! I cherished my last few hours in Lyon as time was getting really precious then.

Sunday's lunch: main course, coffee, fruit salad, wine, hard liqueur, cake...

As 15h30 approached, I went down with reluctance to the bus stop accompanied by Marie-France (of course, she had offered to drive me to Perrache but I furiously refused). I left with many souvenirs in my bag: home-made honey from my host’s son, home-made chocolates from my host and 2 bottles of home-made marmalade from Marie-France. I left with memories of Lyon sweeter than the honey. I left bitterly – more bitter than the dark chocolate – for the fact that I would not be back in Lyon for at least another 5-10 years. Merci Lyon, où tout a commencé.

cadéaux et souvenirs de Lyon

after 3 months and 3 weeks...

2007-12-07T11:23:00.000+01:00

I officially declare this week to be my most hardworking week since I arrived in France in August. I have been working rather tirelessly to try to understand this "1st year" module called Mécanique Générale that started 2 weeks ago. I missed the 2nd lecture and the 1st tutorial so I was kind of lost. So...I spent close to 2 days trying to understand the notes and search for information..read again...stare...think...but I just could not seem to grasp it. It is either the module is very tough or I am very stupid. And when I went to the tutorial on Wednesday...the tutor went so fast that all I could do was to copy down everything he wrote on the board with zero understanding (I am not kidding you, I really understood absolutely NOTHING). LOW MORALE!!

And I spent the whole of yesterday afternoon..to be exact about 5 hours trying to solve this assignment that I have to hand in next week. And after 5 hours..I had something on my paper but I absolutely have no confidence in my solutions. I am starting to wonder if I could pass if this continues... In the end I had to miss a volleyball session yesterday because I left the library quite late...

A consolation for me is that life is getting slightly better in my residence. My french neighbours have started to warm up. Lucil, a 21-year-old French girl who is studying in Stendhal, is always in the kitchen talking to us and telling us what happened in the day for her. In fact, she is almost always the first to come out of her room whenever she hears Sinhui & I in the kitchen. And the first phrase that usually comes out from her: "Alors, qu'est-ce que tu racontes, Andi?" (So, what stories do you have today?). Julia, at 18-year old with her typical hiccups, is also a noisy one who makes cooking in the kitchen less of a routine. Both of them in particular are regular kitcheners, as are Sinhui and I. Occasionally, they will correct us as we speak and they also teach us familiar words that the young use. "Knacki" for example, is a familiar word for sausages, simply because it is a common brand. Also, the young use "bouffer" more often than "manger" to refer to "eat".

Anyway, Sinhui and I have stopped going to the restaurant universitaire (RU) for dinner ever since the sky gets dark at 17h30 2 months ago. Instead, we always cook simple dishes such as scrambled eggs with chili padi and sausages, or french beans, capsicum & mushrooms cooked in lard & soya sauce, or pasta in olive oil, or green salad with boiled eggs, ham bits, sausages and olive oil. Sometimes we get more "creative" by preparing "fried rice in tomato sauce". Basically, we fry garlic, onions, rice and eggs together. Then, we mix in ready-made tomato sauce and VOILA, dinner is ready!

L-R: typical ingredients for dinner; Lucil & I

On a side note, my laptop is dying on me. It takes close to 5 mins to boot up and I cannot load multiple programs at the same time. The blue screen of death has appeared several times as well. It hangs often. It takes very long time hibernate so sometimes I have to turn it off manually. My dear laptop, please do not fail me!!!

happiest school day

2007-12-03T15:36:00.000+01:00

No, it's not because I just won a soccer bet. No, it's also not because this cute girl was flirting with me on the street (it always happens to me anyway =P). Neither is it because I just scored 20/20 for my final exam here (I wish!). No, no, not because I made many new local friends. So what is the reason then?

My most detestable prof did not turn up for lecture today!! It totally made my day. Haha. Lame? Or childish? I don't care. Simply because this was the guy who made a remark 2 months back: "Pourquoi vous êtes les quatres tous exclusives?". Translated: "Why are the four of you so exlusive?". He was referring to the fact that the 2 Singaporeans always sat with the 2 Swedish guys in class. To add salt to the wound, he was also the guy who always gave us the "Oh no, you again" look everytime we wanted to ask him questions. Since then I have already given up asking him anything. And going for his lesson was a real torture for me. So when he was absent today, it turned out to be the happiest school day ever. =D

Anyway, a shocking news from Grenoble. Last Thursday, a violence/riot broke out in the political science institute of Grenoble (IEP). After close to 3 weeks of school blockage, the director of the school was set on reopening the school despite the resistance from the pro-blockage students. Early in the morning at 7+ am, the students were trying to block the entrance to the school still. The director apparently attacked a few students with a metal dustbin, with the alibi that the students were armed and were threatening the school admin staff. At least that was what he said to the press. However, the student accounts told a totally different story. The "arms" that the director were referring to were supposedly "materials" to block the school gate. So who is right and who is wrong? J'sais pas du tout. On another building in another faculty (UPMF), violence also broke out as the security fired tear gas to scare the pro-blockage students.

1 Dec - Le Mont St Michel & Rennes

2007-12-01T22:00:00.000+01:00

This place is a UNESCO world heritage site at Normandy, France, also a home to a 13th century abbey as well as an impenetrable fortress for France during the 100 years war. The most unique thing about this site is that it is a tidal island. Due to the geographical position of this island, the high tides in this site go as high as 14 metres daily, leaving Mont St Michel a separate island from the France mainland. Obviously, now there is a road built to link the mainland to the island during low tides.

Le Mont St Michel

It took me 4 hours for me to reach Le Mont St Michel from Paris Montparnasse. All I wished from this trip was that this place would be special, especially since I paid 71 euros (aller-retour) to get there. Alas, when I reached there, I found out that the high tides had occurred at 10 am, and it was nearly 1 pm then. Nonetheless, I would say that the view of the site was quite extraordinary. Later on, I also found out that the 3-storey abbey was built on top of a very steep rocky slope which required very accurate technical calculations. The village leading up to the abbey was a pretty sight, boasting brick walls and narrow alleyways, with fancy restaurants and souvenir shops on both sides.

1st row (left): first sight from the bus; the rest: the narrow alleyways

Can you excuse yourself from not praying by paying for a candle?

The view from the abbey observation towers was really unique. Et il faisait beau aujourd’hui! I was practically surrounded by a 360 degree quicksand. Unguided promenade along the tidal island was thus prohibited as this could potentially turn into a life-threatening experience. Anyway, the abbey had a little gothic touch in my opinion, reminding me of the Palais des Papes in Avignon.

the famous abbey (notice the quicksand all around). the last picture (the wheel pulley) was used to hoist prisoners and food up from the foot of the hill when the abbey was turned into a prison in 13th century.

More views

The walk through the village made me realize that this place is really quite touristy. As my stomach was crying in hunger, I wanted to have a decent lunch (that would have been my first decent meal in 3 days), perhaps in a restaurant which was not too expensive. I walked and walked…to no avail…as the cheapest meal I could get in the restaurants started from 16 euros!! So I switched back to my old faithful ham sandwich.

More walking also revealed the popularity of this woman called La Mere Poulard. I did not get a chance to question the locals who she was, but I am guessing that she had to be a legendary historic figure in the village. Anyway, this “Mere Poulard” became a brand for many types of local butter biscuits, vinegar and wines. Obviously, the price was extravagant; a box of 125g butter biscuits cost 5,50 euros. It was more expensive than my sandwich lunch!

the various products of Mère Poulard

Traveling alone really saved me a lot of time. Original plan was for me to reach Le Mont St Michel at 1 pm, walk around for about 3.5 hours then catch the last connecting bus back to Rennes at 16:45. I finished Le Mont St Michel within 2 hours though so I caught the 15:15 bus back to Rennes so that I could at least walk around in this capital of Bretagne.

Rennes, in my honest opinion, is quite a boring city. It can be considered quite a modern city. The centre-ville was bustling with life as it was a Saturday evening. However, as a tourist, I was not very impressed with anything in particular, except perhaps a few decent architectures. What saved me from the lack of things to do/see in Rennes was again the Marche de Noel (Christmas market). Twice in as many days. This market was even better than that at La Defense in Paris, boasting many interesting colourful food as well as a carousel for les enfants (children). There was a stall which sold churros with hot chocolate for 5 euros…I was drooling very badly but the price was too extravagant. I am really loving Marche de Noel. It has a concept totally different from that in Singapore. And it is like a melting pot of all the interesting food, crafts, products of the region.

