2015

I started 2015 carrying the hope of an exciting year of amazing opportunities ahead, and man, 2015 you didn't disappoint. This year, I finally managed to turn my focus onto myself albeit a few unresolved problems and distractions along the way. I'm especially thankful for the people I've met this year - be them new friends or strangers who passed on their wisdom to me. 

Currently in London now surrounded by people and things to do, hence a more decent post when I have more time to myself. 

Happy New Year, you :)

Lille, France (05/09/15)

My exchange at sciences po just came to an end a week ago so.. I have officially run out of excuses to delay travel logging. I will be doing myself a huge disfavour if I don't start registering the precious moments I have had here anyway. So here I am, beginning with the first city I went to after settling down in Paris - Lille. 

Lille was never part of my itinerary. I didn't even know the city exist till my housemate Charlton learnt of its annual flea market festival from his french class and invited me to go along with him. Apparently it is the largest flea of the entire Europe and it would take more than a weekend to cover the entire area!! I was psyched when I heard there's gonna be fresh mussels and fries :D 

We took a train from Gare du Nord (North Station), one of the main train stations in Paris. Train tickets can be easily bought online via SNCF website. SNCF is France's national state-owned railway company and the ticket prices can sometimes go under 10 euros!

I was excited to see these giant kebabs! Much larger than the ones at pasar malam back home~

City Square

I like the architecture in Lille. It's slightly more colorful than the ones in Paris!

Now, now. This is the giant mountain of empty mussel shells dumped in front of the famous mussel restaurant: Aux Moules.

I bought this leather jacket at the flea and wore it straight away. It's 40 euros! It didn't occur to me that it means $60.. but I guess leather can't get any cheaper anywhere, so this price is rather reasonable.

Really really fresh and well prepared!

And here comes the street music band performance!

I like how the performers were all wearing fanciful costumes! With men donning on thin ladies clothes even though it was already starting to get cold.

A 2.50 euros giant macaron! I love how even established retailers take part in the event by setting up smaller pop-ups in front of their store so that people on the street can just look, stop and buy.

French balconies

Even the books are on display and discount!

We had moules-frites (mussels-fries) for dinner again! But this time it wasn't as fresh and delicious as the one we queued for in the afternoon..

So this sums up our one day out of Paris to Lille! We didn't get to explore the city because of the flea, so I wouldn't really say I have really experienced Lille. Nonetheless, it's an eye-opener to cruise through more than 10,000 stores that sell a wide range of items from clothes to antique. If you guys are ever interested in this event, it's called La Grande Braderie de Lille. It takes place on every first weekend of September! :) 

Some days,

I lose sight of who I am and just how much more I can be. Some days, I feel like I don't deserve to be missed, and love should always keep a distance from me because I do best at destroying. Some days, I don't know what I'm breathing for.

Today could have been but is not one of those dramatic days. Thank you so much, for reminding me to love life.

The One Song

A few weeks ago, a friend asked me to choose a song I can only listen to for the rest of my life. ONE SONG. Can you imagine..confining your love for music to a few minutes long representative?

I didn't want to give a hasty reply so I thought long and hard about it for a few days.

Well, I am an optimistic person by nature, so I can't choose a depressing love song even if the melody is so freaking touching and the lyrics are so heartbreakingly beautiful. I need an encouraging song that can pick me up from my ruins, yet is melancholic in every sense.

Then I narrow all the songs I love to just this one:




It has to be this one. One and only one <3

When you try your best, but you don't succeed
When you get what you want, but not what you need
When you feel so tired, but you can't sleep
Stuck in reverse
And the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something you can't replace
When you love someone, but it goes to waste
Could it be worse?

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

And high up above or down below
When you're too in love to let it go
But if you never try you'll never know
Just what you're worth

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

Tears stream down your face
When you lose something you cannot replace
Tears stream down your face and I
Tears stream down your face
I promise you I will learn from my mistakes
Tears stream down your face and I

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

The idea of fixing someone is so contestable. On one hand, it is like "I don't need anyone to fix me" "I am the only one who can get my shit together." On the other hand, it is so beautiful in the sense someone is willing to run his or her fingers through the knots of your soul and breathe you back into life.

