p a p e r d o l l

Going to school today was bittersweet. I was off to my last class during which I was to get back that dreaded test. It was a hurray it’s my last class and oh no it’s my last class and hurray I will get that test back and know whether I passed the module and oh no what if I did not pass the module. Mixed emotions, you see. I’d hopped on the train that stopped at every station and not the one that skipped stations, and so I had to walk extra fast upon reaching Saint-Michel Notre Dame, which I do half the time but is a fact that does not make it any more pleasant. I was wearing heels because I felt it was only right to wear heels to my last class. It was raining. And then I reached the big doors where I flash my student card to the security guards. As I am about to walk in through the door with my black umbrella, the security guard on my right covers his right eye and makes a pained sound. I turned towards him in horror, thinking I’d poked him in the eye with the umbrella in my haste. Seeing my panicked expression, he says quickly “je rigole“. I’m joking. He laughs, the other security guard laughs, I laugh. My anxiety over the test dissipates (somewhat), and I think to myself that I’m going to remember this moment as the perfect ending to my days at la Sorbonne.

It has been an eventful weekend.

jeudi, Thursday: ZY and I woke up early (cuckoo) to take pictures in le cour de la Sorbonne, where statues of Victor Hugo and Louis Pasteur sit in front of the chapel and look at the students that walk through the square (more like a rectangle really) to their classes, where students sit to talk, smoke, eat. He was then off to classes, while I had the day to do as I please. Maison Kayser for a breakfast of a chewy croissant and an espresso. Bought a few mini financiers to munch on my way to the Louvre. Spent a couple of hours in the Louvre. Thereafter, I went to Collette, a lifestyle store on the chic rue Saint-Honoré- totally expensive, totally pretentious, totally cool. On then to Forum des Halles to buy flip-flops at H&M, for my heels were not made for too much walking and were killing me. Onward to A.P.C at Saint-Placide, where I was very taken with a dress which was alas too much to pay for for what it was, so it was bye bye to the dress and hello to the Bread & Roses Bakery nearby for a fougasse, which is an odd-shaped bread with olives in it. The one I bought had sun-dried tomatoes in it too. I polished it off on a bench at the nearby Jardin de Luxembourg, under the shade of very leafy trees. Then it was too hot, and I was too tired, and it was time to go home for a nap.

vendredi, Friday: Tea with Celine at Le Loir dans la Théière, in Le Marais quartier, where gays and jews gather. Why the combination, I don’t know… but I do know that I love this quartier. Love! Very very much. Le Loir dans la Théière, The Dormouse in the Teapot- charming. The tea and desserts we had were divine. The place encourages conversation. I felt decadently lazy in the quaint yet modern setting of mismatched chairs, sofas, tables, of posters and pictures on the wall. Hui joined us as the rainclouds gathered and it turned dark. Mmm.

samedi, Saturday: Morning run and then it was time to prepare for a full day out and about town. One, met up with Clémence, a girl from la Sorbonne who’ll be in my university for the upcoming academic year. Headed over to Sciences-Po, where we met other Singaporean students studying in Paris, as well as Parisian students from Sciences-Po and Dauphine going over to Singapore (NUS and SMU) on exchange for the upcoming semester(s). Interesting people. Two, time to meet Tien Tien and Ji Xian and Mark, who were over from London and the States and Singapore respectively on holiday. The boys were staying with Tien Tien in London but they had hopped over to Paris for a few days. It’s the strangest thing- I know them all from different places and they were here together and I met them. It’s just… the strangest thing. Naturally, after my very good experience at Le Loir dans La Théière, we went there. Ah but today, the place had a different feel to it! It was le weekend, and les parisiens were out in full force. The place was crowded but we were fortunate to secure a table as soon as we arrived. There was an exciting, friendly and somehow literary feel to the place this afternoon, and all kinds of smoke could be smelt, which was rather cute. We oohed and aahed at the cakes and sipped our teas and talked about the past and the now and the what-nows. A stroll through le Marais, where cafes were filled with gay couples. I really love how the quartier feels. So friendly and full of love and just this liveliness! Bought hale bread and borek triangles from a famous Yiddish bakery, whose name escapes me now but you bet I’m going back(: Also passed by a famous falafel shop (with recommanded (not recommended, as is the adorable French way of trying to be English) by Lenny Kravitz printed on the signboard). Walked walked walked all the way to Centre Georges Pompidou, where we sat on the gentle concrete slope to stare at the strange building. The guys left us girls be while we had our girly chat, which was sweet. The pigeons ignored the people sitting and the strong wind blowing and went about doing mating dances. It was soon time to leave and I went on to Three, Champs-Elysées, to meet other friends for dinner at a restaurant pekinois off the main shopping street. In front of the LV flagship store, I saw Serena Williams walk to her car! Haha so funny. Yum yum dinner. I had a prawn+tofu dish with something like roti prata (you know the pekin pancake thing), then it was on to Monoprix to buy toothpaste, as well as groceries for the week.

