A friend asked me to think of any impressing things recently. I've come up with a long list, which surprised myself too. There're indeed many things I should say thanks to, and below includes only some of them.

 1) The birds outside my window are pretty noisy in the morning, but glad that they are able to keep me awake by singing to me early in the morning. 

2) My Civ. Prof. is old and he mumbles sometimes, but glad that I can still stay awake for most of the time and find his lecture interesting. 

3) No internet network in my room! But that makes me more able to concentrate on my work and listen to the CD you lent me when I have free time. 

4) We're trying to save money on food, so basically we're not eating as much as we do in Chicago for most of the time, poor! But once we get to eat some proper food, we find it really tasty! And we find our pants getting loose!  

5) We have to share communal bathroom (guys and girls in the same bathroom), man! But glad that the doors can be shut really tightly and the hot water goes well and we can take nice showers after a long day. 

6) There are a lot of readings in my course, and each of us has to do a presentation. But I'm very lucky, my topic is First Corinthians, so at least I don't have to do something completely out of blue.

 7) Haven't found a church to go on Sunday yet, but very grateful that I one of the Singaporeans in this trip is a very nice sister. So we may go out together and explore the church in Paris later. 

8) French is hard to learn, at least to me. My pronunciation is weird. But it reminds me of how I learned English when I moved to Hong Kong at age 12, and encourages me to try harder.  

9) The weather fluctuates quite a lot in Paris, but very grateful that we can still stay warm and healthy. 

10) The subway in Paris is very crowded, even more crowded than that in Hong Kong! And feels weird when I'm surrounded by people who all speak something I completely have no idea. But I'm pretty proud that a direction idiot like me managed to travel on subway by myself and didn't get lost.  

11) Mum and dad only called me once after I came here, and I have no phone card to call them. But I believe they know I can handle my life well in a complete new city, and they'll be more willing and confident to let me walk on my own way. 

12) Deprived from internet connection and outer world, but very impressed that you send me emails so frequently, telling me how you're doing and what's happening around you.

Haven¡¦t written for a while, as we have been having quite a lot of work (and fun) every day. Just a quick glance at what we did over the past week.

I had not imagined that the program would prepare so many nice events for us. Last Friday, we had wine and cheese tasting at Paris Center. We got to taste 1 while wine, 2 red wines and 1 champagne. I feel that my tolerance is getting better since I came here, though my red face cannot hide any alcohol after I take in. And I like red wine more and more. We, the Asian Gang again, then went to a restaurant famous for its pig trotter and onion soup last Friday night. Thanks to Jane, who introduced us such a nice place to feed us, who seemed to have been starving for the whole week. Poor us! How come we seem not getting enough food in Paris?

Then we went Champagne last Saturday. It was from the wine and cheese tasting on Friday night that I learned real champagne comes only from the place called Champagne. It was such a nice little place. Thanks to Andy, our wine expert, who found such a wonderful place! We went to Moet & Chandon, a famous champagne producer, had a tour in their cellar and I tried 3 different champagnes. Not bad!

Glad I had my presentation on I Corinthians on Monday, so at least I can have one fewer thing to worry about. It went OK, though I think I could have done better if I was more awake and less nervous early in the morning, given that I have prepared for such a long time. Thanks to God that I finally did it! I think it was a challenge for me as I was thinking quite hard what I should talk about. I had to be more objective and less spiritual, but presenting Paul¡¦s letter from an outsider¡¦s perspective was kinda hard. Thank God for the wisdom!

We¡¦re planning to go to Geneva and Zurich over the weekend! I guess it will be another unforgettable trip. =)

Today is the first day of school. We left Cite Universitaire at 8:30am and traveled to the Paris Center of the UofC by RER and Metro (the trains in Paris). Obviously, we were not awake and Andy, Dazhou and Xuda could not even catch the train which everybody else got onto. -_-

The first class was great. Even though it did get boring occasionally, I really enjoyed Prof. James Ratfield’s lecture very much. He’s extremely knowledgeable and he employed a great number of examples from the past, the present and also from places all over the world to give us a history background of the world, Europe and Paris. His wife will be with him for the whole trip and she was sitting there listening to him lecture. That was so sweet!

Then we had a short welcome reception hosted by the Paris Center, where I met my French conversation group TA for these 10 weeks. I was very surprised when he told me that he is learning Chinese right now and he had lived in Hong Kong for 10 months. He actually lived in Shau Kei Wan, which is very very closed to where I live in Hong Kong! Wow!

Then I had my first French class in the afternoon. I am so lucky to have Karen as my teacher, who is so sweet and nice. I like her. We learned the basic conversational French, like Bonjour and Comment allex-vous? (How are you?). It seems quite hard for me to memorize the pronunciations.

We finished our French class at 2pm, and Dazhou, Joanne, Luoren, Phoebe and I decided to go to the Louvre (Law Fou Gong) to work on our first assignment, which is due this Friday (Gosh!). When I got there, I felt really grateful that I have this opportunity to come study abroad in Paris. Even though we made a silly mistake as the museum is closed every Tuesday and we could not go in, I was stunned by the beauty of the buildings. You do not really have to step into the museum in order to appreciate the artwork in it, the design of the museum itself is already a fabulous piece of art.