But when I listen to this song, I see two possibilities. The first possibility is me singing this song to myself. "And I'll try to fix you.." Like my alter assuring my ego everything is gonna be okay. This fixing thing is internal, it's self-recovery. It is a very personal song for myself to myself by myself. The second possibility is of course the one mentioned in the previous paragraph, of someone else external to yourself, fixing you. There's just something about a broken soul that is so alluring..that naturally draws human spirits and attention to it. I don't think someone means to sound dominating when he or she says he will try to fix you. Like c'mon, the word 'try' itself has so much sincerity and genuineness. I see myself as the person who sings this song to my loved one, and picture myself being sung this song by my love too. It's mutual. I feel myself being stripped down to the rawest of my vulnerabilities. I feel myself wrapping my arms around someone and myself being wrapped at the same time. But in the end, everything's okay. This one 5 minutes song encapsulates the 3 main themes of my life: "Lights", "Home", and "Love". It's all that I need.

I have to admit, Kodaline's High Hopes or Love Will Set You Free don't even come close. They lack the same kind of essence that moves me utterly.

Nope, I don't think my obsession with lights will ever go away :)

What's that one song for you?

Don't travel if you can't travel well

It's the end of Fall Break and everyone is back in the city. Naturally, the first thing we would ask each other is "so how are your travels?' Both of my roommates are glad to be back to our cosy petite apartment, citing that they would not step into another museum or cathedral again.

"After awhile.. they just get boring. They're the same everywhere."

"I'm tired of traveling."

People back home must be scolding us right now for not appreciating the time we get here to see the world. But, it's true. Traveling does get tiring. As much as I am someone who loves to be out and about, sometimes nothing beats the comfort of the warmth that envelopes you when you snuggle under a blanket and watch 'Friends'. That's right, I'm finally onto it now ;) I guess the fatigue really sets in when you travel for the sake of 'making use of your time'. When you actually feel like you're obliged to travel just because you're in another continent of architectures of entirely different essence from the ones you see back home. (Ok. That does sound like a legitimate reason to keep traveling.)(Ok I should stop spoiling the moment.)

When we travel so that we do not 'waste our exchange', traveling becomes a routine. It doesn't excite you anymore. Not as much as it would when you're motivating yourself to make it through the semester because you gonna take a trip to some country for a week. I'm sure that's the attitude most Singaporeans have towards traveling. Traveling is always something to look forward to as a reward to themselves for surviving an arduous period of time. Books and dramas play a part by heightening our desire to see and experience the places that the characters went to in the story. We saw many Koreans around in Prague and apparently that's because of a Korean drama that was filmed in the Prague Castle.

So when traveling becomes a every-weekend-kinda-thing, the allure of it kinda slips away. Maybe because the mentality of traveling as rewarding is so ingrained in me, I don't think I deserve to spoil myself if I don't have a productive week. Ah, damn, being such a nerd again. But don't you feel the same? Don't you see traveling as a well-deserved break too? Besides seeing traveling as a reward, it's a very Singaporean thing to travel and make a big deal out of it because most of us think that there's nothing much to do in this tiny city. What can we do when we hang out or go on dates? Movies. Cafes. More food. Yawn. Boring. So we desperately make plans to travel so we can do more happening activities elsewhere such as skiing, bungee jumping, skydiving and binge-eating at the Taiwanese night markets. But I never feel that way in Paris. Paris itself has so much to offer and many interesting corners I have yet to explore that I don't feel the need to travel elsewhere. I travel in Paris.

After a discussion with one of my roommates, we figure that the most important reason behind our fatigue is that we do not travel well. Because of our unlucky timetables and the strict regulation of our school, we only get to travel over weekends. Two days are barely enough to explore and make our air ticket prices worthwhile! So our trips are always very rushed and tiring because we gotta wake up at wee hours to catch the earliest flight to our destination and back home on a monday aka school day. And at the end of a trip, you may wound up in a demential situation questioning yourself 'errr...so what have I done on the trip ah?' This brings me to another topic - the importance of registering moments, which I shall expand on next time. Traveling well does not mean you ought to live in a 5-star hotel and follow a itinerary that's well-prepared beforehand. Traveling well simply means giving yourself enough time to soak in the new environment and discover about the place you're at. You can wander around people-watching and do nothing productive and still be a good traveller!

So believe me, I do like to learn about cultures and visit historical sites that I learn in high school and being taken aback by pure wonders of life. I want people to see what I see from the world I capture in my photos. But I can only do so when I travel well. You may have seen me travel to places like Amsterdam, Dublin, Prague and more from my Instagram. Out of all,  I feel that I enjoyed myself the most in Cinque Terre!

Cinque Terre is located at the Southern part of Italy, in the La Spezia region close to Pisa. It's composed of 5 towns along the coast namely Riomaggiorie, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso al Mare! The buildings are really colourful and offer great spots for viewing sunsets :')

So so so surreal.

Riomaggorie, my first stop!

 Manarola, where we ate really yummy seafood at the restaurant called Dal's Billy! :D

  Vernazza!! Took this photo on my way of hiking from Monterosso!