dimanche, Sunday: I slept, watched the rain from the comfort of my room, ate, slept some more, watched a couple of movies on my laptop, read a little, slept again. It was a very nua day.

And then it became lundi, Monday, today. Last class. I took pictures as I left the classroom with my test (yes I passed this module!), down the old stairs, down the corridor, out the big doors, to the fountains, down the wide streets, down the stairs to the train station, down the escalators to the platform to take my train back to my home in the suburbs, where I’m typing this now with a heart that’s glad and sad, as the rain continues to come down silently outside my window.

UPDATE: See all photos from Bretagne/Brittany by clicking here.

Last weekend, bright and early Saturday morning, Mario drove us (Laura, ZY and I) to the north of France. Bretagne (in French) or Brittany (in English), to be exact. The drive from Paris took four to five hours, and it was quite a hilarious one, with us creating Indian identities for ourselves. I had the accent, a cow farm and was going on and on about how not eating curry made one stupid. Silliness aside, the drive was a beautiful one, because the roads we were taking were flanked by fields upon fields of yellow flowers! It was a treat for the eyes, and we had to stop at one of the fields to take many silly (oops there it is again) pictures and even videos. There are videos of us merrily skipping along a little road off the main one next to a field of yellow- it’s laugh-out-loud funny.

Soon enough, we reached Mont Saint-Michel (Shooo, I think we missed each other there by a few days!) and it was a sight to behold. Also saw the fat sheep baa baa grazing on the salty meadows. We had a grand afternoon eating savoury galettes and ice-cream, then taking a tour of the impressive abbey atop the mountain. We then drove to and stopped at a moulin (or a windmill) and admired the Mont from there too. That night, we drove back to the Mont and the Mont at night is really something else. Very awe-inspiring. And when strong winds started to blow and rain started pouring down, it was very LOTR.

The next day, we drove away from Mont Saint-Michel, which is right at the border between Normandy and Brittany, and headed for Saint-Malo. Now Saint-Malo is one of those sea towns in France with the sea walls. The view from the sea wall is spectacular enough, but if you venture to the beach and then walk up a little mountain a small distance away from the beach, it is truly truly spectacular. We took so many pictures there. Alas, it was time to leave for lunch and then head back. So we drove a little more to Cancale, brought to our attention by Zihua (hello Hua Hua!) for its famed oysters. There’s an oyster farm (or whatever it’s supposed to be called) there! Right at the waters. And there are just restaurants after restaurants serving fresh seafood. I don’t like oysters so I didn’t have them, but for everyone, lunch was excellent.

And then it was time to say goodbye to Brittany and head back to Paris. Tons of pictures to share! Am uploading them now.

Sarkozy has won the presidential elections. I’d wanted Bayrou to win because he’s sexy, and then when it came down to Sarkozy and Royal, I decided to go with Royal because I’m a student of the Sorbonne and students of the Sorbonne are for Royal. (Go group mentality!) Besides, Sarkozy’s a supporter of Bush (shaking my head) and well, Royal is a fellow female, so more power to her. I think there may be strikes at my school starting tomorrow because Royal lost and so, lessons may get canceled. It could get exciting. Will tell you more as/if things happen.

This week, I was bumming around quite a bit after the major brain workout over the four papers last week… and then a teacher finally decided that I could do a paper in lieu of an exam that she’d been so adamant I should take, and so I started working on that towards the end of this week, finishing it earlier this evening. Hurrah! Now it’s just one exam on the 21st. It’s a very important one that I have to study very hard for though, seeing as I tanked the paper I wrote for the course earlier on in the semester. Other than this blip, everything else academically at la Sorbonne is going quite dandy, which is a very happy thing.