1st row: interesting net to contain the falling leaves; free chewing gum. 2nd row: Place du Champ & Parlement de Bretagne

Colours in the market

L-R: Hôtel de Ville de Rennes; Palais St Georges

I was then back to Paris before I knew it and it was the end of yet another memorable weekend.

30 Nov 07 - Versailles

2007-11-30T22:37:00.000+01:00

My original plan was to go to Disneyland today, but due to some unforeseen circumstances, I had to put it off and switch to plan B. Le chateau de Versailles was the attraction of the day. After close to an hour ride on the RER (the suburban line for Paris outskirt regions), I reached the town of Versailles. As I walked towards the castle, the first thought that came to my mind was "wow, this is gonna be tough". It proved to be true later on as I spent close to 5 hours in total. Considering that I was all by myself, with medium walking speed and without much waiting time, 5 hours were really a significant number.

Château de Versailles et l'intérieur!

Indeed, Versailles was perhaps the biggest castle I have visited in Europe so far. This site was once inhabited by the French monarchy, notably Louis XIV and his families. Like many other castles, the palace has many intricately-decorated rooms, with nice wall and ceiling paintings. However, unlike other palaces which were richly coated in gold, this palace was famous for its silverwork, with a total of close to 20 tonnes of silver used.

L-R: Hall of Mirrors; The Royal Chapel

The best thing about Versailles was that the visitors were allowed to take photos, except in the temporary exhibition areas. The audioguide was not of much help to my understanding and I was more interested in capturing images of the interior of the palace (it was a rare opportunity =P). Afterall, I guess I would forget most of the history told in the audioguide.

The colourful, intricately-designed rooms

Anyway, the palace was HUGEEEEEE. Let me redefine what huge means. Huge means you take one hour to walk at medium speed from the palace, through the vast gardens, ending at the Domaine de Marie Antoinette (the end of the site). The garden was supposed to be really awesome, but too bad it was winter so all I saw was green patches of grass and trees without leaves. The statues have been wrapped up to protect them from the bad weather as well.

Views from the palace garden

After close to an hour walk, I finally reached the Grand Trianon. If I did not hear wrongly from a lady there, this place was dedicated for all the mistresses/concubines of Louis XIV. More splendid rooms inside, after which I left for the estate of Marie Antoinette. This was my favourite place in the whole of Versailles as it was as good as a completely different world. It had the countryside touch, with a quiet and tranquil environment as well as a small lake.

1st row (left): Grand Trianon; the rest: Domaine de Marie Antoinette

After Versailles, I headed back to Paris centre and went to the Montparnasse area. I had the intention to take the elevator up to the 56th floor of La Tour Montparnasse which offered “the best panoramic view” of Paris. I thought the tariff of 7 euros was a bit too much and I was not sure if I could see anything since the weather has been quite bad. So I decided that I could do without the panoramic view and I just walked around the area. Nice neighbourhood, with many little wooden stalls selling local handicrafts as well as chocolates. I spoilt myself by buying one chocolate which had marshmallow inside. Letch will so gonna love this! Haha.

Montparnasse neighbourhood

I did not spend much time in Montparnasse as it was more of a shopping area and I did not have “le pouvoir d’achat” (purchasing power) anyway. So I made my way to La Défense” at the end of the metro line 1. This place is the equivalent of Singapore’s CBD with all the tall buildings and business centres. La Défense boasts many outstanding modern architectures, notably Le Grand Arc de La Défense, Les Quatres Temps and Le Dome. It was then that I realised that Paris was not only a classy city with Eiffel Tower and Musée de Louvre, but it was also a busy business city. It totally debunked the myth of “always-knock-off-at-17h” as the lights in the office towers were still on at 20h30.

L-R: Le Grand Arc de La Défense; the Paris Business District

And Noel (Christmas) was clearly in sight. There was a Marche de Noel held at the open space in front of the grand arc. My first Christmas market experience and I loved it!! The various stalls sold a variety of handcrafts, food, decorative lamps, aromatherapy, etc…There was a magic wallet, in which we could place a piece of card inside the wallet, then as we folded the wallet 180 degrees, the card would be placed nicely under a rubber compartment. Another woman was promoting this “blackboard” which did not require a chalks or drawing/colouring pencils to draw things. What the children needed to do was to press on the board in certain ways and different colours will emerge on the board. A different way of swiping the board will have the effect of “erasing” the previous designs. We could also place a picture on top of the board, and trace the design with our nails and the exact same design will appear on the board. Interesting.

Marché de Noel (What is the Mécanique Générale textbook doing there? FYI, it is one of the modules I am taking in France right now)

Then back to chez Yanghan for a good night’s rest.

29 Nov 07 - Paris

2007-11-29T22:52:00.000+01:00

My day started pretty early. I rose at 6:15 to ensure that I would be at the tram stop by 7 am although my TGV would only leave at 7:50 am. I am quite sure some of you can guess the reasons. If you are thinking along the line of a strike, then you have won the top prize. This time round, the tram company went on strike and I was not at all sure about the frequency of the tram; thus, the need to wake up earlier.

Anyway, TGV, being the fastest train in Europe, should bring the passengers to their destinations at top speed and at top precision. Today, the TGV was late by 20 mins (I could not have imagined if I had scheduled my VISA appointment earlier) and this was not the first time that the TGVs I took were late.

After putting my bag at Yanghan's apartment, I headed out to the UK Visa Application Centre called World Bridge Services, located very near the Champs Elysées (a shopping district selling all the branded goods, such as the Louis Vuitton bags). After taking a quick sandwich lunch and taking a couple of photos of the Arc du Triomphe, I immediately went to the centre. My appointment was scheduled at 13:45 and I reached at 13:15. I was duly turned down and asked to return at 13:45. I thought perhaps they were very strict and efficient with the schedule. But to my aghast, when I entered later on, they were at least 30 more people in the queue in front me. The security man was not polite either; basically he spoke like a robot, without expression and intonation. So I waited...and waited...and waited forever. After about 2 hours, it finally came to my turn to submit my application. After that I still had to wait for another half hour or so before my turn for the biometrics scan. They should really consider improving the efficiency. They only have 2 counters for the submission and 1 counter for the biometric scan. I am now crossing my fingers that my application would be approved.

L-R: Yanghan's apartment; Arc du Triomphe

When I exited the application centre, it was drizzling and I realised I forgot to bring my umbrella out. Merde! I have to wear my beanies again. Haha. My next stop was La Tour Eiffel. This structure has never failed to amaze me, especially after researching more about it for my French 4 oral presentation last semester. The Eiffel tower is really an engineering feat, with an artistic touch, and it's a real wonder because up till now, nobody has been able to come up with a confirmed mathematical model for its curved body. From what I read, Gustave Eiffel simply used his experience to estimate the effects of the force of the wind on the structure when he designed the curve.

L-R: La Tour Eiffel; my obsession with carousel

La Tour Eiffel at night (rather at 5:30 pm)

I reluctantly left the Eiffel site because I knew that I would not go back there for a long long time in the future. I then took the metro to Montmatre area. This area was really touristy with plenty of souvenir shops. At the funiculaire station, I was stopped by this African guy who called me "his friend". He was holding my arms in one hand and a long string on the other. He told me to talk to him and I told him to release my arm. He told me to relax and be happy. And then I just left. I had a feeling that guy was trying to hypnotize me to lure me into giving him some cash. Anyway, I went up to the top of the hill and visited the Basilique de Sacré Coeur. It was just a normal cathedral in my opinion. The highlight was supposed to be the panoramic view of Paris at night, but it was so foggy that I could almost see anything in the distance. Too bad.

Sacré Coeur

I descended on foot and walked towards the Moulin Rouge. And what an eye-opener it turned out to be. The street was lined with many sex/erotic shops, lap/table dance shops and erotic live shows. I have never been to Amsterdam so I have no idea how these compare to the Red Light district. Anyway, a few of the shops tried to lure me in... one particular woman even grabbed me by the arm and called me "my dear". She told me that she would let me go in at 5 euros instead of 20 euros at normal price. And for the 5 euros, I would get a free drink and a live show. I replied her that I was not interested and that I would rather use the 5 euros to fill my stomach. Then she insisted: "Please Monsieur, just come in and take a look. Free of charge. You see. If you like, you stay. If you don't like, you go." Not a bad deal, huh? Haha. But I didn't go in cos I would probably not find a way out if I ever entered.