 Really really beautiful waters *v*

super duper yummyyyyyy pasta 

I was wearing a snorkelling goggles at the back of my head LOL. Yep, even bought a singlet because...I LOVE THIS PLACE AND IT FITS ME SO WELL! What differentiates this place from the other places I have been to it probably because I felt so much closer to nature here :) away from the buzz of the cities. I should really plan more hiking, mountain trips!

As of this moment, I could hear my housemate telling his friend on Skype "I'm so done with castles." LOL. I guess not everyone experiences such travel fatigue. I see people on exchange going on traveling spree and are still pretty much excited about it. Probably because they can skip consecutive lessons and hence are not as rushed as we are haha. My deadlines are crazy btw.. have 8 assignments to complete in the remaining month. But anyhoo, am going to Milan World Expo tomorrow. Yea I'm traveling again but it's after a vigorous week of doing work so.. yes this will pick me up so much! AND THE THEME IS ABOUT MY TRUE LOVE.

None other than food :D

Hang in there my Singaporean friends! 

One Month in Paris

My stay in Paris has come to a month, and I can't wait to write all about it.

First of all, I really..really.. LOVE LIVING HERE. Nah, totally not keeping you in suspense. It's the kind of movie that spoils everything for you from the start. Hahahaha. Before my arrival, I have heard mixed reviews about this (lovely) place. Most people tell me that the French are rude and racist, and that the city itself is boring and overly romanticised. Only a few told me that they find Paris beautiful. So my inner voice spoke "Okay. I shall judge Paris for myself." But you know, it is human nature to be influenced by the things you've heard in our subconscious mind. I felt really apprehensive about moving to Paris from London, because as you can tell from my previous post, I find London really amazing. I know, I overuse the word 'really' LOL.

This is me when I first arrived at Paris. Dazed by the light I saw in my new cosy petit apartment *v* because the road there was really hard.. I didn't have data yet so I couldn't find my way till I got to jew on a hotel's wifi. And it was raining like cow's piss #justmyluck. Quoting my housemate: "eh you damn suay leh! I checked the weather forecast and there'd be good weather for the following days." True indeed, for there was nothing but fresh and cooling air in the days to come.. But once I got to settle down and explore the city, I started to fall in love with it bit by bit. Cheesy..I know LOL. I realise I do have the tendency to paint a very ideal image of the things I see, and basically romanticise them. In social sciences, we learn about an important tool called "framing". It is about employing a set of theoretical perspectives to construct and communicate a reality.

So this is my reality :D 

Place de la Concorde 

Concorde is one of the iconic places I went to on my very first day. I was already impressed with the vast roads in Paris. Vast roads are usually not anything fascinating to people but I like that you can see everything at the far end of the roads. It feels majestic. Well..can say that I really like space. Hahahaha.

Champs-elysees Avenue 

Can you see Arc de Triomphe at the background? Well..I don't have a proper close-up photo of it yet because..you usually aren't tourist-sy in the place you live in yeah? Hahaha. Actually I was hesitant to upload my photos because they look nowhere as incredible as those that my facebook friends took! LOL. Okay, local perspective *chant to self* Ahem. So.. the arc may seem like nothing much but it has great historical value. It was constructed in 1806 to honour the fighters in French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars (Yes, I googled it). You can go up there to get a rather good view of the city for 10 euros! 

   

This is a park along the Champs-elysees avenue. 

See that dude in black lying down on the green patch of grass with this bike helmet. That's, my dream life *v*

Another sneak pic teehee

Paris is renowned for its 'jardin's. Jardin means garden in French. There is a difference between parks and gardens. Parks are disorganised, small but mysterious while gardens are grand and tidy.

Let me introduce you two jardins with absolutely great ambience :-)

1) Jardin du Luxembourg 

The jardins in Paris are fenced by tall gates and guarded by security officers in blue. This shows how much the government actually values these gardens, which they spend billions on maintaining every year. The French have a thing for symmetry. If you are an OCD person, you'll find pleasure exploring the garden from all sorts of angles.

I suspect, nah I'm sure, every tree is planted with the same distance apart. Well, you may think ah the gardens are so artificial in this sense but this is how things work in France. The French like to intervene in nature. Hahaha. Man over nature, it's how they establish their authority. Interesting? There is another observation. As you can see, the pavements are much rocky and sandy, which is a stark contrast to the parks in London. Greens are all around you but you are not exactly interacting with them.

So, do you prefer English parks or French gardens?

Maybe you can make up your mind through the next jardin.


