Paris

Okay this is kinda overdue. I've been really busy lately. Better late than never, eh?

I am currently in school and I have 2 hours of break. People always have Monday blues but not me. Monday is the best school day because I don't really have much classes. Best time to update I guess.
To be honest, I don't really know the places I've been in Paris. But here goes...

On Wednesday 6th June, my host-mom fetched me to school in her car because I had to bring my luggage with me to school. I had to borrow my Joel's luggage because my hand luggage was too small, and my big luggage was, well, have you seen it? It could fit a 12 year old kid.

So on that day, Julie and I were counting down almost every minute in school. When the last period before lunch break ended, which was Psychology, we both cheered and went to Migros to buy our lunch and then we met up with the others at the Bahnhof. When we reached Basel, we were supposed to meet up with Julie's boyfriend, Simon, but then of all days and of all trains, his train broke down and couldn't make it in time to Basel. Julie managed to exchange the her and Simon's ticket to a later train (thank god there was another train) and Anja, Alicia, Gabriel and I went on the scheduled train to Paris and meet up with Cora, the French teacher in Paris. The train ride was 3 hours, and did you know how fast the train was going? I'll surprise you later with photos.

We arrived there and then we took the bus to the hotel. The hotel isn't too shabby. It's cheap, small, difficult to take a shower, but they kept everything very, very clean. We walked around the hotel because it was almost 9pm when we reached the hotel. Nothing much on the first day. At 10pm or so we finally met up with Julie and Simon. We walked almost to the Notre Dame and drank a bit there.

The next day, the weather was horrible. It was raining, and sunny, and cloudy, and suddenly raining again. I saw a bookshop, with Jules Verne's books at the window. I don't know if the cover is the original, but it sure looked pretty antique to me. But we were rushing to another place so I couldn't stop and take a look closer or to take a photo of it. We had Japanese food for lunch (funny, ain't it?) and the Japanese restaurant was opened by Vietnamese people. The waitress, who was in her mid 30s I think, stared at me since the first step I took in the restaurant. When she took our orders, Cora told her where we were from, and once she heard that I was from Malaysia, she immediately changed into Mandarin, and then asked if I could speak Cantonese, then changed into Cantonese. Since that moment, she comes to me everytime when we wanted something. Then another waiter came out to serve our meal, the waitress told him that I was 'Ji Gei Yan' (direct translate : own people). The waiter THEN said 'Kaki lang'. Oh my god..I was wondering if anyone there knew Hakka or anything. It reminds me of my aunt and Boon and Qiang. The food was nice, it has been so long since I ate Japanese food.

After that, we visited the oldest library in Paris I think. The library is REALLY a library. There were thousands of books, and yes I do mean THOUSANDS. People could actually come here and study cause the atmosphere is all "study study study". Can you imagine, my friends and I, studying there for SPM? Awww that would be AWESOME. We also sneeked a peek at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Paris. Cora requested permission from the reception and a lady actually gave us a small tour around the lobby. This is a kisiao place. Why? They decorate the walls with Swarovski crystals. And again, I'm dead serious. There were gold, too, but I don't know if it's real gold or not. The lady was explaning everything in French, which I obviously don't understand. Did I mention the weather was like shit? Plans changed and we went into a shopping mall. For sure I didn't buy anything, because everything was so expensive there. We had a small picnic afterwards when the weather got better. I honestly don't remember what happened, I need to look through my photos at home. We had an Indian dinner, which, was weird again, cause we're in Paris eating Indian Cuisine. It was an wonderful dinner, nevertheless. The waiter arranged a dinner for us which includes appetizers, tandoori chicken, banana leaf rice and currys. And it only cost 12Euro per person. There was live Indian music as well, and Anja, Alicia, Gabriel and I went out and "attempted" to Bollywood dance.

3rd day in Paris. We had breakfast in the lobby. Julie and Simon were in charge of the pool money and were "Chiefs" for the day. Which means they had to go and buy breakfast from the nearby backery for us. We visited the Louvre. We met up with some people: Cora's friend, Diana, and her 2 sons, Paul and Victor. They are language freaks. They can speak German, Swiss German, English, French, and Romanian. All fluently. The first thing we did in Lourve was to see Mona Lisa. I took a picture WITH Mona Lisa. My life is now partially complete. It's amazing how the people could preserve the works hundreds of years ago, even the Egyption carvings and mummies and coffins. It's out of this world. Our lunch was a small picnic outside the Louvre, and was ended by the shitty weather again. We had crépes and ice-cream as well afterwards. We went to take a boat trip around Paris, stopping at the Eiffle Tower. There, we seperated from Diana, Paul and Victor and went towards the tower. I didn't get to go up, cause the line was kisiao long, even the line for climbing the stairs were long. There was a live screening of the Euro Cup not far away from the tower, and people could just have a picnic while watch the match there. We had dinner somewhere near the Arc de Triomphe. The street is known for selling expensive stuffs and expensive restaurants. Nevertheless we managed to find a dinner where it's less than 15Euro. Not the best dinner, but it was already 10pm and I was starving. What it tasted like, it didn't matter. Took a cab back to the hotel and it was the end of the day.

4th day in Paris. Gabriel and I were in charge of buying breakfast today. We went to the church, where the Da Vinci Code thing happened. I didn't watch the movie nor read the book, so I had no idea. But I gotta say, the church is breath-taking. There was a choir singing when we went in, and I could feel the chills going through my spines. The carvings, the painting on the ceilings, everything was just... unbelievable. After that we had some free time so we went window shopping a bit, well, I went window shopping. We had lunch in a typical French cuisine restaurant, which was about 10Euro per person. After that we had free time again. I wanted to go search for the Jules Verne shop, which according to Cora, it wasn't far from where we were. Gabriel and I went searching for it (Well actually I told the group I needed to search something for my host-sis, which was real as well) but we ended up getting lost. We were in I don't know where, and we had to be back in the hotel soon cause we were going for a show later that night. At the end, we gave up asking for directions and just take a taxi back. If I remembered correctly, it was 22Euro. We set out for the show at 6pm, but it turned out that the show doesn't begin till 9pm. We went to another church, which was located on a very very high hill. Climbing there was difficult, but the view is really worth it. You could see the whole paris. It's almost like I'm on top of the Eiffle Tower. The show was, well, I didn't understand a single word of it, and I fell asleep halfway through. If you know me well, I enjoy these theater show. But I was too tired to even keep my eyes open. I started off with resting my eyes, which then turned out into a nap. I woke up just in time for the can-can finale. Oh by the way I saw the Moulin Rouge as well. Oh my god. Make that part of my to-do list before I die. "Watch the Moulin Rouge". I don't know what's in there, or what kind of show is it there, but it seemed cool. Forgive me if the shows there are.... *A-hem* well I hope you know what I mean. After being back in the hotel, Anja, Alicia, Gabriel and I went out for 2nd round. Julie had a headache so she and Simon went to bed. We were back in the hotel at around 2am or so.

Last day in Paris. A better breakfast with more varieties to eat. After that we just kinda went strolling a bit and then we're off the the train station. The train we took had to change somewhere in France, so this ride took longer than the one we took here. When we reached Basel, we had only 7 minutes to run from one end to the other for the train back to Luzern. Being in the bad fitness condition and not having a GA, I missed the train while the others were already on the train back to Luzern. I ended up waiting for 1 hour in the trainstation for the next train, which was after 7pm, which made me wasted my money on buying the train ticket, cause I can travel for free after 7pm everyday. I reached home around 9pm, and was completely dead tired.

It took me almost 3 weeks to get this up. I was too busy to really update this blog. Read this while I update what's happened for the past 2 weeks.