L-R: the sex shop at Orchard Road will be ashamed

The Moulin Rouge was a unique sight; the windmill was pretty and the queue at the entrance was snaking. Amazing that so many people wanna watch the cabaret show even though the cheapest tickets start from 80-90 euros. After dinner, I returned to chez Yanghan at La Défense area.

Weekend Activities

2007-11-26T11:12:00.000+01:00

After returning from Uriage, the group of Singaporeans sprung a surprise birthday celebration for Siewsze. I doubt it was a surprise though (I bet most of us were half-expecting that something fishy was being planned =P) since the celebrations have generally become a routine since last year. Anyway, we had lotsa fun talking in her room at the top of our voice (imagine 15 people squeezing into a 3x3 m room). We were so loud that apparently we did not open the door when June knocked and then she left. Haha. Most of us then went off to play pingpong till almost midnight.

Birthday Girl with Birthday Cake and Birthday Present

Most of us. Look carefully at the picture on the right. It looked as if Jeremy is kissing Eugene.

Table tennis has become my newest addiction (second to travelling) since Saturday evening. So Sinhui, Jeremy, Shaowei and I had another go at it on Sunday afternoon before Pablo (a guy from Chile) joined us. I really had lotsa fun especially after getting frustrated trying to study just before the game.

Ping Pong rocks!

We then adjourned to Berlioz for a dinner with Jeremy at Berlioz. He cooked chicken curry as well as long beans in soya sauce. Not bad I thought. Merci Jeremy pour l'invitation! Invite-nous plus souvent! Haha.

Dinner

24 Nov 07 - Saint Martin D'Uriage

2007-11-24T17:30:00.000+01:00

This weekend was actually scheduled for Mont Blanc. However, since I had lab on Friday till 6 pm and there was no train running on Saturday Morning, I had to switch to plan B for Nimes, located in Provence, south of France. After researching and planning for a few days, I was really looking forward to this trip, especially for the prospect of seeing the Pont du Gard, one of the largest aqueducts (water bridges) of the Roman world and a UNESCO world heritage site as well.

All went well…till I screwed myself up on Saturday morning. I promptly reached the train station at 7:40 am (the train would be leaving at 8 am), proceeded to the ticket machine before realizing that I had forgotten to bring along my 12-25 card (a discount card for youth below 25 years old). The ticket for Nimes without the reduction card cost 37.80 euros one way while that with reduction was only 15.50 euros!! Having spent a whopping 406 euros last weekend in Swiss, I seriously could not afford this amount, especially considering that I would be heading to Paris next weekend.

So I checked for later trains to Nimes which could perhaps allow me some time to go back and return with my discount card. To my disbelief, the tickets were sold out…even for the 1st class TGV! I was really disappointed and I only had myself to blame for this screw-up. Bye-bye Nimes… Sorry I can’t get to know you better!

Sinhui suggested that we go somewhere nearby in the Isère region (area around Grenoble). I agreed, a bit reluctantly at first, but I did have some fun in the end in Uriage. Uriage, recommended by the man at the gare routière (bus station), is a small, pretty (and pretty small) village located just 30 minutes from Grenoble centre.

L-R: Slurping my duck noodle at China Moon, Sinhui the faithful company

When we reached Uriage, it was drizzling and the tourism office was closed. Luckily, we found a locality map, so we had some ideas of where we could head to (the village was really small anyway). This village was tranquil, with a few nice parks (except that now leaves are real luxuries), a casino, a few thermal bath centres and a private castle.

L-R: a random wall; general view of Uriage

Both of us at the park & the wooden bridge (and arguably the pretties thing in town)

We took a super slow walk to kill time…taking a couple of stupid photos along the way. That’s what we do when we have lots of time and few things to do! Haha. Our intention of a picnic lunch had to be cancelled due to the rain, so we gobbled our ham and baguette under a shelter which resembled a bus stop.

The pictures say it all...hope it didn't smell too bad.

L-R: who lets the dog out?; Sinhui at the discovery of apples as small as cherries

Still another 1.5 hours to kill when we finished lunch. It was time to lose the fat by hiking up to the castle on top of a hill. The hiking trail was not long, but it was one of the steepest I have done thus far (sometimes the slope went as steep as 60-70 degrees from the horizontal). Add the wetness of the ground with the steepness and it became an extremely dangerous adventure. We did not have much problem hiking up, but it was really scary on the way down. Anyway, the castle was a private property, meaning that there were actually people living inside.

Sinhui & I at the vicinity of the private castle

I am still upset for not being able to go to Nimes as I write this post. But this was possibly a blessing in disguise as I found out that the original train that we wanted to take was delayed by 1h 45 min due to some technical problems. In any case, I would not have made it to Pont du Gard in time as I still had to switch to a local bus to reach there from Nimes. Fated, perhaps. Is it part of God’s plan, Michelle? Hahah.

18 Nov 07 - Bern to Grenoble

2007-11-22T14:59:00.000+01:00

My last day in Swiss. I headed to Bern from Luzern as I would be passing the Swiss capital on the way back to Grenoble anyway. When I reached Bern train station, I was struck with a bad news that the SNCF was still on strike. I became panicky as I desperately needed to go back to submit an assignment the next day. I asked the Tourist Office for the nearest internet station so that I could check what alternatives I had to go back to Grenoble. But it was a Sunday and everything was closed!! Panic. Panic. So I called Sinhui to ask her to help me check out (merci beaucoup for helping me! sorry having to make you go to UPMF, Stendhal and laverie for internet access!!). I had to call her a couple of times till my phone credits went flat! In the end I found out from her that there would be a train that left Geneva for Chambery at 16h, but I had to sleep overnight at Chambery train station to catch a 6 am train to Grenoble. Since I seemed to have not much choice at that point, I quickly made a tour around Bern and made my way back to the train station.

Anyway, I think Bern was not as interesting as the previous towns I was in. I covered almost everything in 2 hours. Other than a few interesting fountains (there are tons in the city), a cathedral, a prison tower and a tower clock, the most intriguing attraction in Bern was probably the bear pits. The bears are symbols of Bern, but I thought it was a saddening sight to see 2 bears put into the pit to entertain visitors.

L-R: prison tower, clock tower, interesting fountain

L-R: the bear pit; one of the bears

L-R: more view of the bear (it looked so tame and cute)

I took a train to Geneva and quickly enquired for a possible train to Grenoble. It turned out that there was not even a train to Chambery. The lady at the counter recommended that I checked the availability of a bus at the bus station. So I did...and I WAS DAMN LUCKY! There was a bus leaving at 7 pm but it was bloody expensive. But I guess it's better than having to stay at train station (right, Eugene? =P). I had more than 3 hours to kill... I walked around but no shops were open.. so I just people watched at the train station before getting bored very soon..which led me back to the bus station to write my historic post last Sunday. =D

L-R: rotting in Geneva train station

L-R: rotting in Geneva gare routière; me inside the aerobus

All in all, I had completely enjoyed the short getaway to Swiss. And I am beginning to enjoy backpacking alone. Perhaps it was the opportunity to meet more people and to discover more things. This Swiss trip would last for a long long time in my memories - and fond ones, of course.

17 Nov 07 - Luzern

2007-11-20T18:13:00.001+01:00

I took the Intercity (IC) train from Interlaken and reached Luzern at about 10:10 am. Not bad, they have trains running every hour so my travel plans became quite flexible. I fell in love immediately with the town upon my arrival. It was quiet yet not boring or perhaps it was just off-season so it was not as packed with tourists as during summer. I checked into Tourist Hotel, paid 25 euros for a bed in a 4-bed dorm and I found the room to be excellent. There was enough space in the room to walk around and the bed was really comfortable.

L-R: love at first sight; Chapel Bridge

I took a quick bath (my head had become very itchy from the overuse of beanies) and headed out to the Musegg Wall soon afterwards. These walls had 9 towers, 3 of which are usually opened during summer. Since it was off-season, the towers were closed to public. But nonetheless I enjoyed the slow walk along the walk.