2) Jardin de Tuliere 

Open space at the fountain

I'm pretty bummed that my photos can never do justice to the beauty of the places in Paris. Hahaha. I wish I can take aerial shots of them :( Notice the chairs surrounding the fountain? They are portable. You can move them around to wherever you're satisfied with :D And the chairs lean back at different angles. So if you feel like a complete sloth today, choose the one most similar to a beach armchair.

From this jardin, you can see the pencil-shaped monument at the concorde.

There, there. The sunset and its reflection on the fountain waters :) I took this picture on my way home from school one day. The walking distance is about 40 mins or so? I love walking for it allows me to immerse in the beauty of my surroundings.

It's funny, one day I had a sudden realisation that my housemates and I have different modes of transport to school. I cycle/walk, Charlton takes the metro and Healy travels by the bus. We all clearly have distinct preferences in life. Our phone models are different too. I own an iphone, Charlton's a Sony while Healy uses LG. (Our level of French is also different HAHA.) It's amazing how we can all gel and bond under the same roof :)

As I was chasing the sunset from the Tuiliere Jardin, I chanced upon this magnificent view :) My heart felt so much at ease when I caught this. Like, wow. It is possible to fall in love with a place. Just like what is depicted in "Midnight in Paris" *v* 

Jardins are a lovely place to chill at with a book and pain (bread in French hehe, my friends and I were saying what a pun it is), or simply sunbathe and chat with your friends. Well, these activities are entirely feasible because of the dry and cool weather here! Imagine chilling at Gardens by the Bay with your friends during mid-day...not chilling at all please. Melt faster than ice-cream.

Now, now. Let me show you my other favourite hunt in Paris ;) BOOKSTOREEEEE!

If you guys have watched the show 冲上云霄2, you would know this is the place one of the couples spent a night at. Heheh. Photos are not allowed inside, but, do I ever follow rules?

Don't arrest me! :O ahaha. I took videos of the inside but when it comes to uploading videos, Blogger is a bitch. So I'm gonna save it for my ultimate exchange vid ;) I really like this bookstore because okay, first of all, it sells entirely English books and that's rare in Paris. Secondly, I like the rustic antique look of it. The arrangement of books changes everyday! It's impossible to find the same book at the same shelf the next day. I like how the staff keep things new for the visitors every time. It takes a lot of effort. But it also makes me go "arghhhh dayum, how do I continue from the previous chapter I left off yesterday" :x  Hahaha. Also, there is a second floor where people can sit and enjoy their collection of old books. Heck, you can even play piano to make your experience even more artsy.

Awww :') Yes, to all my loved ones. 

And there are these other attractions I had gone to in the month:

Notre-Dame Cathedral. Yup, couldn't have missed this. Love the feel of Fall in this photo.

Wedding photoshoot at Sacre Coeur~

Sacre Coeur is located in the 18th Arrondissement, also known as Montmatre :D Well, for those who went to my party, remember it's called One Night in Montmatre? Hahaha. Sounds romantic but this place is pretty dangerous. I'm gonna share with you my experience in a bit.  

I didn't climb up the dome but you can already get a pretty good and most importantly free view once you climb up the..idk 180 flights of stairs? Haha. 

I was kinda 'robbed' at the bottom of this place. I went there alone that day and before I knew, it was already dawn. I was making my way out and suddenly a bunch of black dudes approached me and offered me a wristlet souvenir, claiming that it was free. I have a problem of rejecting and hence I handed one of them my arm and let him tie the bracelet around my wrist. Alas! I was made to pay them. They said not to give them change, and so I dug what I had in my wallet which was a 10 euros note. You may think I am stupid and I should have run but at that moment, that did not seem like a possible option. I was literally cornered to a tree...and well I am short. Haha. One wanted more but the leader (I guess so) said to let me go. I was quite upset afterwards because I don't want to experience anything nasty that could ruin my impression of Paris. 

It didn't, though :-)

That's all about places for now. What's lacking? To truly fall in love with a city, you can't do without the people :) Yes, finally gonna correct the misconception people have of the French. Mind you, they are one of the loveliest people I've met. So polite, so helpful, so fit, sooooo good-looking. They say Bonjour, Merci, Au revoir, S'il vous plait to you all the time. How can people who greet with a smile be rude? 

Well, there are exceptions of course. There bound to be, it happens in all countries. Some people may be having bad days and hence, the quick annoyed look they give you when you knock into them or are in their way. But most of the people I have encountered so far have made my day :) I admit, it is difficult to get around if you don't understand, let alone speak, French. The French are proud of their language. They will only try to speak English to you if you ask politely or that you have really tried your best to communicate with the un petit peu knowledge of French you have. I belong to the latter category ahaha. 