On Friday, a dozen of us were supposed to go to the beautiful park for an evening picnic. The weather had been beautifully warm for a while, and the sun was setting nine-ish, and so it seemed like a grand idea! A nice friendly picnic by the lake. But no. At 7pm sharp, when we were supposed to walk there from the house, it started to pour. Rain! And lightning! Well… I never. Of course, there was to be no more picnic at the park. So! We had picnic in the dining room! A little strange to eat sandwiches and other picnic fare at the table, but we made it work. And it was still very fun! Disappointing of course that the idyllic picnic by the lake idea didnt’ work out, but still, company’s what counts the most. I must say that my egg salad sandwiches were very well-received, so I was pleased as can be. They were really very good(:

Speaking of the park, I absolutely adore running there now. Running in warm/cool weather totally kicks running in cold/chilly weather’s ass. The only slightly unpleasant (though pretty) thing is that there are dandelions floating about in the air and I catch them in my eyes when I blink, I breathe them up into my nose, and I taste them if I carelessly open my mouth. Pretty, but at times uncomfortable.

Anyway, I haven’t talked about my weekend trip of last weekend yet! I will in my next post… just as soon as I upload the many many photos that were taken on this trip. It was a little mad. Or more precisely, my Austrian friend, Mario, is a little mad when it comes to taking pictures, but they are so fun to look at, so I’m going to upload his as well, and while I’m at it why not those of my fellow vacationers too? So you will have Laura’s and ZY’s photos on top of Mario’s and mine to look at, possibly by tomorrow night my time. We were in the north of France… Bretagne to be precise, and Mont Saint-Michel, Saint-Malo and Cancale to be even more precise. Tell you more tomorrow!

I got to talk to three of my favourite people on MSN tonight- you know who you are! I should really be on MSN more just to talk to you, shouldn’t I? And to my other favourite people too.

Special wave to my person(:

A journey long and quite arduous, and therefore deserving of its own post.

Santorini–> Pireaus: 8 hours on an overbooked ferry ride with irritated old folks, crying kids , passengers of all ages. BAD. Finished the Nora Roberts book I had… realizing towards the end that I had indeed read it before sometime ago.

Pireaus–> Athens International Airport: Waited for the bus from 12mn to nearly 1am. You can imagine how I was feeling a little antsy, being an Asian (sticking out sticking out!) girl (gulp) alone (gulp gulp) waiting for a bus that late (gulp gulp gulp). I started to think that there wouldn’t be a bus that late, but one did come in the end, so all was well.

Athens International Airport–> Prague: Brushed teeth, washed face, checked in. There was later some problem with the check-in for the Americans and some officer on a power trip was really rude to them. Our skyeurope.com flight left late, as a result. I was so dead to the world on the flight that the air-stewardess had to put my seat back in the upright position for me and only then did I awake from the jerk. I’d arrived in Prague. It was 6.30am.

Day 7 was spent traveling, essentially. From Florence to Rome by train, from the train terminal to the Fiumicino airport by another train, from the airport to another airport, then finally the train to meet Fang at our hostel in Athens. I just have to say that the short train ride from Roma Termini to Fiumicino costs 11 euros! And no one checked my ticket! The cost can only be completely justified if it gets checked! (It’s not just me who thinks so, is it? Even if it is completely silly.) Anyway, reached the airport, checked in, saw a Zara Home store for the first time in the waiting area, ate a cannoli, boarded my Alitalia flight bound for Athens. Spent the flight reading in-flight magazines and listening in on the conversation two singles in their early thirties sitting next to me were engaged in. Eavesdropping couldn’t be helped- what lives they lead!

Arrived and took the very new very modern train to the station Acropoli, walked un petit peu et voila! I arrived at Athens Backpackers, and there I saw my Fang, who had arrived much earlier in the day. Weee! Caught up over an excellent dinner nearby (I had my first whole fish (skeleton and head served with the meat) since I left Singapore- it was yum!) (She had melt-in-the-mouth lamb.) Then we walked in the light rain towards the Acropolis, with the Pantheon atop, through the winding sloping streets. Returned to the hostel after a bit to see it from the rooftop. It was lit and oh so magnifique. After baklava and sour cherry juice, it was time to wash up and get some much wanted shuteye.