L-R: the Musegg Wall; Scottish Highland cattle

L-R: Spreuer Bridge; water spikes

Next destination was the Spreuer Bridge which paled in comparison to its rival Chapel Bridge. I thought nothing was special in this wooden bridge, except perhaps the nearby water spikes. The spikes were built in the 19th century to regulate the water flow in the river and even today, if the need arises, the spikes are raised or lowered by hands. Then I took a stroll along the river towards the Jesuit Church where a morning market was held every Saturday. By now, my hands were totally frozen...so much so that it hurt when I tried to take photos. So I walked around desperately trying to look for a building in which I could warm myself up...but to no avail. In the end, I settled in this simple café and drank a cup of coffee for 4 CHF. My hands were trembling when I was holding the cup. That testified how cold it was on that day. Oh by the way, it was -1 deg celsius at noon. Anyway, I had the good time in the café having a little chat with the waitress and she recommended me this Swiss traditional soup that they sell. I told her that I would consider coming back for the soup if I could not stand it out there.

L-R: interior of chapel bridge; view from the bridge

L-R: Jesuit Cathedral; Me on Chapel bridge

True enough I froze to death again out there. After walking around in the Old Squares (Kornmarkt, Hirschenplatz and Weinmarkt) for about 1 hour, I returned to the café for the soup. I was not sure if I would like the soup, especially after the horrifying experience eating a local salad specialty in Florence last year. The waitress kindly poured a small cup of the soup for me to have a sample before deciding. Oh man, I love the German-speaking Swiss; my experience with them has been really good! Anyway, the soup tasted like mushroom soup, but it has got some barleys inside. I liked it and ordered one bowl for 7.50 CHF.

L-R: Kornmarkt; Hirschenplatz

L-R: Weinmarkt; tongue-twister: Bundner Gersten Suppe

My adventure then continued with a promenade along Lake Luzern. Took a little rest by the lake, ate my biscuits and watched the world go by around me. Then I headed towards the Hofkirche (the main cathedral in the town) and for the first time in so longgggg, I was glad to find a church. I guess everyone can guess the reason: I can "thaw" myself inside. =D (Michelle will kill me for saying this =P).

L-R: weird street artist at Lake Luzern; it's snowball time

L-R: Hofkirche & the interior

I continued my way to the Lion Monument which was a stone sculpture to commemorate the Swiss soldiers who lost their lives during World War 2. I took my hats off to the artist as the lion's facial expression was as good as alive; it looked as if it was in total agony. I then visited the Glacier Museum located just next to the Lion Monument. I liked this museum as it was not the usual art museum I had gotten bored of. It housed original excavation works from hundreds of years ago. It also showed how Luzern had evolved all the way from 2 million years ago. At that point, Luzern was apparently a palm beach before the Ice Age set in and gave birth to the Young Alps. At the end of the Ice Age, some glaciers remain and that partly explains the current topography in Luzern.

L-R: the Lion Monument; close-up & look at its agony

L-R: seashell sandstone; pothole

L-R: ripple sandstone; palm leaf sandstone

L-R: artist impression of Luzern 2 million years ago; Multiple Andi (which one is the real me?)

As usual, the sky got dark before 6 pm and almost every shop had ended the day. On my way to find food, I dropped by the Bachman confiserie which sold a wide range of Swiss chocs...droolz... Anyway, at first I had thought that perhaps it would be easier to find food in Luzern since it is a bigger town afterall. I was very mistaken as even the Coop supermarket was closed then. I walked around searching for food...the hungry man was in desperate need for food, but all I could find were extremely expensive restaurants with prices starting from 20+ CHF. I only had 20 CHF in wallet then and it was supposed to last me one more day till I reached Grenoble. I walked and walked...through the big alleys..through the small ones and finally found a kebab stall. Heng ah. I paid 9.50 CHF for a doner kebab and made my way back to the hotel.

L-R: the two chocolates I bought (the chili one was not spicy at all!)

L-R: More yummilicious chocolates

L-R: a million dollar question: what time was it?; Chapel Bridge at night

The next few hours were spent chilling in the empty bar (it looked more like a living room to me). I drank a bottle of beer, watched Euro 2008 qualifier between Italy and Scotland and talked to this Indian man who was having a job training in Basel. And guess where he came from? Singapore! He is an expat working for a Singapore company, but unfortunately he disliked Singaporeans. He told me that he had been working with people from all over the world (he had worked in Ireland and Berlin before), and he had not had trouble working with the locals until he came to Singapore. In short, he found Singaporeans unfriendly. He added that the Filipinos and Indonesians are really nice people though. =P Most of the time I was just listening to him talk and nodding my head in (dis)agreement. LOL. I then talked to my roommate who came from Perth for an hour before going to lala land.

L-R: Raj & I; Damien & I

16 Nov 07 - Jungfraujoch and back to Interlaken

2007-11-20T15:43:00.000+01:00

I started the day really early to catch the early morning train to Jungfraujoch. The train departed at 7:20 am from Interlaken Ost which was slightly further from my hostel; so I had to wake up at 6:15 am to ensure I had enough time to get there. Anyway, I purchased the Good Morning ticket which cost 152.60 CHF, allowing me to save about 20 CHF compared to the later trains. The downside to this was that I could not stop in the intermediate villages which I thought were really awesome.

The 2.5 hour train ride to the "Top of Europe" (not because it is the highest mountain, but because it houses the highest train station in Europe) was nothing less than marvellous. The views along the way were magical; I just could not stop staring out of the windows and admiring the scenery. The snow in Swiss had fallen even more fiercely than that in Grenoble and that explained why the landscape was nearly all white - that of the purity of snow. The view was like that in fairy tale; with traditional Swiss houses of which the roofs were covered with snow and long lines of firn trees which have turned Christmasy-white.

L-R: first view in the train (damn the window reflection); this Korean man who wanted to take photo with "shake hand" pose

Top-Bottom: More views (dunno why the pictures are so blue); stopover at Grindelwald

Going up..up..and up to the Top of Europe

When I reached Jungfraujoch, I was greeted by a breathtaking view of the vast glaciers with the snow-covered mountains all around. Guess what the weather outside was? -15.8 deg celsius! No surprise, considering that it was near winter and the altitude is abt 11,500 feet. Surprisingly, I did not get any altitude sickness and was feeling fine most of the time, apart from when I was walking around, I could feel that I was actually gasping for oxygen. But I did not suffer from any headache or whatsoever.

Anyway, I headed next to the ice palace...a few interesting ice sculptures. Then I went to the Sphinx observation tower where I actually stood outdoor in the vicinity of the glaciers and where I started to feel the coldness biting me. Despite the fact that I was fully equipped with warm clothings, my gloves were simply not good enough. I had to take them off to take photos and my fingers became numb before long. I had to keep going back into the building every 5-10 minutes to warm myself. When I touched my nose, it felt so weird..as if I could poke a hole into it at any moment...lol. Nonetheless, the view was awesome..nothing like I have ever seen before. I seriously have no idea if my photos can do justice to the real majesty of the surroundings.

L-R: Now I can boast that I was there; to prove to those who refused to believe it was -15

Inside the Ice Palace

L-R: the Sphinx observation point; the vast glacier

L-R: on Sphinx; with the Jungfrau mountain on the background

Then I proceeded to the plateau which basically refers to a flat portion of the mountain. This is the only part of Jungfraujoch on which we could actually step on the snow/glacier. The feeling was shiok being out there. Then back indoor for a quick lunch. Unfortunately, the prices up at Jungfrau were a total rip-off. I seriously almost had no budget for lunch, so I settled for a cup of Korean instant noodles...which cost me 7 CHF. Please kill me! Haha.

the plateau

L-R: view from the plateau; classic photo of me jumping

L-R: more view; goofing around

L-R: new friends from Hongkong; 7 CHF cup noodles

I caught the 12:45 pm train (the scenery still did not fail to amaze me) and reached Interlaken at 15:10. This was the point where I struggled to find things to do. I would love to take a boat tour around one of the two lakes wedging Interlaken (ie. Lake Thun and Lake Brienz), but the boats had stopped their operations now that it was already winter. So I walked towards to tourist office to ask if there was anything I could do. The answer was needless to mention. I was told that I came at the wrong season cos there are actually lots more things to do in summer. So I decided to just take a leisurely walk towards the lake. It took me close to 45 minutes to reach Lake Brienz. The promenade was as beautiful as I had wished it to be.

views on the way down. aren't they awesome?