I recall all of a sudden what Prof. Ratfield just said this morning. “Everybody has his/her own Paris.” When you come to think about it, that is so true. Paris has always occurred to me as a romantic and artistic city, and I am not disappointed at all when I am here. Every carving or painting on the wall, the rooftop and even the door knob is a piece of art. Having 24 hrs a day in this city is definitely not enough.

I also recalled that when I was small, I always thought that Paris would be the best place for honeymoon and I thought I would reserve this place for the one I love. I still think this way now, even though the next time I am here this city will not be new to me any more. There is just so much to be explored, and I believe I will get to see different sides of Paris when I travel with different people. Studying and traveling with my college pals in Paris is just phenomenal!

Since my friends have not eaten yet, after leaving the Louvre, we looked around for a café to sit down and feed ourselves. The prices on the menu were as expensive as many other places. As I had had lunch already and did not feel hungry yet, I ordered water only. The waiter gave me a bottle of Vittel (the well-known brand name of French water) and said they did not serve tap water. I took it and only found out that it cost 4 euros when we asked for the bill! That was the same price for a cup of hot chocolate! Everything was so pricey at that café and they even charged us 0.8 euro for the butter we ordered for our bread. Maybe that’s one of the lessons I need to learn in Europe, though the cost of this lesson was not cheap at all though. =P

3/26/05

I have always been thinking that putting up life journals is time wasting and kinda mo liu, until I arrived at Paris. This is such a beautiful city that I wish to share my joy of staying here with all the friends I love. Please keep reading my journals here and I¡¯ll try to update as frequently as I can. =)

Friends, bear with me please. I know I¡¯ve got so much to write and some of the stuff might not seem as appealing to you as they are to me, but I really wish to share with you all the details of my trip to Paris. I hope you may find some of them interesting to you too!

Saturday the first day I reached Paris. This trip has been bizarre since the very beginning. I, together with 3 other Singaporean friends, was actually supposed to get onto the plane on 3/24 and reach Paris on 3/25. We spent the whole night and day packing before we left and we were all exhausted. At last, we managed to get to O¡¯hare Airport 1.5 hrs before the plane took off. We checked in but we¡¯re not assigned any seats.

Four of us were all examined by the custom officers from head to toe! This was the first time I got such a serious security check. All our bags were opened and searched, and our bodies were detected very carefully with the metal sensor. At that moment, I realized that I was so busy that I forgot to put on a pair of socks before I left home! OMG! How could I get onto the plane without a pair of socks!

Then when we reached the gate, only Joanne got seat assignment and she boarded, because she had natural call and she wanted to be relieved asap. Luoren, Dazhou and I were told that we were not able to leave on that day. But, fortunately, they offered us direct flight with business class to Paris on the next day; free hotel and meals in Chicago; and we got to choose two packages of compensation. (1) $600 travel credit with UA, which we can spend in two years to any places that UA serves; (2) a check of $400. Then, we 3 Econ majors were talking about how we could maximize our utility and if we would prefer present consumption or future consumption!

After discussing for a long time, (I guess the UA staff must be amazed and amused by our conversation), Luoren and I chose (1) and Dazhou chose (2). We ended up moving our hand carries to our hotel rooms happily. We went to Target to buy things we needed. Dazhou got a shirt, and I, of course got a pair of cute socks! ^^ Then we spent all the money UA gave us on the dinner, and went back to our room and were all knocked out very quickly.

Then I woke up around noon on Friday and went to take a shower. I found that I got a long and terrible bruise on my knee! I remember I kicked the sharp corner of my drawer when I packing, but I was too busy to notice any pain at that time. Couldn¡¯t believe that it hurt me so bad!

Dazhou, Louren and I went out to Oysi in downtown Chicago to have a Japanese lunch. Dazhou did shopping in downtown and Luoren and I went back to Regents to pack and check if we¡¯ve left anything important at home. We met in downtown again and took a cap to O¡¯hare¡­ finally!

We met Andy (another Singie of our program) on the plane. But we¡¯re definitely luckier than him as we¡¯re traveling on business class! We had much better food and rest on the plane, but he actually paid more for his ticket. Hahahah¡­ Anyways, we took 2 caps to Cite Universitaire, where we¡¯re going to live during these 10 weeks, after we got off the plane. Each of them cost us 60 euros! So expensive man! But later, we actually found that we¡¯re cheated, Joanne and Phoebe paid only $45 for their rides.

Our rooms are nice. I actually like my room quite much as my window is facing a little nice garden, whereas some other rooms face the main street. I am very satisfied even though the rooms we have here cannot be compared with Regents or Max Palevsky. I didn¡¯t expect anything from the dorm here, but that¡¯s why I could appreciate every small detail of this place. That was the lesson I learned when I first came to Chicago, and coming to Paris reminds me of it. I think that¡¯s me. Even though I felt bad about being too busy to plan or sit down to think about the trip before leaving Chicago, it was good in the sense that I can always be grateful with what I have now.