Day 8, we woke up quite early, although really an hour later than planned, since I’d forgotten to adjust the time from French/Italian to Greek. Oh well- a bit more sleep is always welcomed. Walked to and up to the Acropolis to the all-famous Pantheon. Free! Because we’re both students in the European Union. This was to be the case for all the attractions in Athens- a very nice change from the super-expensive-no-special-treatment Rome. The Pantheon so high up and against the sunny blue skies was impressive. It was way too windy (so windy!) and crowded (so crowded!) to be thoroughly enjoyed, though. Eating big juicy strawberries on our way down, we walked back to the hostel to get an extra jacket each. Next up was the Temple of Zeus- just a collection of pillars now, and its magnificence greatly marred by the surrounding buildings and the noisy traffic. Still- the Temple of Zeus, in a garden filled with white and yellow wild flowers. On then towards the city square for a spot of lunch. Had to go to a Gyros! Paris is full of them and it was simply necessary to try it where it all began, In the end, Fang had the kebab-y stuff and I had baked chicken with oily potatoes- the best I’d ever had, I dare say. Strolled about before stopping for ice-cream in a cute little shop owned by a cute big woman on the quaintest calmest street. Stayed longer than planned, mostly to stare at a modern Greek god seated at the next cafe. Drool.

Onwards to the Museum of Kerameikos, a cemetery. Came across this stretch of export fashion shops on our way there, all manned by Chinese, all selling almost the same designs- most bizarre. Fang had to read every plaque, which was rather amusing. We went to a food market after this and bought fat raisins to much on. Passed by Omenia square where a dashing young actor was being filmed (he was taking out luggage from the boot of a coolass car and he just swung it out without pretending that it was heavy at all- horhor). Shopping time! Zara & H&M (everywhere in Europe, I go to them). Champion Supermarket for next-day supplies and then a very classy-yessiree dinner at KFC! Returned and chatted with a much older Canadian couple in our dorm room- they were really sweet.

Awoke 5-ish in the morning on Day 9 (traveling can be energy-sapping! To awake early to take the earlier transportation option to save money and maximize the time at any one place) to go take our Blue Star Ferries ferry- huge! Just like a cruise ship. To Santorini, yeah! Froze from the wind after sitting on the top open deck for a couple of hours and so went inside… but the view while we were up there was spectacular, especially with the sun coming up. Some 8 hours later, we arrived in Santorini. Qu’elle est belle! The port that greeted us was a dramatic one- cliffy. Stelio from Stelio’s Place where we were staying drove us over the cliffs to the other side and the view of the sparkling blue waters as we went up, up and up was WOW. We put down our bags, Fang and I, and headed for the beach- a mere 2 minutes’ walk away- what a beautiful beach! Filled with teeny-tiny smooth ovals of black, brown and red. On the whole, the Perissa Beach looked a very exotic black. We had calamari and cold drinks in a cafe overlooking the beach. Walked to where the shops were, saw a few asses and goats grazing along the way. Went to Champion yet again for fruits and the yummiest Finetti dark chocolate wafer sticks. Dinner of fried finger food washed down with Mythos beer at another cafe nearby, while criticizing the fashion shows of yesteryears that was being shown on a big screen nearby.

On Day 10, we took a bus to Thira, the town centre- breathtaking views! After lunch, we returned to the beach to enjoy the sun on our new beach towels (printed on them was a view of Santorini with its characteristic blue domes and white walls on a cliff against a background of the surrounding waters). Ate my Finetti, read my book, listened to my iPod, slept, applied sunscreen over and over and turned like a rotisserie chicken. Since it was off-season, we had a stretch of the beach all to ourselves! A grand afternoon. Fang went off to use the internet at an internet shop some distance awa,y while I opted to trundle back to our room to nap. She came back with dinner of moussaka and calamari (we do so love calamari). Showered, watched a bit of Miss Congeniality with Greek subtitles and drifted off to a deep, long, satisfying slumber.

Day 11 was the day of departure from sleep Santorini (sleepy only because it was not quite the hot (in all senses of the word) season yet. We heard it would be teeming with people very soon for months. We had brunch at a laid-back cafe looking out on the beach. Then, we sat on a swing on the beach while eating ice-creams. And then, alas, it was time to leave:\