L-R: back at Interlaken; the autumn beauty

the promenade to Lake Brienz

L-R: a bridge (reminds me of beams in my ME course); view from up there

Lake Brienz

I headed back to my hostel as I really had nothing to do and I regretted not bringing my laptop along. Fortunately, I had roommates from the US that day. The 4 of them are currently doing their exchange programs in Grenada, Spain. So they asked me down to the bar to have a drink with them. I went down and had a good chat with them until...5 more of them joined us. Then they started to play drinking games.. a silly "connection game". Basically, if the person before me and I have the same suit, we have to drink and toast. I had to order another glass of beer and I started feeling a little uncomfortable. So I excused myself to have dinner on another table. I headed to bed soon after..but my US roommates came back and the girls were like talking so loudly that I could not bring myself to sleep. Exhausting, yet eventful day.

L-R: 10 of us altogether playing drinking game; my most expensive meal in Swiss at 16.50 CHF

15 Nov 07 - (Snowing) Grenoble to Interlaken

2007-11-19T16:31:00.000+01:00

I woke up in the morning of 15 Nov 07 to the my first sight of "falling snow". The snow was flaky though, sometimes so thin that it immediately disappeared once it touched the ground. This year the snow has unexpectedly come very early. Nobody would have imagined experiencing snow in mid-November; but I guess the weather is getting more and more erratic (for example, as I am writing this post, the temperature at Grenoble is 15 degrees when it was subzero yesterday night.)

Anyway, that morning I made my way to the train station, hoping that the trains that I had found online the day before actually did run to Geneva. On the tram to the station, it dawned on me that the snow in centre ville was really "heavy". Snow clearly had been falling throughout the night as cars were covered with layers of snow. When I got out of tram, I had my first experience of snowing falling on me. The feeling was amazing and the best thing was that the snow stayed on my jacket for quite a while till I got inside the train station. Yeah! One of my wishes has been fulfilled!

L-R: snowing in Grenoble

Soon after I was in the bus to Lyon where I would change to another bus to a small town called Bellegarde, about half an hour train from Geneva. In total, I took 2 buses, 1 TGV and 2 Swiss Intercity trains to make it into Interlaken with a record time of 9 hours. Haha. The journey itself was eventful as well. In Bellegarde, I met this African guy who was on his way to meet her sister in a village nearby. He apparently has not seen his sister for 15 years ever since they were separated during a civil war in his country. Now that he has obtained political asylum from the Italian government, he has settled down in Milan, is learning the Italian language and will be working as a barber in the future. This somehow made me realise that I am really fortunate to be born in this comfortable situation.

L-R: random view on the way to Lyon; the African guy I talked about

Anyway, I reached Interlaken West train station at about 17:45 and it was already pitch dark by then. I had left the printout of my hostel booking in Grenoble train station as I was in a hurry to board the bus. Luckily, Jeremy helped me check out the directions, but in fact it was quite useless cos it only mentioned that "the hostel is located 5 mins away from Interlaken West". Well done la! Luckily they have this informative information board, where they have listed down all the hostels and hotels in the town with a number for each one. When I pressed the number, the location of the hostel would be flashed on the map and I could figure out my orientation from there.

Upon entering the hostel (Happy Inn Lodge), I was shocked to find no reception table; instead all I saw was a bar with people staring back at me. I walked around and later learnt that I could just check in with one of the waiters. So I did and after settling down in the room, I came down to the bar wanting to ask for advice for the trip to Jungfraujoch the next day. But the waiter was so busy that I could not steal a chance to talk to him. I ended up ordering a glass of beer and a woman next to me kindly provided me with some information about Jungfraujoch. I was worried that I would be paying a bomb for nothing as she told me that the weather had been really bad till that day.

L-R: Happy Inn Lodge; Rugenbrau the local beer

Then I left the hostel to walk around the town, but the town was as good as dead. Movement and sound were minimal. I chanced upon a casino but did not go in as there was an entrance fee. I wanted to feed my empty stomach but I had difficulty finding cheap food. In the end, I settled for a more conservative (and cheaper) meal: McDonalds at 11.20 CHF! That was pretty much for the evening.

L-R: Casino Kursaal of Interlaken; one of the many many photowhoring

Historic Post

2007-11-18T17:06:00.000+01:00

Guess why? Because I am stuck in Geneva right now waiting for bus to go back to Grenoble. Who would have guessed that the strike in France actually lasted for 5 days now. I am damn lucky that there is actually an excursion bus to go back to Grenoble tonight. Otherwise, I would have to spend either a night here in Geneva. And I have an assignment to hand in at 8 am tmr morning. Since the bus I am gonna take in 2 hours time is a tourist bus, the price I paid was equivalently touristy: 52 CHF. So if I add up the trip from Luzerne back to Geneva plus this bus that would be about 131 CHF. That is almost what I paid to go up to Jungfraujoch!! Madness...

But it has been quite an experience roaming around aimlessly, not knowing what lies ahead of me today... Afterall I would think that this trouble was all worth it given the sceneries I truly enjoyed for the last 3 days. Will be doing the full update in the next day or so.

And The French Strikes Again...

2007-11-14T13:26:00.000+01:00

Perhaps I am starting to lose count of how many times I have experienced grèves (strikes in French) ever since I arrived here in Grenoble. Let me recall. Firstly, we had a strike by CROUS BLEU which is an organisation in charge of student housing, meals and general welfare. The reason for the strike back then was the poor treatment from the CROUS director towards the workers in general and also to support a fellow worker who had apparently been physically assaulted/threatened by the director. And how did it affect me in particular? The RUs (restaurants universitaires, equivalent of canteens) were mostly closed, leaving only 1 or 2 operating minimally with minimal quality control. I could only recall having some bland tasting mashed potato from Restaurant Barnave.

Next, there was a manifestation by SNCF workers. SNCF is the company running the train network in France, famous for its super high speed TGV. Reason for the strike? Nicolas Sarkozy, the newly elected president, proposed a pension system reform which apparently put the SNCF workers at a disadvantage. At the end of World War 2, France put into place a "special regime" pension system for workers who worked in unfavourable conditions by allowing them to retire after paying pension contributions for 37.5 years instead of the 40 years demanded from normal workers. The government has to pump in 5 million euros a year into special pension funds, and this has caused huge deficits. Of course, discontentment arose given the known fact that the French has always been "spoilt" with the past welfare system. So the transport network in the whole of France was paralysed and the strike continued for 3 days. This was the biggest strike in France in nearly a decade.

And Monsieur Sarkozy said he would not back down on his economic reform plans.

So the French is on strike again, starting from yesterday night at 20h and this will last until Thursday evening 20h. Great, this time round I am severely affected because I have already made plans to leave for Interlaken on Thursday morning. The original train that I wanted to take is obviously not running on Thursday. Panic. Panic. I have already reserved hostels in both Interlaken and Lucerne. I was told by an SNCF worker in the gare that I had to wait until Thursday morning itself to find out if there is a train running to Swiss. This simply means that I risk being charged the first night of my hostel in Interlaken unless I cancel my booking on Wednesday (like now!). But, phew, in the end I found out from the SNCF website that there would be an alternative train that runs to Genève (my transit point to Interlaken) but I would take about 3 hours more than predicted to reach Interlaken. Better than cancelling my whole trip, I thought.

Interestingly, at the same time of the 2nd SNCF strike, the students in Grenoble also went on strike for two reasons: 1) to support the SNCF workers and 2) to protest against university privatisation plans by the new Ministry of Education. On Tuesday, they had this big student meeting called "Assemblé Générale" to decide on whether to block the school compound on Wednesday. And so they voted to go on strike. Unfortunately, the students in engineering schools like mine cannot be bothered by politics. So, while my friends from UJF and UPMF have a free day, I still have class later in the day (not that I am complaining since my timetable is already quite slack =P).

Vandalism on the walls around the campus. It means (L-R): General Strike Uprising & Autonomy is not a law, it is an open struggle against the state.

L-R: Entrances to the schools were blocked (spot the shopping trolleys?)

And guess what, the teachers are planning to go on strike next week on 20 Nov. The apparent reason is to protest against a plan by the government to cut 22,000 jobs from the public sectors next year. We'll see how big this strike will be.