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3/27/05

Shops are usually closed on Sunday, but we thought it would be such a waste if we just stayed indoor. So Phoebe, Joanne, Luoren and I went out to do some sightseeing. And the first place to go was, of course, the Eiffel¡¯s Tower!

We took a lot of pictures at a lot of different spots with the Eiffel¡¯s as the background, but we didn¡¯t climb up there. Even though I¡¯ve seen the Eiffel¡¯s a lot from different sources, it did look different when I physically was there. It looked different at different angles, under the sun or in the cloud. No wonder people from all over the world have to come admire this sensational piece of architecture.

We then walked through a side street and headed toward the Arc de Triomphe. That small street wasn¡¯t actually small at all! Alvin was right. We should definitely be prepared to gasp when we see something new in Paris, as there¡¯s just so much going on every second. There were amazing decorations on the roofs of the buildings and the street was full of fancy cozy cafes. We¡¯ve never thought that walking along such a short street would take us such a long time, as we just couldn¡¯t stop ourselves from taking pictures.

We finally reached the Arc de Triomphe and the famous Champs-Elysees (Heung Che Lai She Tai Dou), where all the famous boutiques and brand names were located. Even though it was a holiday on Sunday, the avenue wasn¡¯t quiet at all. I heard people talking with various languages and assents, British, American, Chinese and Japanese. On Champs-Elysees, caf¨¦ is definitely a must-try. We walked along and saw all the elegantly decorated cafes that were filled with people. It took us a long time to decide which one to try and we finally went into Laduree, where is famous for macaroon, a well-know French dessert.

We ordered three different kinds of desserts, and they were SOOOOOOOO good!! They definitely fulfilled my sweet tooth and lightened up every nerve of mine! They were very different from the American desserts, which are very heavy, sweet and served in extremely large portion. French desserts are tiny, refined and elegant. After trying these phenomenally tasty (and also expensive; the average was around 6 euros per piece), I do believe in what the travel guide says, ¡°The French people lead a stylish way of life. They usually buy cakes from patissiers (cake shops) which guarantee that every piece of cake is of the best quality.¡±

Phoebe and I each bought two macaroons to take away. We had a hard struggle of when we should eat them as they looked so adorable and tasty. We tried very hard to keep them and bring them back to dorm, but at last Phoebe couldn¡¯t resist any more. She tasted her coffee macaroon and exclaimed! Then I couldn¡¯t resist this temptation either, and we ended up finishing both pieces in a second.

We then had a new plan. As we have learned that having a meal that costs 10 euros is no better than having a 2.65-euro meal at dorm, we¡¯ve decided to save money eating, even sharing a meal, at dorm every day. Then we can enjoy such great pastries without restraining ourselves so badly during the weekends. ^^

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3/28/05

Jane (our Paris expert) finally arrived last night! Poor Jane missed the train on Saturday night and lost her laptop in the train station. But glad that she¡¯s finally here safely. Thanks to God!

Phoebe, Joanne, Luoren and I asked for Jane¡¯s traveling experience in Europe. At last, Phoebe and I have decided to travel together to Switzerland, Austria, and then join Joanne and her boyfriend in Italy during our long break between 5/5 and 5/16. We¡¯re also planning to Belgium and Netherlands on the weekend of 4/22. We¡¯ve finally booked our train tickets online! Can¡¯t believe that we¡¯re so lucky!

Then we¡¯re planning to set off to Chinatown to have lunch and do some grocery shopping at noon. But Phoebe woke me up at 11:30 this morning. I guess everybody must be very tired and still suffering from jet lag. A gang of 8 Asians, Andy, Dazhou, Joanne, Luoren and Xuda (Singies) and Jane, Phone and I (Hongies) finally headed to Chinatown at 1pm.

The Chinatown in Paris was huge and we had Chinese food in a restaurant serving Wen Zhou cuisine, I actually have no idea which part it is in China. The food was nice and relatively cheap. Every one of us must be starving at that time, as our pairs of chopsticks were moving so quickly and frequently, and we were too busy eating to talk to each other.

I asked Jane after lunch about one thing we found peculiar about French people. When we¡¯re walking around yesterday, we found that the French guys seemed extremely interested in Asian girls. They tried every means to catch our attention, saying ¡°I love you¡± or even threw us flying kisses. Then Jane told us that it is normal in France, as for some reasons, dating Asian girls has become a ¡°fashion¡± for French guys. What? Fashion?  

When we¡¯re heading back to Cite Universitaire after lunch and grocery shopping, we met an old lady asking for money on the train. Jane translated after she left. The old lady was asking for money so that she could buy a cup of coffee and a newspaper. She reminded me of the same phenomenon in Chicago, yet she¡¯s so different. I agree with Jane that French people live with dignity.