I believe that "when in Rome, do what the Romans do." If you really want to learn about a country's culture, you have to start with the language. You have to be sincere with the locals. Don't barge into a store and start demanding in English. It would seem like it if you don't at least say "Bonjour" with a smile and then ask "parlez vous Anglais?" That means "do you speak English?" Trying to converse with them in French is a form of respect. Even if you sound awful, they can tell that you're trying and they will give you the most encouraging smile ever :) They like to see you try! So sometimes when the words get stuck on my tongue, they will correct me and when I manage to pronounce them in the right way, they'll acknowledge it. When they speak to me in English and I reply a few phrases in French, they will nod at me and answer me in French too! The most common phrases are "Bonne journee!" It means "have a nice day!" 

After making purchases at the store, the staff usually says "merci beacoup", "bonne journee", "au revoir". Hahaha sometimes all the phrases get jumbled up in my mouth, and I choke. But the French, they, are really patient with me :)

I met this Korean girl from California in one of my classes and she's really encouraging! She told me it's really brave of me to come to France with no prior knowledge of the language and it's so cool how I'm only starting to learn as I'm living here. A whole new experience, that is. Hahaha. Seems like the whole point of this paragraph is to praise myself LOL. (Yup that's right ;)) 

Korean girl is the one at the center and she brought along her Japanese friend to this food festival called "Street Food Temple". Oolalala~ So fun :D I really love events as such, because well, they celebrate life! This duo is hilarious ahaha. I can't remember what we laughed at but it's surely wonderful to find people of other cultures that share the same sense of humour as you! 

And I'm having a serious toothache ever since the event...dayum. Like right now as I'm typing, my teeth are aching >: Then there was also the mid-autumn festival celebration at the eiffel tower as well! With the Hongkong, Taiwan, Australia and China fellow exchange students :D

Now, don't chide me for only mixing with the Asian kids! I do have a French buddy from Sciences Po who introduced us to her other French friends from high school :D 

The only angmoh in the picture is Manuelle, my French buddy. I don't have the photos with the others because we always hang out at night and the quality isn't good aha. 

Like..this

Hahahaha. We were asked to recreate this photo that Manuelle and her previous friends took. Such fun and genuine people, truly :D

If you think all Europeans are the same, you're entirely wrong! The French have a very distinct feel and look. They basically ruin the other Europeans for me. Jogging is big thing here in Paris, which explains why the Parisians are so fit (and skinny). When I took a weekend trip to Dublin recently, one of the very first things that we observed are the difference in body size of the girls. Well, all shapes and sizes are good so long as you're beautiful on the inside :x but still.. ahaha. (still waiting for my 法国之恋 hehehe) Also, I really like how the roads are so bike-friendly here! I cycle to school everyday unless it's raining cats on me. The motorbikes here are really stylish too, just like the people. Dayum. I'm gonna start a photo series on street fashion, architecture and vehicles. SOON. 

Well, moving on to classes. School life isn't really a breeze. At least not in Sciences Po! Attendance is mandatory, and you can only skip each module twice with valid reasons. Otherwise, you gonna fail it. Haha and given a timetable like mine (tuesday is my only free day), I can only take weekend trips. I'm not complaining though..I know I gonna sound like a HUGEEEEE nerd, but I like to learn. I wanna study. I still wanna do well. The desire to do well is something so ingrained in me, thanks to my dad really. He used to make me study from 8-9pm everyday when I was young in a study room. I wasn't allowed to come out even if I needed to use the loo. LOL. 

I don't pay attention in all classes but I do enjoy this class called "Personal Autonomy and Political Liberty" the most. Remember in my London post, I mentioned about Man and Nature, and why should there be a distinction? We actually got to that topic on the very first day of class.... :O Amazeballs. It's about how humans' conception of liberty has changed from the ancient to modern world, and it has got to do with how we view man's interaction with nature. Moving beyond that, we discuss about various thinkers' ideas of liberty - from Hobbes (duh) to Kant to Mill. I think I may have figured out what I wanna do for my honours thesis :D heheh. Yes, hyung will be nodding her head furiously and exclaim 'what a nerd!' now. But je m'en fiche :p Proud to be one. 

There are more to say about Paris, but I gonna share them in future posts. There's only so much beauty one can take at one go HAHA. I'm eager to improve my French and I gonna be more disciplined from now on. No time to waste. I'm glad there are so many events for me to attend over here. This city is so lively and happening. It's only been a month, but it's already safe to say: Paris is the best decision in my life thus far. Merci Beacoup, la belle Paris *v*