Welcome to the French national sport! =D

10 Nov - Avignon

2007-11-12T11:21:00.000+01:00

The first of the many busy weekends to come was spent in a small town in Provence area called Avignon. This town is renowned for its “pont” or bridge which extended only halfway into the river Rhône. Raging flood water in the past has definitively damaged the bridge and despite a few reconstruction efforts, it was finally abandoned in the 17th century. Today, there remain only 4 of the original 22 arches and a lovely Romanesque chapel. Most importantly, what makes this bridge so famous to the world is of course its famous song “Sur Le Pont D’Avignon”.

« Sur le pont d'Avignon,
L'on y danse, l'on y danse,
Sur le pont d'Avignon
L'on y danse tout en rond.
Les beaux messieurs font comme ça
Et puis encore comme ça.
Sur le pont d'Avignon
L'on y danse tout en rond. »

Nice catchy tunes and lyrics.

So I reached Avignon at about noon and immediately headed towards Office du Tourisme. What struck me as soon as I stepped out of the gare (train stration) was that the town is fortified all around forming a near circular area from a bird eye’s view. As soon as I got the town map, I navigated myself towards the bridge and found myself on the bridge soon after. The wind on Saturday was extremely strong, so much so that I could not stand still. The wind kept pushing me to one side, making me feel so unstable that I could perhaps fall into the river at any moment. And I am not exaggerating when I said I practically could not walk straight. I wonder if this is usually the case, but I am guessing so as there were plenty of signs telling parents to hold their children by their hands.

L-R: The first sight out of gare; the fortress wall surround-system

L-R: First view of Pont d'Avignon; on the pont itself

After having enough of the view from the bridge, I descended to the river bank and took my lunch break there. Honestly, that was not the best time to stay outdoor. The wind became stronger and it became very chilly. So I quickly finished my sandwich and headed to my next destination. So much for wanting to take a siesta there. Haha.

L-R: Me on the pont; the bridge from my picnic spot

Within 10 minutes I was standing in front of two prominent architectures of Avignon: Palais des Papes and Notre-Dame de Doms. Of course the church did not really interest me in particular but the former was of great significance. The palace of the popes is the biggest gothic palace in the world and housed many great popes of the past, notably from the 14th century. There were 25 rooms to visit and before long, I abandoned my audioguide when the explanation became long-winded. For once, I did not have to rush through a palace/museum as I had plenty of time at hand.

L-R: Le Palais des Papes; right after the entrance

L-R: Inside the gothic palace

I spent the next 1 hour exploring the Rocher des Doms which is a small park next to the Notre-Dame cathedral. Took some panoramic photos there and grab another sandwich to fill my growling stomach.

L-R: View from the palace rooftop (can you spot the bridge?); view from Rocher des Doms

By then I still had more than one hour before my train departed back to Grenoble. So I took a leisurely stroll towards the shopping district at Rue de la Republique, occasionally stopping by souvenir shops to see if there was anything interesting. I was then reminded of the “nougats” of Montelimar that I read in an online article. This “soft biscuit” or some people call it pastry is made of almonds of Provence, honey of Provence, sugar and white eggs as the main ingredients. It tasted not bad but I preferred the unique taste of “Papalines d’Avignon”, the local specialty. At first glance, this delicacy looked like a Rocher chocolate, but it is in fact made of chocolate, sugar and…oregano liqueur!! And it is not that it had liqueur flavouring, but it actually has a hollow centre, coated with chocolate layer and filled with liqueur in liquid form!! Interesting.

L-R: Nougat Blanc de Provence; Papalines d'Avignon

Anyway, to my surprise I actually enjoyed this trip even though I went all by myself. I saw more things, I did what I wanted without having to care about what others think and I walked at my own pace. It was a nice day trip to a lovely little town.

New SEP goal

2007-11-09T11:14:00.000+01:00

After almost 3 months since my arrival in France, I have finally decided to come up with a revised goal for my SEP. A bit late, but who cares! So what is this new goal of mine?

To conquer as many cities in Europe as possible while I can. I don't really give a damn anymore about the whole making new friends thing. I just wanna live my life and enjoy myself as much as possible before I go back. Don't get me wrong, it's not that my life here is really miserable. I do enjoy myself, but sometimes I feel saddened that I have not made any French friends or even good international friends. Last Tuesday, I went to an amphitheatre (the first a lecture is held for a big group); I came early and settled down in the 4th row from the front. As people strolled in, one thing became evident: the first 3 rows were filled and slowly the 5th, 6th, 7th rows were filled...leaving a loser Chinese boy in the 4th row sitting alone. And worse is that I have to pretend I am okay with this. Everyday I am just looking forward to the end of classes so that I can be happy. I don't really wanna blame anyone, but I feel the hostel that I stayed in plays a part in me not making friends, too. There were just too many students from different schools, with a wide range of age groups. I am talking about the many Masters' students staying in my residence. Sometimes, the "slight" age gap really shows when you get stuck having nothing to say in a conversation. Of course, with some French, you can't even begin a conversation.

So right now, I have always been thinking of travelling every weekend. In fact, I have lined up everything nicely, hoping that nothing cocks up with school timetable:

9 Nov: Avignon
15-18 Nov: Interlaken, Jungfraujoch, Lucerne, Berne (Swiss)
24-25 Nov: Chamonix Mont Blanc
29 Nov - 2 Dec: Paris (to make UK Visa), Brussels and Brugge (Belgium)
8 Dec: either Lyon for Fete de Lumiere or Helsinki/Copenhagen
22 Dec - 2 Jan: Milan (San Siro), Amsterdam, London, Manchester (Old Trafford!)

Ambitious, huh? We'll see if I can realise this. Hopefully so. =)

The Big Fat Update - Madrid Day 3

2007-11-05T18:17:00.000+01:00

In the morning, we went to the Reina Sofia Museum which is the home of surrealist paintings. Two particular paintings were the highlight of the museums: “Guernica” by Picasso and “The Great Mastubator” by Dali. I am yet to find out the interpretation of these two paintings but they were really intriguing. Due to copyright issues, I cannot publish any pictures of the two paintings, so just google them if you are interested to find out more.

We spent the next 4 hrs in Park del Retiro. This is a typical park with plenty green patches and shades for you to take your siesta. The highlights of this place are the crystal palace which houses logs (not sure for what reasons) as well as the artificial lake Estanque. This lake was filled with people (families and lovers alike) boat-rowing. We had a go at it as well and I found that it was really not as easy as it seemed to row a boat. You really must be able to coordinate the movement of both of your arms and usually it's the left hand that fails you. Nonetheless it was fun trying something new.

L-R: small lake facing Palacio Cristal

L-R: Lake Estanque; soaking in the sun by the lake

L-R: people taking siesta by the lake; another view of the park

L-R: Sinhui & I boat-rowing

After having enough siesta, we headed for Museo del Prado. The sight that greeted us when we reached there was a long train of people queue-ing to get into the museum. It was especially packed today because it was the last day that the museum will be free of charge to the public. Anyway, this place is huge and it is apparently Spain's answer to Paris' Louvre. We did not finish exploring the museum in the end.

L-R: It was hot (yes, it reads 27deg!); Museo del Prado

L-R: Inside Museo del Jamon; Iberian Ham tapas

L-R: Dessert @ Chocolateria San Gines; churros dip in warm chocolate

The Big Fat Update - Madrid Day 2

2007-11-05T11:26:00.000+01:00

Palacio Real was the first stop of the day. This place was the royal palace of the Spanish kings in the past. The interior was intricately-decorated, but too bad we were not allowed to take photos inside.

L-R: Palacio Real exterior; interior

L-R: armoury room; guard house

We stopped for a quick lunch at Campo del Moro which is big garden just next to the palace. Afterwards, we went to Templo del Debod which housed an Egytian temple. We then took a cable car ride towards Casa del Campo which was a large green lush housing an amusement park, a lake, many picnic areas, aquarium zoo (similar to underwater world). Upon reaching the top of Casa del Campo, we walked down towards the lake before chancing upon this “pasar malam” version of Madrid. We bought a local dish called cochinillo which basically refers to roasted suckling pig. Full portion costs 5 euros; we bought half portion before realizing this was barely enough for 4 people. We then sat down by the artificial lake Lago to soak in the sun while it lasted cos the sun sets by 6 pm nowadays.

L-R: Campo del Moro (can you see the sun shining brightly?)

L-R: local pastries for lunch

the 4 of us @ Campo del Moro

L-R: Templo del Debod; cable car station

L-R: View from cable car

L-R: carnival pasar malam-like feeling

L-R: pork suckling; lake Lago

The Big Fat Update - Madrid Day 1

2007-11-05T10:03:00.000+01:00

We took a flight from Barcelona to Madrid by Iberia which is the Spanish national carrier. I paid only 33 euros for national carrier, so to no surprise, we got the lousy seats at the back of the plane near the engines. Damn noisy!!

After settling down in our hostel, we walked towards Plaza Mayor which was the biggest and most famous square in Madrid. This place reminded me of St. Mark’s Square in Venice as there were many cafes and restaurants surrounding it. We took some time to sit down on the square and soak in the sun. Yes, Spain is forever sunny somehow!! I could walk around in the day with just my t-shirt (of course, you can’t do that in the evening).

L-R: Plaza Mayor

L-R: Puerta del Sol; statue of The Bear & The Strawberry Tree

We then went to Estadio Santiago Bernabéu which is the home of Real Madrid. We did not go in as the stadium tour was too costly!!

Estadio Santiago Bernabéu

In the evening, we went to check out the Cinéma Capitol which supposedly had an art-deco exterior, but I didn’t know what was so special about it. Anyway, when we reached, there was a major Halloween celebration, presumably by the Spanish actors and actresses, who took to the streets to disrupt the traffic. I thought this was pretty cool; you’ll probably get arrested if you do this in Singapore.

L-R: Cinema Capitol; Halloween street party

L-R: salmon & tortilla tapas; free tapas that comes with beer

The Big Fat Update - Barcelona Day 4

2007-11-05T09:33:00.000+01:00

While the pace in Montserrat the day before was rather slow, this day was fully packed to the brim to cover the more outstanding attractions in Barcelona. Firstly, we headed off to Casa Mila (or La Pedrera), another masterpiece of Gaudi which was meant to house apartments and offices for the middle class. The interior was simply extraordinary; the apartment toilet was as big as my room in France. Haha. Later on, I found out that Gaudi always found his inspiration from the mother nature, often drawing creative juices from plants or animal bones to form part of his structures.

L-R: Casa Mila exterior; interior

L-R: Casa Mila model, rooftop model

L-R: on the rooftop (the things jutting out are chimneys)

L-R: middle-class apartment

We continued towards Sagrada Familia, a stunning structure by Gaudi which was still unfinished and would require at least another 20 years for completion. Needless for me to describe, you just have to see the pictures to know what I mean by “stunning”. We had to wait for almost 1.5 hours to get into the lift that would bring us up to the top, but it was quite disappointing in the end cos there was practically nothing to do up there.

L-R: The famous Sagrada Familia from distance; close-up look (the pillars ressemble animal bones)

L-R: Sagrada Familia interior; 4 of us at the end of the 1.5 hours queue

L-R: on the way down

Our last stop of the day was Parc Guell, another architectural genius of Gaudi. This park is really different from all other parks that I have visited. If you expect to find vast green patches to lie down on, then Parc Guell will probably be a great disappointment. So what does it have to offer? The photos will tell you that.

Parc Guell

More of Parc Guell

The Big Fat Update - Barcelona Day 3

2007-11-04T17:08:00.001+01:00

We decided to go for a day trip to Montserrat, about 1 hour train ride from Barcelona. This small town is famous for one of the most peculiar rock formations around the Catalan region. It is also renowned for its monastery which houses the Montserrat Boys Choir. They did sing very well at such a tender age!!

L-R: Views from the cable car

L-R: Interior of the church, the choir boys

L-R: lunch at the steps of the monastery, the monastery

Admittedly, there was nothing much to do over there except enjoying the scenery. So we decided to take on an easy hiking trail. Along the way we took a couple of stupid videos and nice photos.

L-R: views of Montserrat

L-R: weird rocks (it ressembles the side profile of 2 soldiers with their helmets); jumping shot

L-R: Sinhui & I conquering the world

L-R: Jeremy & I ascending the enlightenment steps

L-R: Potato Wedges tapas; Seafood Paella with noodles

L-R: the 4 of us at the open-air restaurant, Sinhui & I

The Big Fat Update - Barcelona Day 2

2007-11-04T16:18:00.000+01:00

The day was spent mainly walking around and sight-seeing around the city. Barcelona is simply huge! And all the buildings are so blockish or rectangular from bird eye’s view. We started off by walking towards the Chistopher Columbus monument and then Port Vell where many yachts were parked (but not as impressive as those in French Riviera). We continued towards the city beaches, particularly the Barceloneta beach. I must admittedly say that the beach was nowhere near beautiful, apart from a few naked women here and there. Unfortunately, this did not make up for the beach’s lack of hustle and bustle.

L-R: The Columbus monument, Port Vell

L-R: Barceloneta Beach, a weird structure on the beach

The next destination was the cathedral of Sta. Maria del Mar; not much to comment as all churches look the same to me by now. We paused for lunch at a random bar near the church and decided to order something more exotic: Arroz Negro! This is basically Paella cooked in squid ink and it turned out to be extremely salty!! I will never eat this particular paella again, but it was quite fun trying something different in a foreign land.

L-R: interior of Sta Maria del Mar, squids in salsa sauce (first tapas that we ate)

L-R: Arroz Negro (Paella in squid ink), the gothic aftermath

We then walked around the Barri Gottic before heading towards the famous La Rambla. This is basically a 1.2 km long street bustling with street performers, souvenir shops, bird and weird animals shops, etc. Most importantly, it was also bustling with pickpockets; so all the time in Barcelona and Madrid, we have been carrying our bags in front of us. Anyway, Jeremy was very excited about the prospect of shopping in this area. I felt like I was traveling with 3 girls and “he” was the most excited about shopping. Haha.

L-R: Along La Lambla, lizards on sale

L-R: still along La Rambla, birds on sale & horse man street performer

So while Jeremy and Letch went off to (window)shop, Sinhui and I headed to the nearby Casa Batllo, one of the famous building by Spanish architect called Gaudi. All his works were famous for its peculiarity, its weird and unconventional approach to designing a building. We did not go in as the entrance cost an extravagant 16,50 euros!!

L-R: In front of Casa Batllo

We met up again at 4 plus for the highlight of the day: Camp Nou!! The match would be starting at 7 pm, but we had to collect our tickets beforehand. We paid 28 euros each for a 3rd tier ticket. Anyway, Camp Nou is the 3rd largest stadium in the world with a full capacity of 110,000 supporters. And it was almost full house that day even though it was a lousy match between Barcelona and Almeria. Barcelona did not play very well and Ronaldinho was booed off the pitch to a glorious entrance of Messi. The atmosphere in the stadium was just superb!! Damn I have to wait till January to go to Old Trafford, can’t wait!!

L-R: with Barca supporters, inside the official megastore

L-R: empty stadium, full house

A clip from the match

The Big Fat Update - Barcelona Day 1

2007-11-04T15:59:00.000+01:00

By the time we checked in and settled down in our hostel, it was already past 7 pm so we decided to head immediately to Montjuic musical fountain. This place is famous for its dancing fountain, similar to that of magical fountain in Sentosa. The fountain dances to the music only 4x every Friday and Saturday evening so we were quite lucky to make it there in time.

Inside Easyjet craft

One view of the Montjuic fountain

Another view of Montjuic fountain

I miss...

2007-10-25T17:35:00.000+02:00

I had nothing to do today since it's officially weekend for me right now. So I went to browse some photos and I realise I do miss many things in hall.. these photos are by no means exhaustive..

KR DND

B Block Open Floor

Playing IBG

Playing frisbee

Dumping ppl into recycle bin during their birthdays (can u recognise who is in the photo?)

Playing volleyball & IHG

B Block Supper & its Mudpie!!

My friends & B Block (although I don't know many of freshies now..)

1 year ago

2007-10-24T09:28:00.000+02:00

1 year ago on 23 Oct, I was at Labrador Park frantically preparing a surprise for the girl I like and preparing to ask her the important question. 1 year later, I am celebrating the first happy and memorable year with her in France. Needless to say much, I am just grateful to have her by my side.

The following pictures are collages made by Sinhui; she came up with the captions, too (I won't steal credit) =p

To a love founded in where else but the country of romance

To a love as beautiful as the setting sun

To a love that overcomes even the roughest of waves

To a love that shares a common passion

To a steadfast love, unyielding as the mountains

Happy 1st year to both of us! Cheers for many many more to come. =) Je t'aime.

Bureau d'Études No More!

2007-10-22T18:30:00.000+02:00

I just finished my last session of bureau d'études. In English, this refers to tutorial-like sessions where you analyse a case study (in my case, a pump), figure out how it works, improve it and then write a report in the end. The 10 hours I spent for this BE were simply.. horrendous! Every session lasted for 2 hrs and these have been the longest 2 hrs in my life. I basically understood nothing and worse, I could not contribute anything to my French partner. Most of the time, I was just drowning in my own sorrow and silence. Otherwise, when the prof is nearby, I would be acting busy as if I could understand at least some of the materials.

I am just glad that it is over, but the report awaits. It's a 100% report btw which means there is no final exams at all. I am still wondering how I can contribute to this report. My partner told me he had last year's report...I was thinking..just like in Singapore! haha. I just hope the figures remain the same, cos I would not even know to change them!!

As of now...congratulations and celebrations!!

Chemin de Fer de la Mure

2007-10-22T10:10:00.001+02:00

So much of saying that I will stay put in Grenoble this weekend. I was off to this small village called La Mure, about 1 hour of bus ride away from Grenoble. So what's interesting in this place? Well, it hosts one of the first few electric trains in France and at the present moment, this train runs along one of the most scenic routes in the Alpes, before terminating at another village called St. George's de Commiers. It was indeed beautiful, but it was difficult to take photos as the train was packed due to its popularity as a Sunday outing for families (amazingly a lot of kids in my compartment!). The train ride itself was only 1.5 hours. We reached one hour earlier and had 2 hrs to kill before catching our bus back. The weather was so cold that my fingers started to hurt and they became numb after a while. We were totally unprepared for this!!

L-R: Entrance to the train station, the first electric train in France

June, Eugene and I goofing around

L-R: What is June doing in the gents?, Eugene trying to juggle with 3 grapes

L-R: June and her newly found best friend, Eugene and I (all inside the train)

L-R: views from inside the train

Majestic Viaduct

Magnificent View

More breathtaking views

L-R: June babysitting, Le Drac (a random river)

L-R: Being adventurous and venturing into prohibited zone

L-R: Past (locomotive), Present (electric) , Future (high-speed trains, eg. TGV)

Random Reflections

2007-10-20T10:36:00.000+02:00

Another weekend is here and unlike the previous weeks, I have nothing much planned this time round. I am supposed to be attending this Olympiade thingy in my school right now. It is the equivalent to the inter-faculty games in NUS. Somehow I am just feeling very lazy to go down, and feeling very tired of trying to make friends with the French. Oh no, have I just given up? What happened to my goals then? I really have no answers to this. I have always thought that sports is a universal language which can bring together people of the same interests. However, I realise French is a much more powerful language that brings people apart.

Maybe I am just a coward because I didn't turn up at the games today although I had signed up and went for one training. But I foresee myself standing alone by myself with almost nobody to talk to. I foresee myself smiling everytime they talk to me. U know why I smile? Cos I dun understand what they say and the best way to reply is not to ask "Pardon?" or "Comment?". So here I am now, backing out and losing it. Maybe I should come up with a revised list of goals soon. I only have slightly more than 3 months left in France.

One of these rare moments of reflection perhaps made me really want to go back to KR. But what can I expect when I go back to KR? I will probably have to re-integrate myself into the block as there are many freshies whom I don't know. And how will I get enough points to stay for Year 4 if I were to go back to hall? I would probably not come back in time to join the IHG teams and to play my favourite sport.

Ok enough of reflections.

On the brighter note, I am leaving for Spain next week and I can't wait to go there. I have very high expectations of it as I have heard raving reviews from friends who had been there. I have also finalised my Christmas trip which would cost me a bomb as I would very likely be watching 2 soccer matches at San Siro Milan and Old Trafford.

Déjà Vu - Lyon

2007-10-15T09:11:00.000+02:00

Last year’s immersion was arguably one of the best times in my life. Going back to Lyon and relieving these memories last weekend was therefore simply sweet. As usual, my host welcomed me with such warmth that I could not find from any French in Grenoble. At times I felt so bad having to trouble her with my stay there because she would have to cook more than usual to cater for me and Sinhui. Not to mention she had also ensured a very warm bed for us. Easy task, you think? Not at all, at least not for an 85-year old lady although I think she is still very active for her age. As usual, she would correct my mistakes when I am speaking and that simply did me good. I think I learnt so much more in the 3 days I stayed in Lyon than during my French intensive week.

The familiar rooms

L-R: Chinese tea set & 9-fish painting which I gave to my host last year

L-R: Me & my host, Ratatouille

On Friday evening, I decided to cook Indonesian Nasi Goreng and Soto Ayam for my host and her son’s family. By now I am already a seasoned cook for these two dishes. I was happy to learn that they found them tasty (or at least they gave me face). What made me contented too, was when Marc, my host’s son, mentioned that I had made a lot of progress in French, as compared to when I first came to Lyon last year. The awkwardness during dinner that I felt last year (mainly due to the fact that I could not express myself in French) was a history. I dare to say that it was a pretty spontaneous conversation; I did stumble, could not recall some words, but I dared to speak up because they would listen, unlike most of the young ones in Grenoble.

L-R: Indonesian Soto Ayam, Indonesian Nasi Goreng

My host family, Sinhui and I

Saturday morning was spent in Fourvière where a group of us left our mark last year. And voilà, we found it!! It had faded, but it is well and alive! We wrote even more stuff this time round, wishing that they will still be there when we visit it the future.

2nd time at Notre Dame de Fourvière

L-R: Lost & Found

More messages left behind

L-R: Part of the Biennale Exhibition in Lyon. Look at the almost destroyed car, they call this art. And on the right, an artist was cynically criticising Swiss because they implement a separate border regulation from EU. Exactly my sentiment, I had just re-applied for Swiss visa the day before.

Interesting piece of art, can you read what's on the cross? It says: CONDOM. Anyone can tell me what this means?

Afternoon was spent at Mme. Marie-France’s apartment. She was our prof during last year’s immersion. We had lots of fun relieving stupid things that happened in class, such as when she was singing the French national anthem so proudly, without knowing that she was being video-taped. It was a pleasant afternoon, with plenty of conversations exchanged and with a full, delicious, typically French lunch of course.

L-R: Aperitif, Marie-France & I with her vin rouge (red wine)

L-R: Lunch, Marie-France opening vin rosé that we brought

Marie-France & her obsession with pigs

L-R: all red (wine, strawberries, ice cream, table cloth & MY FACE!), yummilicious dessert

L-R: Marie-France telling her pig story that she wrote for her niece, 3 of us posing to simulate Marie-France when she was singing La Marseillese in class last year

Sinhui and I spent the late evening watching rugby semifinal at Place Bellecour where a giant screen had been put up. The atmosphere was awesome; there were easily thousands of people there. The only thing I could complain about was that it was too packed, so much so that we could not sit down and had to stand still for 2 hours. And it was not helped by those who smoked cigarettes and cannabis around us. Too bad in the end France had to forfeit their lead in the last few minutes. I was waiting very badly for a wild celebration (if France had won) so that I could join in and film it. Damn, I always had no such luck.

3 points for France

When we reached the house past midnight, I was surprised, and touched by the thoughtfulness of my host who had left a note on the door. It read: “Andi, you have to eat the food on the table in the kitchen.” I had left the house for the match in a hurry and did not manage to eat as she was hosting her friends in the house. My host rocks!

L-R: my host's message, the sandwiches she had made for her guests

We had an excellent lunch on Sunday afternoon to end an eventful stay in Lyon. Mme Marie-France then sent both of us to the train station. It was quite saddening having to leave Lyon where I felt very appreciated by these kind souls. And when my host said “A Bientôt, Andi!” at her gate, I told myself, yes, we will see each other again before I leave for Singapore.

L-R: the French sure knows how to arrange table beautifully, during lunch

L-R: trying to eat fromage after being persuaded, the 5 0f us

Au revoir, Lyon! Mais, à tres bientôt!